The $15,000 prize, given annually to a professional Canadian costume designer in mid-career working in Ontario, allows recipients to further enrich their careers through research and travel. Osborne received her award June 18 at a ceremony at the council’s Toronto office.

One of Dana Osborne’s renderings for Hosanna, Stratford Festival, 2011

“I was thrilled,” said Osborne. “I plan use the award to travel to London, England and New 91��ɫ City, plus purchase some drafting and rendering programs for my computer and some new art reference books. ��This comes at the perfect time with everything that’s going on in my career and my life. I’ve been very busy lately and was desperate to take some time to recharge.”

Osborne was selected as the winner from an outstanding group of nominees. Citing her strong, creative interpretations, the jury of theatre professionals said: “[Osbourne] is a modern designer for today’s theatre. She uses her strong sense of today’s fashions, cleverly blended with historical looks, to give her shows unique designs. She also makes excellent use of found objects and has strong technical skills.”

Osborne has been working as a theatre designer across Canada for 15 years. In this, her 12th season at the Stratford Festival, she is the creative force behind the costumes for the mainstage production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and the world premiere of Morris Panych’s musical Wanderlust. Her other Stratford credits include costumes for Hosanna, As You Like It, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Moby Dick, The Comedy of Errors, The Lark, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Timon of Athens, Agamemnon and set and costumes for King Henry IV, Part One.

Dana Osborne (centre)��with the Ontario Arts Foundation Vice-Chair John McKellar, and friend of Virginia Cooper (left) and�� Alan Walker (right), executive director of the Ontario Arts Foundation (right)

Her��work can also be seen this season in Soulpepper Theatre Company’s Speed-the-Plow, currently playing at the Young Centre in Toronto’s Distillery District, and Pacific Opera Victoria’s upcoming production of �Ѳ�������ٳ�.��Osbourne's designs have graced the stages of Regina’s Globe Theatre, the Grand Theatre in London/Ontario, and Canadian Stage, Young People’s Theatre, Pleiades Theatre and Factory Theatre in Toronto.

Blossom Lady from As You Like It, Stratford, 2010

After earning her BFA at 91��ɫ, Osborne began her career in costume management, working with the Canadian Opera Company, Shaw Festival and Mirvish Productions, before choosing to specialize in design. She was named one of the Young Designers to Watch in Entertainment Design in 2004 and received the 2010 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Costume Design for Theatrefront’s production of The Mill.

“Studying theatre at 91��ɫ gave me a great foundation to build upon,” said Osborne. “It taught me how to navigate the politics of the theatre, how to survive working long hours under stress, and to be flexible and creative. Theatre design is a collaborative art. A lot of people are involved in getting it from the page to the stage and they will all leave their mark on your design, so it’s important to embrace that.”

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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The film by Osgoode grad Chris Hope (JD ’04) offers a moving account of Japanese Canadian detention during the Second World War,��as seen through the eyes of his grandmother, Nancy Okura.�� Hope spent more than ten years working on the film, which he also produced. Osgoode alumnus Anwar Deeb (JD ’04) composed the film’s original music.

Right: Osgoode Hall Law School grad Chris Hope with his grandmother, Nancy Okura.

"Most people my age have the beginning of a pension," said Hope, whose day job is as director of business and legal affairs for Alliance Films Inc.�� "I have a film; a massive debt, and, thankfully, a very patient wife."

Hope was able to attract community support to raise about 25 per cent of the overall budget, which allowed him to complete the film by the April 1 gala date.�� The film is now ready for distribution and broadcast.

His goal is to screen the film in schools across Canada. "The Japanese Canadian Internment story is one in which Canadians are painfully under-versed,” he said. “Hopefully, by presenting it in the first person with my grandmother, it will resonate on a more personal level than the few paragraphs in a history textbook that most of us experienced, and probably quickly forgot."

Hope says the universal message contained in his film is that everyone needs to take the time to learn the history of those closest to them, and not hesitate in the sharing that history.

“By openly discussing such stories, we may collectively learn from our past, regardless of racial, cultural, religious or political boundaries,” he said. “Knowledge and familiarity with ‘the other’ is the enemy of discrimination, so it is critical that that knowledge is constantly nurtured and encouraged."

For more information, visit the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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The symposium will take place Thursday, Oct. 6, from 8:30am to 12:30pm, at 280N 91��ɫ Lanes, Keele campus, followed by lunch from 12:30 to 2pm.

The presenters will also discuss the “so-whatness” or policy implications of their research.

“Service Preferences of Homeless Youth: Housing First, Treatment First or Both Together?” will be discussed by ��(���������), acting associate director of nursing research at the University of Western Ontario. Housing-first initiatives focus on interventions designed to move individuals to appropriate and available housing, and ongoing housing supports. It has been found to produce good outcomes for homeless adults with mental illness but has not been specifically tested��for youth. With the treatment-first initiative, the individual is not housed until psychiatrically stable.

Forchuk will look at a current study��that examined three approaches to service for homeless youth – housing first, treatment first for mental health and addictions, and simultaneous attention to both housing and treatment. Youth were given the opportunity to choose which service method they preferred.

��(����ڳ�), director of the Institute of Urban Studies at the University of Winnipeg, will discuss “Homelessness and Mental Health: Winnipeg’s Approach to Building Capacity and Housing Those in Need”. Distasio’s presentation will provide an overview of a massive five-city study by the Mental Health Commission of Canada,��that examined the effectiveness of a housing-first intervention in the Canadian context. Distasio will focus on the unique aspects of the Winnipeg approach, which has been built on the strengths of the local Aboriginal community.

��(���������), of St. Michael’s Hospital and a professor at the University of Toronto, will talk about “Health Care Utilization Among People Who Are Homeless”. He will discuss research that measured health care utilization rates among homeless adults in a large Canadian urban centre and compared observed utilization rates to matched controls from the general population. Most of the research on this topic has been conducted in the United States.

University of Ottawa psychology Professor (left) will discuss “Lesson Learned from the Implementation of Housing First in a Small Canadian City”. His talk��will focus on the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s housing-first study and the results of the housing-first approach in Moncton, NB.

A key feature of the Canadian response to homelessness is the use of law enforcement to manage its visibility. 's research presentation, “Can I See Your ID? Policing and the Criminalization of Youth Homelessness in Toronto”, will focus on the interactions that Toronto street youth have with members of the Toronto Police Service. Gaetz, a professor in��91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education and associate dean of research & field development for the homeless hub, will discuss his research with of the University of Guelph.

Right: Stephen Gaetz

Their research has found that youth who use drop-ins and emergency housing services regularly have encounters with the police. For youth who are severely marginalized, many of these encounters take place because of their public drinking and illegal substance use. But for other homeless youth not involved in crime or illegal drug use, they, too, are under close police surveillance and contact. The presentation will conclude with a discussion on the implications of social profiling and the criminalizing of youth homelessness.

The symposium is presented by the and . For more information, visit the homeless hub symposium��web page.

Space is limited. To guarantee a spot, RSVP to Susan Atkinson at satkinson@edu.yorku.ca or ext. 30208. The symposium will also be presented as a webinar. To register for the webinar, .

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“It’s a dream come true,” says Virmani, the writer and star of the new Masala-flavoured hockey movie Breakaway, which gets its world premiere tonight [Sept. 10] at 9pm at the Elgin.��

Virmani plays Rajveer Singh, a Sikh-Canadian with a slight identity crisis who defies both his father’s traditional Indian rules and hockey norms by forming his own South Asian team. “It’s about our values as Canadians,” boasts Virmani, who not too long ago was an actor struggling for work.��

After graduating from 91��ɫ with a bachelor’s degree in business & society, Virmani took lessons at the Lee Strasberg Institute of Theatre and Film in New 91��ɫ City. Returning to Toronto, he found there weren’t too many roles waiting for him. “I was auditioning and reading for scripts and nothing was connecting to me.”��

That’s when he decided to create his own opportunity by pulling a Matt Damon (or a Ben Affleck, take your pick). Like the Good Will Hunting scribes, Virmani wrote his own role by conceiving his own movie. For inspiration, Virmani drew on his life – from his love of hockey to the generational, cultural and identity issues that trouble most young South Asian Canadians.

Fortunately, getting the movie made wasn’t too difficult for Virmani, who practically grew up in the film industry. Not only is his father, Ajay Virmani, a producer on Deepa Mehta’s Bollywood/Hollywood and Water, but Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar is a close family friend. “Akshay is like my older brother,” Virmani says. “He is somebody that I have grown up with.”��

With his father, Kumar and even comedian Russell Peters (another family friend) all on board as producers, Virmani had no trouble populating his movie with actors like Rob Lowe and Camilla Belle (whom the writer conveniently cast as his romantic interest) and musicians like Drake and Ludacris. That’s some major company for Virmani’s first stroll down the red carpet.����

And if Breakaway does well, it certainly won’t be his last.����

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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The grants, part of $237 million in funding and awards recently announced, span across nine 91��ɫ Faculties and support research that improves the quality of life of Canadians, while advancing knowledge and building understanding of complex socio-cultural and economic issues.

“We are very pleased with ’s investment in humanities and social sciences research to support 91��ɫ’s researchers,” said Robert Haché, 91��ɫ’s vice-president research & innovation. “This funding will allow our researchers to make important contributions to our country’s knowledge base, while addressing key social issues facing Canadian society.”

��

Forty-three faculty members received more than $2.9 million in standard research grants.

Researchers��received more than $1.6 million in insight development grants, public outreach and dissemination grants, and research/creation grants in fine arts to support��fifteen projects.

91��ɫ��received more than $480,000 for research workshops and conferences. In the November competition in this category, SSHRC funded 100 per cent of��fourteen 91��ɫ projects, including:

• Modern Slavery, Human Rights and Human Development
• Museums, Film, Musealization in German culture
• Critical Issues in International Refugee Law Research
• Changing Frontiers of Ecological Knowledge:��A Critical Dialogue of Asian Ecologies on the Edge
• 3-D Cinema
• The Politics of Labour in Canada

At 91��ɫ, 179 graduate students also received more than $5 million in scholarships and fellowships. Altogether 2,500 graduate and postdoctoral projects across Canada received funding.

Eight 91��ɫ researchers also received more than $1.5 million in partnership development grants, which encourage collaboration in social sciences and humanities research. This funding supports national and international partnerships between 91��ɫ and other universities, non-governmental organizations and governments. In this competition, 91��ɫ’s success rate was 17 per cent higher than the national success rate. Seven out of the eight awards were associated with 91��ɫ’s research centres.

“The Government of Canada recognizes the importance of investing in research in order to keep Canada at the forefront of the global economy,” said Gary Goodyear, minister of state for science and technology, in announcing the awards. “We are supporting research that will improve the quality of life of Canadians, while helping our universities develop, attract and retain the world’s best researchers.”

“Social sciences and humanities research is about people – who we are as human beings, what we do and why. By deepening our understanding of ourselves and the world around us, and by sharing that knowledge with government, businesses and communities across the country, our researchers continue to make significant contributions to Canada’s prosperity and our quality of life,” said SSHRC president Chad Gaffield. “Through these investments, we ensure that Canada’s best scholars receive the support they need for their research and that they share their knowledge with those who can put it to use across society.”

Visit the website for a complete list of funded projects.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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