September 12, 1996
If Professor Avi Friedman's instincts are right, the future of low cost housing is currently parked outside the School of Architecture in the form of a slim, tastefully decorated four-storey building. A full-sized prototype of the Next Home---an adaptable and affordable housing unit than could sell for as low as $50,000 (including land)--is on display on campus until September 27.
In the photograph above, Next Home designer Friedman (left) and Alain Lemaire, executive vice president of Matériaux Cascades Inc.--one of the project's major sponsors--formally open the Next Home to the public by sawing through a barricade.
Standing behind them are three representatives from organizations who also supported the Next Home--(left to right) Frank Campbell, director of the CANMET Energy Technology Centre at Natural Resources Canada, Don Johnston, director of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's technical policy and research division and Mireille Filion, director general of the Société d'habitation du Québec.
It's difficult to think of two regions in this country that have a harder time understanding one another than Quebec and the West. Gerald Friesen (below), a Sakatchewan-born history professor from the University of Manitoba, hopes to do his part to help remedy that. 
Friesen, an award-winning writer and an expert on a wide range of topics concerning Western Canada---including labour movements, immigration and aboriginal culture--will be spending most of his time at McGill for the next two semesters as the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada's Seagram Visiting Chair of Canadian Studies.
"McGill hasn't really had any significant coverage of Western Canada since it lost (former history professor) John Thompson," notes institute director Desmond Morton. "I suspect Quebeckers not only don't understand the West's perspective, they probably don't hear any news about the West at all," says Friesen.
For instance, while many Easterners are quick to portray the West as a hotbed of political conservatism, Friesen says the truth is more complicated. "Certainly the Reform Party is anchored in Alberta and in parts of BC, but Saskatchewan and BC both have NDP governments and the NDP did quite well in the last Manitoba provincial election."
Friesen is teaching two courses on Western Canada this fall and he will deliver the institute's first annual Seagram Lecture in Canadian Studies--possibly on the history of hockey in the Prairies. What does Friesen make of his stay in Quebec so far? "I was struck by the intensity of the language discussions. All the talk about Montreal's economic decline also sticks out. We're having the same kind of crisis in Winnipeg--we've lost many of our manufacturing industries--so it seems oddly familiar." Hmm. Maybe Canadians have more in common than they think.
It's a widely accepted truism in child psychology circles that at the age of about four-and-a-half, boys who were once devoted to their moms, start to become distant and establish stronger ties to their dads. But is the truism true? Armed with a one-time only $10,000 fellowship created to commemorate the University's 175th anniversary, Hariclia Petrakos (left), a PhD student in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, wants to find out. Dr. Joyce Benenson, Petrakos's advisor and collaborator, thinks it's about time someone finally tried to verify this theory. "Clinicians work with this model, yet it's never been tested empirically. To me, that's criminal." That's why I'm so research-oriented," adds Petrakos. "You have to test stuff out before you use it in clinical practice." Petrakos's research involves videotaping 36 families over the course of 18 months. The camera records how children--both boys and girls--interact with their parents during play sessions. Once the tapes are completed, Petrakos supervises a team of 12 undergraduates who carefully review the tapes and code different sorts of behaviour. |
Petrakos, a former daycare instructor, has several research publications to her credit and received the 1992 Elinor Ames Award for best student presentation in developmental psychology from the Canadian Psychological Association. "She's one of the most thoughtful people I've ever met," says Benenson. "She's never willing to accept superficial explanations." The fellowship--sponsored by the Quebec Ministry of Education--will allow Petrakos to focus more intensely on her research. "I don't have to work outside the University as much now," says Petrakos who was teaching courses at Vanier CEGEP to help support her family. "I can put more of my energy into finishing this project." Spending months trying to enlist families with young children to take part in her study has taught Petrakos to be sympathetic to other researchers looking for volunteer subjects. She says her youngest son, at five months of age, is already the veteran of four studies. "I know how important research is." |