Tag Archives: movies

Vive la Francophonie!

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French flag

Every March, we celebrate Francophonie Month. Here in Canada, 22% of the population speaks French as their first official language, over 10 million Canadians speak enough French to carry on a conversation, and we all learn at least some French at school (well, we have French classes in school, how much we learn in those classes is a different question). Even so, French is a minority language in most of Canada, and the modernized Official Languages Act (2023) includes commitments for the Government of Canada to protect and promote the French language, including in Quebec.[1]

For our part, Vaughan Public Libraries reaffirms the place of French language collections and services as essential and core library services. French is one of Canada’s official languages and Ontario is the home of the largest number of francophones outside Québec in the country. Within its borders, the City of Vaughan has over a dozen French Immersion schools, three French language schools, and two francophone school boards.  

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Valloween – When love is hell, sometimes literally

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Red roses with black background, from PickPik

Yes, we’re doing it again! We’re taking a holiday that has nothing to do with Halloween but giving it a creepy spin. Why? Because we can. And funny enough, in this case it really works. Maybe not on every holiday but Valentine’s Day just seems to blend nicely with terror. I mean, it is already covered in red…

So welcome to Valloween, the latest in our ongoing series of me talking about how you can take beloved holidays and turn them into another reason to get scary.

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Beep Boop: Robots to Fall in Love With

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Will artificial intelligence take over the world? Maybe it already is! Oddly enough, I can’t help but imagine AI as robots in some sort of unknown void, running the chat engines that (perhaps too many) people rely on for information or entertainment. The sci-fi part of me keeps thinking about T-800s and Skynet; it’s why I always try to say “please” and “thank you” whenever I use AI chatbots for brainstorming and basic research. Hopefully I’ll stay on their good side if robots do have hostile plans to seize our planet!

Close up picture of a green robot figurine. Image by Phillip Glickman via Unsplash.
Photo by Phillip Glickman on Unsplash

Hyperbole aside, since we are in a new year, it does feel like we’re one step closer towards AI becoming even more ubiquitous than it already is. If you search on YouTube for “deepfakes before vs now,” you’ll see a bunch of clips on how realistic it’s been getting within a span of a few short years. The hardest punch to the gut was when a friend informed me that em dashes are becoming synonymous with the use of AI.  As an em dash fanatic, I can assure you that this post wasn’t composed by AI — even if I pump out em dashes every other sentence. Let’s take a look at robots in popular culture, some of whom may or may not be powered by AI, and determine whether they’re friends or foes!

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