Thursday, February 21, 2019

Bob Rae to speak at World Water Day event

Former Ontario premier Bob Rae will deliver the Water Institute RBC Distinguished Lecture at the Water Institute's annual World Water Day event in March.

Rae's remarks are entitled "What the challenge of clean water at home and around the world tells us about ourselves, our country, and our planet."

Born in Ottawa and a graduate of both the University of Toronto and Oxford, Bob Rae was first elected to the Parliament of Canada as the Member of Parliament for Broadview in a by- election in October, 1978. He was re-elected in 1979 and 1980, and resigned his seat in 1982 when elected Leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly for the riding of York South in 1982, and re-elected in 1985, 1987, 1990, and 1995. After more than a decade as a partner at Goodmans LLP Rae returned to federal politics as the MP for Toronto Centre in 2008, first in a by-election and then in general elections in that year and 2011. Rae resigned his seat in 2013 to become senior partner at Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP, where he works with First Nations as legal counsel, advisor, and negotiator.

Bob served as Ontario's 21^st Premier from 1990 to 1995 and Interim Federal Leader of the Liberal Party in 2011 to 2013. He was named Queen's Counsel in 1984, appointed to the Privy Council of Canada in 1998, named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2000, received the Order of Ontario in 2004 and Companion of the Order of Canada in 2015. In October 2017 Rae was appointed as Special Envoy to Myanmar by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In 2004 and 2005, at the behest of the Ontario government, Rae led a review of the design and funding of Ontario's postsecondary education system.

In addition to his legal practice, Rae teaches at the University of Toronto as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the School of Public Policy and Governance (SPPG), and as Distinguished Professor at Victoria College. He is a Fellow at the Forum of Federations, and consults internationally on governance issues. He has also written five books and two major reports, on the Air India bombing and higher education in Ontario. He writes and speaks regularly on public issues and also does ADR work with ADR Chambers.

The lecture takes place Friday, March 22 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Science Teaching Complex.

The lecture is free but registration is required.

Library art showcase exhibit opens Friday

To celebrate the dramatic changes to the Davis Centre and Dana Porter libraries over the last two years, the Library wanted to open up library spaces to showcase the creativity of our community. 

Art in the Library is a rotating exhibit of works produced by University of Waterloo students, staff, faculty and alumni.

The first iteration of Art in the Library is titled Transforming Spaces, and will be on display in the Davis Centre Library silent study room until August 30, 2019. The exhibit will feature work by:

• Kristina Foster;
• Hilary Hung;
• Andrea Jennings;
• Paula McLean; and
• Chris Shantz.

The Library invites the entire Waterloo community to celebrate the opening of this exhibit on Friday February 22, from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Davis Centre Library lounge area. View the exhibit, meet some of the artists and explore the new Library spaces.

Vendors being targeted by impostor emails; other notes

Information Systems & Technology (IST) is reporting that University of Waterloo vendors are being targeted by malicious email imposters.

These imposters are impersonating employees from Procurement & Contract Services in order to contact vendors for product quotes. Once a vendor responds to the quote request email, the imposter asks for the product to be shipped to the University's research facility.

The shipping address given to the vendor is a fake address that actually belongs to a logistics company not affiliated with the University.

The imposter then contacts the logistics company to re-route the package overseas. The product is gone and the vendor contacts the University for reimbursement. 

What should I look out for?  

• Fake domains: imposters will send emails from domains that look like they are coming from the University, but may be spelled differently (e.g. @uniwaterloo.com).
• Suspicious requests: imposters will request orders for large quantities of products (e.g. electronics, lab equipment, cameras).
• Unrecognized shipping address: imposters will provide vendors with shipping addresses that are not affiliated with the University in order to re-route products sent by vendors.

Suspected fraud attempts should be reported to the Security Operations Centre at soc@uwaterloo.ca. Reports of successful fraud should be directed to UW Police Services at uwpolice@uwaterloo.ca.

The March LGBTQ+ Making Spaces workshop takes place on Friday, March 1 at 12:30 p.m. in NH 3318. Sponsored by the Equity Office, the Making Spaces program is a framework for creating affirming spaces on campus and fostering interpersonal relationships through education and training on aspects of social identity. Community members partake in training and a registration process to become Space Makers, ambassadors of equity. The program launched as a pilot in fall 2016.

Check the Office of Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion events page to sign up for the winter 2019 workshops.