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

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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

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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.

 

Dropping Our Literacy

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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. 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. 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 dependant.

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 in ability to think 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. 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.

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

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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

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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

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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.

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

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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!