A&S scholars sharing their expertise in the media this week

From calls to reduce funding for police organizations around the world, to calls to ban the use of digital apps like WeChat and TikTok, scholars from a range of disciplines across the Faculty of Arts & Science are sharing their expertise on a variety of issues in the media.

Here’s some of what A&S scholars had to say this week.

August 7, 2020

• Amid calls to reduce funding for police organizations across the world, Department of Economics professor Michael Smart writes an op-ed in the Financial Post to explain that per capita spending for the Toronto Police budget has been declining since 2010.
• Department of Political Science professor Ron Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, comments on U.S. president Donald Trump’s recent effort to ban Chinese communication app WeChat, in NBC News. “It’s the policy equivalent of a jingoistic temper tantrum,” says Deibert. “It will produce chaos for Internet users and businesses, invite retaliation from China and present a blueprint for authoritarians the world over to emulate.”

August 8, 2020

• Christopher Parsons, a senior research associate at the Citizen Lab, comments on Alberta’s choice to use a different contact tracing app to combat the spread of COVID-19 than that commissioned by the Canadian government, in the Globe and Mail (paywall).

August 10, 2020

• Professor Emeritus Anthony Doob at the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies speaks about comparisons of police-related death rates in Nunavik with Ontario and Canada’s three northern territories in CBC News.
• Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies associate professor Scot Wortley speaks to CBC News about a report that shows Black people are disproportionately more likely than others to be arrested, charged or have force used against them during interactions with Toronto police. Wortley says that among other things, the new analysis of data challenges the public perception that Black people end up in interactions with police at disproportionate rates because of their involvement with guns and gangs.

August 11, 2020

• Ron Deibert explains risks of downloading apps from unofficial digital stores amid discussions of banning TikTok and WeChat, in a Global News story. “Using unofficial stores carries the risk of installing versions of popular apps altered with viruses or scams,” says Deibert.

August 12, 2020

• In a podcast about a teenaged boy who is unable to communicate verbally due to a rare genetic disorder, rebroadcast on CBC Radio’s The Current (listen at 22:00), Department of Psychology assistant professor Amy Finn speaks about the factors at play in language development.