With every passing day, the Earth takes another step towards becoming a plastic planet. Plastic has infiltrated every habitat across the globe, from the high seas to the soil beneath cities. In an effort to address the gargantuan problem of plastic pollution, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party[Read More…]
Author: Margaret Wdowiak
Tracking devices are revolutionizing the study of remote wildlife
The movement patterns of migratory birds, especially those that travel vast distances, are often hard to track. This makes these species difficult to locate in the wild and even harder to study. Biologging, which involves attaching tiny tracking instruments onto animals to observe their location and behaviour, has emerged at[Read More…]
Communication through Facebook is no longer ethical
In early 2018, The New York Times reported on a leak of close to 50 million Facebook users’ data—the most significant breach of data privacy at the company ever. According to a cache of documents, Facebook user data had been improperly disclosed to Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting corporation which used[Read More…]
Can we have an extension, please?
Students received an email on Nov. 20 from Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Fabrice Labeau announcing that the start of the Winter 2021 semester will likely be delayed. Extending the holiday break, which would have only been 12 days for students whose finals end the last day of the[Read More…]
Canadian football faces increased obstacles after 2020 CFL season cancellation
In August 2020, the Canadian Football League (CFL) cancelled the 2020 season due to financial difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many senior officials in the league attempted to prevent the cancellation and a committee worked in the weeks leading into September 2020 to possibly salvage the lost year with[Read More…]
Alarmism about the extinction of French is alive and well
On Nov. 13, the Journal de Montreal published a synopsis by journalist Marie-Lise Mormina about her investigation into the language customers were being greeted and served with in retail stores and restaurants. The full report, which was published the next day, brought Montreal’s ever-present language debate back to the forefront of[Read More…]
The good things about having cancer
No one wants to learn that they have cancer, but when I was 12 years old, that is exactly what my doctor told me. I was diagnosed with Basal Cell Carcinoma, a nonfatal chronic skin cancer. Although it is one of the most common types of skin cancers, it is[Read More…]
Picture this: The illustrious world of medical illustration
Before writing was used as a means for communication, ancient civilizations relied on pictorial representations of objects, which included visual representations of medical concepts. Medical illustrations date back to 15,000 BCE, and have continued to evolve over time. Over the course of many millennia, advancements in art and technology have[Read More…]
Margaret Atwood and Lorna Crozier discuss cats, poetry, and widowhood
On Nov. 19, esteemed Canadian poets Margaret Atwood and Lorna Crozier read from and discussed Atwood’s new poetry collection, Dearly: Poems, and Crozier’s autobiography, Through the Garden: A Love Story (with Cats). Broadcast over Zoom through Montreal-based bookstore Drawn & Quarterly, the two writers discussed cats, deceased husbands and poetry’s[Read More…]
Taylor Swift will never ever be silenced, like ever
When news broke in summer 2019 that Taylor Swift’s former label, Big Machine Records, was sold to Scooter Braun, Swift and her legions of fans publicly expressed their outrage over the distribution of her work. For approximately $300 million USD, Braun had bought the master recordings of her first six[Read More…]
