Vic report summer 2014

summer 2014

Breese Davies Vic 9T5 Game Changer p. 8

Daniela Rupolo Vic 1T2 p. 11 vic report summer 2014

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The Character of Skills and the Skills of Character by paul w. gooch Pick up any newspaper article these days on post-secondary education, and you won’t get very far without reading the word ‘skills.’ The skills language usually goes along with ‘job ready:’ our post-secondary system, it will be argued, should be producing graduates who are well prepared with skills to be deployed immediately in the workplace.

Occasionally, the article will include a lament from humanists that the value of a liberal arts education has been neglected, and an encouraging quote from a business executive about the need for ‘soft skills’ in graduates.

It’s time to pause to ask what is meant by this talk of skills. The word’s history is complex, as a glance through its early meanings in the Oxford English Dictionary reveals. The original sense had to do with the mind, the ability to discriminate between what is proper and reasonable. That meaning is now obsolete; we have moved to ‘know-how,’ the ability to perform something well. To call someone skilled is obviously appropriate where dexterity is involved. When we appreciate the handiwork of an excellent craftsperson, the delicate operation of a surgeon, or the stick-handling of a hockey star, it is natural to praise their skill. I imagine that this is because their know-how results in a specific product or outcome. A skilful person knows how to do something, but also does it well.

Though the product is often tangible or definite (a cabinet, an appendectomy or a goal), in other cases we still speak of skill if it’s not too difficult to assess its outcome. Hence a debater can be skilful when debates are habitually won, a chef when challenging recipes succeed, a lover when—well, enough said; point made. It’s telling, however, that we do not use the language of skills in some other cases.

To call pianists or authors ‘skilful’ might suggest that they have excellent technique but lack the quality of, say, interpretation or character development that marks great art. Technique, after all, is impersonal. No matter how complicated, a technique can be taught and repeated by anyone with the requisite ability. Mere technique by itself, however praiseworthy, won’t give us the unique experience or performance that expresses the personal relationship of the artist with the work.

It’s the same with many of the intricate webs of relationships that constitute human life.

A parent who was merely ‘skilful’ at parenting would apply a set of techniques to relationships as though there were nothing unique about being parent to this child as distinct from any other child. We all know people who follow the manual without making independent judgment, and with sad results.

But what about those ‘soft skills’ that employers prize and liberal arts educators hope to inculcate? Though there is no canonical list, it will include being a good communicator, team player, time manager, problem solver; in addition, those with these skills (sometimes called ‘people skills’) are respectful, good listeners, persuasive and confident.

Note two things about these skills—‘skills,’ we might say, of character. First, although many of them have associated techniques, the success of their exercise is more a matter of judgment than simple rule-following. Being a persuasive communicator involves a lot more than following some steps in a manual. Second, universities don’t exactly teach these ‘skills’ directly; they are exercised in the course of studies and the pursuit of extracurricular activities rather than being the object of studies themselves. Studying them would, after all, make them seem like techniques to be memorized rather than qualities of character.

The expression ‘soft skills’ is not going to go away, even if the language seeks to indicate characteristics of the mind, and habits of discovery, expression and personal relationships that require more than the technical competence that is skill. Perhaps, instead, we should return to the early meanings of ‘skill’ that point to the ability to differentiate the effective from the ineffective, the excellent from the mediocre, the right from the wrong. What an education should do is cultivate good judgment. Studies should pass into that kind of character.  2

vic report summer 2014

Summer 2014 Volume XLII No. 3 Published under the authority of the Board of Regents of Victoria University in the University of Toronto.

Publisher: Larry Davies, Executive Director, Alumni Affairs and Advancement Executive Editor: Alison (Massie) Broadworth Vic 9T7, Director, Alumni Affairs and Advancement Editor: Jennifer Little Vic 9T5, Manager, Marketing and Communications Managing Editor: Liz Taylor, Communications Officer Copy Editor: Frank Collins Design: DDB Canada Cover: Breese Davies Vic 9T5.

Photograph by Babak.

Vic Report is sent to all alumni, faculty, associates and friends of Victoria University.

Published three times a year; circulation 24,000; ISSN 0315-5072.

Publications Mail Agreement No. 40741521 Send letters and undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Vic Report c/o The Victoria Alumni Office 150 Charles Street West Toronto ON M5S 1K9 Tel: 416-585-4500 Toll-free: 1-888-262-9775 Fax: 416-585-4594 E-mail: vic.report@utoronto.ca Website: www.vicu.utoronto.ca Do we have your correct address?

Please send your updated address, phone number and e-mail address to the Victoria Alumni Office.

Please notify us if the graduate named in the address is deceased (enclose obituary or equivalent) and we will remove his/her name from the mailing list.

Victoria University respects your privacy and does not rent, trade or sell its mailing lists.

newsline

What’s in a Name?

Appointments to Named Professorships at Victoria College On January 31, Victoria University Senate named four new, named professorships. This followed a nomination and selection process carried out by an advisory committee chaired

by Principal Angela Esterhammer Vic 8T3. A new appointment was also made to the pre-existing June Callwood Professorship in Social Justice, which was initiated in 2004.

JAMES AND ANNE NETHERCOTT PROFESSORSHIP Anne (Templeton) Nethercott Vic 4T9 and her late husband, James Vic 4T9, made community service and philanthropy a part of their lifestyle. The new James and Anne Nethercott Professorship will help ensure that Vic One continues to attract the most qualified faculty available. Andrew Baines begins a three-year appointment as the James and Anne Nethercott Professor as of Andrew Baines July 1. Vic One’s Stowe-Gullen stream would not be the success that it is without Baines and his excellent teaching, mentoring, leadership and dedication to the program.

Photographs: (Opposite page) Peg McCarthy; Courtesy individuals

THE MARY ROWELL JACKMAN PROFESSORSHIP The Hon. Henry N.R. Jackman Vic 5T3 is renowned for his philanthropy and support for numerous causes close to his heart, including both Victoria College and the University of Toronto. Established in memory of his mother, the Mary Rowell Jackman Professorship is in the Northrop Frye stream of Vic One. Anne Urbancic begins a three-year appointment as Mary Anne Urbancic Rowell Jackman Professor on July 1.

Urbancic has had an immensely positive impact on Vic One for many years, within and beyond the Frye stream. Along with an outstanding teaching record, she brings creativity and imagination to the structure of Vic One, as well as wonderful insights into how to make the learning environment of small classes work well for all students.

THE HON. NEWTON W. ROWELL PROFESSORSHIP Created in honour of Jackman’s grandfather, The Hon. Newton W. Rowell Professorship will be established in Vic One’s Pearson stream. Ivan Kalmar, a respected professor of anthropology who excels in teaching and course design, begins his three-year appointment on July 1. His positive interaction with students is reflected, among other Ivan Kalmar things, in his creative and detailed course websites. Thanks to Kalmar’s involvement in the Pearson stream and other first-year courses, many Victoria College students benefit from his mentorship and his multifaceted contributions to academic life.

THE DAVID AND ANN WILSON PROFESSORSHIP IN PUBLIC POLICY AND SOCIETY Generations of campus memories are a big part of why siblings David Wilson Vic 6T8 and Ann Wilson Vic 7T2 have made significant donations to Victoria University.

In 2004, they honoured their parents, who both graduated from Vic in 1941, with the establishment of the William and Margaret Wilson Bursary for Vic One students in financial need. The David and Ann Victor Falkenheim Wilson Professorship in Public Policy and Society in Vic One’s Pearson stream will rotate annually. Victor Falkenheim holds the inaugural appointment in 2014–2015.

Falkenheim has a well-deserved reputation as a teacher who excels in guiding and facilitating discussion and who mentors his Vic One students beyond the classroom.

THE JUNE CALLWOOD PROFESSORSHIP IN SOCIAL JUSTICE Funded by family, friends and admirers of the late June Callwood, the endowment honours her legacy—both literary and humanitarian. Callwood, who passed away in 2007, was a renowned Canadian journalist, author and social activist.

Camilla Gibb has been appointed to this professorship for a three-year term beginning January 1, 2015. Gibb is a Camilla Gibb Canadian writer who holds a PhD in social anthropology from Oxford University. She is a past winner of the Trillium Award, the CBC Canadian Literary Award and the City of Toronto Book Award, and has been shortlisted for the Giller Prize. She has served as Writer in Residence at the University of Toronto, the University of Alberta, the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at UBC, and as the Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor in Canadian Studies at U of T. 

Creating a Named Scholarship for Students is as Easy as V-I-C! To Contribute to a Scholarship Named for a Burwash House Visit alumni.utoronto.ca/houseawards

V I C

ictoria has matching funds available for all gifts through the Isabel (Park) Hodgkinson Fund. nvestment in the scholarship can be pledged over five years. all Larry Davies at (416) 585-4501 or e-mail larry.davies@utoronto.ca for information.

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AVC Distinguished Alumni Award Max Yalden: Extraordinary Accomplishments At this year’s presentation of the award on April 14, guests gathered to celebrate Maxwell Yalden Vic 5T2 (see Winter 2014 Vic Report).

Family friend Ramsay Cook toasted Yalden’s career and former classmate Mary (Kerr) Alford Vic 5T1 told stories about their experiences as part of the All Varsity Review at Hart House Theatre. Upon receiving the award, Yalden fondly recalled his memories of Wymilwood and of the Vic Drama Society. Vic is also where he met his wife, Janice (Shaw), without whom “[his] life would have been infinitely poorer.”

He said that he thinks of his university days as “very happy ones,” but also ones of learning and experience: “Victoria College had a profound and lasting impact on me since I first arrived on campus in 1948. It has always been a special part of my life, not just as an exemplar of youth and nostalgia, but as a place that broadened my way of thinking.”

Maxwell and Janice joined by their son, Robert Yalden, in the Senior Common Room.

The Distinguished Alumni Award was created by the AVC in 1997 and is given annually to a Victoria College alumna/us who has distinguished herself or himself through extraordinary contribution to society at large. 

Alumni of Victoria College Executive (AVC) President Paul Haynes Vic 9T9 presented this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award to Maxwell Yalden Vic 5T2. Haynes was joined by Valerie Story Vic 7T0, past president. Haynes’ term as president ended on June 30 and he will now assume the role of past president. Story, whose term as past president comes to an end, will remain a member of the College of Electors for U of T’s Governing Council, representing Victoria College. Anita (Gower) Kapustin Vic 9T5 has been named the new president and will start her term on July 1.

Paul Haynes and Valerie Story

REV UP YOUR DeLOREAN THE 80s PUB IS AROUND THE CORNER!

Wow, I like need to take a chill pill. My gnarly, neon Swatch says it’s time to motor, big time. Gotta wrap up this game of Pac-Man, finish my Tab and get to the 80s Pub. I am like totally wearing these parachute pants with my striped leg warmers. Just can’t decide between my Tretorns and my jellies. Wonder if anyone else will be wearing their Vuarnets at night. Tonight is going to be totally tubular.

Don’t freak out. The 80s Pub will be, like, awesome. Be there or be square.

And don’t peg your jeans too tightly. You might want to do the Worm.

NOVEMBER 15 IN OLD VIC AT 7 P.M. $30 per person, includes admission, refreshments and a drink ticket. Cash bar.

Watch your e-mail for updates from the 80s Pub Committee or visit http://my.alumni.utoronto.ca/80spub

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Devotion to Craft, Cause and Canada David Hallman, Alexandra Johnston and Gordon Lightfoot Honoured

Photographs: (Opposite page) Victoria Alumni Office, Jeff Picka Vic 8T9; Victoria Alumni Office

Victoria University’s May 15 convocation recognized the achievements of Alexandra Johnston Vic 6T1, David Hallman and Gordon Lightfoot. Lightfoot and Johnston were each named an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters; Hallman was named an honorary Doctor of Divinity.

Johnston began teaching at Vic in 1967 and taught English until her retirement in 2004. She is internationally recognized as one of the preeminent historians of medieval drama and as the founding director and general editor of the Records of Early English Drama (REED) Project. Under her stewardship REED has produced 27 collections of materials documenting English theatrical cultures from the medieval period through 1642. Johnston has served on countless university committees and boards, and from 1981–1991 served as the first female principal of Victoria College. She has also worked tirelessly for the Presbyterian Church in Canada. She served as chair of the Canadian Council of Churches and was a member of the World Council of Churches.

Hallman is an accomplished author, a dedicated social justice advocate and a committed environmental activist.

He joined the national staff of the United Church of Canada in 1976 in a social justice portfolio that focused on the rights and needs of disabled persons; the rights of children; criminal justice; French-English relations in Canada; and on the AIDS crisis. In the 1980s he took on responsibility for coordinating advocacy for environmental issues and in 1988 was seconded to the World Council of Churches in Geneva to coordinate its climate change program. He was involved with the UN Global negotiations on climate change and helped

David Hallman, Alexandra Johnston and Gordon Lightfoot

raise awareness in religious communities concerning critical environmental issues.

Lightfoot is a Canadian legend and internationally renowned musician, writer, composer and performer. He has recorded over 20 albums, was voted composer of the year from 1974 to 1976, and Canadian male recording artist of the decade for 1970 to 1980. His honours include five Grammy nominations, 16 Juno awards, the Governor General’s Arts Award, induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame, and into Canada’s Walk of Fame. Most recently, the Toronto United Church Council awarded him the Heart and Vision Award for his lifelong commitment to social and environmental justice. 

Where There’s a Will…

2014 VIC BOOK SALE

Victoria University can be designated as a beneficiary in your will. Here’s an example of a suggested wording:

Need a great read? Don’t miss the Vic Book Sale and help support Vic’s Friends of the Library. The sale is in Old Vic, 91 Charles Street West. Proceeds go to Victoria University Library.

I give and bequeath to the Board of Regents of Victoria University, Toronto, Ontario, the sum of $ or % of my estate.

If you wish to designate a specific bequest (a scholarship, the library, etc.), please contact: Sharon Gregory Telephone: 416-813-4050 Toll-free: 1-888-262-9775 E-mail: sharon.gregory@utoronto.ca

Thursday, Sept. 18 – Only day with admission fee: $3, students free with ID

4 p.m.–9 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 19

10 a.m.–8 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 20

11 a.m.–6 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 21

11 a.m.–6 p.m.

Monday, Sept. 22 – All books half price 10 a.m.–8 p.m.

Blog: library.vicu.ca/friends/blog E-mail: vic.booksale@utoronto.ca Want to volunteer? 416-585-4585 or 416-585-4471

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SPRING REUNION 2014

After the longest winter in recent memory, the Vic community revelled in the spirit of the centenary celebration of Burwash Hall on May 29. More than 200 guests raised a cheer to 100 years, caught up with friends and shared tales that can now be told publicly without fear of expulsion. Guests enjoyed taking tours of the historic Upper Houses, while others took advantage of exploring the stunning, new Goldring Student Centre. Everyone enjoyed the superb dinner prepared by Vic’s award-winning chef, Nathan Barratt. This event was just the first of nine for this year’s Spring Reunion that saw over 500 alumni return to campus. Visit www.vicu.utoronto.ca/alumni/springreunion to view more photographs.

Burwash Centenary

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Class of 6T4’s Golden Anniversary

8T9 Cocktail Party

Marsha Pautler Vic 0T6 toasts Burwash Hall.

Burwash memories

Remembering when . . .

Photographs: Horst Herget, Victoria Alumni Office

Principal’s Dinner

7 8T012345 Party

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Class of 5T4 Luncheon

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C H G A M E N G E R

BREESE DAVIES VIC 9T5

By Elaine Smith

H

er résumé reads like a list from Canada’s most prominent legal news stories: counsel at the Coroner’s Inquest into the prison death of Ashley Smith; co-counsel for a member of the “Toronto 18” who was alleged to have participated in the activities of a terrorist organization; co-counsel at the Inquiry into Forensic Pediatric Pathology in Ontario, which looked at the work of Charles Smith; and co-counsel at the Inquiry into Canada’s role in the rendition and torture of Maher Arar in Syria. She has argued before the Supreme Court of Canada and the Court of Appeal of Ontario. Yet, it’s unlikely that you’d learn about any of these stellar accomplishments from Breese Davies Vic 9T5 herself.

“Breese is an absolute star in the legal field, but she’s not one to tell people how great she is,” says Joseph Di Luca, who was one of her partners at Di Luca, Copeland, Davies LLP. “She lets her work and her efficiency speak for themselves.”

Julian Falconer, a prominent Toronto lawyer, was also counsel at the Ashley Smith Inquest, which examined the federal prison system’s response to mental health issues in the aftermath of Smith’s death. At the time of her death, Smith had been held in segregation for more than three years and was subjected to 24-hour supervision. Her death was videotaped by prison officers who stood outside her cell and watched as she stopped breathing.

“When you’re talking about public litigation, custody issues, rights access and mental health, Breese is a game changer,” he says. “She’s a combination of a tough trial lawyer and a really, really good person.

“It’s the combination of advocacy and human skills that is impressive.”

Who is this superstar and why did she choose a career in criminal law, a field with very few women practitioners?

Davies grew up in Toronto, the child of educators. She is the younger of two daughters and attended high school at North Toronto Collegiate Institute where she was “incredibly involved,” largely in music-related activities.

The legal profession is lucky to be able to claim her as one of its own. Davies, a talented clarinetist, originally planned

Photographs: (Opposite page) Babak; Courtesy B. Davies

cover story

a career in music and entered the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto as a performance student. When she realized that something she had always done for pleasure and escape was turning into a job, Davies changed her plans, left the faculty and headed to Victoria College, where she studied criminology instead.

Davies and Vic were a perfect pair.

The College offered all kinds of extracurricular activities, and the newcomer plunged in with zest. “I had been incredibly involved in extra-curricular activities in high school, so I jumped into student life at Vic,” Davies says.

She co-chaired the Vic orientation program, assisted with Winterfest, and served on the Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council, among other activities. Her contributions to the College didn’t go unnoticed.

Davies was chosen to receive the Senior Stick, a tradition inaugurated in 1911 and presented to female graduating students judged by classmates to have contributed the most to Victoria College. (The men’s Senior Stick was established in 1871 and presented to a male graduating student considered by his peers to have contributed the most to Victoria College). She was also the recipient of the venerable Gold V Award, presented by faculty and peers only to select graduating students who are thought to demonstrate strength of character and who embody the ethic of service to the Vic community.

Davies treasures her years at Vic. “It was a truly amazing community of people,” she says. “When I came back after classes, both my residence floor and the College felt like a home and a family.

“It is an oasis in the heart of a big city and a big university, and it is so welcoming, vibrant and accessible.”

Her two closest friends to this day, Scott Berry Vic 9T7 and Dawn Marie Schlegel Vic 9T6, are fellow Vic graduates she met during her undergraduate years. She and Schlegel were roommates while at Vic. “They are my Toronto family,” says Schlegel of Davies and Berry. “We’re as close as it gets without being blood relations.”

Like any relative, she is eager to sing Davies’ praises.

“I’m always proud of her, hearing about her successes. She has worked with the best, held her own with the best and forged her own path. Her work speaks for itself.”

After leaving music behind, Davies had no grand plan for her future, although she loved her criminology courses. She found that many of her criminology classmates were taking the Law School Admission Test and moving on to law school after graduation. She decided to give it a shot, too, even though, “I don’t think I knew a lawyer before that.”

She did, however, have a good grounding in social justice issues as the daughter of parents who cared deeply about human rights.

“We talked about issues all the time at home,” Davies says. “My parents definitely instilled in me a commitment to civil and human rights and taught me not to accept the status quo, to question the rules.”

These values form part of the core of Davies’ identity and are reflected in her legal work.

“A lot of her time is spent on social issues, and she values the resolution of those most,” says Clayton Ruby, one of Canada’s premier defence lawyers, who was Davies’ employer for seven years.

“It’s not by accident that she is the lawyer of choice for organizations such as the Elizabeth Fry Society [an organization that supports women who have been in conflict with the law]. To do that, you have to be brilliant, have a heart and political instincts.”

Davies attended U of T’s Faculty of Law and quickly realized that the two areas of law that really held her interest were criminal law and constitutional law.

They became her focus and remain the core of her legal practice.

While in law school, she worked at the university’s Downtown Legal Society, where she was able to indulge her passion by taking on a load of criminal cases. She also had the chance to work for Ruby, an opportunity any Canadian lawyer would envy.

“I had a front row seat for some pretty interesting litigation,” says Davies.

“Watching him and having a glimpse into his practice convinced me of what I wanted to do.”

After graduation came articling, and Davies’ talent earned her a coveted position as one of a dozen clerks at the Superior Court of Justice. Most of her fellow clerks had little interest in criminal law, so she took on as much criminal work as possible and became convinced that it was the area in which she wanted to specialize. A job with Ruby’s former firm, Ruby & Edwardh, set her on the right path. Davies worked for Ruby and Marlys Edwardh for seven years, a time she treasures.

“They were the most phenomenal mentors anyone could ever ask for,” she says.

The admiration is mutual.

“She’s a special lawyer,” Ruby notes.

“She’s creative and always looks at every problem from five or six different angles, then has the judgment to decide which path to take. That’s a very important skill.”

While with Ruby & Edwardh, Davies worked on her first case that went to the Supreme Court of Canada. The case, United States v. Burns, considered whether a Canadian citizen could be

Davies running the NYC Half 2014.

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extradited to another country that had the death penalty without assurances that it would not be used on them. Her client, Atif Ahmad Rafay, and a high school friend, Glen Sebastian Burns, were wanted in the United States on charges of aggravated first-degree murder in the 1994 death of Rafay’s parents and sister.

The Supreme Court decided in favour of the two men, stating, “There is no convincing argument that exposure of the respondents to death in prison by execution advances Canada’s public interest in a way that the alternative, eventual death in prison by natural causes, would not. Other abolitionist countries do not, in general, extradite without assurances.”

Davies noted, “We basically saved Rafay’s life in the United States.”

She has saved other lives, too; or restored them to some semblance of normalcy. The case that resonates loudest for her is the Arar Inquiry, the federal inquiry into the case of the Syrian-born engineer, a Canadian citizen who was detained in the U.S. on suspicion of terrorism, while en route back to Canada in 2002. He was sent to Syria, where he was tortured and detained for close to a year. The inquiry found that there was no evidence that Arar was in any way involved in any terrorist or extremist activities. It also resulted in a series of recommendations to improve information sharing between police and intelligence agencies, to avoid racial profiling in national security investigation, and to ensure that Canadian officials are extremely cautious when dealing with regimes that engage in torture.

Davies taking on Mount Kilimanjaro on a fundraising climb for cancer.

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“This was one of the most difficult and rewarding cases I’ve worked on in my career,” says Davies. “The process was incredibly difficult, because so much information was protected by national security privilege. We all knew they were having secret hearings about Mr. Arar but had no ability to know what was being said or how to respond to it.”

She says the case was important “in how we think of national security issues and how they interact with our own rights. What are we willing to sacrifice to respond to those we think are involved in terrorism? It’s a very, very difficult issue, but the result was what Maher Arar deserved. He was completely exonerated

by Justice O’Connor.”

Although many lawyers steer clear of long cases of this nature, Davies says she loves working on them. “I love the law itself, seeing where it can go, its limits and how we can use it to effect social change. Public inquiries provide a unique opportunity to combine law and social policy reform.”

Her love for the law has led Davies to teaching, the calling her parents followed. She is an adjunct professor of criminology at U of T and has done some teaching for Osgoode Hall Law School. She thoroughly enjoys it.

“I love the energy of the students and their curiosity,” says Davies. “Just when I think I’ve thought about everything on a topic, they ask me questions that are so insightful, and I think about law in a different way. It’s great to watch them learn, grow and develop, thinking about issues they hadn’t considered.”

Davies finds it a good change of pace from her courtroom work. “It’s pressure in a different way than being responsible for someone’s liberty, for instance,” she says.

Davies’s colleagues and friends are amazed that she finds time to relax, given her heavy caseload and her teaching responsibilities, but she fits pleasure into her week, too. She runs regularly and competes in half-marathons, and she and Vic friend, Scott Berry, are taking a series of culinary courses at George Brown College.

“She’s indefatigable,” says Ruby.

“What needs to be done gets done right.”

Schlegel echoes his words: “She’s beyond prepared. I’m pretty convinced she has a longer day than the rest of us.”

The preparation and attention to detail that go into Davies’s work were apparent as she stood before a judge for the Ontario Court of Justice in early April, arguing a motion to dismiss a charge against her client due to what she believed was entrapment. She had created a matrix of the relevant cases for clarity’s sake and offered a copy to the judge. Her arguments were clear, concise and cogent, and she cited related judgments from memory, while the prosecutor stumbled and referred to notes. When the judge made an assumption she considered incorrect, Davies challenged him politely but firmly.

Delighted by such obvious competence, the defendant’s family hugged her during a recess and thanked her for all her work on her client’s behalf.

“Each case is a new opportunity with a different set of issues,” says Davies.

“That’s the beauty of the job: you never see the same case twice and there is never a lack of issues to be addressed.”

She will soon have an extra pair of hands to help her address issues of importance. After four years as part of Di Luca Copeland Davies LLP and two years running her own practice, Davies recently hired a former student to join her as an associate.

“It will allow me to expand my practice and will hopefully free up some of my time,” she says. “I am also looking forward to mentoring him as he develops his skills as a lawyer.”

Teacher, mentor, passionate advocate for human rights, loyal and devoted friend: all of these traits add up to, says Berry, “a person who provides the most valued opinions in my life,” and to a person whom Falconer, the prominent lawyer called “simply one of the most competent lawyers of her generation in Toronto, if not the province.”

Davies is someone you’d want in your corner.

“There’s so much strength, intelligence, love and kindness in her,” Schlegel says. “It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if she were on the Supreme Court one day.” 

young alumni profile

DANIELA RUPOLO: APPRECIATING THE

Photographs: (Opposite page) Courtesy B. Davies; Courtesy D. Rupolo

BIGGER PICTURE Learning is not restricted to a classroom, nor does it stop upon graduation. Daniela Rupolo Vic 1T2 is a great believer in the importance of life-long learning and the power of ideas. She credits her experience with Vic’s co-curricular program Ideas for the World as having helped guide her career and shape her character.

Initially, a self-described shy and introverted academic, Rupolo says she became “a more balanced and active student” thanks to her experiences at Vic. In addition to pursuing a double major in philosophy and criminology, and a minor in sociology, she was an Orientation Week leader, played intramural sports, and participated in the Ideas for the World program, in one section of which she mentored financiallychallenged community members to explore the world through humanities texts. In 2009, she founded D.R.E.A.M.S. @ UOFT, a campus charity that raises funds to build family homes in the Dominican Republic.

“Vic is about so much more than the pursuit of knowledge; it’s also about questioning that knowledge; self-reflecting in a community that cares about inclusivity, diversity, morality, tradition, arts and culture, healthy living, poverty and the environment,” says Rupolo.

After graduation, Rupolo pursued post-graduate journalism studies at Sheridan College. For a documentary course, she chose to shoot a film about Ideas for the WorId entitled The Ivory Tower (online at bit.ly/S9q8bE). “I was really affected by my participation in the Humanities for Humanity section,” says Rupolo. “I came to comprehend the power of ideas, the wonderful gift of realizing that no matter what your class, race, gender, age, financial situation, or struggles in life, you always have access to ideas. They may be based on life experiences or pages in books, but they exist in all of us, and when we come together to share them, we learn and change for the better.”

Her college instructor was initially concerned about the project, deeming it visually uninteresting. Even the program coordinator said it was too big a project and that she should be working with two other students. Uninterested in sharing subject matter about which she felt such passion, Rupolo insisted she handle it alone. “Being told I couldn’t succeed only hardened my resolve,” she says. “I knew I was dealing with an excellent community, wonderful people and powerful subject matter. In the process of making the documentary, I faced a much milder version of what community members had faced all too often: the experience of being told you can’t do something.”

While filming The Ivory Tower, Rupolo visited community members at home and the deeper conversations were valuable and eye-opening. “Some of the community members were skeptical, some were excited, some were indifferent. By the end, though, they were eager to see the video, and I felt very lucky to have the opportunity to share it with them,” says Rupolo. “When I showed it to my instructor, he apologized to me for telling me I couldn’t do it. When it won best documentary in the program, he called it inspiring. When I reflect, though, it’s not my work that made the documentary inspiring; it’s the ideas expressed in it; the individuals who finally found a place to express them; and the people who created a space where they could do so.”

Rupolo also took smaller, student-only sections of Ideas for the World, including Culture and Conflict in the Media.

“I had already started my application to Sheridan by then and knew it would be my last chance to explore the theoretical side of journalism before having to focus on the practical side of it. It was invigorating to approach traditional media with constructive, responsible skepticism. I have continued to use the tools with which that seminar provided me in my everyday life as an employee of the CBC.” Rupolo works for the CBC as a video editor. She has had the opportunity to work on a variety of items for News Production Services and hopes to eventually move into investigative, longform journalism. “Ideas for the World made me believe in the power of ideas again. It recognizes the importance of all ideas, and subjects them all to equal scrutiny.”  vic report summer 2014

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milestones

CAREERS, AUTHORS, AWARDS Aarne Kartna Vic 7T1, started employment with The City of Etobicoke Fire Department in September 1980 and retired at the end of September 2013. During his career as a front-line firefighter, he was cited and decorated, numerous times, for bravery and lifesaving actions. Kartna was a member of the 1968, 1970 and 1971 Victoria College Mulock Cup-winning football teams. The 1971 team was the most dominating team in Mulock Cup history, winning the semi-final and final by the identical scores of 62 to 0.

Kartna is enjoying retirement with his wife, Diana L. Steele, a graduate of Queen’s University.

Kerry Clare Vic 0T2 is editor of the essay collection, The M Word: Conversations About Motherhood (Goose Lane Editions, 2014). In this original collection of essays, Canadian writers explore the boundaries of contemporary motherhood.

Catherine Jane (Emerson) Fraser Vic 5T8 has compiled Meadowvale History 1, 2 and is currently working on 3.

Alden Globe Vic 8T1, author of four non-fiction works, has published Carry On: Business Travel Notes (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013) in which he shares travel recommendations including gear, food tips, book suggestions, useful apps and equipment for travelling light.

Glenna J. Grant Vic 8T6 has recently become a licensed paralegal with the Law Society of Upper Canada. She offers legal services in Peterborough and the surrounding area in landlord and tenant law, Small Claims Court matters, property tax appeals, record suspensions/ pardons, agency work and legal research.

Visit www.glennagrantparalegal.ca.

Gerald Hallowell Vic 6T5 has published The August Gales: The Tragic Loss of Fishing Schooners in the North Atlantic, 1926 and 1927 (Nimbus Publishing, 12

vic report summer 2014

send us your news: vic.report@utoronto.ca

2013). More than 200 fishermen, in vessels out of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland south coast ports, and Gloucester, Massachusetts, died in these two seasons of fishing. The story is set in the context of the banks fisheries and the dangers of fishing off treacherous Sable Island.

Katharine Hayhoe Vic 9T4 was named to the 2014 Time 100 list, Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people, for her work on climate change. Hayhoe is a professor and director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University.

Her research works to assess climate change impact and develop informed policy in the area. Hayhoe worked on the first episode of the 2014 documentary series, Years of Living Dangerously, with actor and Goodwill Ambassador to the U.N. Environment Programme, Don Cheadle, who did the write-up about her for Time.

Dorothy (Flannery) Horwood Vic 4T8 published the biography of her mother, Monica Flannery, entitled From Monica with Love: Sketches of the Life of an English Quebecer in the Early 20th Century (Baico Publishing).

Marni Jackson Vic 6T8 is co-editor of Rock, Paper, Fire: The Best of Mountain and Wilderness Writing, an international anthology of stories from the Banff Centre Press, with an introduction

by Charlotte Gill. barb m. janes Vic 7T7, Emm 8T4 has published Inviting Wonder, a book about rekindling the relationship between the arts and the Protestant church. janes calls church communities to embrace hospitality as a spiritual practice, re-imagine the church as public space, and inflame religious imagination through the arts. For more info, see www.invitingwonder.ca.

Aisha Sasha John Vic 0T4 recently published her second book, Thou (BookThug, 2014), a collection of two long, narrative poems building on the emotionally charged language of her first

Vic Grads from 5T5 to 5T8 together in Cuba as part of a group of Canadian singers under the leadership of jazz musician Peter Dent.

Back row: Georgia (Stirrett) Helleiner Vic 5T7, Wendy (Melhuish) MacFadzean Emm 9T3, Gerry Helleiner Vic 5T8, Joan (Fidler) Burrows Vic 5T8, Bob Burrows Vic 5T6, Emm 5T9.

Front row: Nora Wilson Vic 5T5, Marion (Woods) Kirkwood Vic 5T5, Louise (Woods) Rolston Vic 5T7, Sue (Cousland) Thompson Vic 5T5.

book, The Shining Material (BookThug, 2011.) John is a dance improviser and poet currently living in Toronto.

In late March, author and journalist Caitlin Kelly Vic 7T9 spent a week working with WaterAid in rural Nicaragua, with a multi-national, multilingual team of five. She travelled to the Atlantic coast and to inland villages to report on its work in sanitation and to provide clean water. She worked in Spanish, English and, with translation, Miskitu, to conduct interviews. Country leader Joshua Briemberg, a fellow Canadian, has created the nation’s successful program from scratch.

Grace Ji-Sun Kim Vic 9T2 has published her fourth book, co-edited with Jenny Daggers. The chapters assembled in Reimaginings with Christian Doctrines: Responding to Global Gender Injustices (Palgrave Pivot, 2014) demonstrate a constructive potential in reimagining with doctrine; thus a challenge is brought to notions of doctrine as merely an inert effect of the exercise of patriarchal power during the formative centuries of a colonial Western Christian tradition. Written from

send us your news: vic.report@utoronto.ca Jean (Riley) O’Grady Vic 6T4 has written the forward to The Northrop Frye Quote Book (Dundurn, 2014). This specialized dictionary of quotations, on all subjects, is based on the writings of Frye Vic 3T3, Emm 3T6. John Robert Colombo, a Fellow of the Frye Centre at Victoria University, compiled the book. One entry, entitled “Victoria College,” includes eight quotations regarding his time at Vic.

diverse denominational backgrounds and racial ethnicities, its richness in perspective invites engagement with an important facet in today’s feminist theological discourse.

HyeRan Kim-Cragg Emm 0T6 recently co-authored The Encounters: Retelling the Bible from Migration and Intercultural Perspectives. It was originally published in Korean and it is now available in English. This book invites the readers to encounter the biblical figures whose lives were marked by migration and crossing boundaries. It is available for purchase through Amazon (Kindle), www.ucrdstore.ca or the author, hyeran.kimcragg@usask.ca.

Don Ranney Vic 5T4 continues to perform independent medical evaluations when requested by lawyers in regard to motor vehicle accidents. He is also writing, producing short stories and novels. He recently wrote I’m a Bear: Autobiography of a Golden Doodle. The book is available at www.volumesdirect.com.

Francis McInerney Vic 7T3 has published his sixth book, Super Genba: Ten Things Japanese Companies Must Do to Gain Global Competitiveness. It is inspired by Marshall McLuhan and addresses how the falling cost of information restructures companies and even entire countries.

The book explains how Japanese industry fell behind the falling cost of information curve, missed the cloud revolution, and risks being overrun by China. The problems McInerney addresses are universal—think Nortel and Blackberry— and his solutions apply to all. Available at www.northriver.com.

John S. Saul Vic 5T9 has published two books this year: South Africa— The Present as History: From Mrs. Ples to Mandela and Marikana (James Curry, Oxford, 2014) and A Flawed Freedom: Rethinking Southern African Liberation (Pluto Press and Between-the-Lines [Toronto], 2014). In April Saul launched both books in the U.K. and will do the same in South Africa this September.

Victoria University granted Saul an honorary Doctorate of Sacred Letters in 2010.

Bruce Meyer Vic 8T0, visiting professor at Victoria College, has released two new books. Testing the Elements (Exile Editions, 2014), a book of poetry, and The Seasons (Porcupine’s Quill Press, 2014) is a collection of 100 sonnets.

milestones

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milestones

A watercolour portrait of Sidney Crosby by Jeff Sprang Vic 7T7 was recently added to The Art of Hockey, a travelling exhibit of hockey-inspired art run by the Hockey Hall of Fame. The portrait shows Crosby wearing his gold medal from the Sochi Olympic Games. All items in the exhibit have been donated to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and the show has been on the road for about three years.

Bill Steadman Emm 7T7 was a theme speaker at a conference in Chicago in April, 2014 on revitalizing your congregation. His talk on transformational leadership was based on Wake Up Church, a book he co-authored with Ed Kruse of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. The book is available by e-mailing westeaadman03@gmail.com or at www.ucrdstore.ca.

Susan McDonald, registrar of Victoria College, and Valerie Ferrier Vic 9T0, assistant registrar, celebrate 25 years at Vic this year.

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milestones Shawn Winsor Vic 9T1 was awarded a three-year Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship through the Canadian Institutes for Health Research to support his PhD research examining ethical frameworks used by governmental funding bodies to assess new health technologies. His PhD is being done at the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis at McMaster University.

The Vanier Scholarship is Canada’s most prestigious and lucrative program for doctoral students working in the health sciences, natural sciences, social sciences and humanities.

BIRTHS To Ron Borkovsky Vic 9T8 and Julia Rabinovich, a son, Nathan Michael, on December 16, 2013, in Toronto.

A little brother for Danielle.

To Katrina de Luna Vic OT5 and David Fennell, a son, Leo Hudson, on November 25, 2010, in Thunder Bay. Also to Katrina de Luna Vic OT5 and David Fennell, a son, Samuel Bennett, on February 10, 2014, in Thunder Bay. Big brother Leo Hudson is thrilled.

To Kerry Clare Vic 0T2 and Stuart Lawler, a daughter, Iris Malala, on June 5, 2013. A little sister for Harriet.

To Galit (Borkovsky) Davies Vic 0T1 and Jonathan Davies Vic 0T1, a daughter, Leah Flora Claudia Davies, on February 6, 2014, in Toronto. Galit was president of Middle House and Jon was president of Gate. Leah and big brother Evan are currently undecided.

MARRIAGES

Raymond H. Helston Vic 5T4, in Columbia, TN, March 22, 2014.

Amy Deverell Vic 1T0 married Nicholas Rolle Vic 0T7 on March 26, 2014 in San Francisco, California.

R. Malcolm “Mac” Hill Vic 4T4, in Mississauga, Ont., February 4, 2014.

DEATHS

D. Roy Horney Vic 4T9, in Toronto, July 1, 2013.

E. Marion (Filshie) Johnston Vic 4T4, in Toronto, October 22, 2005.

Beverly A. Brehl Vic 0T1, in Salt Lake City, UT, March 2, 2014.

Mary T. (Thornton) Jones Vic 5T4, in Mississauga, Ont., March 3, 2014.

Charles R. “Chuck” Butler Vic 6T4, in Toronto, March 6, 2014.

Eric A. LeBer Vic 6T4, in Toronto, June 17, 2012.

Robert O. Carruthers Vic 5T0, in Toronto, April 18, 2014.

Jean A. (Clark) Lennon Vic 4T5, in Lasalle, Ont., April 17, 2012.

Charles R. Catto Vic 5T1, Emm 5T4, in Toronto, May 9, 2014.

William G. Chapin Vic 4T8, in Oakville, Ont., April 11, 2014.

Vicki A. Coristine Vic 8T8, in Toronto, March 5, 2014.

Douglas A. Crichton Vic 4T9, Emm 5T2, in Kingston, Ont., September 28, 2013.

Gwendolyn M. Davenport Vic 5T0, in Toronto, March 15, 2014.

Howard A. Moffatt Vic 4T9, in Deep River, Ont., July 7, 2011.

Margaret M. (Dillon) Norquay Vic 4T3, in Toronto, January 11, 2014.

Kenneth L. Pond Vic 5T2, in Toronto, May 2, 2013.

John B. “Don” Purdy Vic 4T7, in Toronto, April 26, 2014.

Jean M. (Stephenson) Ratcliff Vic 4T7, in Toronto, May 27, 2014.

Marie C. (Dalton) Deloume Vic 4T7, in Victoria, B.C., February 7, 2014.

Aubrey G.S. Edworthy Emm 4T4, in Saskatoon, Sask., December 22, 2013.

Dorothy E. Fetterly Vic 4T7, in Muskoka Landing, Ont., November 3, 2013.

Carol N. (Davidge) Finch Vic 6T5, in Toronto, December 26, 2013.

Wolfgang Roth Emm 5T9, in Evanston, IL, November 25, 2013.

David E. Ross Vic 7T4, in Toronto, August 17, 2013.

Shirley Ann (Deyell) Thompson Vic 5T4, in Peterborough, Ont., May 30, 2007.

Robert G. Trimble Vic 5T0, Emm 5T3, in Toronto, March 29, 2014.

M. Jean (Graham) Goodger Vic 3T9, in Minden, March 29, 2010.

George E. Ward Emm 5T5, in Regina, Sask., November 27, 2013.

G. Scott Graham Vic 7T0, in Mississauga, Ont., May 2, 2013.

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faculty forum

Living Among Books

Photograph: Courtesy J. Blackmore

by josiah blackmore I think one of the motifs in early art that I find especially intriguing is the visual imaginings of Saint Jerome in his study. Albrecht Dürer’s woodcut probably stands out as the most immediately recognizable moment in this tradition, with Jerome bent over his book in intense concentration and light streaming in through the window. His study is filled with objects and animals, a kind of comforting, domestic clutter, but what I find striking is the tranquility of Jerome in his room, a tranquility that reflects the life of the mind as it comes alive when in contact with a book. There’s also the fifteenthcentury painting of Jerome in his study by the Neapolitan Colantonio. Here, we see a shelf of books as part of the scene.

The books are not in neat, orderly arrangement on the shelf, but rather appear to have been thrown hastily one on top of the other because they rest at odd angles, askew. As with the contemplative tranquility in Dürer’s version, I find this shelf of disorderly books compelling, for it represents the library of a working scholar. Books are consulted frequently, over and over again, as need demands, returned to the shelf and retrieved again. They are silent yet paradoxically vociferous interlocutors in a conversation between humans and the page in which ideas are born, live, thrive and grow.

The book-lined room with its cozy intimacy for me is the very epicentre of academic life. In the years at Vic as a member of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, I was fortunate to have a study that recalled the images of Dürer and Colantonio in the form of Northrop Frye Hall, room 305.

There, with wooden bookshelves on all walls that reach floor to ceiling, and with a window looking onto the quad that lies between the Pratt Library and Burwash Hall, I convened with books, students, colleagues and ideas on a daily basis.

NF 305 was a kind of scholarly sanctuary, a place that invited reading, writing and thinking. It’s impossible to say how many conversations with students or colleagues began because of a book on the shelf, but it is possible to say that those book-based dialogues reconfirmed why universities, and places within them such as Vic, are important in the first place. Books are, after all, an excellent and invigorating way to create and sustain communities, to encourage exploration of the private psyche or collective life, and they invite adventures of all kinds. They are naturally collaborative, since they find their nature in the first contact with a reader.

In the many courses I taught over the years—Portuguese literature, a course on medieval literature and life, as a member of the Vic One program, and a first-year humanities seminar—classroom and tutorial meetings with students almost always veered in vertiginous, unexpected directions due to our collective commitment to the book. Though my students probably didn’t know it, they were teaching me much more than I suspected I was teaching them, and I find it a source of inspiration to witness students come into contact with a previously unknown book for the first time. Our bookish

journeys were and still are the catalysts for considering the moral and civic nature of the classroom, the responsibilities and freedoms of university study, and the exhilarating contact that results when reading the thoughts of some of the greatest minds to have lived. Books are a time machine and a conjuration—in an instant, we are transported back hundreds of years, and often a poet or storyteller or thinker, deceased for centuries, all of a sudden stands before us again. Then there are those moments of bibliomancy, punctuated by a frisson that runs through everyone in the room, when, as if by chance, we find just the right page or phrasing or idea in a book to corroborate a discussion held on a different occasion.

When it comes to books, and to the special elation of sensorial contact with the physical object—the feel of the binding and the paper, the look of the typeface, the heft in the hand, or the aroma—it’s difficult not to remember the wellknown scene of St. Augustine in the garden in the Confessions, when an unidentified voice intones, “Tolle! Lege!” (Take up and read!). The magic of this moment, the turning-point in Augustine’s inward journey, is expressed as an unquantifiable, mysterious impulse to read. And in a very different time and place, Miguel de Cervantes confesses, in the opening chapters of Don Quijote, to being so predisposed to reading that he finds it impossible not to read even the scraps of papers fluttering through the streets. Augustine and Cervantes reveal an elegant truth for everyone lucky enough to live among books: in one simple, single, moment of reading, lives change.  After 21 fulfilling years at Vic, Josiah Blackmore is now the Nancy Clark Smith Professor of the Language and Literature of Portugal in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. vic report summer 2014

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on campus

Science in Colour at Old Vic Does colour influence science or does science influence colour? Explore thought-provoking theories at Science in Colour, a new exhibition of U of T’s Scientific Instrument Collection. Located on the third floor of Old Vic, the display is a joint venture between the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHPST) and the Master of Museum Studies program. In addition to instruments, one finds classic textbooks including Grant’s Atlas of Anatomy, archival photographs and video, all with explanatory notes. The show demonstrates how U of T researchers from various departments have studied colour, its perception and how it has been used to better understand and illuminate the invisible in our world.

Science in Colour opened on April 4, the same day the expansion of Vic’s undergraduate program in Material Culture was celebrated with a public symposium entitled Evocative Objects, held in collaboration with the ROM. Riiko Bedford, PhD student at IHPST, was just one of the many speakers at

the event that aimed at highlighting the collaborative nature of material culture studies. Bedford studies the history of the life sciences and biomedicine in 20th-century America. She spoke about a series of slides from the University of Toronto Ophthalmic Pathology Laboratory (currently housed at the University of Toronto Archives), and discussed the historical use of dyes in science and industry. “Investigating these slides as material objects leads us to consider not only the history of ophthalmology at U of T, but also the historical use of dyes in histology as well as industry,” says Bedford. “And, not only that, we learn about the makeup of our own bodies. So, these seemingly little slides take you in a lot of directions.

“The Evocative Objects event was a great way to celebrate the interdisciplinary nature of studying material culture in its many different forms. It is hoped that the gathering of professors, curators and students will inspire current students of material culture to pursue studies in this area.”

Photograph: Matt Stata Vic 1T4

Histology slide, U of T Ophthalmic Pathology Laboratory, 1950s.

THANK YOU, READERS! A note of appreciation to every reader who took part in the recent magazine survey. Various divisions across U of T, including Victoria University, distributed a tailor-made version of the survey to alumni. Victoria asked respondents to evaluate Vic Report, with the goal of making it more relevant and responsive to readers. The results are in and we are pleased with the feedback. Victoria University had the second-highest response rate with more than 11 per cent of alumni taking part and sharing their opinions and ideas. As an added incentive, participants’ names were put into a draw for an iPad Mini and out of the 159,603 survey responders, Amy (Eberhard) Leeke Vic 9T3 won!

Thank you to all who participated—we value your opinions and we hope that we continue to make you feel connected to the University.