Cultural Appropriation: Where Do We Draw The Line?

It’s a topic that’s been heavily featured in the media recently. In fact, you’ve probably already heard of it from Kylie Jenner’s controversial cornrows (read Emily’s article about that here) and the banning of headdresses at Montreal’s Osheaga music festival. Cultural appropriation is an issue that has come to light recently and it proves to be…

The youth perspective on assisted suicide

As you all must be aware of, the Supreme Court of Canada has decided to allow assisted suicide in Canada under certain circumstances. Those circumstances are of which: a competent adult seeks assistance from doctors due to an extremely painful and incurable medical condition that causes intolerable suffering, in such a scenario a doctor should…

The merits of slacktivism

It’s become the key word these days: one treated with derision and a patronizing air, oh those slacktivists, the ones who tweet #BringBackOurGirls and think that somehow they’ve saved a student all on their very own. We see them as hypocrites: the people who are all talk and no substance. However, for someone such as…

Disenfranchised in Quebec

In the wake of the Liberal landslide of yesterday’s provincial election, as it turns out, not everyone was able to exercise their right to vote–enough to spark one person to create the Disenfranchised in Quebec blog, and other’s harrowing stories made the news. Most notably were five McGill students whom, even after providing utility bills…

End of the “Western Redmen”

A while ago I wrote a (looking back, slightly confusing) post on the Western Canada Redmen and the controversy associated with ethnic slang. And, as it turns out, some change is indeed occurring. It has been confirmed that there will be a change in Western’s mascot, and as a result, Western Canada High School is…

Sensitivity over allegedly racist sports names

Recently, the National Congress of American Indians created and spread a video protesting the use of the archaic and derogatory term “redskin” for the football team, the Washington Redskins.  The video features members of the Aboriginal community defying the “caricature” that still persists and somehow seems to allow the use of such words to pass uncriticized by…

Video of the Day: PSA with a Twist

*Quick disclaimer before you watch this video: It may be considered offensive to some people. The issue of reckless driving IS marginalized in this video, and neither I nor YAA endorse reckless driving by any means. With that said, this PSA does have a bit of an interesting twist at the end.