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LOCAL
by Saturn de Los Angeles

Quebec's slow implementation of a bill intended to work in favor of transgender people is leaving the community in limbo. 
 
In a report by CBC News, Bill 35 is supposed to allow transgender-identified people to legally change their gender marker on official documents without going through reassignment surgery. 

However, due to a delay with the legislation review at the National Assembly, Transgender advocate Caroline Trottier-Gascon says that the longer the wait, the more difficult the obstacles transgender Quebeckers will have to face, most notably with discrimination and transphobia. 

Quebec Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée wrote in an email that the government is determined to honor its commitment to facilitate the dealings of transgendered people with the province, 

NATIONAL
by Tom Matukala

On Tuesday, hackers of the cheating website AshleyMadison.com kept their word on a threat to release a huge stash of on-line data stolen roughly a month ago.

LOCAL
by Saturn de Los Angeles

A campaign to strengthen the provinces anti-smoking regulations is underway. 

According to CBC News, a group representing 174 municipalities across Quebec -including Montreal- passed a resolution on Sunday, urging the province to push the regulations on public smoking even further.

As consultations on Bill 44 begin this week, topics on the table will include a crack down on tobacco and e-cigarettes, prohibiting smoking on terraces, in vehicles in the presence of 16 year olds and the sale of flavoured tobacco. 

The municipalities are calling to have Quebec's smoking rate drop by 10 per cent over the next 10 years as well. 

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NATIONAL
by Patricia Petit Liang

A new learning movement is gaining popularity in different parts of Canada as students prepare to head back to school.

According to CTV News, students watch online lessons and do their homework at school as part of a new teaching method called the “flipped classroom”.

A high school in Ontario flipped their classrooms- but required all students to have a laptop or tablet in order to watch the lessons, making it difficult for low-income students who may not be able to afford their own laptops.

However, flipped classrooms seem to have a positive influence on students.

LOCAL
by Tom Matukala

Concordia and Mcgill are set to be the first university campuses to house the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy group, which lobbies for reforms at the federal, provincial and municipal levels.

In a report by the Montreal gazette, the group advocates for dealing with drug usage as a health issue rather than criminally.

The group is also supporting the legalization of marijuana, fighting against minimum sentences for drug related offences, and advocating for safe needle exchanges.

The group says they want to promote safety over everything.

NATIONAL
by Patricia Petit Liang

Prime Minister Stephen Harper explained to citizens why he is opposed to the legalization of marijuana and safe-injection sites for drug users on Tuesday while campaigning in Toronto.

According to CTV News, Harper made several claims about drugs may not have been completely accurate.

Harper stated that the legalization of marijuana in Colorado has made it more available to children. 

However, while studies in the US are lacking, studies have found that since drugs were decriminalized in the Netherlands in 1976, cannabis use among young adults has declined.

Harper also claimed that marijuana use has been declining in Canada. 

While reports seem to find that people between the ages of 15 to 17 have been smoking less marijuana, more and more people are using it in and after their late twenties.

Harper did however support the use of programs that provide treatment to drug users, saying Canadas anti-drug strategy is based on prevention, enforcement, but most of all treatment.