Articles by author: Brock University

• Brock expert says Olympics are a political game

  Tuesday, January 14, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 10 January 2020 – R0006

  A Brock University Assistant Professor of Sport Management says he’s surprised the International Olympic Committee (IOC) felt the need to clarify its rule about political gestures.

  IOC President Thomas Bach defended the Committee’s decision this week to tighten its rules around athlete activism.

  Bach said Friday the Olympics are not and must never be a platform to advance political or any other divisive ends, but Brock Sport Management Assistant Professor Michael Naraine says that stance isn’t necessarily accurate.

  “The Olympic Games are inherently a political event,” Naraine says. “For instance, having a unified Korean team at the 2018 Games in PyeongChang was a political statement.”

  That said, Naraine says he understands why the IOC wants to “protect and preserve the commercial value to sponsors and broadcast rights holders in this new era of ‘wokeness’ and athlete activism.”

  “There are sponsors on board for the Olympic movement who are spending billions of dollars to associate their brands with the Games,” he says. “New entrants like Toyota, Intel and Alibaba are publicly traded firms that are using the Games to advance their products and services and perceived negative publicity or any disruption to the event could derail their branding and message consistency.”

  The move to clarify the IOC’s political gesture rules also comes on the heels of the current global conflicts and tension.

  “The IOC is allowing athletes to share their dissent or activism via social media, however this is unlikely to be the case given that athletes will want to use their digital brands to maximize partnerships and stay ‘on brand,’ Naraine says.

  Brock University Sport Management Assistant Professor Michael Naraine is available for interview requests.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews: 

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

  Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock and McMaster renew health sciences collaboration

  Wednesday, January 08, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 8 January 2020 – R0005

  McMaster University and Brock University have renewed an agreement which has seen more Niagara-trained doctors practising in the region.

  Signing a five-year extension on Wednesday, Jan. 8 were Brock University President Gervan Fearon, Dean and Vice-President of the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University Paul O’Byrne, Brock Faculty of Applied Health Sciences Dean Peter Tiidus, and Regional Assistant Dean of McMaster’s Niagara Regional Campus Amanda Bell.

  Since moving into space on the Brock campus in 2012, more than 30 physician graduates and 30 medical residency graduates from McMaster University’s Niagara Regional Campus have begun practising in the region. The renewed agreement provides the framework to continue the partnership and to expand its benefits to students of the two universities.

  McMaster’s Niagara Regional Campus of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine is located in the Roy & Lois Cairns Health & Bioscience Research Complex on Brock’s main St. Catharines campus.

  More than a renewal agreement, the signing marked a commitment to expand the academic collaboration between the two institutions.

  “This is a unique partnership between two universities,” said O’Byrne. “Not only are we sharing space on the Brock campus, but we also share learning resources as well as collaborations in teaching and research and in exploring health career pathways.”

  The 9,000-square-foot McMaster campus is currently the educational home for 84 undergraduate medical students and 26 medical residents who are doing their clinical and specialty training at Niagara Health.

  Since moving to Brock from the former St. Catharines General Hospital in 2012, the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine has graduated 208 medical students, 80 family medicine residents, seven emergency medicine residents and two general surgery residents. More than 60 of them have stayed in Niagara to practise.

  “Brock University holds as a key priority the contributions it makes to enriching and strengthening communities across the Niagara region,” said Fearon. “It’s difficult to imagine a more important way of impacting peoples’ lives than by helping improve their health care, including the training of health professionals right here in Niagara. Brock is pleased that our partnership with McMaster University facilitates us in making this contribution, as well as establishing a new scope for building on our shared successes.”

  Tiidus said the partnership is a benefit to Brock students because they are able to access McMaster’s anatomy lab and other resources.

  “The unparalleled access by our undergraduate students to the McMaster human anatomy facilities, coupled with our other extensive and hi-tech anatomy teaching facilities makes our anatomy instruction and student learning experience among the very best in Canada,” he said, adding that several students from Brock’s Medical Sciences program have continued their journey toward becoming physicians through McMaster’s Niagara campus.

  “It’s an enriched environment,” said Bell.

  “In the past, our collaboration has included both joint clinical and international health learning opportunities as well as joint research projects. We’re looking forward to future partnerships between our programs on issues such as the health of marginalized populations, and on joint symposia,” she said. “We appreciate the opportunity of our medical students to feel part of the university community life here; it’s a beautiful campus,”

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University
  ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

  * Veronica McGuire, Media Relations, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University
  vmcguir@mcmaster.ca, 289-776-6952

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  Categories: Media releases