IT’S ELECTION TIME at the University of Ottawa. Brace yourself for the onslaught of poster campaigns and classroom presentations where Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) candidates plunge into brief yet vague explanations of their visions for 2012–13. What’s the importance of student politics, anyways? It’s just a bunch of political science kids practising for their totally obtainable future careers as the next Stephen Harpers and Bob Raes of the world, with the slight chance of Nycole Turmel. What’s funny is most students don’t even know who the aforementioned politicians are, so …
Opinions
AT A TIME when Israel, backed by the United States and Canada’s power elite, is calling for all-out war to destroy Iran; even having a U.S. Zionist pundit call-out in the media for U.S. President Obama to be assassinated by Israel if he won’t attack Iran (as recently reported in the Globe and Mail)… At …
DEAR STUDENTS, THE University of Ottawa Young Liberals want you to participate and vote in the upcoming elections for the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa. We want you to become involved, have your say, and engage the executive, the bureaucracy, and staff by letting them know what you want. We want this localized …
Barriers to post-secondary education are more than financial ACCESS TO POST-SECONDARY education (PSE) is important. A majority of Canadians believe a college or university degree is necessary to get a good job, and given the reality of our knowledge-based economy, that perception is correct. The future—and success—of our economy depends on a highly educated workforce, …
DEMOCRACY IS A concept somewhat difficult to identify in contemporary society. Although we clearly live in a democratic society, we do not live in a democracy as defined by the elites of ancient Greece. It is generally believed that the average Canadian’s views are not considered in our democratic system and very seldom reach the …
THE CENTRE FOR Students with Disabilities would like to applaud the VP Social, MC Noël, and the Social Crew for giving importance to accessibility in this year’s Winter Challenge. Winter Challenge is an annual Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) team competition involving prizes for mandatory challenges, as well as optional activities and …
What happened in Victoria THOUGH IT WAS not until several hours after the initial illness hit the conference that any official information was made known, it eventually became clear to health officials that attendees were suffering from norovirus. Norovirus, formerly known as Norwalk agent, is transmitted through food or water that has been contaminated with …
How Twitter defined norovirus outbreak ON JAN. 11, the Fulcrum editorial board and a group of its staff and volunteers set out for a national student journalism conference in Victoria, B.C. By Jan. 14, a large portion of our delegation fell ill with what turned out to be a small-scale outbreak of a highly contagious …
Birthdays come but once a year… Or do they? FOR THE FIRST 18 years of my life, I operated under the assumption that I was to celebrate my birthday only once a year. As the big day approached, I quietly went about planning a small party or dinner with close friends. The event would come …
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 …
Let’s talk about legitimizing, baby LAST YEAR, SCANDAL hit our school when the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) decided to overturn election results and take on Sarah Jayne King as their vp finance rather than candidate Tristan Dénommée, who won the race by a margin of 114 votes. Over the course of …
Breaking news: Monogamy and marriage go hand-in-hand Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler is about to embark on his third marriage. The 63-year-old rock star proposed to his longtime lover Erin Brady over the holidays and, despite his family’s public protest to the union, he feels he’s found the secret to successful marriage: Monogamy. According to reports, all it took was a lighthearted …
Debating the legalization of organ trade in Canada IRAN IS CURRENTLY the only nation that permits the sale of human organs. By legalizing organ trade, the country has found a way to reduce the number of sick citizens dying as a result of lack of donors. It has also set an ethical precedent for the free sale of organs. A professor at …
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 …
WE’VE BEEN PRETTY damn good at the Fulcrum this year. Between logging hours over our Macs to put the paper out each week, going to classes and getting good grades (or attempting to, anyways), and—sometimes—trying to catch some sleep, our editorial board has been too busy to even think nasty thoughts (Di Daniels notwithstanding). So, …
Sci-fi so foolish? FAMED CANADIAN SCI-FI author Margaret Atwood has spent the last few weeks conducting interviews in support of her new seminal work, In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination. Sparking new debate on the state of Canadian literature and the place of science fiction as a literary genre, Atwood’s novel contains several essays that …
My love affair with a long-dead liar UNBEKNOWNST TO MOST casual readers, this past week marked the 175th anniversary of the birth of a very special man, that sarcastic scamp Samuel Langhorne Clemens—known to you non-English majors as Mark Twain. The famed funnyman, author behind such classics as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The …
Canada Goose coats getting a bad rep A STRANGE TREND is emerging on campus of late. Snarky comments, meaningful glances, and overt mockery are being tossed around like snowflakes in a blizzard. The unwilling target of all this disparagement? Wearers of Canada Goose parkas. I know there’s something to be said for the fact that Canada Goose lines many of its …
Celebrating sans Christmas EVERY YEAR, ONCE December rolls around, the same signs start popping up all over town: Stockings on fireplaces, lights trimming rooftops, spruce trees in living rooms, and milk and cookies by fireplaces. What we also see, though far less often, are menorahs and kinaras in windows as non-Christian families gather to enjoy …
False election promises get on my nerves Katherine DeClerq | Fulcrum Staff BACK IN OCTOBER, students voted in provincial elections across the country. We were faced with many parties, all of which had a post-secondary strategy—a tuition freeze, more money offered through the Ontario Student Assistance Program, or a 30 per cent decrease in tuition. …
New grades, please! Re: SFUO report card (Editorial, Dec. 1) WHILE I FIND the idea of evaluating the executive in this manner quite charming, I have to say I’m not entirely in agreement with the grades that were doled out. I question how the Fulcrum came to the conclusions they did, and what the criteria …
Occupy Xmas accomplishes very little I HAVE A confession to make: I used to be a socialist. I’m not ashamed of it. But when I finally learned about all the socialists before me, I began to wonder why—if it was ever going to work—hadn’t socialism caught on already? The recent Occupy movements are the final …
