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Issues & Experts Archive > Tsunamis, immigration, China, gender equality - issues and experts
Tsunamis, immigration, China, gender equality - issues and experts
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January 12, 2005
Study targets B.C.'s tsunami warning system…An SFU study published by Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada days after the south Asian disaster suggests B.C.'s tsunami warning system could use some further attention. While the system was found to be adequate in terms of getting word to the Provincial Emergency Program, researchers found there is a need to improve communication capabilities to and within coastal communities, especially those in more remote and scattered areas. The report, which includes their recommendations, can be found at The study was undertaken by communication professor Peter Anderson, currently en route to Sri Lanka to lend his expertise (he returns in early Feb.), and former SFU PhD graduate Gordon Gow, who is at the London School of Economics and can be reached there for comment.
Gordon Gow, 44.(0)20.7955.7695; G.Gow@lse.ac.uk
Fast-tracking immigration cases…Should immigration officials be fast-tracking as many as 1,000 applications from people trying to bring their spouses or dependent children to Canada from areas affected by the tsunami in southern Asia and Africa? Should Ottawa be cutting the red tape for Canadians wanting to adopt children orphaned by the tsunami? The answer may seem obvious on the surface. But the reality that people, young and old, are in equally horrific predicaments in other Third World countries, which they are clamouring to leave, makes the answer more complex. SFU immigration expert Don DeVoretz can talk about the difficult decisions facing immigration officials. SFU sociology professor emeritus Heribert Adam, who is finishing a book on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, can offer thoughts on other desperate situations that warrant the same compassion from immigration officials.
Don DeVortez, 604.291.4660, devoretz@sfu.ca
Heribert Adam, 604.228.8369, adam@sfu.ca
Playing God in China…China fears that by the year 2020 its current family planning policy could lead to as many as 40 million men being unable to find women to marry. In an effort to correct a major imbalance in the ratio of boys to girls born in the country, China intends to make it a criminal offence to abort a female fetus. SFU sociologist Barbara Mitchell, an expert on family trends, can talk about how China's efforts to play God as a population-control measure has led to the current unnatural imbalance in its boy/girl population. She can also comment on the country's efforts to again play God by counteracting its one-child policy. It is believed to have prompted parents to use ultra sounds to abort girls so their sole child is a boy.
Barbara Mitchell, 604.291.6628, 604.291.5342, barbara_a_mitchell@sfu.ca
Report stirs debate on gender equity…A new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says government cuts and rollbacks that have been put into effect over the past three years are having a detrimental effect on women and that more attention should be placed on gender equality. According to the study nearly three-quarters of the more than 20,000 public sector jobs cut were held by women. SFU political economist Marjorie Griffin Cohen, a CCPA research associate, says while the government promotes work as a means toward self-sufficiency, its policies make it more difficult for women to get, and hold on to, decent jobs.
Marjorie Griffin Cohen, 604.291.5526; mcohen@sfu.ca
Global soul, global traveller... Pico Iyre, internationally-renowned travel writer, essayist and author of several books on cultural convergence, will be in Vancouver on Thursday, Jan. 20, to spend a day with students in SFU's undergraduate semester in dialogue at the Harbour Centre campus. Iyer will give a public presentation at 7 pm at the Empire Landmark Hotel, 400 Robson. Tickets for this tsunami relief fundraiser are $5 each, with $2 from each ticket going to the Water and Waves fund set up by Engineers without Borders. Reservations: 604.291.5100.
Susan Jamieson-McLarnon, media/pr, 604.291.5151
Gordon Gow, 44.(0)20.7955.7695; G.Gow@lse.ac.uk
Fast-tracking immigration cases…Should immigration officials be fast-tracking as many as 1,000 applications from people trying to bring their spouses or dependent children to Canada from areas affected by the tsunami in southern Asia and Africa? Should Ottawa be cutting the red tape for Canadians wanting to adopt children orphaned by the tsunami? The answer may seem obvious on the surface. But the reality that people, young and old, are in equally horrific predicaments in other Third World countries, which they are clamouring to leave, makes the answer more complex. SFU immigration expert Don DeVoretz can talk about the difficult decisions facing immigration officials. SFU sociology professor emeritus Heribert Adam, who is finishing a book on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, can offer thoughts on other desperate situations that warrant the same compassion from immigration officials.
Don DeVortez, 604.291.4660, devoretz@sfu.ca
Heribert Adam, 604.228.8369, adam@sfu.ca
Playing God in China…China fears that by the year 2020 its current family planning policy could lead to as many as 40 million men being unable to find women to marry. In an effort to correct a major imbalance in the ratio of boys to girls born in the country, China intends to make it a criminal offence to abort a female fetus. SFU sociologist Barbara Mitchell, an expert on family trends, can talk about how China's efforts to play God as a population-control measure has led to the current unnatural imbalance in its boy/girl population. She can also comment on the country's efforts to again play God by counteracting its one-child policy. It is believed to have prompted parents to use ultra sounds to abort girls so their sole child is a boy.
Barbara Mitchell, 604.291.6628, 604.291.5342, barbara_a_mitchell@sfu.ca
Report stirs debate on gender equity…A new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says government cuts and rollbacks that have been put into effect over the past three years are having a detrimental effect on women and that more attention should be placed on gender equality. According to the study nearly three-quarters of the more than 20,000 public sector jobs cut were held by women. SFU political economist Marjorie Griffin Cohen, a CCPA research associate, says while the government promotes work as a means toward self-sufficiency, its policies make it more difficult for women to get, and hold on to, decent jobs.
Marjorie Griffin Cohen, 604.291.5526; mcohen@sfu.ca
Global soul, global traveller... Pico Iyre, internationally-renowned travel writer, essayist and author of several books on cultural convergence, will be in Vancouver on Thursday, Jan. 20, to spend a day with students in SFU's undergraduate semester in dialogue at the Harbour Centre campus. Iyer will give a public presentation at 7 pm at the Empire Landmark Hotel, 400 Robson. Tickets for this tsunami relief fundraiser are $5 each, with $2 from each ticket going to the Water and Waves fund set up by Engineers without Borders. Reservations: 604.291.5100.
Susan Jamieson-McLarnon, media/pr, 604.291.5151