Opinion sections are more important than ever in the face of ongoing attacks on free expression
In 2017, The Washington Post adopted the slogan “Democracy dies in darkness,” apparently a stance on government secrecy and the importance of journalism.
For many, the slogan now reads differently.
After a few months of scandalously heavy-handed management from Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos—especially his preventing the editorial board from endorsing a presidential candidate in 2024—the paper has lost subscribers and respect in journalism.
What has been perceived as Bezos’s support of Donald Trump has left many questioning whether he really stands by the slogan his paper adopted under his ownership. But never mind his almost flagrant support of an anti-democratic demagogue—his greatest betrayal of the slogan is his attack on the paper’s opinions section.
Bezos shared the note he sent his opinions staff in a recent tweet. It explained that going forward, the opinion pages will print articles in support and defence of “free markets and personal liberties” every day. He went further, suggesting that dissenting opinions would not be published, though opinions on other topics could be published to supplement the page's content.
While the decision isn’t surprising coming from a man who is worth nearly $200 billion thanks to so-called free markets, Bezos demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of the purpose of an opinions section and of their evolving role in a digital world.
As a writer for The Silhouette, part of my job is to meet our mandate—a short two-paragraph mission statement shared with every staff member during training. The mandate explains that we are a paper by and for McMaster students.
Thus, our coverage needs to be relevant to the McMaster community, the Hamilton community and/or McMaster students. Our editorial board has generally favoured relevance to students as the most important aspect of this mandate.
But what may seem like a difficult restriction to some—I admit, some weeks are harder than others—is not arbitrary. When done right, it's what makes the opinions section valuable.
While Jeff Bezos is right that you can find just about any opinion on the internet, he fails to recognize one of the key roles of a successful opinions section in using this as a justification for his decision to publish only pro-capitalist pieces. A good opinions section or piece should be as much, if not more, about demonstrating why an issue is important to an audience as it is about convincing them of your opinion.
For The Silhouette, this means that our job is not just to provide a platform for writers to express their positions but to draw the student community's collective attention to issues that are important to us. Opinions remind their audience that they are part of something bigger.
Opinions remind their audience that they are part of something bigger
Newspaper audiences are not collections of isolated individuals. They are student bodies, cities, provinces and countries. Opinions pages don’t exist to contribute to the never-ending discourse the internet enables. Rather, opinions sections exist to direct the shared attention of the communities they serve toward issues they ought to think about.
Whether it be tying American abortion debates to opportunities for student activism or xenophobic federal policies to the shared experience of the student housing crisis, opinions pages are an opportunity to unite a community through shared discussion. In an increasingly isolated world, this is more important than ever.
Community dies in darkness; only the shared light of our attention can keep it alive.
Community dies in darkness; only the shared light of our attention can keep it alive
The Silhouette accepts requests for student contributions through our website. Help us build a community by contributing your voice.
Following the provincial election results, maybe it is time to get more involved with and volunteer with the MSU
If the 2025 Ontario provincial election was your first time voting, you may have woken up disappointed last Friday morning. I am told you get used to this feeling and admittedly, three elections in, it feels, if not less disappointing, less catastrophic.
It’s hard not to feel like a lost election is a catastrophe though, especially when a flawed electoral system and low turnout contributed to a party that received votes from less than 20 per cent of the province’s population holding on to power. It is even harder when one of the election’s few local highlights is Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas, the riding that is home to McMaster, where only 55 per cent of registered voters casted their ballots.
When we promote voting and elections as the most important element of politics, it's difficult to see past these disappointments. But, if we treat voting as the bare minimum of political engagement, we can recognize the opportunities for political action that are all around us, especially as students.
if we treat voting as the cornerstone, only the foundation, the bare minimum of political engagement, we can recognize the opportunities for political action that are all around us, especially as students.
In Jan. 2019, the first of Doug Ford's provincial governments in Ontario announced the Student Choice Initiative, a directive designed to categorize student fees into two categories: essential and ancillary. What at first may look like an effort to save students money was challenged in court by the Canadian Federation of Students as a brazen attack on student organizing.
Far from just an opportunistic move to gain the support of students who may not have been informed about the services their student union fees make possible, Doug Ford’s move was an attack on the principles of student unionism. This attack demonstrates the conservative, individualistic value system that fuels his party.
Regardless of their flaws, student unions are valuable mechanisms for students to engage in politics. Students can get involved in politics through their university unions not just through municipal, provincial, or federal lobbying, but by participating and volunteering for services, clubs, community centres, and media.
While many of us stew over our collective frustration at another conservative government whose election platform promises no meaningful alleviation to the difficulties of student life, we should be thoughtful about where we direct our energy. You may see calls to donate to local charities, or feel pressure to put your co-op or internships to good use at an NGO doing good work in the community.
While working with or donating to charities and NGOs can help people, student unions are vehicles of collective and community power in a way that charities can't always be.
Far from just a service provider, our student union is a vehicle to pool our collective resources. It is a way by which to develop, through an admittedly imperfect democratic process, ways to support one another and to implement these supports by engaging community members and giving them the skills they need to provide them.
The McMaster Students Union allows students to express meaningful solidarity with one another, whether through voting in a referendum to provide hundreds of free meals a day or working in the union-owned restaurant that is going to make those meals.
The MSU allows students to express meaningful solidarity with one another, whether through voting in a referendum to provide hundreds of free meals a day, or working in the union-owned restaurant that is going to make those meals.
This solidarity is inherently political and building a stronger MSU is a way, maybe the best way, for students to express their opposition to a political project that has attempted to crush solidarity in favour of an obsession with individualism.
While the Student Choice Initiative was defeated, student unions still need students to work to strengthen them. Students need to engage themselves and other students in the collective effort of union life; only our engagement can strengthen the MSU's foundation in the principle of solidarity.
When I woke up last Friday Morning, I was disappointed at the results of the provincial election. But, I know the work that I do along with my colleagues at the Silhouette and the MSU is a more impactful form of community work and action than voting once every four years.
If you are one of the many students upset by the results of the provincial election, don’t just accept defeat. Don’t just promise to vote next time. Do something tangible and politically meaningful with your short time as a student and get involved with the MSU.
The city of Hamilton indicates support for Canada’s Bill C-18 by ceasing advertisements on Facebook and Instagram
On Oct. 11, Hamilton city council passed a motion to stop posting non-essential municipal government advertisements on social media platforms owned by Meta.
This move by the municipal government is an act in solidarity with the Canadian federal government’s recently filed Bill C-18.
This move by the municipal government is an act in solidarity with the Canadian federal government’s recently filed Bill C-18.
Bill C-18, the Online News Act received Royal Assent in June 2023. The act requires big tech companies, such as Meta, to come to agreements with Canadian news outlets in order to compensate them for featuring and sharing links to the outlets' content. As part of this bill, Meta could be required to pay as much as $234 million to news outlets in Canada.
In response to the legislation though, which Meta believes to be flawed, the company has made news content unavailable and unviewable to individuals residing in Canada.
People residing in Canada who attempt to access news content on Meta platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, are presented with a message stating that they cannot see news content in response to the legislation.
The motion to halt advertisements on Meta platforms in solidarity with Bill C-18 was put forth on Oct. 4 by councillor John-Paul Danko of Ward 8. Though support for the motion was not unanimous, with concerns being brought forth regarding the impact on the city’s ability to relay information to citizens, the motion passed two weeks after proposal.
Danko defended the motion by stating that while there may be an effect on reaching citizens, these can be managed. He also stated that Bill C-18 is important for protecting Canadian journalism and media outlets from large tech companies like Meta.
Danko defended the motion by stating that while there may be an effect on reaching citizens, these can be managed. He also stated that Bill C-18 is important for protecting Canadian journalism and media outlets from large tech companies like Meta.
The city of Hamilton is not alone in its decision to boycott Meta as a show of support for the Online News Act and the federal government. The governments of Quebec City and the Province of Quebec, as well as the federal government itself, have also made the same decision as Hamilton.
While talks between the federal government and Meta are ongoing, it remains unclear for how long Meta's news ban on their platforms will continue and when the situation will be resolved.
This is an ongoing story.
Please note that this event has been postponed until further notice due to the COVID-19 Virus. For more information please visit: https://accahamilton.com
Since 1979, the Afro Canadian Caribbean Association has been creating a sense of community and empowerment in the African-Canadian Caribbean community in Hamilton. Evelyn Myrie, the president of ACCA, says that even though African-Canadians have been here for hundreds of years, they are still treated as though they don’t belong in this country. On March 13-14, ACCA will be holding an event called “We Are Planted Here: Narratives in Belonging”. The event will combine art and advocacy to dismantle this assumption, establishing the right that African Canadians have to feel at home in Canada, because it is their home.
“[T]he objective of this initiative, symposium, celebration is to assert our existence and long-standing presence on these lands, on this land of Canada . . . there is still a perception [when] you're walking on the streets, there's an assumption that you are from another place. So it's really to situate our position as Canadians in various locations, to have conversations about our rich and diverse contributions to this land and to reassert our presence here . . . We're located here socially, politically and economically,” said Myrie.
Not only is the physical presence of the Black community ignored, but so too are their contributions to Canada. Myrie says that she hopes the event will help to educate people both inside and outside of the Black community about Black history in Canada. She says that many of the social and human rights that we currently have were fought for by the Black community.
“[P]eople don't know that human rights laws, housing laws, we were the ones who were the canary in the mine, because we were the ones who suffered those experiences [and fought] to change laws, immigration laws, especially; Black people were not allowed to come to Canada and it was Black people who fought against [that]. And now we have a whole slew of different people coming to Canada—and wonderfully so—racialized people, who sometimes forget or don't know that they are benefiting from the struggles of the Black community,” said Myrie.
“[P]eople don't know that human rights laws, housing laws, we were the ones who were the canary in the mine, because we were the ones who suffered those experiences [and fought] to change laws, immigration laws, especially; Black people were not allowed to come to Canada and it was Black people who fought against [that]. And now we have a whole slew of different people coming to Canada—and wonderfully so—racialized people, who sometimes forget or don't know that they are benefiting from the struggles of the Black community,”
In the early days of mining, miners are said to have brought canaries with them into mines they worked in. Canaries are more vulnerable to carbon monoxide and other poisonous gases than humans, so a dead or sick canary would alert the miners to danger. In this metaphor, Myrie is suggesting that because Black people are far more likely to experience human rights violations, it frequently and unequally falls on their shoulders to fight for social change. Because they are so unequally adversely affected, they are the first to know when laws need to be changed. They were and are the canary in the coal mine.
Myrie hopes that this event will educate attendees on the pervasiveness of anti-Black racism and the othering of Black people, and the ways that this continues to be perpetuated in Canada, and that it will also encourage allies to examine their own actions and biases, and how they can seek to call out this behaviour in their day-to-day lives. Othering is a part of colonial discourse that creates an “Us versus Them” narrative, where the dominant group becomes accepted and the marginalized group is dehumanized and made into the “Other”. This manifests itself as increased violence towards marginalized groups, and removing them from mainstream media and discourse.
“So to us, anti-Black racism is a key part of this, because it's really just like white supremacy in that it keeps knowledge away . . . So we're telling our stories, because we know that anti-Black racism has kept those stories away from curriculums,” said Myrie.
“So to us, anti-Black racism is a key part of this, because it's really just like white supremacy in that it keeps knowledge away . . . So we're telling our stories, because we know that anti-Black racism has kept those stories away from curriculums,”
“We Are Planted Here: Narratives in Belonging” is a two day symposium. On Friday, March 13, there will be an evening of art and spoken word at the ACCA Banquet Hall (754 Barton St. E), and on Saturday March 14 there will be academic and community discussions at the Hamilton Central Library (55 York Blvd.). Both events are free.
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