Supporting each other from a distance Navigating the COVID-19 pandemic as a student population
Photo C/O Grant Alan Holt Just 10 days ago, the world health organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic. According to data collected by Johns Hopkins university, at the time of reporting there are over 300,000 confirmed cases around the world. What we’re facing is unprecedented and chaotic. Things are moving so quickly that it is impossible to know what the next days, weeks and months will look like. And while in some ways we’re...
Portrayals of Wet’suwet’en land defenders Land defenders are not the real threat
Recently, land defenders and allies across Canada have rallied behind Wet’suwet’en land defenders in northwestern British Columbia in response to the RCMP’s removal of land defenders. On Jan. 1, Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs issued an eviction notice to the Canadian government and Coastal Gas Link, who were planning on constructing a pipeline on traditional Wet’suwet’en territory. About a month later, armed RCMP officers raided the...
Truth and accuracy of opinion articles Responding to concerns brought forward by this week's Letter to the Editor
We recently received a Letter to the Editor that was critical of an opinion article the Silhouette published last month, titled “Chinese students aren’t brainwashed”. The opinion article voiced concerns about the anti-Chinese rhetoric that emerged following the de-ratification of the McMaster Chinese Students and Scholars Association last September. An earlier draft of the article, before its publication, had said, “Contrary to what...
Letter to the Editor: Chinese state propaganda in the Silhouette—seriously? Why it is deeply problematic for the Silhouette to publish Chinese state propaganda
We were shocked to see the Silhouette publishing, without context, Chinese state propaganda last month. In the original online version of the Jan. 9 article “Chinese students aren’t brainwashed,” the author describes, without evidence, Chinese state media as “quite accurate,” and links to a propaganda article in the Chinese Communist Party-owned China Daily. After being contacted, the Silhouette amended “quite accurate” to match the...
McMaster: put your money where your mouth is McMaster’s actions do not reflect the dire reality of the climate crisis
Last Friday’s climate strike brought the climate crisis to the forefront of public conversation. There is an ever-growing awareness of the dire reality of the climate emergency: if immediate, far-reaching action is not taken, there will be major harm to ecosystems and loss of life. A 2018 report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that, in order to keep global temperature rise below 1.5°C, carbon...
Where’s the student choice? The Government deemed us non-essential, we, the students, say otherwise
Students invest a great deal of time and money into the university. The power of how and where students money is spent should lie in the hands of students, and while the Student Choice Initiative (SCI) may give students the illusion that they have the power to choose, a critical look at this government mandated program proves otherwise. SCI does not empower students — it does the opposite. The threats to services deemed...
![Due to the closure of the University and Ontario’s limits on gatherings, McMaster’s Socrates Project has had to cancel the remainder of their in person events. However, these cancellations don’t mean the end of the Project’s initiatives. Read about the Socrates Project’s future plans in this week’s online issue of the Silhouette!
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[Image description: Graphic with the Sil logo and a statement reading "Adapting to trying times and holding out for brighter days
The Socrates Project has new plans in face of the global pandemic"]](https://www.thesil.ca/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
