On the 9th of January 2022, the U.S. Figure Skating Championships sent figure skating fans into an uproar. The United States Figure Skating Association chose to give a long program with underrotated jumps and a fall more points than a completely clean one. Avid watchers of the sport could clearly see the difference between each contender’s performances and demanded a much-deserved win for the perfect free skate. The judges, however, did not acknowledge this at all and let it slide by without a word- perhaps even on purpose. This wasn’t the only irrational score in the event, though. Nathan Chen’s skate included 2 falls, which would be counted as serious errors. In the case of these, there’s a maximum amount of points allowed for each component category: 3 of them have a cap of 9.25, and for 2, it’s 8.75. Nonetheless, 3 of the judges broke this rule many times when scoring Chen’s program.

This isn’t something new, either - unfair scoring has made an appearance in figure skating for many years. In the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, the Canadian pair skated clean while the Russians did not, but somehow the latter country received the higher score. Marie-Reine Le Gougne, a judge involved in this scandal, actually admitted outright that she had been pressured to vote for the Russian competitors. This led to the system of anonymous judging, which has been used in every competition since.

One of the most - if not absolute most - famous occurence of cheating from the judges panel is undoubtedly the ladies singles competition from the Sochi Olympics of 2014. Between Adelina Sotnikova and Yuna Kim, the former ended up taking the gold medal. However, Sotnikova stumbled through a critical combination, while on the other hand, Yuna Kim skated completely cleanly. Now, if we look at the grade of execution points (GOE) given to each skater, we can clearly see that many, if not all of the judges gave Sotnikova +3 for most of the jumps. That was the highest amount of GOE points that someone can possibly get on a jump back then. Looking over at Kim’s scoring sheet, most of the judges gave her +2s and +1s! She was majorly underscored, whilst Sotnikova’s score was severely inflated. To this day, people still debate over these controversial results.

Figure skating and its judging system has become entirely corrupted through the years- and if this continues, we may be seeing another one of these scandals in the upcoming Beijing Olympics. It’s terrible how such a beautiful sport has turned into one of bias and injustice, and people may lose interest in figure skating completely if this twisted system doesn’t come to a close.

You’re in a parking lot of the supermarket, you’ve just got out of the car, then suddenly a person starts walking up to you shouting rude and offensive comments about how you look. This is an example of discrimination. Discrimination is a very serious problem that has been a big cause of bad mental health for many years. Being discriminated against for what you look like can really hurt, and can lower your self esteem. This can lead to mental illnesses like depression or anxiety. But why are people being discriminated against?

People are being discriminated against for the color of their skin and their race, for example the people who are being discriminated against are black people, asians, and indigenous communities. This is a very bad reason for discriminating against someone, and we souldn’t even be discriminating agaisnt anyone for anything. In an article written by BBC, it was said that US Olympian Sunisa Lee was pepper sprayed in racist attack. Sunisa Lee shared in an interview with PopSugar that she and her friends, who were all of asian descent, were attacked by a man driving by who shouted ethic slurs and said “go back to where you came from”. Sunisa Lee accomplished a lot in the Summer of 2021. She won gold in gymnastics and is the first US-Hmong Olympian. Everyone should be supporting her, not attacking her for her race. It is very important that she shared her experience of being discriminated against, because now more people know that this is happening and it is a very serious problem.

But why aren’t many people aware of this problem? Many of us don’t know that people are being badly treated for basically no reason, because we aren’t being treated that way ourselves, and not many people are talking about it. According to CTV News, about six-in-ten Canadian kids have witnessed bullying based on race. And a study conducted by UBC Researchers have shown that indigenous children are twice as likely to be bullied as white youth, and when teachers are asked if they are intervening one-quarter say they are either ignoring it or being completely oblivious to the situation. This shows that not many people are sharing their experience of being bullied because of their race, and people don’t want to admit that their ancestors or someone they know has done something like this.

In conclusion, we should support our friends and family who might be experiencing this, and speak out if we went through this ourselves. We need to work together to put a stop to discrimination, because we are all equal no matter what we look like.

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his cabinet last year, I thought it would be the best cabinet ever to be made, because I thought in consideration to LGBTQ2+ and BIPOC, surely Mr. Trudeau would have more diversity in his team, in large roles, or even people of different kinds, as Prime Minister. As it turned out, there wasn’t enough diversity of people of different beliefs, race, or sexual orientation. I was shocked and disappointed. I thought in the recent years of protests, problems, and awareness of diversity in people, Mr. Trudeau’s cabinet could have been a reflection of the LGBTQ2+ and BIPOC community.

The Prime Minister's cabinet needs to have more leaders of colour and race. Some people who are African Canadian or Indigenous could be included into a large, visible role with the country. It would also show that our country is more inclusive with other people, and also shows that all different types of people, no matter what, can run a country. After what has happened with racism and the uncovering of the Indigenous children, we need to emerge from these problems stronger, to show that we accept our country’s wrongdoings and are working to put strong voices to represent everyone in this country.

It isn’t really fair to have only “straight” people being Prime Ministers. We need to have bisexual, asexual, lesbian, e.t.c, to govern a country. Justin Trudeau can include more LGBTQ2+ people to show the country that we are trying to have inclusivity in our world and that THEY can run a country. We can also have more perspectives of different kinds of people to make better decisions in the future. The future could also inspire other people to be whatever they want to be, even though they feel unsure of themselves in all our communities. After what has been recently happening in our world, the world has been more open to other kinds of people and we can include more LGBTQ2+ people into our country. We’ve never had any type of LGBTQ2+ person and someone should step up to have a major role in our country to govern. It doesn’t matter if you are queer and still has a major job in the country (such as Prime Minister)! A lot of famous people are slowly beginning to open themselves up about their sexuality too!

It’s time for a big change. With climate change, the omicron variant, racism, homophobia, and many more problems in the world, it is time for more people to have a say in this global crisis of problems. More people included in a big say, means more perspectives and views of these “crises’.

There she was, waiting for me at the front of the school. After everything she’s done to me, she’s going to act like we’re okay? Wow.

I walked over casually, “Hey!” I exclaimed.

Weird looks from everyone, people whispering to each other’s ears. I looked around. What was it?

I looked over to my other group of friends and waved at them. Eye rolls, laughter.

“Oh, looks like nobody wants to be your friend now,” she snarled and walked away.

Confusion filled my mind as I tried my best to think if I did anything wrong, but nope. Not that I know of.

Oh, I know. It’s because I hung out with someone who wasn’t her over the weekend. She’s mad, she’s jealous, so she’s getting revenge by telling everyone I did things that I never have. I should have known.

Why is she like this? Why can’t she let people have freedom to do and hangout with who and whatever they want? She always does this. Sending death threats and telling people to stay away from me, just because I went to the mall with another friend.

I’ve had enough of her.

Freedom is important. To me, to you, to everyone.

Everyone deserves the right to hang out with whoever they want and do whatever they want. If someone’s a real friend, they’ll have the actual qualities to be a friend, which includes letting people have the freedom to hang out with whoever.

Nobody should ever be in control of another’s life.