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...
Let’s go back to January. You know, before this whole COVID thing happened. On Tuesday cheap nights, some friends and I would have the entire day planned out. We’d finish our lectures, do whatever readings we had, and then: movie time. We’d try to book something that sounded remotely good for around 8. Then, we would head out a bit early to grab Five Guys, a staple in our movie night experience...
With exam season looming, it seemed like a good time for another recommendation list to help Osgoode’s students get through this stranger than usual study period. While I have watched 10 seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race since the beginning of the semester, I still somehow found time for a few other things that I wanted to recommend here. Good luck with exams! TV Show – Pen15 Season 2 (CBC...
As I watched Justina Machado’s Penelope Alvarez fail to get her oblivious son to help her with groceries in One Day at a Time, it struck me how relatable the show truly is. The exact scene has played out hundreds of times with my own little brother, headphones in and video game on, oblivious to my mother asking for his help. It was a small moment, but it reminded me of the appeal of sitcoms, of...
Exam season is closely upon us and that means less time and motivation to prepare full meals. While not all students live alone and some do have the convenience of having their loved ones take care of meal prep, some of us don’t have that luxury. Keeping up with regular meals is important but it is especially important during exam season. We need fuel to keep going during long summary building...
Haydn’s music occupies a somewhat awkward place in the classical repertoire. Most musicians and listeners would include Haydn in the pantheon of great composers. But fewer, I think, would list him among their personal favourites, or their selections of the “greatest of the great” (see, e.g., the New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini’s top 10 from 2011). Although he is by no means...
One of the principal thrills of undergraduate study is the titillation of pushing the envelope – of becoming learned with one foot still planted firmly in the realm of childish bashfulness. I recall, for instance, school newspapers in undergrad that looked like their mainstream counterparts, but which featured foul language and spoke of lascivious happenings. The impressionable eighteen-year-old...
A Non-Exhaustive List of 2020’s Best Projects from Black Artists Lianne La Havas – Lianne La Havas A heart-wrenching tour de force, the third studio album from UK singer-songwriter Lianne La Havas is easily her best. This self-titled project is a concept album about the culmination of a long-term relationship and documents Lianne’s efforts to grapple with feelings of loneliness, sadness...
Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and Ben Johnson are just a few of the many decorated athletes known to have used performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). These athletes are now considered “cheaters”, shunned for the use of PEDs to achieve a chemical advantage in their respective sports. They violated the rules, the trust of their fans and colleagues, and the spirit of sport. Over recent...
Last week, the glass ceiling was shattered by a baseball. The Miami Marlins announced they would be hiring Kim Ng as their general manager, making her the first woman in men’s professional sports to hold the title. The decision was showered with praise across the sports world (including congratulations from Michelle Obama), as it’s a move that some may have never seen coming and simultaneously...
From the Case Log of Sydney Scofflaw, Osgoode Student So maybe that stuff over the summer was a bit of bad luck; transporting to everywhere where my actions would be criminal. Took a bit of explaining, but I managed to get out of trial cleared of all charges. (Don’t ask about the horse.) But maybe…maybe that means there’s another way around it. If I can get the machine to actually work the other...
With the December exam period closing in, desperation is setting in among the ranks of the 1Ls. For some, years of hard-fought academic success and aspirations for the almighty ‘A’ are being crushed under the oppressive weight of a curve they have yet to even experience. Scores of once cheery-eyed and optimistic students have faced first-hand the pain and suffering of no longer being at the top...
You may be surprised to learn that Snapchat was not profitable until nearly two years after its IPO – that is, until the third quarter of 2020 when it beat analysts’ estimates on revenue and finally generated a profit of US $0.01 per share (1.23 billion shares outstanding). Snap beat estimates for Q3 by $127 million, generating $679 million and narrowing its net loss from $227 million to $200...
Introduction I often start my emails with the phrase, “I hope this email finds you well”. In the time of COVID-19, however, wellness has come to mean something entirely different altogether. On days where I feel ‘well’, I am clocking in 9-to-5 and mustering up the energy to turn on my camera for virtual classes. On days where I don’t feel well, I am rolling out of bed five minutes before class—if...
In the years to come, the rapidly changing climate is positioned to intensify existing threats and introduce novel threats to human health. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous concerns have surfaced regarding the capacity of governmental institutions to protect public health. The pandemic should serve as an example of the nature of infectious diseases that have the potential to reach a...
Walk-in legal clinics provide vital legal services to low-income, self-represented family law litigants in Ontario. However, the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to in-person clinics. Osgoode is working with Pro Bono Students Canada (PBSC) to develop and implement the Family Justice Centre, a virtual legal clinic set to open in early 2021. Family lawyers from firms like Epstein Cole LLP will work...
A Federal Court judge ruled last Tuesday that the Canadian government will not be forced to go to trial for its contributions to climate change. In doing so, Justice Michael Manson dismissed a lawsuit brought by 15 young Canadians, aged 10 to 19 years old. These young Canadians had argued that the Canadian government was violating their Charter rights by not taking effective action on climate...
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...
Further crippling the reputation of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) a week post Nova Scotia’s egregious acts of violence against Indigenous fisheries, the Meng Wanzhou extradition case is slashing public trust in police authority. On October 28th, Meng’s lawyer elicited from Constable Winston Yep a likely breach of Meng’s Charter rights. The high-profile case commenced on December...
Chances are that you haven’t done much international travelling in the past seven months. The most you’ve probably been able to do is ride the 506 Westbound from Chinatown to Little Italy. In the meantime, you can travel vicariously with the following two hapless and naïve travellers who have much more in common than might appear at first. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: streaming on Amazon...
As we depart midterm season and finals loom not far around the corner, I thought it would be appropriate to compile a short list of pieces of classical music that can give you that extra oomph you need to crush your exams. Mozart, 12 Variations in C Major ‘Ah vous dirai-je, Maman’ You’ve just finished a difficult term full of essays, cold calls, and briefs. Now the real...