If countries can’t work together to decarbonize the economy and fight climate change, it is unlikely that the states will meet global pledges to emissions reductions in the Paris Agreement. This is nowhere more evident and worrisome than in US-China relations. Global warming is in large part a US-China problem; the two countries combined account for 43% of worldwide carbon emissions. Relations...
Canada Marks a Grim Military Anniversary On February 25th, we Canadians marked the 30th anniversary of a military massacre committed in our names that many in the West are completely unaware of – with critical details buried by the press at the time and little to no media or political attention since. The assault, launched by combined US, Canadian, French and British forces, resulted in the...
There are many negative stereotypes surrounding lawyers, such as being hyper-zealous, aggressive, soulless, and solely driven by monetary rewards. This stereotyping may be reinforced through the admission processes put in place by law schools in who they accept. To combat this stereotype, some law schools are creating classes, seminars, and workshops to promote ethical lawyering themes such as...
A Game-Stop Story This story is meant to be a follow up to my good friend Brandon’s informative piece on GameStop from Issue 8. I’ve been following this saga from the very beginning and am very much in the camp of the retail investor, so take what I’m going to say with a grain of salt. With that being said, what has happened with $GME is, and I don’t put this lightly, one of the most disgusting...
Emme Montgomery, better known by her online handle Negaoryx, has recently gone viral over her takedown of a troll in the comments of her Twitch stream. Those of you who proudly or shamefully lurk the web may remember her from another viral incident, one that led to her becoming known as the “Last of Us bunny girl.” During a livestream of herself playing the highly popular adventure game The Last...
By the time this article is published, reading week will be over. Many 1Ls will have interviewed with top firms through the first year recruit, only to face a subsequent rejection letter or simply be “ghosted”. Others will not have gotten any interviews at all. While rejection can be disappointing, it’s important to remember that most 1Ls will not receive a summer placement as a result of the OCI...
It has been nearly one year since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. It has been more than one year since Canada reported its first case of the virus: carried into Canada by an international traveler. In March of last year, Ontario declared an emergency under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act with the aim of curtailing the spread of the virus. Within the...
RE: Smearing, Silencing, and Antisemitism Dear Editors, Nobody questions (so I hope) Professor Bhabha’s right to criticize Israel. Nobody should even challenge his right to provide a selective, one sided, and even false history in the form of half-truths. And it is entirely off the point that I agree with much of what he says as to the former but disagree as to the latter. Where he crossed...
The month of February began tumultuously amidst reports of the Myanmarese military detaining members of the civilian government and declaring control of the country. Though it is too soon to say anything definitively, it appears that the democratic transition initiated roughly a decade ago has come to an end. This is not the first time that the military has overthrown a civilian government in...
Recruit season is upon us. This year’s 2L class is facing additional stress due to the pandemic and will be navigating the first-ever virtual recruit process. As I stare at the Excel spreadsheet I made with the list of employers, application requirements, practice information, and contacts, I can’t help but wonder when this will end. For some odd reason, the time from January – April always...
This year has presented untold challenges for students. At a time when business is anything but usual, we are forced to carry on as if it were. Certain of ourselves, though the world is uncertain of itself. If our reality is a simulation, as some have suggested, it is as if the attendant slipped and unwittingly engaged the red button on the switchboard reading ‘expert mode’. Whereas yesterday’s...
Last year’s seemingly-unending American presidential election is in the rear-view mirror. After months of baseless claims by the Trump campaign with respect to voting irregularities, President Joe Biden’s inauguration took place in January—in a ceremony marked by masked faces and viral mittens. There is plenty to dissect in the aftermath of the November 3 election: the relative successes of...
Donald Trump has been a controversial and polarizing figure for years, with his venture into American politics only serving to exacerbate this fact. He has been able to strike a chord with many Americans, drawing crowds to rallies and inciting demonstrations by supporters. Curiously, support for the self-proclaimed ‘America-First’ politician has not been limited to the United States. For whatever...
On June 10, 2020, I participated in an online debate. It was organized by Ryerson University’s Centre for Free Expression (CFE) and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA). The debate was entitled, “Fighting Anti-Semitism or Silencing Critics of Israel: What’s Behind the Push for Governments to Adopt the IHRA Definition of Anti-Semitism?”. The debate was purposefully produced in the...
The agriculture sector is one of the main three sources of greenhouse gas emissions, where cattle, sheep and goat production currently produces approximately half of that amount. Specifically in Canada, 10 per cent of our greenhouse gas emissions are from crop and livestock production. Despite this large share of our country’s emissions coming from this source, there has been relatively no...
The intersection of government procurement and subsidies presents a particularly complicated problem in regulating international trade. Government purchases account for ten to fifteen percent of national GDP (Gross Domestic Product) on average, and markedly higher for that of developing countries. In fact, government purchases may represent a significant contribution to developing countries’...
The concept of blind justice is fundamental to the ultimate aspirations of true justice itself: where all members of a given society are treated equally by the rules and laws of that society, irrespective of who one happens to be, and what position in society they happen to occupy. If we conceptualize our system of rules and laws as the concrete foundation on which the rest of our society is...
2020 is the year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, the worst virus in modern history that pushed society, economies and communities to their breaking point. However, it must not be forgotten that while the pandemic was raging, so was the climate emergency. 2020 marked record-breaking wildfires from Australia to the west coast of the United States, the highest number of powerful Atlantic storms...
The minsky moment triggering the demise of US financial markets in 2008 stems from the fall of Lehman Brothers, underscoring unregulated risks associated with shadow banking. From 2008 to 2021, shadow banking increased at an unprecedented rate as investors and lenders bypass the scrutiny of traditional banking. The downsides, however, are the lack of safety nets in calculating actual risks...
Earlier this week, the Ethiopian military launched a military offensive into its Northern region of Tigray. Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, stated that the offensive was in response to an attack on a federal military base in the region. Abiy claims that a regional political group, the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), is behind the attacks. Abiy’s military offensive has many...
In 2016, Donald Trump, on his path to becoming the 45th President of the United States, made many significant promises pertaining to the Middle East. Trump boldly stated that he would “utterly destroy ISIS,” “tear up” the Iran nuclear deal, move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, and bring peace to the one of the most complex and historically violent regions on Earth. Four...
How Each Crisis that Engulfed 2020 was Predictable and Foreseen In 2007, Nassim Nicholas Taleb published his seminal piece, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, to great commercial success and critical acclaim. The book, among other things, told the story of a popular assumption that remained nestled in the minds of ‘Old World’ citizens until the late 17th century: that all swans...
As L&L’s social convener, I get the opportunity to connect with a lot of our classmates while I host weekly online social events.The majority of messages that I receive are from club execs who reach out to me for advice on hosting online events or from colleagues asking about plans for the upcoming winter semester (no, I don’t know the answer to that). As we’ve progressed through the school...
Unless you live under a rock, you are probably at least vaguely aware of the United States presidential election. The contest between incumbent Donald Trump and former Vice-President Joe Biden has truly been a clash of titans, if titans meant men in their seventies. There are a great many differences between the two candidates, but one area where the contrast is most evident is in their...
Midterms have arrived for 1Ls. The length of time allowed for each midterm varies from a few hours to a few days, but one thing is consistent: for Contracts, Torts, and Criminal Law, midterms might be the first substantial graded work of the semester. For students who have been working very hard with little graded feedback, the stakes seem high even for no-downside midterms, which count for zero...