To support the efforts of cities and national governments in fighting the challenges of homelessness, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe () has established the Toronto Centre of Excellence on Youth Homelessness Prevention, the first Geneva UN Charter Centre of Excellence in North America. The centre will be hosted by 91亚色 and co-directed by Faculty of Education Professor , president of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (), and Melanie Redman of .

鈥淭he establishment of the UNECE Toronto Centre of Excellence at 91亚色 is a testament to the global leadership of our researchers in creating innovative, nuanced and effective solutions to youth homelessness,鈥� said President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton. 鈥淯nder the guidance of our Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, the new centre will bring together experts, policy-makers, and local and international community partners to make a positive global impact on this urgent social issue.鈥�

The Toronto Centre of Excellence will build on the work of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, which is based at 91亚色. The observatory has conducted and mobilized homelessness research from across Canada and beyond for many years. It will assess the state of youth homelessness and prevention in the 56 member states of UNECE to help get youth homelessness and prevention onto public policy agendas.

鈥淚n the context of the pandemic, we can see the folly of ignoring the role of prevention in addressing major social and health crises,鈥� said Gaetz. 鈥淭he Centre of Excellence will help us mobilize our efforts to transform our response to homelessness to focus on prevention. Working with a range of international partners, the centre will provide a mechanism to collaborate internationally to understand how to effectively end homelessness, and youth homelessness in particular. This is a big opportunity.鈥�

The new centre is part of a  co-ordinated by UNECE with a mandate to engage in the exchange of research-based knowledge, experience and best practices to support implementation of the . The charter also places importance in gathering data on homelessness using common international standards to ensure comparability between member states; making these data and national statistics publicly available to support policy-making, research and economic development; and making use of global and regional data repositories to support the policy-making process.

鈥淭hrough this partnership, we aim to raise the visibility of homelessness on the political agenda throughout our region,鈥� said UNECE executive secretary Olga Algayerova. 鈥淭he COVID-19 pandemic has bluntly showed that we cannot live up to our commitment to leave no one behind in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development if the human right to housing is not fully guaranteed for all.鈥�

Designation as a Centre of Excellence will enable COH and A Way Home Canada to contribute to a broader effort to prevent homelessness among young people around the world through their  project and related lessons learned. The research agenda of the observatory has been developed on the premise that realistic and practical solutions to homelessness exists and are possible, and that communities across Canada can achieve that end with the help of credible evidence, supportive policy and adequate funding frameworks.

鈥淎nother benefit of the Toronto Centre of Excellence is that it connects our work in Canada to realize housing as a human right to a broad network of international partners and researchers who are also grappling with this question,鈥� said Redman, president of A Way Home Canada and co-director of the centre. 鈥淥ur goal with the Toronto Centre of Excellence on Youth Homelessness Prevention is to support UNECE member states to have the knowledge they need to act boldly in the face of the injustice that is homelessness.鈥�

UNECE will facilitate the work of the Centre of Excellence and the exchange of information, knowledge, and experience within the network as well as with relevant international and national organizations in the UNECE region, co-ordinating co-operation and exchange of experiences between the Centres of Excellence.

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, director of the Institute for Social Research at 91亚色, has been contracted for the next three years to develop the methodology for Peel police to collect race-based data, analyze the information and report on the findings.

鈥淲e are the independent experts coming in, at arms-length and giving them, in the case of Ottawa, some bad news,鈥� said Foster, a professor of public policy and human rights. 鈥淲e鈥檙e coming in to get the data, so we can have an authoritative conversation about community and police relations.鈥�

Unlike the Ottawa project, Foster said his job in Peel is to create a human rights-based data collection system that not only looks at traffic stops but dives deeper into a whole range of police and civilian interactions, including routine interactions with civilians, police stops, arrests and use of force.

鈥淓very single system is going to be under scrutiny, in terms of checking for racial disproportionality and hopefully being able to take some steps to reduce them,鈥� Foster said. 鈥淵ou have to have the data to understand what the gaps and the vulnerabilities are in the system.鈥�

The collection of race-based data follows Peel police鈥檚 decision last October to collaborate with the Ontario Human Rights Commission on a legally binding commitment to address systemic racism and discrimination.

Foster鈥檚 research also comes amid the ongoing movement calling to 鈥渄efund鈥� police over an international reckoning about racism and use of force. Peel police are also facing their own public pressure over a series of 2020 incidents in which officers shot or harmed civilians, the majority of them racialized.

Foster said community input is a key part of the process.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to design any methodology until the community is heard from,鈥� he said, adding he has already started holding meetings with Peel police leadership since starting on March 1.

Peel police Deputy Chief Anthony Odoardi said the plan is to report back to the community on interactions and outcomes, but also use it to reshape police interactions with racialized communities.

Last year, Ontario mandated all its police departments to document police use of force 鈥� cases in which police had a physical altercation with or pulled a weapon on a civilian 鈥� including the race of an individual against whom force was used.

In those cases, officers must now fill out a use-of-force report that asks them to record race from a list of seven ethnic categories.

The reports are filed with the Ministry of the Solicitor General, which oversees policing.

鈥淲e鈥檙e collecting data in the most traditional means,鈥� Odoardi said of the use-of-force reports, which Peel police started using in January.

Foster鈥檚 project will go much deeper.

He will once again be teaming up with fellow researcher , Ontario Tech University鈥檚 new vice-president of research and innovation, who also worked with Foster on studies of police in Ottawa and Windsor. In Windsor, the duo did a human rights-led analysis of the police service鈥檚 more than 200 policies, offering recommendations on which needed tweaking, including a scan of the workforce to address gaps in female representation and set about increasing hiring.

Odoardi said the team will be looking at how Peel police can more 鈥渕eaningful collect race-based data across all interactions and not just one siloed approach through use of force.鈥�

Peel is already being held up as a template other services can duplicate.

Odoardi said Devon Clunis, Canada鈥檚 first Black police chief and Ontario鈥檚 first inspector general of policing, is looking to Peel to set a precedent on race-based data collection.

鈥淲e have the backing of the new inspector general to go ahead and look at this as a guiding document for all police agencies and for his office,鈥� Odoardi said.

Odoardi said it was important to bring Foster and Jacobs in because they had a head start and track record for the type of work required.

Foster did two studies in Ottawa between 2013 and 2019. His study of more than 120,000 traffic stops done by Ottawa police over two years showed that drivers who were Black or Middle Eastern were stopped at disproportionately higher rates.

The report found that in 2017-2018, Middle Eastern drivers were stopped more than three times more often than what you would expect based on their segment of the driving population, while Black drivers were stopped more than twice as much.

鈥淲e put in place a system, where they have to eliminate, by 20 per cent, every year, those disproportionalities,鈥� Foster noted of what he said is the incremental change that鈥檚 underway in Ottawa.

As a result, the Ottawa Police Service created a multi-year action plan to address the racial disparity.

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What鈥檚 the key ingredient to successful partnerships? 91亚色 Development Studies Professor Uwafiokun Idemudia reviewed existing research on an unorthodox union between a non-governmental organization (NGO) and an oil company with a history of spills in Nigeria. He found that collaboration was beneficial even when innate creative tensions exist, and to reach sustainable targets, the company needs to align its overall strategy with the goals of the partnership.

This work, published in Business Strategy and the Environment (2016), fills an important void. 鈥淒ifferent strategies adopted by NGOs for working with businesses have remained relatively unexamined,鈥� Idemudia explains. 鈥淯ltimately, we鈥檙e looking for the necessary tools or approaches for sustainable development in developing countries,鈥� he adds.

This is Idemudia鈥檚 fort茅. He is a thought leader in the area of critical development studies, political economy and political ecology approaches to natural resource extraction in developing countries, business and development, issues of governance, transparency and accountability in resource-rich African countries.

Most business-NGO partnerships fraught with mistrust

Business鈥揘GO partnerships are based around the idea that by combining complementary core competences, resources and skills and sharing associated risks, business would achieve something it otherwise would not have achieve alone.

This is easier said than done. In reality, these partnerships can be fraught with tensions and complexities that introduce instability and precariousness. The relationship is often characterized by hostility and mistrust.

Idemudia鈥檚 research focused on two unlikely partners in region of environmental crisis

In this research, Idemudia focused on the Niger Delta, home to the Nigerian oil and gas industry. This is a region of crisis. 鈥淓nvironmental degradation, loss of livelihood, lack of social infrastructure and a high rate of poverty have, over time, transformed the Niger Delta into a volatile region where conflict is now endemic,鈥� he explains.

In his study, Idemudia examined the partnership between the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and the National Coalition on Gas Flaring and Oil Spills in the Niger Delta (NACGOND), a coalition of 20 civil society groups that seek to collectively address the issue of environmental degradation in the Niger Delta by advocating for changes in governmental and corporate policies.

SPDC does not have a good environmental track record in the region. 听From 1976 to 2005, a total of 9,107 oil spills were recorded in the Niger Delta, and from 2003 to 2007, SPDC alone recorded 1,243 spills. Making matters worse, often 70 per cent of the oil spilt into the environment is not recovered. Contamination, in other words, is chronic, making this the world鈥檚 most long-term environmental disaster.

SPDC joined into partnership with NACGOND mainly to improve its reputation after the series of oil spills.

Idemudia鈥檚 research had two main goals: To critically examine the challenges and opportunities confronting a business鈥揘GO partnership in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria; and to consider the theoretical and practical implications for business鈥揘GO interactions in the case of a coalition of NGOs within Africa.

Engagement at heart of NGO/oil company collaboration

In studying how the collaboration took shape, Idemudia realized that engagement was key. This took shape in many ways, for example:

• Quarterly NACGOND鈥揝PDC meetings where NACGOND raised issues of concern and, in response, SPDC addresses the concerns.
• Joint investigation visits where SPDC invited NACGOND to participate as an external third party observer in its process.
• Both parties invited each other to participate in various capacities in a number of their individual organizational activities related to environmental management issues in the Niger Delta. This ranged from advocacy and research projects by NACGOND to field visit invitations extended by SPDC to NACGOND to see remediated sites.

鈥淭he participation of both partners in each other鈥檚 projects gives these projects credibility and ensures adequate representation of stakeholder groups in such events,鈥� Idemudia explains.

Interestingly, the working atmosphere in this partnership was described as respectful, constructive and even friendly. Although both parties admitted that they came to the table lacking trust for the other, over time they gradually came to build trust. There seemed to be a consensus that the interaction was mutually beneficial.

Lessons learned point to collaboration, alignment

Idemudia鈥檚 research brought to the fore a few main take-away messages to building successful partnerships:

• Collaboration is good for both parties. SPDC regained its reputation after years of oil spills, and also benefited from the dense network and far reach of NACGOND within the Niger Delta. NACGOND, on the other hand, benefited in terms of internal capacity building, better access to management to voice community discontent and the credibility to attract future partners that can be supportive of its cause.
• Creative tensions exist, but that鈥檚 okay. They function as drivers of partnerships by creating enabling conditions for such partnerships to emerge and be sustained. This tension can serve as a source of discipline for both partners, but especially for the NGO partners because it moderates their tactics. It enables NGOs to maintain a critical distance from their business partners and thus not lose credibility.
• Business should align partnership goals with company鈥檚 overall goals. Businesses that go into such partnership with the goal of sustainable development (not just profit), need to align and integrate the partnership goals with the company鈥檚 overall strategic goals. This will maximize the benefits of the partnership.
• The best partnerships are where NGOs work with a non-NGO. Idemudia realizes that most NGOs might not be willing to collaborate on a one-to-one basis with a corporation. However, he believes they might be willing to join a coalition that is in partnership with a corporation. He also presses for more research in this area.

The article, 鈥�,鈥� was published in Business Strategy and the Environment (2016). For more information on Uwafiokun Idemudia, visit his .

To learn more about Research & Innovation at 91亚色, watch the , see the or visit the .

By Megan Mueller, manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, 91亚色, muellerm@yorku.ca

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Lorne Foster

91亚色 Professors, hired to examine racial profiling, determine that police stop racialized minorities at a disproportionate rate, and propose evidence-based policy recommendations.

91亚色 is known for leading scholarship in equity and human rights. Its researchers are nationally recognized for their policy-relevant contributions. As two of Canada鈥檚 foremost equity scholars, Professors Lorne Foster (Department of Equity Studies) and Les Jacobs (Department of Social Science) were hired by Ottawa Police Services to examine traffic stops along racial lines.

The Ottawa Police turned to Foster and Jacobs because they bring 鈥渁 combination of research experience and knowledge on the issues of race and ethnic relations, human rights, data collection, empirical research, social justice and public policy,鈥� said the Ottawa Police statement.

Les Jacobs

Foster and Jacob鈥檚 research (2013-2015) determined that Middle Eastern and black drivers, particularly young men, were being stopped at a disproportionate rate. While emphasizing that the study was intended to inform future studies, not to prove racial profiling, Foster and Jacobs provide recommendations that will be of great value to policy-makers across Canada.

鈥淭his pioneering research project constitutes the largest and most comprehensive race data collection in Canadian policing history,鈥� says Foster, cross-appointed to the School of Public Policy and Administration. 鈥淭he findings enable evidence-based policy- and decision-making with regard to bias-free policing,鈥� he adds.

Racial profiling, and how to combat this form of institutionalized racism, are of paramount interest within and outside of academia, including civil and human rights groups, politicians and members of the public.

Racial profiling is defined by the Ontario Human Rights Commission as 鈥淎ny action undertaken for reasons of safety, security or public protection, that relies on stereotypes about race, colour, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, or place of origin, or a combination of these, rather than on a reasonable suspicion, to single out an individual for greater scrutiny or different treatment.鈥�

Chad Aiken鈥檚 case spurred the Traffic Stop Race Data Collection Project. Photo reproduced with permission of CBC.

This research study, the Traffic Stop Race Data Collection Project, which Foster and Jacobs undertook with adjunct Professor Bobby Sui, was spurred by a particular case in 2005: 18-year-old Chad Aiken, a young black man who was pulled over while driving his mother鈥檚 luxury car in Ottawa. Aiken, who filed a human rights complaint against Ottawa police, said that he was punched in the chest by the police.

Data collected from 80,000+ traffic stops

The researchers reviewed data from 81,902 traffic stops of Ottawa residents by the Ottawa Police Force between June 27, 2013 and June 26, 2015. They examined the relationship between race, sex, age and traffic stops. Officers were asked about the driver鈥檚 race, gender, age, the reason for the stop and if the stop resulted in charged.

The researchers looked at the data in three different ways: incidences, reasons and outcomes.

Analysis A: Data by incidences of traffic stops

The data showed that the Ottawa police stopped Middle Eastern drivers over 10,000 times, which represented over 12 per cent of the stops. (See table.) These drivers represent less than 4 per cent of the general population, which means that they were stopped 3.3 times more than what you would expect based on the population.

Similarly, black drivers were stopped over 7,000 times or 8.8 per cent of the time, which was about 2.3 times more than you would expect based on the population of Ottawa. (See table.)

The disparities were even more pronounced when the researchers looked at the drivers鈥� age: Middle Eastern men, ages 16 to 24, were 12 times more likely to be stopped; while black men, 16 to 24, were over eight times more likely to be stopped.

Analysis B: Data by reasons for traffic stops

The data also showed that 2,299 cases involved 鈥渟uspicious activities,鈥� and in this category, a disproportionate number were racialized minorities.

However, the vast majority of traffic stops (97 per cent) were for municipal and provincial offences, such as not wearing a seatbelt, and no particular group was disproportionately stopped.

Analysis C: Data by outcomes of traffic stops

Outcomes of traffic stops can be no action, warned or charged. Forty-four per cent of stops ended in charges, while 41 per cent ended in a warning 鈥� and in these cases, race did not play a part.

However, black and Middle Eastern drivers were more likely to have a 鈥渘o action鈥� outcome. So these groups are being stopped more readily by Ottawa police, but not being charged or being given a warning.

This research showed that Middle Eastern and black drivers, particularly young men, were being stopped at a disproportionate rate.

Recommendations geared towards bias-free policing

The report, submitted to the Ottawa Police Services Board and the Ottawa Police Services in October 2016, makes six recommendations:

1. Through examining the psychological, organizational and social issues within the Ottawa Police, determine the sources for the disproportionate traffic stops. This will involve looking at systemic biases in police practices, police leadership and corporate culture, etc.
2. Develop and implement solutions to address the situation in consultation with stakeholder groups, race and ethnic communities and the public.
3. Increase positive police-community contact through regular, relationship-building meetings; training officers and community members together; holding 鈥榗ritical incident鈥� discussions; etc.
4. Continue monitoring race data in traffic stops, and regularly communicate this to the public through quarterly bulletins, press releases, etc.
5. Build on community engagement and develop an action plan to address the issues raised in the report.
6. Within legal limitations, make the data in this research readily available to facilitate future studies.

Ottawa Police Chief Charles Bordeleau. Reproduced with permission of the Ottawa Police.

鈥淲e have received the report, and we are committed to working with the community and our members to develop an action plan,鈥� said Ottawa Police Chief Charles Bordeleau in a听听issued after the report was released by the 91亚色 researchers.

Foster and Jacobs are optimistic. 鈥淭he very undertaking of a racial profiling study is essentially a reaffirmation of this multicultural community value,鈥� says Jacobs, cross-appointed to the Department of Political Science. 鈥淪uch a process promises to promote effective bias-neutral policing and strengthen community-police relations.鈥�

For more information, the full report is available at . A shorter executive summary of the report is available at . To see slides presented by the report authors, visit .

By Megan Mueller, manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, 91亚色, muellerm@yorku.ca

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Navdeep Bains, minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and the minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), with 91亚色 President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri

Navdeep Bains, the minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and the minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), announced the funding at Southlake Regional Health Centre on July 21.

FedDev Ontario鈥檚 investment will be matched by $19.5 million from 32 partners that are developing three dozen new health-care technologies, resulting in a total budget of $34.5 million for the project.

The collaborative project will develop and commercialize apps and medical devices and will leverage big data to create predictive health solutions expected to improve outcomes and reduce costs.

鈥淥ur government is committed to positioning Canada as a global centre for innovation 鈥� one that creates jobs, drives growth across all industries and improves the lives of all Canadians,鈥� said Bains. 鈥淭oday鈥檚 announcement is a prime example of that policy in action. The most innovative solutions often happen when people from different fields collaborate. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 important for universities, health-care providers, the business community and government to work together. That鈥檚 how we will come up with health-care solutions that improve the quality of life for all Canadians.鈥�

The project, The Health Ecosphere: An Innovation Pipeline for Commercial Health Solutions, brings researchers and scientists together with business to develop technologies to coordinate health care across systems that previously operated in silos.

鈥淭his important investment by the Government of Canada recognizes the critical role of innovation and knowledge mobilization in both health promotion and health care. It will enable 91亚色 to build on the success of our Connected Health & Wellness Project (), which demonstrated the power of providing individuals with the technology and tools they need to manage their health,鈥� said 91亚色 President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri. 鈥�91亚色 has collaborated with Southlake for many years, and we anticipate an even closer working relationship as we look forward to our new campus opening in Markham Centre.鈥�

91亚色鈥檚 听is the lead academic partner and administrative centre for the Health Ecosphere project. Southlake Regional Health Centre, the largest health-care facility in 91亚色 Region, will be the lead clinical partner, and UHN will play a major role as a key academic partner.听Each institution is leading a suite of technologies to be developed and commercialized. Working together, they will create a health technology cluster in 91亚色 Region.

91亚色 collaborated with 18 partners on the CHWP, which also benefited from significant federal government investment, and through that program developed a Certificate in Health Coaching program.

With the new funding announced today, 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health will expand its Health Coach Institute by producing specialized continuing education and training modules for students enrolled in the certificate program. It will expand its training currently offered to health professionals who want to add health coaching to their practice 鈥� such as nurses, occupation and physical therapists, chiropractors, pharmacists, social workers, emergency services workers, clergy and law enforcement. The new training modules will focus on emerging practice areas for the health coach 鈥� Aboriginal health, youth mental health, aging, obesity and diabetes.

In another 91亚色-led initiative within the project, will team up with the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health (CAMH) and NexJ Health, a Toronto-based provider of health management software for patients, to test the effectiveness of Internet-based, online interventions for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth with diagnosed depressive and anxiety disorders. Ritvo has been researching youth-focused online interventions for five years and will conduct two clinical trials.

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Originally launched in Paris with the goal of bringing contemporary art to the masses, Nuit Blanche has established itself as one of the highlights of Toronto鈥檚 annual cultural calendar. Each year, this free dusk-to-dawn event enlivens and transforms the city with original art projects ranging from intimate encounters to large-scale spectacles.

More than one million visitors are expected to turn out for this year's edition, which takes place from 6:51pm Saturday, Oct. 5 to sunrise on Sunday, Oct. 6. Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2013 will feature more than 100 exhibitions, performances and experiential events in indoor and outdoor venues throughout downtown Toronto. 91亚色 artists are among those contributing one-of-a-kind works to this celebration of creativity and community engagement.

Visual Art & Art History Professor is part of the team behind , a "portrait petition" to bring attention to the continuing detention of Canadian humanitarians Dr. Tarek Loubani and 91亚色 film Professor John Greyson, who were arrested on the street in Cairo, Egypt, on August 16. Nuit Blanche will mark the 50th day of their imprisonment. The website gathers images of individuals from around the world holding written messages of support, calling for the release of Greyson and Loubani.

Images from the freetarekandjohn tumblr

Nuit Blanche visitors are invited to contribute to the portrait petition at photo booths located at Toronto City Hall, 401 Richmond Street West and the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen St. West). The booths will run a live feed of the growing petition and a video featuring the first 250 portraits uploaded to freetarekandjohn.tumblr.com. The tumbler site will continue after October 5 and includes directions on how to upload your photo from home or mobile.

91亚色 visual arts alumna (BFA 鈥�97) recruited 100 regional beekeepers for her installation , billed as a massive collective meditation. As the keepers meditate in their bee-suits, viewers are asked to consider the relationship of temper to weather. The beekeepers will silently meditate on notions of 鈥済ood weather鈥� for the bees and for all of us, attempting to transform environmental conditions with their minds. While exploring the tangible effect of collective meditation, the work creates a public platform upon which to reflect on the health and temper of bees and their keepers, and on the policies and environmental conditions that affect our shared future.

Your Temper, My Weather will be performed from 7pm to midnight in the Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas St. West), where Borsato is currently artist-in-residence.

Right: Night Shift, 2013

Sobey Art Award finalist (BFA 鈥�02) takes inspiration from Le Ballet de la Nuit, a 17th century 13-hour court ballet that was most notable for the involvement of the young Louis XIV of France, for his durational performance . Fernandes has re-contextualized the ballet into a contemporary dance performance in which dancers endure from dusk until dawn, dancing and making golden confetti in anticipation of the new tomorrow. Night Shift听questions notions of labour and time within the context of night changing into day as the dancer鈥檚 body endures and asserts itself in the process of performing.

Night Shift can be found both indoors and out around the Bay Adelaide Centre (333 Bay St., access from Temperance St). At dawn. in celebration of the new day, the accumulated piles of golden confetti will be thrown into the air to mark the conclusion of the work.

Right: Everyday Marvels, 2013

Dance artist and arts advocate (MA 鈥�05) conceived, created and directs at the Gardiner Museum (111 Queen's Park). The program features 16 miniature vignettes (or 鈥榤arvels鈥�) by eight local choreographers, based on The Book of Marvels 鈥� A Compendium of Everyday Things by Canadian poet Lorna Crozier. The objects interpreted in Crozier鈥檚 poems - such as 鈥榖owl鈥�, 鈥榲acuum鈥�, 鈥榝lashlight鈥� and 鈥榳heelbarrow鈥� - become the subjects of exploration through Litzenberger's cyclical, 12-hour performance piece. The cast features more than 50 professional and community-based artists. 91亚色 participants include dance MFA student Valerie Calam听 and alumni Julia Aplin (BEd 鈥�07) and Peter Chin (BFA 鈥�85).

Left: 12 hour dolly, 2013

On October 1, award-winning filmmaker and interactive artist (BFA 鈥�02) and his crew set up a circular dolly track in the middle of a busy Toronto street. At 7 pm, they began filming on the track and continued shooting non-stop until 7 am the next morning. Throughout this 12-hour cycle, spectators were invited to step in and interact with the space as they saw fit. The spontaneous performances of these impromptu participants was captured with beautiful cinematography and lighting, heightened by the cinematically epic movement of the dolly shot. Projected onto the atrium wall of TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King St. West) as an uninterrupted 12-hour film, invites visitors to spend time contemplating the participants in the film as well as the filmic apparatus itself.

Involved behind the scenes at Nuit Blanche is Kelsey Luxton, a masters candidate in Art History and Curatorial Studies, working as an events programming intern.

For comprehensive event info and a detailed schedule, visit the website.

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The one-day institute, organized by Echo鈥檚 Chair in Women鈥檚 Mental Health Research in partnership with the Faculty of Health, will take place Friday, Sept. 27, from 9am to 4pm, at 280N 91亚色 Lanes, Keele campus. Lunch will be provided. RSVP to owhchair@yorku.ca by Sept. 13.

The keynote address will be delivered by the inaugural Lillian Wright Maternal-Child Postdoctoral Fellow听Chang Su, looking at the effects of life stress, social support and cultural norms on parenting styles among mainland Chinese, European-Canadian and Chinese-Canadian immigrant mothers.

The day will also feature four researchers in the field of maternal-child health and several student poster presenters, as a chance for students, faculty and community members to share and learn.

Professor Deborah Davidson of the Department of Sociology in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional studies will discuss familial and professional support during pregnancy and early motherhood for women with pre-existing diabetes. She will give a preliminary analysis of a view from the professionals in England and Canada.

Professor Nazilla Khanlou, the Echo Chair in Women鈥檚 Mental Health Research and academic lead of the Lillian Wright Maternal-Child Health Scholars Program, of the School of Nursing in the Faculty of Health, will talk about social support for immigrant mothers of children with disabilities.

Professor Tsorng-Yeh Lee of the School of Nursing will examine Chinese women鈥檚 experiences with maternity health-care services in Canada.

Professor Rebecca Pillai Riddell of the Department of Psychology will ask the question: Can pain tell us more? She will also look into understanding the relationship between early childhood mental health and parent-child immunization behaviours.

The student presenters include:

• Bramilee Dhayanandhan (PhD candidate);
• Michael Miceli (PhD candidate);
• Jennifer Noseworthy (RN, MScN);
• Monica O鈥橬eill (masters candidate); and
• Nicole Racine (PhD candidate).

For more information, visit the Echo鈥檚 Chair in Women鈥檚 Mental Health Research website.

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91亚色 is an academic partner in a new summit exploring the power of crowdfunding. Hosted by the 91亚色 Region Business Innovation in Changing Times Conference Series, which focuses on听providing businesses access to ideas, insight and resources to help them adapt to the fast-changing marketplace, the Crowdfunding Revolution summit is set for Thursday, Aug. 22, from 8:30am to 12:30pm, at the Vaughan City Hall.

Crowdfunding, which is also known as crowdsourcing, crowd financing or equity crowdfunding, harnesses the power of a group of individuals who network and pool their money to support people or organizations, research or new business ventures. Crowdfunding is used by the film industry to gather startup costs for new productions, and it supports disaster relief, citizen journalism, new product development and more. The Crowdfunding Summit will highlight strategies to successfully crowdfund a business venture, social enterprise or social cause. Participants will have an opportunity to network with leaders in the field and hear about potential regulatory changes to address the opportunities presented by crowdfunding.

Debra Chanda, founder of launch120.com and the global ambassador for Singularity University, is one of the featured presenters at the Crowdfunding Revolution summit

鈥淲e look forward to participating in the Crowdfunding Summit,鈥� said Lisa Philipps, 91亚色鈥檚 associate vice-president research. 鈥淥ur involvement 听in this conference series highlights one of the many ways in which 91亚色 works with government, industry and community partners to mobilize knowledge to meet the needs of this rapidly growing, diverse region.听 These events are outstanding opportunities to learn about what is going on in 91亚色 Region and to network with potential research and learning partners.鈥�

Those who attend will:

• gain a better understanding of the impact of crowdfunding on business, not-for-profits and social ventures;
• get an overview of crowdfunding platforms and systems available in Canada;
• learn the steps to designing a crowdfunding campaign;
• hear about best practices and strategies to employ;
• receive updates on the innovative Social Venture Exchange (SVX) initiative from the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing;
• get the latest updates on proposals and issues about crowdfunding for equity in Ontario; and
• join a discussion with other organizations about collaborating on a crowdfunding pilot in 91亚色 Region.

This conference series is the result of a collaboration among the 91亚色 Small Business Enterprise Centre, chambers of commerce, and municipal, region and provincial governments. The Regional Innovation Centre, the United Way of 91亚色 Region and local enterprises of all sizes are also involved in the conference series. 91亚色 and Seneca College are academic partners in the series.

Christopher Charlesworth, co-founder of HiveWire.ca and Centre for Social Innovation鈥檚 Catalyst will also be a featured presenter at the summit听

Speaking at the crowdfunding summit are: James Turner, vice-chair of the Ontario Securities Commission; Debra Chanda, founder of and the global ambassador for ; Adam Spence, manager of social venture exchange for the ; Christopher Charlesworth, co-founder of and Centre for Social Innovation鈥檚 ;听 Daniele Zanotti, CEO of the United Way of 91亚色 Region; and Jeff Dennis and Tracy Hooey of Fasken Martineau, an international business law firm based in Toronto.

Tickets are $50 plus HST. For more information, visit the website. Click to register for the conference.

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Now, 91亚色 sociology Professor Deborah Davidson (right), along with a cross-disciplinary team of researchers, plans to capture these images 鈥� and the stories behind each act of remembrance 鈥� as part of a new project funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to build the framework for the world鈥檚 first comprehensive public archive of memorial tattoos.

鈥淢emorial tattoos both embody memory and serve as a kind of translator of memory into a language readable by others 鈥� a way to hold and share memories,鈥� says Davidson. 鈥淭o date, I have not found a digital or physical archive of memorial tattoos and their contextualizing narratives, so such an archive will be significant because it will serve as a cultural heritage site, acknowledging important memories and sharing them publicly, and provide scholars with a digital database of memorial tattoos and narratives for analysis.鈥�

Davidson says the archive will not just be an academic tool, but will also serve as a place to foster new relationships between academics and individuals with memorial tattoos, along with tattoo artists and community groups. In addition, it will offer users the option to become a part of the project by uploading their own images and stories.

Having already collected dozens of stories and photos for earlier research, Davidson is now in the process of crowd-sourcing more potential contributors. Moving from memorializing the deceased to a broader definition of memorialization, Davidson and her team are looking for potential participation from persons with 鈥渢attoos in remembrance or honour of a person, place, animal, relationship, event or transition within the life course.鈥�

With a goal of 500 images and stories to start, Davidson says this archive is just the first phase of a larger international, interdisciplinary collaboration, comprised of social science, humanities, electronic library science and computer science scholars at 91亚色 and the University of Toronto, the University of Bath and Plymouth University in the U.K., and Monash University in Australia.

鈥淥ur project is directed at both the co-production and mobilization of knowledge. The archive will provide a rich source of data for researchers engaged in a broad span of work, including in memorialization, memory and visual narrative and computer-assisted data collection methods. The importance and contributions of this project lie precisely within the intersections between the public and the private, providing a valuable resource for the collection and sharing of memorial tattoos and the stories that are embedded within.鈥�

To find out more about contributing to Davidson鈥檚 project, e-mail yorktattooarchive@gmail.com 听

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