News

<p>Canadian post-secondary students who receive federal student loans won&#8217;t have to start paying them back until they earn a minimum of $40,000 per year, according to Canada&#8217;s labour minister. Seamus O&#8217;Regan and Saint John-Rothesay Member of Parliament Wayne Long met with students and faculty at the New Brunswick Community College in Saint John, N.B. Thursday, [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The federal and provincial governments announced last week both will make good on election campaign promises by permanently eliminating the interest accumulated on student loans. According to a news release, the Government of New Brunswick said on Oct. 31 that the move would take effect on Nov. 1, but added that interest accumulated prior to [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva, who served as president from 2003 to 2010, won the Brazilian elections against incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro on Oct. 30. The Brazilian elections were among the most polarized in the country’s history, with the voting gap between the two candidates being less than two per cent. Bolsonaro has yet to [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The St. Thomas University Students’ Union released a report showing the results of a student survey as part of its More Than Tuition campaign. STUSU launched the survey last summer, asking students about their preferred methods of communication, knowledge of STUSU and main advocacy concerns. STUSU based the report on the responses of 267 students. [&hellip;]</p>

<p>STUSU&#8217;s retreat  St. Thomas University Students&#8217; Union will have a retreat at the Delta Hotel during reading week. At the event, the representatives will listen to a presentation by former STUSU&#8217;s vice president of education Sydona Chandon, as well as the New Brunswick Student Alliance and the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations. Alex Nguyen, STUSU&#8217;s [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The Neurodivergence Collective of New Brunswick offers a peer-to-peer community for neurodivergent people in the province and has garnered nearly 300 followers in their Facebook group. It began as a series of subgroups focused on autism and intersecting 2SLGBTQIA+ identities, then converged into a united collective extending to all neurodivergent communities. Each subgroup manages its [&hellip;]</p>

<p>St. Thomas University’s pilot Community Connectors program strives to alleviate social isolation in seniors by providing them with information about opportunities for engagement in the community.  Set to launch in January, the program involves a network of volunteers with Meals on Wheels will provide information for those who seek community activities. The method of outreach [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Wendy Wong, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia, gave a lecture on human rights in the digital age at this year’s Dr. Bernie Vigod Memorial Lecture in Human Rights. The lecture, titled “We, the Data: Claiming Human Rights in the Digital Age,” took place on Oct. 20 and explored the challenges [&hellip;]</p>

<p>On Oct. 25, students gathered in the University of New Brunswick&#8217;s Student Union Building to meet Fredericton member of parliament Jenica Atwin.  Atwin came as part of “Coffee with Your MP,” which was an open dialogue on issues such as immigration, mental health, public healthcare, education and Truth and Reconciliation.  Atwin said she wanted to [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Former minister of education and early childhood development Dominic Cardy resigned via a letter on Oct. 13 citing disagreements on French immersion as the cause. In the letter, Cardy wrote that an incident with Premier Blaine Higgs was his last straw. Higgs allegedly said &#8220;data my ass&#8221; after seeing positive statistics on the effectiveness of [&hellip;]</p>

<p>More Than Tuition Report Alex Nguyen, president of the St. Thomas University Students’ Union, said the results of the More Than Tuition survey were published in the form of a report. The report contains statistics and graphics about students’ preferred methods of communication, knowledge of advocacy groups and concerns about costs such as housing and [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The University of New Brunswick’s faculty of law is making it easier for transgender and non-binary people to update legal names and gender markers in government-issued documents.   Five UNB law students and five lawyers from McInnes Cooper, an Atlantic Canadian law firm, held a virtual clinic, in partnership with Imprint Youth Association, on Oct. 21 [&hellip;]</p>

<p>“We just want to go home as soon as we can.” That is the wish of a Ukrainian couple I met on a street in Reims, France, in late May. Their city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest, has been constantly bombarded by Russian forces since the beginning of the full-scale invasion on Feb. 24. My Russian [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The Canadian government announced on Oct. 7 that it will temporarily extend the hours that international students can work off-campus to combat labour shortages. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said the new rules take effect on Nov. 15 and will boost sectors facing severe labour shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Prior to the announcement, international [&hellip;]</p>

<p>More Than Tuition campaign Alex Nguyen, president of the St. Thomas University Students’ Union, said phase one of the More Than Tuition campaign is almost finished. It began with a survey to garner student feedback on, among many topics, how they spend their money aside from tuition. The survey’s results will be transformed into graphics [&hellip;]</p>

<p>A new report published by New Brunswick’s child, youth and seniors advocate on Oct. 3 shows concerns about the province’s long-term plans for mental health services and calls for more specifics on the roll-out of policies.  Kelly Lamrock wrote in his report that the general healthcare system is “not good enough yet, but better” than [&hellip;]</p>

<p>New Brunswick’s recent increase to its minimum wage has many students questioning if it will actually help combat the rising cost of living at a time when inflation rates continue to soar. The provincial government announced in 2021 that it would raise the minimum wage from $11.75 to $13.75 by the end of 2022. Officials [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Low engagement during the St. Thomas University Students’ Union fall by-election on Oct. 7 resulted in only one out of 11 positions being filled. Fourth-year student Madison LeBlanc was the only person to participate in this year’s election when she put her name forward as grad class president. Minahil Fatima, STUSU’s vice-president of administration, said [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Bev Sappier had no hesitation about travelling an hour to Fredericton on Oct. 4 to participate in the Sisters in Spirit Vigil. Sappier joined Gail Standingready, Val Polchies, Autumn Sappier-Paul, Ida Brooks Henry and Sylvia Paul at the event, held at the Wolastoqey Burial Grounds in Fredericton, to honour Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls [&hellip;]</p>

<p>A power outage in the Fredericton area caused around 16,000 residents, including the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University, to lose electricity, according to NB Power. The outage started at approximately 7 p.m. and affected most of the city&#8217;s south side. It is unknown at this time what caused the outage. Gaia Noseworthy, [&hellip;]</p>