Category: Features
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The Canada you don’t know: Life in Cambridge Bay
It’s safe to say that most Canadians have never heard of the town of Cambridge Bay, never mind being able to locate it on a map. The same could be said of…
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Seeing the positive amidst the Miss America controversy
By now we have all heard that last Sunday, Nina Davuluri, an Indian-American woman, won the Miss America beauty pageant. The racist tweets that followed are still just as shocking if you…
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Behind the scenes of the Alberta flood
We all remember waking up the morning of Friday, June 21, and seeing the pictures of the floods in southern Alberta. Videos of houses being swept down the Bow River in Canmore and of…
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A grandfather adapting to smartphones
Receiving messages like, “What is up dude?” from our dads and “How r u” from our moms was just plain weird back in the day. Eventually they would catch on and we slowly got…
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The underdog university town
For most returning Laurier students living in Brantford, we have come to think of it as a beloved second home. But it took all of us a while to get used to…
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From youth pastor to the oil field
Mark Fraser was a youth pastor. He had always wanted to be a youth pastor, and he had always been a youth pastor. But around a year ago he began to think…
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Rob Ford: Is the criticism justified?
It seems like any day of the week you can open the paper and find something negative being written about Rob Ford. If all the reports are true, he must be the…
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Why we donate: Breast cancer vs prostate cancer
The sea of pink, this is what it seems the ever-growing support for breast cancer has become and when we think of prostate cancer we think of the sea of? Well although…
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Merchants of death
Death has never looked so good: glistening new cadillac hearses, intricately carved tombstones and painfully polished mosaic urns line the convention center aisles. In a corner booth, concrete angels with soft, haunting…
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Comic culture: Beyond the mainstream
‘The comic book world is a boys’ club.’ It’s the line I’ve heard said dozens of times before. It’s exclusive, misogynistic, and populated by pale, lonely men with an encyclopedia-like knowledge of…
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Feminism part two: How far do we still need to go?
“Women who don’t take it up the arse” is the number one definition of “feminists” on UrbanDictionary.com. Last issue we looked at the monumental steps feminists have made toward gender equality, despite…
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The trouble with for-profit colleges
For-profit colleges are offering students a variety of new degrees, but not as many job options. As for-profit colleges enter the Ontario market, they attract students looking to improve their academic future.…
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R/ spacedicks
It has been said that the Internet is the wild west of our times. It is vast, untamed, and the site of all manner of lawlessness. For people like Leonard Koenig, member…
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Men’s rights: Over-privileged or a right to defend?
In the past century, one of the biggest sociopolitical and cultural movements around the world has been feminism. The movement has fought for women’s rights, from the right to vote to the…
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Feminism part one: How far have we come?
“The doctor was God.” The doctor was male. Jackie Butler, 47, worked as a nurse in South Africa from 1990-94. As far as women’s rights go, Butler says they were 30 years…
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The face that launched an Internet revolution
“With Anonymous, there is no authorship. Their claim is no more valid than the individual’s claim to existence,” a soft, soothing male voice tells me, slightly muffled behind a Guy Fawkes mask,…
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Self-publishing industry ready to compete
As the literary world changes to suit the Internet, self-publishing is emerging as a prominent form of publishing and it is threatening to displace traditional publishers. Scholastic, Random House, Penguin Publishing, and…
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Not a long, lonely highway anymore
Paul Thompson is most comfortable when he is outside his comfort zone. Three trips of a lifetime are the centrepieces to his blog, Last Great Road Trip. He travelled to the Arctic…
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The DNA Phantom: Reality redefined
In 1985, Dr. Peter Gariaev, of the Institute of Physics/Techniques Problems Academy of Science of the USSR, was working with DNA and the correlation spectroscopy thereof. What Gariaev observed was that light,…
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Dining out: Brantford restaurant hot spots
As Brantford grows as a city, its options for dining grow as well. A city with a population of nearly 100,000 is bound to have diverse tastes. Over 100 different restaurants are…
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The endless quest for exposure
How one author brings life to millions who have lost it “Some people call me the Genocide Queen.” Marsha Skrypuch earned this title through writing books. As a Ukrainian born in Brantford,…
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Rape-revenge movies are about more than a woman with a murderous agenda
Beginning a movie with a woman being brutally raped, and ending it with her vengefully murdering her offender is a surefire way to reel viewers in. Film directors know sex, violence, power,…
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Rape-revenge: A sampling of twisted times
Safe in Hell (1931) This early film was one of the first of its kind. The protagonist may not have been raped per se but Van Saal exploits her and forces her…
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We have a club?
Ask almost any campus club at Laurier Brantford what the most common question they receive from students is, and the answer will likely be: “We have a [insert club name here] club?”…
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Beasts in Hollywood: Should children win Oscars?
History has been made. This year’s Academy Awards will feature the youngest nominee in the category of Best Actress ever. Quvenzhané Wallis, nominated for her portrayal of the character Hushpuppy in the…
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Man’s best friend helps relieve students’ stress
Students across Canada have a new way to unwind from the stresses of university; they can spend quality time with a friendly dog. Universities across Canada are helping students de-stress by creating…
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Mushroom kingdom
In a small living room with two TV’s, an Xbox, and a Super Nintendo, Tommy* dropped a record on the turntable and fished a small plastic bag from his pocket. The contents…
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The unconstitutional age of consent
Go ahead and sleep with your cousin. Incest may be illegal in Canada, but the law excludes first cousins, aunts and uncles. When you take a closer look at the Criminal Code,…
