The modern decision maker

Niyati Pancholi / Sputnik PhotographyAI as a danger to security. Jeffrey Ewert was an inmate serving two concurrent life sentences following his conviction of murder and attempted murder in 1984. In assessing his risk of reoffending, the Correctional Service of…

Categories: Opinion

Cultural authenticity in homogenized spaces

Olga Steblyk / Sputnik Photography When I moved to Brantford for my studies, I found myself in a place with little diversity and opportunities for communal cultural experiences. A feeling that’s not talked about enough among students is the feeling…

Categories: Opinion

A case for community gardens

Serena Anagbe / Photo EditorA bed of flowers. Actions are influenced by the actor’s environment. The social composition of resources, the community ties they have, what opportunities will be present in the future. All these factors, as well as many…

Categories: Opinion

Why car-centric urban planning sucks

Serena Anagbe / Photo EditorCars on a highway. During the 20th century, the transportation system completely changed life as we knew it. Gone were the days of horse-drawn carriages, streetcars or walking. Instead, there was a new darling entering the…

Categories: Opinion

Black joy and suffering

Serena Anagbe / Photo EditorFrom left, Jane Desmond and 2023 alum Trinity Wilson at the Laurier International Multicultural Gala Thomas Shipp. Abram Smith. Emmett Till. Rodney King. George Floyd. Philando Castile. Sandra Bland.  History remembers these names, the countless videos,…

Categories: Opinion

Rebel with a cause

Serena Anagbe / Photo EditorAn anarchist “A” Conservatism can best be characterized as a socio-political ideology rooted in the belief that existing power dynamics should stay the same, with the Cambridge English Dictionary defining the ideology as “the quality of…

Categories: Opinion

“Barbie” was not revolutionary

Bachir Miloudi / Sputnik Photography As everybody was losing their minds over the new Barbie movie, the feminist uproar from social media made me very excited to watch it. I cannot lie, it was a great movie and I don’t…

Categories: Opinion

Building Brantford better 

Olga Steblyk / Sputnik PhotographyHistorical map of Brantford. A common denominator of any interaction I have had with any student on the Brantford campus is that the negative aspects of the city are always brought up. While some such concerns,…

Categories: Features, Opinion

Why the superhero matters

Olga Steblyk / Sputnik Photography A society can be defined by how it shares stories of greatness, bravery and heroism. The stories we choose to champion as examples to aspire to, as a standard to live up to. These stories…

Categories: Opinion

To know me is to speak my language

Niyati Pancholi / Sputnik Photography Language is the most important form of communication. Languages help build relationships with others by sharing ideas, beliefs, knowledge and feelings about our life experiences. Languages encompass the rich backgrounds, history and culture of the…

Categories: Opinion

#GreenspaceSoWhite 

Serena Anagbe / Photo EditorGreen space, a leaf in a park.  Imagine you are walking in a forest. The lush green leaves of a tree rustle as a gentle breeze blows. You can hear the animals off in the distance…

Categories: Opinion

More buildings won’t fix the housing crisis

Niyati Pancholi / Sputnik PhotographyWe all need secure housing. Last year, I paid $850 in rent per month for a basement apartment. It was a 30-minute bus ride away from campus. It was unfurnished, so there was an added cost…

Categories: Opinion

Who is the “reasonable person” anyway?

Olga Steblyk / Sputnik PhotographySuperior Court of Justice in Brantford. There have been many terms in history to describe this person: the right-thinking member of society, the fair-minded and informed observer, the man on the Clapham omnibus or l’homme moyen.…

Categories: Opinion

The era of eras and embracing life 

Bachir Miloudi / Sputnik Photography Books have always been central to my life. I was surrounded by them. Some of my earliest memories were going to the bookstore with my mother, like when the new book of her favorite series…

Categories: Opinion

Spending the break in Brantford

Olga Steblyk / Sputnik PhotographyHarmony Square before the snow. As our dreaded exam season draws ever closer, so too does its conclusion. Many of us will go home to our families over the break back in our hometowns for some…

Categories: Opinion

How the body carries emotional trauma

Bachir Miloudi / Sputnik Photography How often do people think that emotional trauma is connected to physical health? I’ve thought about this question a lot in my daily life, especially when seeing trends or memes talking about emotional trauma turning…

Categories: Opinion

The war on drugs

Contributed Photo / UnsplashRecreation of narcotic substances. Before 1908, all narcotics were legal within Canada. In fact, at the dawn of the 20th century, many Canadians had become dependent on opiates to function and carry on with their day-to-day operations.…

Categories: Opinion

Film and the power of nostalgia

Serena Anagbe / Photo Editor I’ll admit it. I was (and still am) a Twilight fan. I went to all the movie premieres. I collected all the holographic cups and magazines with the cast on them. Even now, I have…

Categories: Opinion

What happened to being BFFs?

Olga Steblyk / Sputnik Photography Humans have always been social creatures. That is the basis on which society was created. An innate need for community and companionship. Friendships, in turn, are part of that natural need for social interaction. Friends…

Categories: Opinion

Animus of the affluent

Olga Steblyk / Sputnik Photography Financial crisis after financial crisis, all we are told by the nation’s lead finance bros is that everything is on the up and up. I’m old enough to remember the 2008, “once-in-a-lifetime” financial crisis which…

Categories: Opinion

The Honourable Harvest

Sanya Oberoi / Sputnik Photography With the emergence of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, there has been a renewed effort to mend the relationship and harm committed against Indigenous people on Turtle Island. Food is often left out of the…

Categories: Opinion

A better tomorrow

Serena Anagbe / Photo EditorStudents’ Union. When you stare down the barrel of the gun that is the climate crisis, it’s easy to fall into despair. Rampant wildfires. Devastating hurricanes. Air filled with so much smog that children and the…

Categories: Opinion

Medical Assistance in Death

Contributed Photo / Unsplash Editor’s Note: This article was updated on Oct. 15 to correct fact-checking errors and language use. Corrections: Having Parkinson’s disease could make a person eligible for MAID. A Vancouver woman was asked if she considered MAID,…

Categories: Opinion

Students’ grasp on AI: A cheater’s way out

Karen Savoy / Sputnik PhotographyOne Market. One day I was working, a student from campus came in with their friend. I asked them how school was going, and the anonymous source said they haven’t gone to class. They laugh when…

Categories: Opinion

Academy award expansion

Serena Anagbe / Photo EditorThe Oscars. As it stands, there exists two Oscar writing categories: Original and Adapted. Fairly simple, but the academy takes these distinctions seriously. The rules about adaptations are so strict, in fact, that the 2016 winner,…

Categories: Opinion

Should landlords be abolished?

Olga Steblyk / Sputnik Photography An apartment building. In 2022, the average rent in Brantford was $1,246 per month. However, in major cities like Toronto, rent prices jumped to $1,665 monthly. Over the past decade, the Ontario Housing Affordability Task…

Categories: Opinion

The Milton mistake

Karen Savoy / Sputnik Photography Construction on the Milton campus. It may be news to some that Wilfrid Laurier University is opening a campus location in Milton. This campus has been designed to be a STEAM campus, which is to…

Categories: Opinion