Editorials

More than noise

Shoal Lake has scars. Tangible reminders of its conflict-ridden past. Some scars are ancient: striation marks made by the glaciers that crushed the land and shaped it more than ten thousand years ago, water gouging rock. Some scars are more recent: gold mines, rotting and rusting on the shield, their propane tanks still hooked up, abandoned the instant they became unprofitable; heavy valves half buried in the soil and in the decrepit supply shacks, bags of unopened concrete mix, long hardened by rain and time.

February 14, 2012

What’s more fun than talking to a ministry representative?

Answer: most things. Luckily, I was relieved of that responsibility this week by the 30% tuition grant outreach team. I had been assigned by The Argus to cover their effort to represent the Ontario government’s tuition plan.

February 14, 2012

Sunshine and rainbows don’t make for good debate questions

During the question and answer period of the LUSU All-Candidates debate in the Outpost last Thursday, Vice President Finance Candidate Drew Mikulasik was asked a less-than-favourable question by one of the people in attendance.

February 7, 2012

Want 30 per cent of your tuition fees back? Sorry, probably not

By now everyone has heard of the Ontario government’s plan to reduce the burden on students by giving a grant equal to about 30 per cent of tuition fees. Committing more than $430 million, the government’s actions have been hailed as a long-welcome change to the rising fees that all university students have had to face.

January 10, 2012

Tweeting on tax dollars

With the perceived “importance” of social media continually rising, the Thunder Bay Public Library has followed the trend set by other libraries around the globe and began offering training sessions for both Facebook and Twitter in an effort to increase awareness of each among those with limited computer skills.

January 10, 2012

Christmas time is here again

I am aware that some people don’t like the holiday season, Christmas, or anything to do with this time of year.

November 28, 2011

Philosophy doesn’t make money so it shouldn’t be a major

China’s Ministry of Education announced last week that it’s planning on phasing out majors at its universities that produce unemployable graduates. Unemployable, in the Ministry’s definition, is any major in which less than 60 per cent of graduates find work in two years.

November 28, 2011

We are the 48 per cent

It sounds like an oxymoron – men trying to raise awareness of violence against women, an issue that supposedly only affects them and not us

November 21, 2011

The wild west of privacy

The bane of remembering usernames and passwords for the dozens of websites we frequent on a daily basis has been made exceedingly easy by the “Log in using Facebook” icons plastered everywhere. This sort of convenience does, however, come with a price.

November 21, 2011

I owe you one

Two weeks ago, The Argus published my editorial about the Scouts Canada scandals being sensationalized in recent media coverage. The editorial displayed my deep and profound disappointment in the organization for the way that the situation was handled.

November 21, 2011
The best way to fight terrorism

The best way to fight terrorism

Senior CSIS official Andy Ellis told The Globe and Mail last week that “lone wolf” terrorists constitute one of the greatest threats to Canada.

November 21, 2011

If you build them, they will come

Stephen Harper is drawing criticism because of his contentious Bill C-10, or the “Safe Streets and Communities Act,” and his policies concerning crime and punishment in general. Most of the criticism comes from obvious sources: The NDP, the Liberals, and student journalists.

November 14, 2011

Why burn the records?

I was surprised to hear about a last minute clause in the government’s bill to end the long gun registry (C-19). Apparently, so were the opposition and the Association of Canadian Archivists. I hope the Supreme Court shares our surprise and steps in to kill the legislation.

November 14, 2011

Grown meat may be the future in food sustainability

With all this talk about sustainability, it’s apropos that just a couple of days ago, Mark Post, a biomedical engineering scientist at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, announced that he has successfully grown muscle tissue from animal stem cells from leftover material from slaughterhouses.

November 14, 2011

Am I making you uncomfortable?

“Many religions do not support gay rights, and therefore that should be also considered, as no one wants to make an environment an uncomfortable one to be in.” These are the wise words of a female grade 12 student from the Toronto District School Board.

November 7, 2011

Making disingenuous scientific claims is beyond dangerous

Last week, Baroness Susan Greenfield made statements at a conference in England where she claimed that there is evidence that computer games leave children with dementia.

November 7, 2011

On Canadian national identity

I must say that these last three years I have spent in your magnificent little colony have been most eye opening. Canada is indeed a beautiful place and home to many beautiful people.

October 31, 2011

Why I will not buy your game unless it’s on Steam

Digital distribution has been the way to go for at least half a decade.  Earlier, it may have been a bit strange to have all of your content on the cloud, and not possess physical media for games that you have purchased.

October 31, 2011

Scouts Canada fails youth

Betrayal is never an easy pill to swallow; it’s harder still to be betrayed by someone you have known for your entire life.

October 31, 2011

Some people just stole your money

Last Tuesday was an interesting day for The Argus, as we came to discover that many of our papers–about 500–had gone missing. We only print about three thousand, so having such a large number of newspapers disappear overnight was concerning.

October 24, 2011
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