Accolades
Congratulations to longtime friend of Concordia and former governor Peter Howlett, named Irishman of the Year by the Erin Sports Association of Montreal. He’ll wear the traditional top hat in Montreal’s big St. Patrick’s Day Parade, scheduled for Sunday, March 19. Celebrate the actual holiday, March 17, with the St. Patrick’s Day queen and her court and President Claude Lajeunesse outside the McConnell Building at 10:30 a.m. Meanwhile, fans of the Cine Gael film series, which works closely with Concordia’s Centre for Canadian Irish Studies, had the chance to see Martin McDonagh’s short Six Shooter at the DeSève cinema two nights before it earned best live action short at the 78th Oscar ceremony.
Blues and jazz artist Dawn Tyler Watson (BA 1994) was recently profiled in Le Soleil. She is currently touring across Quebec and into Europe to support the Grandes Dames du Blues Tour, which raises funds and awareness of women’s issues in the cities it visits. In addition, she recently finished a new acoustic recording with jazz guitarist Paul Deslauriers.
Drawing from his experience covering the Hells Angels in Quebec, Montreal Gazette crime reporter Paul Cherry has written a book to be launched this month. The Biker Trials: Bringing Down the Hell’s Angels (ECW Press) recounts the biker wars that gripped the province during the 1990s and the megatrials that ended them. Cherry received his BA in History from Concordia in 1993, and in Journalism in 1997.
FILE PHOTO
Andrew Homzy (Music, at right) contributed to comprehensive program notes for two jazz concerts in Ottawa to celebrate Black History Month. He was quoted in an article in the Ottawa Citizen on Feb. 18 about the concerts, which were held at a local church and the National Arts Centre. About 25 musicians from Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto played in the concerts. The 30-page program includes information about the source of the music, from African homelands and the days of slavery to the struggle for civil rights.
Lawrence Kryzanowski and Lorne Switzer, colleagues in the Finance Department of the John Molson School of Business, were quoted in an article in the Gazette on March 6 about changes in Canadians’ saving habits. Kryzanowski pointed out that our pensions are better now, which may account for less emphasis on personal saving. Switzer noticed that while it used to be the government that ran up a big debt while individual citizens saved their money, it now seems to be the opposite.
Marie-Ève Martel was a 26-year-old Concordia political science student in 2003 when she decided to travel to Iran. The result was a book, Passeport pour l’Iran (Lanctôt). In a full-length article, the reviewer for La Presse described the book’s tone as light and sometimes humorous. Martel started travelling at 22, and has been to Costa Rica, Turkey, Spain, Morocco, Pakistan, China, always on her own. The article reported she was planning a trip to Syria, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan, and a second book.
Bakr Ibrahim, Associate Dean of the JMSB and an expert on family businesses, was quoted and pictured in an article in Les Affaires recently, because the major banks sought his expertise to reduce the risk of loans associated with succession. Ibrahim said the older the owner, the more likely he is to cling to the status quo. Proprietors should start thinking about succession at the age of 60 to effect a successful transfer to a new owner, he said