The Transformation of Security Planning for the Olympics: The 1976 Montreal Games

Montreal's Summer Olympics in 1976 was a turning point in Olympic history: it was the Games' first highly visible security operation. It was also a transformative moment in the history of security planning in Canada: preparations for the games contributed to shifting the Security Services' focus from communism towards domestic and international terrorism. The following article documents, for the first time, the scope of this operation. It is based on five years of requests and appeals under the federal Access to Information Act, which led to the release of over fifty thousand pages of Royal Canadian Mounted Police documents. I argue that security for the Montreal Olympics was based largely on imagined threats. In addition, I argue that security costs for the Montreal Olympics were high but modest as compared to the overall budget. Nonetheless, Montreal set a precedent for high security costs that have since become the standard for hosting the Olympics. Finally, I argue that the Montreal Olympics had long-term implications for policing in Canada. The scale of the operation produced new resources and inter-agency links that were only made possible as a result of hosting the games.     

Disproportionality in Daily Metal Detector Student Searches in U.S. Public Schools

While the effectiveness of metal detectors to improve school safety remains debated, many public schools continue to rely on this technology to control school violence. Among them is the 1% of public schools where students are searched on a daily basis by metal detector. This study examines the school-level risk factors associated with daily searches to estimate the disproportionality of their use in high-violence, majority-minority public schools. Analyzing data from the 2007?2008 School Survey on Crime and Safety, this study finds that 91% of public schools that perform daily metal detector searches of students are high-violence, majority-minority schools. However, the results also show that, among high-violence schools, those with majority-minority enrollments are significantly more likely than others to conduct these searches. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of policy responses to school violence that are distinct and disproportionate according to student demographics, rather than safety conditions.     

Georges Canguilhem on the question of the individual

This paper addresses the ways in which the problem of biological individuality is posed in the work of Georges Canguilhem.In his early work,Canguilhem argued that biology must regard individuality as an absolute centre,but also argued that individuality was no more than a term within a relationship whose other term was environment. The paper considers the ways in which this tension is worked out in Canguilhem's later writings,in relation to the theory of natural selection,in the theses on the nature of norms and health for living individuals, and in relation to molecular biology and the idea of the code.The paper concludes by arguing for the centrality of philosophy to inventive scientific thought.     

On firm‐ and product‐specific true protection

Efforts at providing relevant indices of incentive structure, comparative advantage and international competitiveness have led to the concept of true protection. Such a framework can be used to analyse the incidence of protection across sectors. Analysis has so far been carried out under the assumption of a uniform tariff, and calculations limited to average rates; nothing could then be said with respect to the incidence at the firm or product level. This article expands on an existing model by (1) presenting firm‐ and product‐specific true protection indices, (2) generalising previous conclusions on true protection to encompass firm‐ and product‐specific analysis. It is shown that failure to take into consideration substitution possibilities may yield incorrect evaluation of the structure and level of protection.     

Ketoacidosis and Adrenocortical Insufficiency

We herein report an autopsy case involving a 27‐year‐old Caucasian woman suffering from chronic adrenocortical insufficiency with a background of a polyendocrine disorder. Postmortem biochemistry revealed pathologically decreased aldosterone, cortisol, and dehydroepiandrosterone levels in postmortem serum from femoral blood as well as decreased cortisol and 17‐hydroxycorticosteroid in urine. Decreased vitreous sodium and increased 3‐beta‐hydroxybutyrate and C‐reactive protein concentrations were observed. The cause of death was determined to be acute adrenocortical insufficiency. Fasting ketoacidosis was postulated to have precipitated the Addisonian crisis. Traumatic causes of death and third‐party involvement were excluded. The case highlights the importance of systematically performing exhaustive postmortem biochemical investigations to formulate appropriate hypothesis regarding the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in the death process.     

Exit,Voice, and Mimicking Behavior: Evidence from Swiss Cantons

Previous empirical literature hasshown that in order to overcome agencyproblems voters make inter-jurisdictionalcomparisons of fiscal performance whenmaking electoral decisions. Incumbents therefore anticipate voters'feedback by copying fiscal policy decisionsfrom neighbors. This paper argues thatfiscal autonomy (exit) as well as directlegislation (voice) enrich politicalcompetition, reducing thus the influence of electoral competition onfiscal decisions. Consequently, policymimicking does not matter in circumstancesof direct legislation and fiscal autonomywhere the impact of voters on the politicalagenda is particularly strong. Based onpanel data between 1980 and 1998 we findencouraging evidence supporting ourtheoretical arguments.