A City on Edge: Rising Theft and Domestic Violence Cast Shadow Over Ottawa in 2025

In 2025, Ottawa is facing a serious but confusing situation. Even though some major crimes have slightly decreased, people feel less safe, and many types of offenses are increasing. It's important to understand this complicated situation if you live in or are visiting the capital city.

Ottawa has a rise of 63% in crimes over the last decade 2015-2025 which is quite alarming and unsettling for the city of Ottawa. Improvements need to come fast in order for Ottawa to be more of a welcoming and inviting city.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/ottawa-police-reporting-63-per-cent-increase-in-crime-in-last-10-years/

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Driving-Up Concerns in Property Crime

One of the most noticeable changes in crime in Ottawa is the significant rise in property crimes, particularly small thefts. In the Sandy Hill neighborhood, for instance, thefts of items worth less than $5,000 jumped to about 85 incidents for every 1,000 people in the first nine months of 2025—making it the highest rate in the city. This is an increase of nearly 76% since 2018.Capital Current
The annual report from the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) shows that in 2024, there were roughly 50,600 criminal offenses (not including traffic violations)—a 5% increase compared to last year. Ottawa Police+1
What’s really upsetting for residents is the feeling that even when they report crimes, the chances of solving them are getting worse. The rate at which crimes are solved fell to just 26% in 2024.Ottawa Police+1

For many people in Ottawa, the increase in thefts leads to daily worries: leaving a car unlocked feels risky, packages on doorsteps are watched with concern, and shop owners worry about stealing happening again. Although the rise in smaller thefts doesn’t always make the news, it slowly wears down trust in the community

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Domestic & Gender-Based Violence: A Quiet Crisis

While people often worry about property crimes, there is a growing concern in another important area: domestic and intimate partner violence (IPV). Data from OPS indicate that in 2024, there were 6,636 reported cases of IPV, an increase from 6,547 cases in 2023.Capital Current+1
In the first half of 2025, reports of intimate partner violence (IPV) went up by 9% compared to the same time in 2024.Ottawa Police
About 80% of victims are women, and around 29% of the incidents involve people between the ages of 18 and 29.Ottawa Police+1
The OPS has described this situation as an “epidemic,” mentioning that there are usually 18 calls every day about violence between partners. Capital Current
This unnoticed crisis has serious consequences: it not only harms the victims directly, but also impacts their families, neighborhoods, and overall trust in public safety.

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Mixed Signals: Shooting Rates Down, but Homicides & Severity Up

In some ways, the crime situation in Ottawa isn't all bad. The 2024 OPS Annual Report showed that shootings went down by 27%. There were 73 shootings in 2023, but that number dropped to 53 in 2024. CityNews Ottawa+1 Vehicle thefts also dropped in 2024 by about 21 %. Ottawa Police+1
However, the overall "crime severity index" (CSI) for Ottawa went up by 2% to 55 in 2024. This increase was mainly due to more property crimes, while violent crime levels stayed mostly the same. rideau-rockcliffe.ca+1
Homicides? In 2024, there were 21 cases, leading to 26 victims. This is a significant increase compared to past years. Ottawa Police+1
Although some serious types of violence and crime might be decreasing, a rise in thefts, more calls about intimate partner violence (IPV), and a general feeling of chaos are making people feel more uneasy.

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The Feel vs. the Stats: Why Things Feel Worse

It’s interesting to see the difference between what people think and what the data shows. A national report from Statistics Canada found that crime severity in Canada decreased by 4% in 2024. CP24+1
Many people living in Ottawa feel less safe in some neighborhoods. For example, witnessing theft or seeing strange behavior on the street can greatly affect how safe someone feels, even if overall violent crime rates haven't gone up significantly. Experts in sociology suggest that seeing signs of disorder, like drug use, begging, or public drinking, can make people feel more threatened than the actual crime statistics show.

As one academic observed:

“If you go down the street and you see somebody yelling and screaming, and you see people smoking crack, that may not represent any kind of violent crime, but it feels less safe to people.” CityNews Ottawa

So, it's not only about how many crimes happen, but also about how people feel about them and how they group together in certain neighborhoods that is important.

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The Road Ahead

Ottawa is a lively and diverse city, and its crime rates don’t show it is falling apart. However, they do highlight growing challenges. The increase in thefts, rise in violence between partners, pressure on police resources, and the feeling of disorder in some areas indicate that there are bigger issues to tackle.

Residents, community leaders, and decision-makers will need to work together to address these problems. A city's safety is not just about the number of crimes; it's also about how secure people feel in their homes, neighborhoods, and everyday lives.

In 2025, Ottawa needs to pay attention not only to crime statistics but also to the real experiences of its residents. If not, even small increases in crime could lead to bigger problems in the future.

Did the COVID Lockdowns Truly Affect us? It Fixed Problems, but What Problems Did It Cause?

The world as we knew it stopped, it shut down. The phrase “The world won’t stop for you”, stopped being true. This wasn’t just a shut down, this was a time where grief was felt world-wide, and we had to adapt to a whole new way of living. The pandemic brought lockdowns, school closures, and an extreme shift to how we live. While yes, this was needed for public health, it also created many problems that this generation may not have been prepared for. Have you felt a change in your social ability? How you learn, or even the healthcare system? In this post, we will explore the different problems that the lockdowns could have implicated in our generation, and how we it has changed us.

A World-Wide Setback

Across the world, schools shut down. It started off as 2 weeks and it slowly turned into months some turned to a year. According to UNICEF, over 168 million children were out of school for nearly a year. Within 11 countries, students missed about 3 quarters or more of their in-person education between March 2020 and September of 2021. This was needed for health concerns, but what were the other results? Some studies showed that there was a loss of months in reading comprehension and math studies for many students. Also showing that younger students and those for lower-income communities were highly affected, some losing almost 8 months of learning.  

These problems may seem small, but it meant that even as schools opened back up, many people felt that they were already behind in their learning. This not only could’ve affected grades, but the people’s confidence, motivation and mental health.

How Did it Affect our Minds?

Taking in the learning setbacks and social problems, all of this had an impact on the mental health of children, teenagers and pre-teens. The long-term isolation, the disruption of daily routine and the “unknown” of what the news would say next, led to a rise in anxiety and depression among kids and teens. The World Health Organization put out a study that shows the rates of anxiety and depression increasing by 25% during the 2020 pandemic. This shows how the mental state of children and teens were impacted. There was also a loss of access to help, leaving it to strictly online availability. There was a huge loss in connection, and it left many struggling with their mental state. This caused some people to experience long-term phycological effects even after restrictions where lifted.

 Social Problems

It wasn’t just the classrooms that were empty, but also playgrounds, clubs, parties, sports and all social gatherings. The development of children is partially dependent on social integration, making friends, especially in early ages. A survey showed that 7 in 10 parents felt hat the lockdowns had a negative impact on their kids social development and social abilities. We are social beings by nature, and the simply being alone for long periods of time, especially as a growing child, has shown to cause problems in different social skills. Communication skills, social anxiety, and even learning to regulate our own emotions. Furthermore, s comparison study showed that children in the ages of 1-10 were impacted in their attention spans and even sleeping problems. Many of these problems continued to affect children into the year and 2021.

Did These New Problems Come with new Solutions?

During these times, it had become a random time of withdrawing kids from the regular schooling and day-to-day life. The upcoming generation faced problems then and continue to face problems now. It has created many changes to our livelihood and to how we look at the world as we grow up. While the world is continuing to recover, there will always be risks, in health and in personal circumstances.

This pause in the world is also a remembrance of loss, and a time of grief. But also, a time where we put our faith into humanity, and where many of us came together to try and be safe, not just for each other but for our loved ones, for strangers, and for those who are no longer with us because of COVID. There was a sense that even though we we’re struggling, we were dealing with our problems together.

Spoiler Alert: People who menstruate still need products!

I can’t even count the number of times, with my fingers, that someone has asked me for hygiene products. Which is weird considering the big variety of hygiene products that exist, right? Wrong. It’s sadly very common, many women cannot afford it. The reasons for this are due to the outrageous prices put on them, the lack of availability and the social stigma around periods.

Photo by beth brown

When I walk into stores, my eyes are always browsing the prices. I love Walmart, they have plenty of different things to look at, apples: 3,97$, fresh ground meat: 8,78$, tank tops: 5,00$... sanitary pads: 19,97$. Wide eyes! If we compare these necessity products, sanitary pads are ~11.12% more expensive than other products. In 2000, the average price for sanitary products were ~4-5$, but why has the cost gone so high? Thank you, Inflation! “Recently, 1 in 4 women reported that they are struggling to afford pads and tampons due to inflation in North America.” (CITRON, 2023) Inflation isn’t something that we can fix easily, it requires a lot of work from our government and central bank policies. But why should we pay for something that we never asked for?  Sanitary products should be at a fixed price, not matter the inflation, or even free.

Not only are the prices for sanitary products high, but the availability to the products isn’t the best. When it comes to Canada, we have a wide variety of sanitary pads, but tampons and cups are less available. On top of that, many sanitary products can cause health issues. “Studies have found that menstrual hygiene products like tampons and pads often contain harmful substances, including heavy metals and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which may pose significant health risks such as cancer and organ damage, yet these products are not subject to rigorous FDA testing for toxic chemicals” (McClure, 2024.)  It’s the fact that, the variety availability is low and the products themselves aren’t the safest, is a bit crazy! We should also keep in mind that many companies that are sanitary product focused are actually owned by men. Women should be able to get sanitary products that they find comfortable and healthy.

INTIMINA

In addition, the social stigma around periods is different depending on where you are and culture. In some places, the concept of a period can be foreign. Most of the time, culture overtakes the concept and turns it into evil. When that happens, it becomes hard to speak up and tell them the truth. This is seen in places that are more male dominated. This makes it really hard on the women because not only do they deal with the periods, but they have to hide them. Hiding your period can cause a lot of mental stress and physical injuries. As they don’t have access to sanitary products, they must “makeshift” a pad or tampon which causes urinal tract infections. It can also cause Anemia and Toxic Shock Syndrome. These women should be able to have someone to lean on during their periods and be safe while doing so. It’s how our bodies work; we cannot change that.

It’s quite scary when you put it in these perspectives because despite menstrual topics being a pretty loud topic on social media, there’s still many flaws in our system. Women should be allowed to afford sanitary products, those products should be safe for our health and we should give it more awareness. Many young girls aren’t given the proper education on how to actually use sanitary products safely and correctly. If we speak up more about it, maybe we could make a change. As Emma Watson once said, “If not me, who? If not now, when?”

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Allison Thompson is a Professional Writing student at Ottawa’s Algonquin College. She loves films and videos, her favourite being ‘Garden State'.’ By Zach Braff. She loves the morning air and sparkly light catchers. Her biggest muse is her Aussie named Mittens. Allison writes with great humour and kindness, making sure her readers feel safe and included in her work.

AI Overlords | How Companies Are Fighting A War On The Working Class

A Background

Mark zuckerberg testifying before us congress | The boston globe

In the early 2010s A.I or more accurately, generative AI based on large language models, was used as a fun gimmicky idea you would see on youtube videos. Stuff like “this is what AI thinks a death grips song sounds like” would be passed between friends in order to laugh at the novelty of a terribly low quality imitation of actual art. But as with all things, the invention of generative AI was viewed as a potential way not just to make money, but to exploit the working class and potentially save billions by generating a product rather than paying someone else to create it.

Companies like Meta (formerly Facebook), Google and Microsoft, amongst others, began swarming in droves to invest in a potential future instrument of class warfare. Mark Zuckerberg and Meta themself invested a reported $14.3 billion into Scale AI, a singular AI research and branding company. That’s a lot of money, and unfortunately when people invest so much into something, they will push it no matter what in order for their investment not to go to waste.

The Grok Problem

So far in the 2020s we've seen countless companies start pushing AI, and implementing needless AI features into their services. Instagram added AI chatbots, so you could talk to a hollow imitation of celebrities when your actual friends have started ignoring you for being an AI enthusiast. X (formerly twitter) added Grok AI to its platform. A generative model made to answer user questions to drastically varying levels of accuracy. Grok itself has gone through many hilariously public shutdowns due to a series of supposedly unintended outcomes.

X Screenshot | The New York post

Because generative AI can’t actually think as marketed, it works by chewing up any information it can and regurgitating it back out. This quirk of large language models led Grok to absorb a variety of statistics, historical data and political theory and congregate it into a sort of self-held philosophy for lack of a better term. When X’s user base began asking political questions, Grok spat out answers that roughly mirrored factual statistical data and real-world political analysis, something Elon Musk's conservative fanbase wasn’t entirely too fond of. Musk soon scrambled to get his employees, the actual brains behind Musk's operations, to alter the intake for the language model, and so a new “non woke” version of Grok was created. The issue with this? The new version began actively speaking Nazi propaganda and praising Hitler, because it was fed on the political ideologies of X users Elon Musk deemed to be aligned with his own politics. Grok was marketed as an assistant that could provide information and was used as a political instrument by its owners, something that tends to be the case for any corporate product.

Replacing Workers

Secret Invasion | marvel studios | disney

The major area where AI has become a threat however, is to workers in creative industries. Various companies have scrambled to use AI to replace graphic designers, writers and in some cases even actors and filmmakers, among other creative professions. Disney owned Marvel Studios used AI to create the horrendous intro to its underwhelming and unsuccessful television series Secret Invasion. While the reception to Secret Invasion wasn’t to be blamed entirely on the use of AI, the reaction to the intro itself was strong, and decidedly negative. Many decried the use of AI to create an intro sequence instead of hiring human artists to craft something. AI wasn’t used for artistic purposes, it was used to steal from other artists' work and generate a sloppy imitation. It was used to avoid paying real workers in order to push a TV show out as a product, rather than art someone wanted to make.

A Human Future

As it stands now, companies continue to use AI to replace workers, which provides an incredible threat to the economy of the working class. When the bubble pops, many will be left without jobs, many already have, having been replaced by technology that was overvalued. As people we need to pushback against companies replacing human workers with AI implementations. Many people have begun boycotting companies that use generative AI, refusing to purchase from businesses that use the technology to create its products or in its marketing. Together we can teach companies that real human beings can never truly be replaced.

Sources

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Companies to Know | Built In

The first big winners in the race to create AI superintelligence: the humans getting multi-million dollar pay packages | Fortune

Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok praises Hitler, spews antisemitic hate on X

How AI Will Harm Working-Class Families | Institute for Family Studies

Additional Sources

Zuckerberg was in the spotlight, and senators were skeptical - The Boston Globe

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Hayley Knight is an author, content creator, community organizer and professional fighting game player from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Hayley is a huge bookworm, music nerd and cinephile, and will gladly chat with anyone for hours about, the history and craftsmanship of their favorite works. They seek to use their writing to inform others and speak on their views of the world. Hayley believes in the power of humanity to fight the injustices of society.

The Adpocalypse: Drowning In Ads!

It’s another beautiful day of scrolling on your phone. You’re watching videos, playing some games, reading your socials and fiddling with your apps, everything is going smoothly! Including the hundreds of ad breaks. Those are the most important thing in your doomscrolling, after all!

You wouldn’t be scrolling without ads. The reason your phone is so addictive is because developers have designed apps to abuse our brain reward system. All those fun sounds, flashing lights, likes, followers and algorithms that show us content perfectly aligned to our interests, are made to hook us in. The more positive feelings we get from our phones, the more we scroll and the more ads we’ll fall for.

Why So Many Ads?

a grammarly advert on youtube

The reason why most free apps will stop you every minute or after a few scrolls so that you can watch a 10 to 30 second ad is because that’s how they make money. Advertisers pay the developers to show you their ad, then advertisers get their money back when you buy their products. This how free apps/services can exist at all.

This free-with-ads style has existed since the internet began and isn’t new. But as prices have gone up, so has the number of ads we need to be shown before app makers make any money. Now add that to the increase of time spent on the internet plus how many apps we’re spread across, and we can see how that equals ad overload.

Too Many Products

Another problem is that the market is flooded with products. What was once a Pepsi vs Coke vs Store Brand Cola competition is now a fight between hundreds of brands selling the same thing. Starting a company has never been easier and we’re not buying local anymore either, we’re buying globally.

With everyone struggling to be “The Brand to Buy That Product From”, the need to advertise as much as possible is real. Otherwise, companies will quickly get buried under the competition. It’s why you’ll keep seeing ads for the same thing over and over. It’s boring, yes, but it’s drilling into your head that if you want a VPN, then you know where to look.

There’s Even More Ads Than You Think

Pop-up, side bar or scroll past ads are everywhere. They’re the most noticeable type of ad because they’re shoved in our faces and are clearly adverts. Some are even kind enough to come with skip buttons! But there’s just as many sneaky ones too.

Charlie damelio with dunkin donuts product placement on tiktok

Sneaky ads have a name. They’re called an “undisclosed advertisement”. These are ads that don’t make it clear they’re ads. They come in a few forms. The oldest is “product placement”, which is where an influencer or a celebrity will have a branded item in their hand or the background. They won’t say its an ad, but they’re being paid to show you that they have or are enjoying the item.

Another type is the “fake review”. Ever seen a TikToker/Instagramer suddenly pause to gush about how great this thing they’re using is for an awkward 30 seconds or more? Sometimes it’s the whole video. They’ll probably tell you to click a link in the description or their bio to get it too.

Why Ads Are Sneaky

The reason these are popular tactics is because they sell you a product without you realising. It’s well-known that ads are annoying, but if we pretend it’s not an ad, then you might be more open to buying. Especially if it’s from someone you really like or trust. It’s plain and simple manipulation, and it works.

We have these hidden ads all over YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. These apps/sites follow the free-with-ads style and so do their users. Creators want to get paid for making content and their host companies only pay so much. Brand deals pay a lot more.

There’s nothing wrong with a brand deal. Creators deserve to get paid. However, things get muddy when sponsorships aren’t made clear. Not disclosing your ad is illegal, but due to thousands of ads going up daily, it’s impossible to regulate. Users are left to fend for themselves.

What Can We Do?

Not much, really. I mean aside from using an Ad Blocker or avoiding social media, our only other option is to buy smarter. Avoid getting unnecessary things, don’t trust overly positive reviews and don’t fall for aspirational content. Reporting undisclosed ads can create class action lawsuits too. Make ads cost more to be shown than they make, and hopefully we’ll see less of them.

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Hannah Staniforth is a second-year Professional Writing student at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ontario. She combines her previous experiences in Social Sciences with her writing to explore social themes with her readers. Hannah’s recent works emphasize the importance of positive thinking, gentle self-development, and reclaiming your personal time in a demanding world.

The Effects of The Opiate Crisis Within Canada and The United States

While walking around, there are definitely a few problems that you’ll come upon. However, one that is constantly noticeable, is the constant rise in nation-wide drug crises. While yes, it’s always been around, there are certain things that led to populations across Canada and the United-States being continuously affected by opiate addiction.

Where to begin?  The year to landmark the crisis was the beginning of the 80’s. Starting with the rise in prescription usage of opiates. The on-going conversation is about how the FDA and Pharma companies contributed to the opioid crisis. According to Canada.ca, the opioids sold to hospitals has increased by over 300%. Leading to over 20 million dispensed prescriptions within pharmacies.  Reminder, these statistics are only within Canada. Many say that pharmacies began to prescribe opiates for individuals experiencing pain, mainly wanting to target the on-going problem of untreated pain.

However, The American Medical Association says otherwise. They wrote an article in 2020 focused on the drug crisis along with how the FDA and Pharma contributed. Essentially stating that for decades, drug companies have deceptively pushed the usage of opiated that were often known to have addicting states and were not safe or effective. This contribution to increase in prescriptions, led to the wide-spread issue of opiate addiction. Not only within the states, but into Canada as-well. According to NCDAS, there is a 1.9% increase in drug usage each year. Americans aged 12 and older, an estimated 47.7 million were using. This was taken in 2023. According to Canada.ca, approximately 1.1 Canadians over the age of 15 are reported to have been harmed or affected by personal drug use.

I feel that’s its extremely important to emphasise that these statistics have been done years ago and have only grown since. These are also over certain ages, such as 15 & 12. Some may think it’s not around, but drug use in children is a real issue. Stemming from the wide-spread drug crises.

This does not only affect the individuals who come in contact with drugs, but it has a long-time effect on their loved ones and families. Learn Genetics Utah did a study based on the risk of a person’s risk on drug addiction based off genes. They concluded that genetics account for in-between 40-60% of their risk to addiction. Genes play a huge role. Not only that, but the housing situations and financial situation that these issues can lead to. Drug addiction can overtake your entire life, even if you didn’t want it to. It will take your money, your families and friends. Coming from someone who’s been around it, having drug addiction used around you as a child, has a huge effect as to how you develop; how you form relationships, and how you were cared for. It is an unsafe environment that has evolved due to the overgrown crisis of drugs in our neighbourhoods.

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, there is help.

Mental Health and Addictions Phone Line Canada:

1-833-553-6983

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrations USA:

800-662-HELP (4357

Culture War and Transphobic Legislation In Canada

Culture War

Parliment hill during ottawa pride | Hayley Knight

A vocally transphobic movement has taken over as the predominant voices of culture war the last decade. In bad faith, podcasters and influencers have used transphobic rhetoric as a platform to build a brand. Pushing “anti-woke” and transphobic narratives in order to create a divide in a society and an “us vs them” mentality which in turn attracts people to their audience. 

They create a false narrative of an enemy, and tell you that it will hurt you if you don’t do anything about it, and in turn people keep coming back to them for information. How sincere these people are in their motivations is only known to them, but creating an enemy out of nothing is a known political tactic that unfortunately holds a lot of power. 

When people like JK Rowling, who have garnered massive followings attempt to direct their audience at a group, people who are loyal to those influential people sway politically, and vice versa. People who already agree with those views will in turn cause that person's audience to grow. Culture-war echoes its namesake, it is indeed warfare, and in a war the only true winners are the ones selling the weapons. People like Trump aren’t in politics to achieve anything politically, they are in this to gain power.

Canadian transphobic risk assessment map | Celeste trianon

Transphobic legislation isn’t simply an issue limited to the United States. In 2024, Alberta Canada passed Bill 26, which aims to ban sexual reassignment surgery and heavily restrict access to hormone replacement therapy for transgender individuals. The bill marks a horrifying step back for trans healthcare in Canada, and is representative of a growing disdain for trans people from the Canadian government. While Alberta is, yes, one province, it is not the only move being made by provincial and federal governments in Canada to create anti-queer legislation. 

Celeste Trianon, Canadian trans activist, maintains a map tracking states of potential risk for different provinces. More and more, Canadian conservative representatives are adopting anti-trans views as a platform. Pierre Polievre stated that trans women have “no place in women's sports,” and has heavily pushed for single sex spaces which will force separation and segregation for all trans individuals, both transmasculine and transfeminine, as well as alienating and erasing non-binary individuals completely from the equation.

It’s All of Us

Walmartcanada.ca

Transphobic rhetoric and legislation do not just affect queer people though. Cisgendered heterosexual men and women also see the negative repercussions of transphobia with women and members of racial minorities being disproportionately affected. When you forcibly categorize genders into rigid definitions and small qualitative boxes, and then claim that anything that deviates from those narrow classifications is in need of destruction, you make way for harm to reach the people who don’t fit your qualifications despite not existing within the group you are referring to. Fascist ideals that claim men and women need to fit their perfect “beautiful” idea of what it means to be a man or woman serve to isolate and harm even cis people who deviate from that attractive archetype. When you claim women can only be the white, blonde, thin barbie with 0 body hair, that leaves very little room for women who are overweight, or have brown hair, or forgot to shave their legs. 

Dani Davis is a cisgender woman accused of being trans and subsequently fired from her job at Walmart because she is a 6'4 woman, a height deemed “irregular” for cis women.

“Transphobia and misogyny have always been two sides of the same coin. I notice it’s a cis man that’s going into the bathroom and you that’s getting punished for it. I’m so sorry. This has always been about punishing women, cis and trans, for not fitting standards of femininity they want to enforce,” wrote a supporter of Dani’s.

ottawa capital hill during pride | Hayley Knight

What We Can Do

It's not hopeless though. Every day more and more people take up the fight against transphobia, and you can too. Look up bills in your area, district, province that may harm trans people. Write to your representatives encouraging them to push against harmful legislation. Get in touch with your local queer communities, gather trans allys, attend protests, create art in support of trans people, spread trans focused works or works by trans authors and artists, lift up the voices of your trans friends. Take action to support trans people and make them visible. Let people know that trans people are humans and are here to stay.

Sources and Links Used

What to know about claim FBI plans to categorize trans people as 'Nihilistic Violent Extremists' | Snopes.com

Seven theses about the so-called culture war(s) (or some fragmentary notes on ‘cancel culture’)

Public outrage, anti-trans legislation instils fear in trans community - Humber Polytechnic

Poilievre against transgender women in female bathrooms, changing rooms, sports

Canada’s newest Walmart Supercentre opens in Edmonton

A cis employee was harrassed by a customer who thought she was trans. Walmart fired her. - LGBTQ Nation

Are We Dropping Our Literacy?

Does one look at a social media comment section have you wondering if we’re becoming illiterate? You’re not alone. In a world full of fake news, rage bait, and endless adverts, it’s easy to feel like you’re the only one thinking. But the truth is, it’s not that bad. Yet.

Before we get into that, let’s talk about what “literacy” actually means.

Literacy?

Image by tiday on pIXABAY

When we think “literacy”, we think reading and writing. It does mean that, but being workably literate includes having number and critical thinking skills too. That’s because people need all these basic skills to live well. Without them, they will struggle with important life things like managing money, making decisions and getting jobs.

There are different levels of literacy too. It’s not just literate or illiterate. Literacy has 5 levels, with 1 being lowest and 5 the highest. At level 1, a person can read basic sentences, add and subtract small numbers and follow simple directions. Level 3 is enough literacy to pass high school. At level 3, a person can read and understand normal books, solve number problems and find useful answers in textbooks. Level 3 is considered workably literate.

Currently only 37% of Canadians are at level 3 and 14% are at level 4 or 5. That means 49% are not fully literate. Oof.

Why Are Canadian’s Illiterate?

Well, we aren’t. We’re actually above the global average in all the types of literacy we just discussed. Low literacy is just a global problem and one that isn’t getting better. Literacy rates are either dropping or staying the same, which feels odd in a time of “information overload”.

Shouldn’t we be improving? It’s never been easier to learn. We’re reading and writing all day, every day. Well, that might be the problem. Having so much access is kind of bad for us. Let’s explore why.

Culprit 1: Technology

Spell-checker is world changing invention. We all used to own fat dictionaries so we could check our spelling. Now most websites give us a wiggly red line. One click and it’s fixed! Our phones don’t even tell us we got it wrong, autocorrect just changes it for us. This a great time saver, but it robs us of the chance to learn. Taking the time to correct ourselves makes us less likely to make the same mistake again.

AI creates a whole new problem. With spell-checkers, we still had to write something ourselves. Now we can send a little prompt to ChatGPT and it’ll plan or write an essay for us. Some sites even have sparkly buttons that will “enhance” your writing with AI instantly, but it doesn’t teach us how to do what the AI did. It just makes us dependent.

Culprit 2: Fast Facts

Reading books isn’t popular. In 2023, 51% of American adults hadn’t read a whole book for a year. Instead, information has moved to faster, easier to digest forms. TV shows, short-form content and video documentaries have replaced books. Why spend hours reading when you can watch 30-minute video instead? Why read a recipe when you can watch a TikTok tutorial? It’s more efficient.

This is hard to compete with. However, visual teaching doesn’t improve or maintain our literacy skills. It’s a way around the problem. We end up relying on information being told to us. It’s why workplaces favour using information videos instead of training manuals.

Culprit 3: Know It All

Calling back to information overload, let’s not overlook how much information we have access to. Thousands of videos, blogs, articles and posts go up every day. Just like this one! All of them are saying something, and many are contradictory. How do we know which ones are true? We don’t have time to fact-check everything!

This makes us passive learners. We take things in without thinking about it. This lowers our ability to think critically and can fill our brain with things we don’t need. Over time, this results in a loss of in ability thinking for ourselves.

Are We Doomed?

No, but as you can see, literacy is weakened by convenience. If we rely on easier options for information, we aren’t using our literacy skills. Not using them means we are losing them. However, keeping our skills is a choice. We don’t have to lose them. Instead, we can take control and promote literacy for ourselves and for others.

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Hannah Staniforth is a second-year Professional Writing student at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ontario. She combines her previous experiences in Social Sciences with her writing to explore social themes with her readers. Hannah’s recent works emphasize the importance of positive thinking, gentle self-development, and reclaiming your personal time in a demanding world.

Canada's Job Crisis and Where It Will Lead

Canada is  viewed as a place full of opportunities, known for a good quality of life, a strong economy, and a friendly culture. However, many young Canadians, new immigrants, and  seasoned workers are finding it increasingly difficult to secure stable jobs. We are dealing with a quiet job crisis — one that doesn’t always show up in the national unemployment numbers but is strongly felt by jobseekers.

Temporary Foreign Workers and Regular Canadians

Let’s start with a number: Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) make up about 1% of Canada’s workforce.

https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/news/2025/10/the-government-of-canada-highlights-reduced-usage-of-temporary-foreign-worker-program-and-increased-penalties.html#:~:text=There's%20a%20stringent%20process%20in,temporary%20foreign%20workers%20are%20protected.

At first glance, that doesn’t seem like much. But the impact of TFWs isn’t just about how many there are — it’s about where they work and what jobs they take.

TFWs come to Canada to work in agriculture, food processing, hospitality, and service jobs  — areas that used to offer steady income for students, and entry-level and part-time workers. Now, those job opportunities are disappearing. Employers prefer hiring TFWs because they are tied to their jobs through work visas, making them unlikely to leave, join unions, or ask for higher pay.

This creates a troubling trend: Canadian students and entry-level workers are being pushed out of jobs that once helped them gain experience and pay their bills. What used to be a summer job for a college student is now a full-time position for someone brought in from overseas. The situation is even worse when employers choose to hire TFWs when there are qualified Canadians available — and this still happens, even though there are government rules against it .

High school and college students usually take part-time or seasonal jobs in these areas to earn money and gain work experience. However, these jobs are becoming harder to find. More employers are hiring TFWs who are ready to work full-time for lower pay. Additionally, many older workers who were laid off  are competing for these jobs too.

Automation and It’s Negatives

Automation, like self-checkout machines and app-based ordering, has also cut down on entry-level positions. As a result, students are ending up without jobs, stuck in low-paying roles, or doing unpaid internships. These don’t provide enough money  or  experience to help them move into long-term careers.

 Automation is heavily affecting Canada’s job market by taking over entry-level jobs that high school and college students, depend on for experience and income. Jobs in retail, food service, manufacturing, and administrative support are being replaced by technologies like self-checkout machines, and AI software.

This leads to fewer jobs and more competition for the remaining positions. Therefore, young people are facing higher unemployment rates and struggling to find good jobs, leading to increased income inequality. Without measures to help workers learn new skills, protect their jobs, and create opportunities, automation will leave many people, especially the youth, without chances to succeed

What The Government Can Do

The Canadian government can improve the job situation by making changes in education, employment rights, improving immigration, and investing in the economy. One important step is to offer more vocational training, apprenticeships, and short courses to help people gain the skills needed in employment. Especially in important fields like healthcare, trades, and technology. Professionals who have been trained abroad should have faster and fairer processes to get their qualifications recognized in Canada, along with programs that help them adjust to local standards.

It's important to make work accessible by investing in affordable housing, childcare, and public transportation so that more people can join the workforce . To address youth unemployment, Canada should create more paid internships, cooperative education programs, and entrepreneurship opportunities, while making sure education aligns with job market demands.

Additionally, investing in green and digital industries will help create jobs that are relevant for the future and support a move towards a sustainable economy. Gathering data about the job market will help governments, schools, and workers plan to avoid mismatches between taught skills and job requirements. Changes to Employment Insurance and job services can help people transition to new jobs and get retrained more quickly. Finally, promoting job growth in various regions through remote work options and targeted immigration can help meet labor needs across the country. Together, these strategies will help build a job market in Canada that is more inclusive, flexible, and strong for everyone.

Conclusion

As a young person starting my career, I think Canada really needs to address the job crisis. It's getting tougher for students and recent graduates like me to find good jobs that pay well and help us build our futures. While hiring Temporary Foreign Workers and using technology have their benefits, we need to make sure there are enough opportunities for Canadian youth and new immigrants who are trying to make their way. The government should act now to invest in education, job training, and fair hiring practices. If we don’t make these changes, too many of us risk being left behind in a country that is supposed to offer opportunities but is becoming a place where those opportunities feel out of reach.

TikTok: Bought, Banned, ‘Saved,’ then Sold

Following years of uncertainty and a temporary ban in America earlier this year, TikTok is (partially) moving West following a trade deal brokered between investors and lawmakers, branching from China, the United States, the UAE, and Israel for a total sum of “$ 14 billion USD.” Although promoted as a win for the West, several groups argue that our information has only been sold from one spy network to another.

Originally released as Musical.ly in August 2014 by Shanghai developers Alex Zhu and Luyu Yang, the app was created for the simple goal of making lip-syncing videos of popular music. In under three years, Musical.ly Inc. would report over 200 million active users and open a new office in Santa Monica, California. Seeing this rapid growth, ByteDance, a leading Beijing developer, purchased Musical.ly for just under a billion dollars. Less than a year later, Musical.ly merged with ByteDance’s own social media service, Douyin, officially launching internationally as TikTok in September 2017

By January of the following year, TikTok had exploded in popularity, reaching over 2 billion users globally, with the United States hosting over 130 million alone; however, this popularity wasn’t gained without detractors. Following the passing of the despotic “National Intelligence Law of the People's Republic of China” in mid-2017, the law requires companies to share personal customer data with government bodies for national security. Critics of TikTok pointed to the authoritarian rule of the PRC, highlighting the question of whether foreign users’ data was also readily available.

By December of 2019, ByteDance’s theorized security risk resulted in the United States Army and Air Force banning any use of TikTok on government devices, highlighting the possibility of sensitive information leaking to the PRC. Unfortunately for the growing site bans launched by lone agencies escalated into 2020, with India, Pakistan, and the United States beginning to draft national bans. While some countries banned the site for similarly authoritarian reasons, the Republic of India pointed to growing clashes on the Chinese-Indian border, along with pre-existing security concerns, as reasons to block the site. By the year’s end, TikTok was banned from ever accessing over 1.6 billion people, and just barely managed to stay available in the US after filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration.

With the conclusion of the 2020 election, TikTok needed new leadership, temporarily promoting a former Disney executive CEO before settling on the current lead, Shou Zi Chew. Inheriting the large task of fighting politicians who had already made up their minds, Chew faced additional controversies with TikTok caught breaking Google’s data collection policy, data leaks, and tracking foreign journalists.

Although receiving a reprieve by the Biden Administration, by December of 2022, President Biden signed the “No TikTok on Government Devices Act,” and less than a month later, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley began the push for a nationwide ban. Quickly, lawmakers sprang into action, drafting legislation forbidding personal data from being sold to foreign companies and authorizing direct government supervision over tech companies. Chew was once again brought to the US House of Representatives for testimony.

Although starting on a good footing, the US only managed to stumble its way through. During his testimony, Chew, a Singaporean, was questioned on his national identity. This spectacle culminated in the infamous clip where Senator Tom Cotton effectively accuses Chew of secretly being Chinese. Following several months of testimony, and Chew being accused of perjury, neither side budged.

On October 7th, Hamas, a Palestinian militant terror group, as well as other small groups, launched a military incursion in the Gaza Strip and into Israel’s Southern District. Following the attacks, the killing of civilians, and the kidnapping of hundreds, the Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, launched a military invasion and bombing campaign in Gaza. Although praised by mainstream media sources and politicians, the public didn’t buy it.

Public outcry against Israel broke into the mainstream, as independent groups used social media to call out war crimes committed by the Israeli Defence Forces. Israeli lobby groups and the politicians they pay, launched a new effort to censor anti-Israel groups. TikTok would be banned if it didn’t comply. Although signed into law, the Biden Administration handed the responsibility of enforcement to the reelected Trump Administration.

Facing bans, tariffs, and even a temporary ban at the start of the year, members of TikTok, PRC, the Trump Admin, and several tech companies have entered the negotiation room to discuss the site’s fate.

Author Bio

Gavin O’Neil is a Professional Writing Student at Algonquin College wanting to become a Sports Writer. He loves country and rock music. Spends his off time watching sports, playing video games, or listening to music. Loves to cook and enjoys time with his family and friends. Gavin also writes on topics that he is passionate about and will want to even make a difference in his writing.

Sorry, we’re under construction

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4 reasons why we should give construction designated time slots.

In Ottawa, there’s one thing you can rely on, construction. With the constant road closures, detours and potholes, 15-minute car rides turn into 30 minutes. While I sit in traffic, I always think to myself, what would the road conditions look like if we gave construction work a certain time to do their work without disturbing regular road flow? After some thinking, I’ve come up with four reasons as to why construction work should be given designated time slots during the year.

One—Less traffic = Smoother circulation.

There always seems to be traffic around construction zones. The roads in construction zones are always either blocked off completely, narrowed down and detoured. Currently, construction workers work parallel to regular business hours, meaning they are always on the roads during rush hour. Already, we have regular rush hour traffic, but on top of that we also have the lane reductions on the highways and the blocked streets in the city. This just multiplies the intensity of traffic. My partner once told me that his usual 45-minute commute to work took him an hour and a half, one morning. If only they could wait till after rush hour to start blocking off roads that maybe we would be late to work so often?

Two—Quicker project completion timelines.

I wonder if the pressure of a shorter completion timeline could help fasten the building process. I’m not talking about shorter as in, short to the point that it will give plenty of room for errors and bad construction, but a shorter timeline to the point that workers are keeping roads blocked off longer than necessary. I have noticed many times in Ottawa, roads that are blocked off with no construction work happening at all. If we were to put a little more rush on timelines, we would be able to have less labour cost and more open roads.

Three—Coordination.

One thing about Ottawa’s construction is if you stumble across a construction zone, you will stumble across another zone less than a block away. It’s as if every corner in the city has some sort of construction going on. There should be a time and place for construction. If we schedule, let’s say, construction on the highway. If we focused solely on completing the highway construction all at once, then we could finish faster. And while it’s in construction, all the city streets are free from any obstruction, leaving a good road flow and happier commuters.

Four—Quality life improvements for city residence.

Construction comes with all sorts of loud obnoxious sounds whether we like it or not. For residence nearby, hearing construction noise all year round is not unusual. Not only do they deal with the sound, but also the debris! This can affect your sleep and normal routine. If construction had its own time slots throughout the year, residence would be able to adjust their lives around the work being done. But at the moment, construction is unpredictable, one day you could be living quietly and the next day there’s sudden construction right outside your window.

It’s a lot easier said than done. Fixing a time slot for construction work takes time, money and effort. While understanding that this is part of growth within a city, it is still causing us frustrations. With these four reasons, maybe we can give ourselves some peace of mind and give construction the time when the time is given. Not every single day.

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Author Bio

Allison Thompson is a Professional Writing student at Ottawa’s Algonquin College. She loves films and videos, her favourite being ‘Garden State'.’ By Zach Braff. She loves the morning air and sparkly light catchers. Her biggest muse is her Aussie named Mittens. Allison writes with great humour and kindness, making sure her readers feel safe and included in her work.

Meet the Problematics

The Problematics are here to investigate why we've got so many problems. Why is food so expensive? Why is your college cutting so many programs? Why can't you buy a house? We can solve that mystery for you one blog post at a time. Suggesting a solution doesn't always reveal the root cause, but we’re not solving the problems. We’re just real people who experience these real problems, and we want to understand them. Let’s explore them together!