Stuff I Write for School

                  Broken Promises: Indigenous Rights in Canada               Dayna Wilson Student Number 300113188 POLI 1102 – 050 Introduction to Canadian Government Douglas College Dr. Jeanette Ashe November 18 th , 2020 1418 Words   The Idle No More movement, created in response to 2011 legislative changes proposed by Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, ushered in a new decade of Indigenous activism. With the Conservatives removing treaty rights and environmental protections under omnibus Bill C-45, Indigenous Canadians across Canada were spurred to action. Idle No More was created under the vision of “peaceful revolution which honours and fulfills Indigenous sovereignty and which protects the land, the water, and the sky.” (Idle No More, n.d.) Fast forward nearly 10 years, and the political landscape of Canada has certainly changed. With a Li...

Dayna Wilson Written for POLI 1101 / Douglas College / Dr. Darin Nesbitt   Harnessing the Youth Vote With voter engagement in the Canadian 18-34 demographic at an all time low and continuing to decline, it is imperative to examine the reasons for such low turnout. In identifying the problems with the current electoral system, we can turn to addressing those issues that are preventing Canadian youth from feeling compelled to vote and hopefully increase engagement. Surveys of youth voters have pointed to a primary obstacle preventing engagement being a sheer lack of time to do so. Youth respondents claim to be too busy with work, school, or family obligations to have the time to get to a polling station. The solution to this problem seems clear. As of 2017, the CRTC reports that 99% of Canadian homes have regular access to the internet, with 89% of Canadians accessing a home internet subscription. The internet is widely accessible and is a platform with which modern youth e...

 Old Man Yells at Cloud: A Critical Analysis of Adam Garfinkle's "The Erosion of Deep Literacy" Dayna Wilson Written for ENGL 1130 - 103 / Douglas College / Dr. Noelle Phillips The way that people interact with the written word is changing, and not in a good way, according to Adam Garfinkle. The essay “The Erosion of Deep Literacy,” published in National Affairs in Spring 2020, is Garfinkle’s attempt to argue that the advent of technology has caused an irrevocable reduction in deep literacy, which Garfinkle defines as a meaningful engagement with a source beyond “decoding written symbols, writing one’s name, or making lists.” (2) The essay posits that this reduction is inevitably harmful to society, as Garfinkle attributes the advent of literacy to an array of benefits from self idealization to participation in political discourse. These broad and sweeping claims seem to be supported by little more than Garfinkle’s own clearly strong feelings on the matter, however. At...

  Dayna Wilson Written for ENGL 1130 – 103 Douglas College / Dr. Noelle Phillips, PhD   A Bad Joke: Credibility and the Flat Earth Society The Flat Earth Society (FES) has taken pains to appear on their website as a credible, science-based organization. In the ‘about’ column on the front page of the site, they purport to be “a place for free thinkers and the intellectual exchange of ideas” (The Flat Earth Society 2020). The visually appealing and easily navigable page links to an incredibly detailed Wiki, where curious first-time viewers are encouraged to begin their exploration of FES theories and “evidence.” Everything within the wiki appears to be well written and with plenty of citations, just as one would expect in a reputable mainstream site. On the surface, nothing serves to immediately trigger one to the fact that they have stumbled onto anything less than completely legitimate. Once one takes the time to analyse the content of the site in depth, however, it be...