If you haven’t checked out any of our contest winners, now is definitely the time. This week we’re presenting the fiction winner of The Voice Writing contest, it’s entitled Stray Dogs and is a story that is absolutely worth the read. Seriously, I’d love to just go on about this one, but I don’t want to spoil your chance at having the same type of first impression that I got. Stop wasting your time reading this if you haven’t already read that, it’s that good, in my opinion, and deserved the win. Go. Go now.
Okay, now that you’ve done that, we can get back to business. Obviously Stray Dogs is one of the things we’re featuring this week, and congratulations again to Catherine Moise on winning the Fiction side of The Voice Magazine’s Writing Contest, but not to be outdone, we’re also featuring student and Voice Magazine writer Adrienne Braithwaite in this week’s “Minds We Meet”, what happens when a newly trained teacher starts her first practicum and then COVID-19 blows apart the standard classroom system? Read her story to find out.
Also this week, Jessica Young returns with an epiphany as to how she’s now old. She’s turning twenty-seven. I have to admit, I’m not sure how to react to that. Not without (carbon) dating myself, at any rate. But it struck me as a reminder that no matter how “old” we think we are, there’s probably people out there who think we don’t know what we’re talking about, and that means instead of thinking we’re old and despairing, we can celebrate how young we are when compared to those others. But is that a form of schadenfrude? Regardless, it’s still a good read, so be sure to check it out.
Also this week, Jeff Shermack brings forward a rant about the Canadian Census. This is one of those articles that I disagree with, but my viewpoint isn’t the only one. I worked the census one year, and while most people are good natured about the whole thing (even the long form) there are some who aren’t, and often simply letting them know that there was a possibility of fines involved was enough to get you in the door. Once that was done and the people got to understand how little personal information was asked for, and what the census was used for, they’d often come around to supporting it. Part of the problem of the census is that a lot of people don’t actually know what’s being asked—they just have a knee-jerk reaction to being asked anything by the government, and even fewer know how that information is used and why it’s important.
Of course, that’s just my opinion. You should go read his for an alternative take.
We also have the council meeting report in which we learned about three councillors all leaving the group and prompting a new by-election to be happening in the next few months. I managed to talk with one of those leaving and get her comment on why, and what advice she’d give to people who decide to run in the by-election.
And of course news, reviews, events, scholarships and more! So enjoy the read, I know that I did! Especially Stray Dogs.
