Welcome to the Spooky Issue of The Sputnik. As always, our team of dedicated writers, editors and photographers have put together a spectacular edition for your October reading.  

In this issue we focus on all things spooky, as the world around us continues to get scarier. While it easy to focus on spooky season as a fun time to explore our own inner horror enthusiasts, there is plenty of real-life horror that happens daily. 

For the first time in their history, Missouri executed a man despite opposition from both the prosecutors and the victim’s family. Marcellus Williams was convicted for the murder of journalist Felicia Gayle in 1998. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, Marcellus Williams, 55, was executed on Sept. 24 for crimes that DNA evidence taken from footprints, fingerprints and hair proves he did not commit. The prosecutors were never able to link Williams directly to the case that took place in 1998 because there were two witnesses who said they saw Williams with the victim’s laptop. Despite the abundance of physical evidence found on the scene Williams was excluded as the source of all of it. However, all of this and the public opposition of the death penalty from both the family of Gayle and prosecutors, Williams was still executed. Many media outlets like MSNBC are saying this execution shows the double standard in the American justice system. Williams’ execution was the 100th that the state of Missouri has conducted.  

As one year since Oct. 7 approaches, it is easy to switch the news off and focus on the happier things that fall brings. However, it is important to see, listen and talk about the Israel-Gaza war. Almost one year ago, terror attacks were launched by Hamas and other militant groups into Israel. Since Oct. 7, the latest death toll on Sept. 30 stands at 42,334 Palestinians and 1,139 people killed in Israel according to Al Jazeera’s daily tracker. 

Serena Anagbe/Photo Editor

Shadow projected on a door of hands shaped in a claw

Since the beginning of the term, it’s amazing how quickly the sun sets and how quickly we forget our own history. As September ends, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is honoured on Sept. 30. Orange shirts are worn to remember the atrocities that Indigenous people have faced and continue to face in this nation. According to the Assembly of First Nations, between 2001 to 2014, the average rate of homicides involving Indigenous female victims was four times that of those involving non-Indigenous female victims. In the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, it says, “Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people live with an almost constant threat to their physical, emotional, economic, social, and cultural security.”  

So, while, for one night of the year our siblings, children and friends dress up, it is important to remember that we can take our scary masks off at the end of the night, but we are still surrounded by frightening people, things and groups well past Oct. 31.