March 18, 2024

Local reflections on the Winter Olympics

The Winter Olympics officially ended on Feb. 20 after lots of ups and downs, but not just for the athletes.  International viewership was at an all-time low for the Games for multiple reasons. Only 11.4 million people watched during Olympic primetime, a significant decrease from the 2018 Olympics. There were several political issues surrounding the games and COVID-19 was still ongoing. Multiple countries, including Canada, avoided sending officials to the … Continued

Blood Donor Olympics

The Blood Donor Olympics held to raise awareness to donating blood. BY JOSH PEDERSON

“Modern Russia” – not yet

By JOSH BURY As the world said goodbye to Sochi and the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, speeches by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and Sochi’s mayor, Anatoly Pakhomov, lauded a “modern Russia” that had emerged to greet the world. This new nation was supposedly, as a billboard in Sochi proclaimed, “Russia – Great, New, Open.” Bach did his part to reinforce this message by mentioning the country’s supposed resurgence … Continued

Stray dogs killed in Canada too

BY TYLER BATTEN The Sochi Games are rife with controversy, but perhaps, among the many, none have gone so viral and pulled on as many western heartstrings as the mass extermination of hundreds, some say thousands, of stray dogs. The Sochi stray news is all the more biting following the widespread rumour that Chinese and eastern European clothing manufacturers have, for years, been using dog fur as hood liners for … Continued