Ethan Kulik
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St Patrick’s, Marshall Street and the Sniper
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On the weekend of March 13th to 16th, Laurier students gathered along Marshall Street to celebrate what Laurier celebrates best: St. Patrick’s Day—all despite the frigid forecast. Every year, the City of Waterloo declares a Community Safety Event to regulate the streets that the students inevitably overrun. Like in years past, this Community Safety Event meant ticketing bystanders, installing road barriers, and trying to dissolve the crowd as early as possible. This is put in place in anticipation for public safety and nuisance…
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More Than Just Bread and Circuses? The Case for Sports Relevancy
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Whenever major sporting events roll around, such as the Olympics or FIFA, the same snarky remarks emerge. While fans and sports media alike are spending their leisure hours peacefully invested in athletes and outcomes, critics will sit at home and scoff at the silliness of “sports ball”. This group constantly reminds people that sports are a distraction from serious issues and effectively work to deflect a population’s attention and critical thinking away from things with power. We have all heard this argument in one form or another. However, not everyone sees sports this…
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Is the News Harder to Keep Up With?
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As the 2020s roar on, world events seem to pile up faster than people can process them, leaving people feeling perpetually behind the flurry of breaking news. While Canadians have been adjusted to the 24-hour news cycle for decades, it seems like coverage feels harder than before to keep up with. Could it be that we’re genuinely living in an era that is dramatically shifting the world order, trickling into our national news-worthy dilemmas? Possibly. But many eras of instability before this have also had…
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Gambling Virus: Reducing Canada’s addiction in Sports Betting
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In today’s sports-viewing experience, you’re bound to encounter an array of aggressive gambling sponsors. Commentators will reference point spreads, FanDuel will have its logo everywhere, and if you’re lucky you’ll even get a sponsored parlay. On social media, posts sponsored by betting sites are ingrained into sports content. The online sports betting industry in Ontario came about to regulate an unenforceable industry, but now their presence has become ingrained into the sports-viewing experience for everybody. The extensive marketing strategies these online casinos and sportsbooks employ are beginning to get out of hand—and it’s undermining the…
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Taking Care of Seasonal Depression
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Exam season in the dead of winter can feel like a perfect storm—not only is the work piling up, but the days are getting shorter. You might walk out of a 2:30 to 5:30 class and realize the sun has already given up on you, despite a pile of assignments on the horizon. A lot of the time, seasonal depression can feel like a secret, personal problem. In reality, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is…
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The Brain-Training Cost of AI Shortcuts.
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What happens to critical thinking when we outsource the very process that cultivates it? AI is a slippery slope. Over the past half-decade, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) began as a novelty chatbot that could mimic conversation or tidy up an email but has quickly evolved into having a normalized presence on assignments at every level…
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Toys or Transport? Waterloo’s E-Scooter Program at a Crossroads
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The biggest threat to Waterloo’s e-scooter program isn’t mechanical failure or a lack of demand — it’s how people are riding them. The Waterloo region recently renewed and expanded its participation in Ontario’s e-scooter pilot program as of July 2025, after a successful five years of improvements to congestion and access to transport. However, the…
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Speed Cameras: Safety Measure or Revenue Machine?
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Road Safety vs. Record-Breaking Ticket Distribution Within a single year, speed cameras have gone from a niche concern to one of the most highly debated public policy battles in Ontario. Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE), and their questioned utility has come to dominate headlines across the province. What began as a safety measure in school zones…
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Child-Proof or Street-Proof? The Green Industry’s Plastic Problem.
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On any given afternoon in Waterloo, the walkways and parking lots surrounding Laurier’s campus have become littered with the colorful and bulky bags, tubes and jars for cannabis packaging. On top of a growing recycling issue, this waste has become a real eyesore to pedestrians. From bulky childproof jars to thick smell-proof bags, many feel…
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The Tie That Binds WLU Since 1926
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