IT HAS BEEN over a year since the sale of bottled water at the University of Ottawa was banned entirely. For some, the once-controversial ban was a step toward a more sustainable campus, a smaller ecological footprint, more access to public water fountains, and less money spent on something that is virtually free. For others, …
BIRDS CHIRPING, CAR engines revving, first years griping: These are the sounds of the U of O campus. And after five years of hanging around listening to the same tired soundtrack, it gets boring. Confession: I am an iPod user. That girl ordering coffee with her headphones still on? That’s me. The person too enthralled …
AFTER WATCHING INVISIBLE Children’s promotional video Kony 2012, I was left feeling like something wasn’t quite right. This wasn’t the first time I had heard about the horrific use of children as soldiers. An unforgivable act places Joseph Kony into a realm of evil few people can understand—myself included. But something beyond the heinous acts …
WE’VE ALL SEEN it before: A new type of social media comes out, gains popularity, and before you know it we’re all flocking, convinced the new venue will help us to better market ourselves. But then something strange happens. In the midst of writing about yourself in 140 characters or less on Twitter, updating your …
CONFESSION TIME: I have a cat. This is a confession, because more often than not I discourage my friends who are students from getting pets. I cringe when I hear about the break-up cat adoption. I grind my teeth when I hear about the couple moving in and getting a dog—in third year. I want …
TORONTO (CUP)—IMMIGRATION MINISTER JASON Kenney—best known for his support of deportation policies—is in the spotlight once again. This time, it’s for his recent implementation of the niqab ban at Canadian citizenship ceremonies. Coincidentally, Kenney made this an issue last December, when the Supreme Court of Canada was hearing arguments in the case of a woman …
THOUGH DIVORCE RATES are on the rise, and knocked-up high-school sweetheart couples are at the bottom of the list when it comes to quality marriages, there is one couple that’s been making it work for 23 years and counting. This pair has survived all the highs and lows of marriage, including botched holiday plans, rebellious …
IN THE TRANSITION between high school and university, free, easily accessible WiFi is one of the biggest differences post-secondary offered. Access to a wireless connection everywhere at university means freedom to roam Facebook, browse memes, read the news—pretty much do anything but pay attention to your prof. Still, unlimited internet access is something universities value—not …
IN A RECENT ruling by an Ontario Superior Court of Justice judge, Leroy Schickle was saved from a three-year mandatory minimum sentence for gun possession. Schickle, who boasted an unblemished record prior to the conviction, was charged with possession of a handgun when he posted a Facebook profile picture of himself holding the weapon in …
AFTER 10 YEARS of construction, the Large Hadron Collider was completed in 2009 by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The collider, situated on the French–Swiss border, is a 27-km-long round pipe in which two beams of energy are fired toward each other so that researchers can study what happens during and after the …
Oh, Vladimir, you turn a girl’s head A SEXUALLY SUGGESTIVE political campaign has been launched by Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin and his camp. The adverts play on the concept of first-time voters as virgins, and depicts young, attractive women in doctor’s offices discussing their upcoming “first time.” Putin, who is currently running for president …
DON’T HAVE ENOUGH money to buy an iPad? Need bread from the Pivik, but don’t want to spend Flex dollars? Well, the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa’s (SFUO) elections office would like to change that. All you have to do is vote! Seem a bit like bribery? That’s because it is. This year, …
WHILE THERE ARE those people who contend politics should, and more importantly can, be conducted in a civil manner (hello, poli-sci undergrads!), the fact is that the average person is completely uninterested in civility. Negative politics and attacks are the life blood of the political world. They are what keep people interested in the process. …
AT THE HIGHLY-PUBLICIZED 2012 Grammy Awards, Game of Thrones actor and Hollywood’s resident little person Peter Dinklage added a cryptic message to his acceptance speech. “I want to mention a gentleman I’m thinking about in England,” he said. “His name is Martin Henderson. Google him.” Henderson, who was diagnosed with a form of dwarfism as …
I HAVE A bronze medal I keep in a banker’s box, not having found a place to put it since I moved. The words on it read, “Le concours d’art oratoire 2009.” I probably wouldn’t have it if it weren’t for my Grade 12 French teacher, Joanne Léger-Legault, who encouraged me to participate in the …
IT’S EASY TO dismiss the importance of sensitivity training. Taking a class in social interaction is little more than superfluous precaution for what is basic social common sens—or is it? A recent social mishap concerning customer-manager relations at the Boston Pizza on Hunt Club Road suggests otherwise. The manager of the pizza joint was asked to leave his position following a confrontation with the family of a boy with Down syndrome. The Boston Pizza employee rudely ordered them to either move to the back of the restaurant or vacate the place altogether. The boy, Tyler Bolduc-Cadieux, was visiting the restaurant with …
Katherine DeClerq | Fulcrum Staff WHILE A FEW hundred students gathered on Morisset Terrace for the Canadian Federation of Students-inspired National Day of Action, I stayed indoors to work on an assignment. While people banged on drums and yelled into megaphones, I sat at a desk on the fifth floor of the library with my …
AS MIDTERMS APPROACH, more and more University of Ottawa and Carleton University students are abandoning their books. Why, you ask? To participate in an all-out Facebook meme war, which is gaining increased attention by the day. It all started with a Facebook group called “B!tch Please. I go to the University of Ottawa,” on which …
IT’S NO SECRET that we live in a fast-paced society. “Go go go!” seems to be the personal mantra of every citizen of downtown Ottawa, and local businesses have picked up on that. During the holiday shopping season, store hours city-wide were lengthened considerably. Small shops opened earlier and chain stores kept their doors unlocked until the wee hours of the morning. Bayshore Shopping Centre, one of the largest malls in the city, carried on its annual tradition of staying open until midnight for the week …
Know your sidewalk etiquette STRUTTING THE STREETS of Ottawa the past few months has led me to a new, profound realization: People do not know how to use sidewalks. Every day there are more and more perpetrators bumping into each other, refusing to keep with the pace of traffic, and generally existing completely oblivious of …
Alternative loan system would halt student debt crisis THERE IS A fundamental problem with the way our society values education. Canadians have long believed wholeheartedly that an investment in post-secondary education will inevitably lead to significant gains in future income and an improved standard of living. Simple concept, right? Wrong. This perception of the inherent …
Why doesn’t anyone go for the good stuff anymore? I’M NOT A morning person. The only way I won’t sleep through my alarm is if I smell a pot of freshly brewed coffee just begging to be consumed—and I’m not alone. According to the Coffee Association of Canada (CAC), 63 per cent of Canadian adults …
A defence of Canada’s Kyoto drop DEAR MR. HARPER, It’s true I’ve always been a big fan of your policies, and I can’t tell you how excited I was on May 2 when I watched the final numbers roll in and you gained a majority government. But it was on Dec. 11 that you won …
Woman-on-woman hating, and why it has to stop NEW RESEARCH AT the University of Ottawa has concluded that women on campus tend to slut-shame each other on campus. Slut-shaming is the use of words like “slut” or “whore” to make a woman—sexually active or not—feel ashamed of her appearance, her expression of her sexuality, or …
