language
The attack on woke is an attack on education
May 12, 2025Throughout their federal election campaign, the Conservative party has been promoting an “anti-woke” agenda. It draws similarities to US Republican politics, especially regarding education. They provide no definition of what constitutes “woke” or any real acknowledgement of where the term originates from — instead, the term is prompted as a faceless threat. While the Conservatives lost the election, falling 26 seats behind the Liberals, it is concerning that they are attacking education through divisive rhetoric in the sphere of mainstream politics. The attack on “woke” is an attack on free thinking, as the term itself has to do with the…
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We Follow the River plunges into language, loss, and love
June 5, 2024Content warning: mentions of military violence. Pictured on the cover of We Follow the River are a young woman and man surrounded by a smoggy jungle of green brush strokes. The man wears a Shan State army uniform — the…
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Commissioner of Indigenous Languages discusses importance of language preservation
March 13, 2024Content warning: mentions of residential schools and anti-Indigenous racism. After Canada’s implementation of the Indigenous Languages Act in 2019, aiming to support the reawakening of Indigenous languages in Canada, the Office Commission for Indigenous Languages was founded. The first Commissioner…
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Linguistic imperialism is violence
September 10, 2023Content warning: mentions of colonialism and generational trauma. The dance of language and power is a historical saga of dominance that’s often sugarcoated with euphemisms. Nowhere in history is this more apparent than when colonialism started, where language was used…
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English is a ridiculous language
June 19, 2023English is an absurd language. There, I said it. For me, it was relatively easy to reach a conversational level, but English has some random pronunciation rules which . . . don’t make sense? A week ago, in one of…
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Immigrants don’t need to “assimilate”
May 31, 2023Content warning: mentions of colonialism As far back as I can remember, I pushed down my Spanish. Whenever my mom picked me up from school in first grade and spoke Spanish, I quickly looked around to make sure no one…
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Opinions in Dialogue: Why are pronouns so important?
March 22, 2021Incorporating the introduction of personal pronouns on day-to-day occasions has become increasingly normalized. The sharing of pronouns is evident in group introductions, social media bios, and Zoom usernames — the variations and platforms are endless. But why is this so…
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It is not an insult to call people racist when they are being racist
July 26, 2020On June 17, the leader of the NDP party, Jagmeet Singh, was kicked out of Parliament over not apologizing for calling Alain Therrien, a Quebecois MP, a racist. The underlying reason for his expulsion was that his use of the…
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Opinions of the Hour
February 18, 2019“Mind your language, professors” – Liang Chenglu, China Daily Liang’s article is a sobering critique of Megan Neely, an assistant professor at Duke University, who sent an email regarding international students having conversations in Chinese. In the email, Neely called…
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SFU Senators discuss admission cut-offs, finances
September 20, 2018On September 10, SFU Senate met for the first session of the fall semester this year. As the academic governance of SFU rests with its senate, the session focussed on issues that impact both teaching and research in the…
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Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.
For advertising inquiries: [email protected]
For promotional inquiries: [email protected]
Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.
For advertising inquiries: [email protected]
For promotional inquiries: [email protected]