Lucas Edmond

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Comment April 13, 2022

No Airbnb is better than an unregulated Airbnb

Airbnb is often hailed as one of the first technology platforms to revolutionize the hospitality sector, by giving homeowners the ability to share their property when they are away. For cities, home-sharing platforms like Airbnb, in their ideal form, are a win-win scenario: families that leave their properties in the winter or for vacations are replaced with tourists to support local businesses and maintain regular density levels. But the popular home-sharing app is producing shortages in the housing market and inflating the long-term rental market for locals.

Comment April 6, 2022

Solve sexual violence in military by defunding it

Talking about a “culture shift” within the military reflects a similar logic to giving officers body cameras to prevent police violence — it may look like a solution, but the underlying issues remain unresolved. If Canada wants to solve its military’s sexual violence issue, it must defund the CAF.

Editorial April 6, 2022

Church must tear up papal bulls, return stolen material

The church supposedly feels remorse for its actions, yet it continues to act and uphold colonial institutions and practices. Unlike the Pope’s apology makes it seem, it was not simply a few misguided Christians that contributed to residential schools — it was and continues to be an institutional effort that began with two racist papal bulls. The continuity of this institutional colonialism lives on in the Vatican’s private collection of cultural material. If the church truly wants to take its first steps toward reconciliation, it should return what was stolen and tear up the papal bulls that made this theft possible.

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Comment March 30, 2022

Nuchatlaht could change land claims for good

The Nuchatlaht First Nation are refusing to recognize Canadian sovereignty over their hereditary land that encompasses about 200 square kilometres of Nootka Island. Centuries of western contestation, deliberation and dispossession have come full circle and the Nuchatlaht are making their case for their land back in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

Comment March 23, 2022

PCs throwing province off a cliff by dropping masks

On March 15 the Progressive Conservative party (PC) dropped Manitoba’s mask mandate. The PCs are facing what looks to be an inevitable demise come next provincial election and it appears the party is finding it increasingly futile to play along with public health measures it so clearly resents. The result may culminate in yet another self-destructive attempt at returning to pre-COVID life. We’ve been here before, and it didn’t end well.

Comment March 16, 2022

Addressing global warming means socializing housing

The climate crisis may be the best reason for socializing housing. Winnipeg must look beyond traditional market strategies to address these issues together and reduce inequality. This means the city must take it upon itself to build affordable and climate-friendly housing for low-income earners in high-density neighbourhoods. Going forward, housing cannot have space for profit.

Comment March 8, 2022

Suzuki’s keynote hit the right chords

Where many politicians refuse to denounce out-of-control economic growth and inequality as the main factor contributing to global warming, Suzuki expresses important anti-capitalist principles in his activism.

Comment March 2, 2022

Canada must take a step back from military intervention

It is crucial, as this crisis plays out, that we condemn Russian aggression while also recognizing that Canada has historically played a damaging and destabilizing role in the region. Canadians must resist falling into uncritical wartime rhetoric about Canada’s myth-worthy peacemaking identity. Canada has exploited Ukraine as a proxy site for its own ambitions and, as such, Ukraine has found itself sandwiched between the aspirations of two major powers in the world.

Comment February 16, 2022

Grade-school system should embrace critical literature

There is a strong tendency in the Canadian public school system that assumes teaching curriculums that maintain the status quo in our social lives is somehow politically neutral. Teachers steer clear of hard and polarizing topics in the humanities and social sciences to avoid angry parents who might disagree with them. As a result, high school often consists of preparing students for the sciences while leaving social topics to English class and a selection of outdated western literature that has little relevance to a large portion of the class.

Comment February 9, 2022

Most students do not want in-person classes

The unfortunate truth is that the most equitable way to deliver education is by universally delivering it online for the remainder of the semester while details are hashed out during the summer for a return in the fall of 2022. By abruptly dropping news on students that they will be forced to return in-person or drop their classes, the U of M is suggesting education will no longer be accessible for people who are immunocompromised.