social issues


‘That’s not fair!’

It seems to be something of a trend with people my age to confuse their own interests with the common good. The idea that it is somehow unfair for us to not have all our desires (and a lot of what we call needs are really just desires) met is not a healthy mindset, though it is increasingly widespread. Seeing unfairness as a state of discontent is a big part of why we live in such an unjust society: we are willing to put up with a lot, so long as things seem “fair” for number one.

It’s not just young people, of course – though I think that as digital technology permeates more and more of our lives, we are more likely to be susceptible to it. The social media we use is designed to show us the things we like to see; algorithms track what we click on and deliver more of the same. We get a false idea of how much the world agrees with us and of how important we are in the grand scheme of things.


Child mental health researcher gets funding boost from feds

Three University of Manitoba researchers have become the recipients of over $3 million in health research Foundation Grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), providing long-term, stable support to top Canadian health researchers.



Peace, bound

We are all entitled to support whom we choose and to give voice to that choice. To listen to our conscience and act upon the things it tells us about the world. If we do so without violence, there can be no case for the use of government force against us. In a free and just society, the use of government power to punish individuals for speaking their beliefs, no matter how unpopular, is oppression.



Targeting racial oppression on campus

Following Nancy Macdonald’s Jan. 22, 2015 Maclean’s article denouncing Winnipeg as “where Canada’s racism problem is at its worst,” there was much uproar around the…


The politics of fear

Every human action is rooted in either love or fear. It’s not a new or a particularly complicated analysis of the human condition, but it…


Being alone

This was originally going to be a very negative article about the students camping outside of University Centre for 5 Days for the Homeless. I…


Leave the tweets out of it

Shortly after Christopher Bélanger confirmed his candidacy for the position of vice-president internal of the University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU), a set of screenshots…