Written by: Catalina S.

Simulated Country: Lizzolandia
School: Harold Panabaker Jr High School
Instructor: Ms. Loretta Lock
Location: Calgary, AB

“We need taxes for healthcare and education,” quoted Ms. McDonald. “It needs to go towards all that, and to make sure everyone has what they need to live. We need taxes for that.”

Save for a 10% global sales tax, Mr. Jiao has removed all other taxes. He’s stated that the 10% is enough to pay for what is needed to keep citizens alive and well, though some citizens are doubtful of his claim; taxes have long been used by the government to invest in the military, social security, healthcare, agricultural benefits and veteran benefits. They also go to help families who are under government funding, and to keep conditions inside of prisons stable and healthy for the prisoners.

However, this, in turn, prevents a repetition of a protest similar to that of the Boston Tea Party (December 16, 1773) in the U.S, which was a protest by against the Tea Act (passed May 10, 1773) that forced the people of Boston to pay taxes for tea, and allowed the East India Company to sell tea from China in America without paying taxes (save for the ones demanded by the Townshend Acts; 1767 – 1768).

“High taxes means more benefit for well being,” said Mr. Fusick, a member of the UPP (Mr. Jiao’s party).

Written by: Ally Ma

Simulated Country: Jamon
School: Abbey Park High School
Instructor: Mr. Morgan Lin
Location: Oakville, ON

Written by: Madeleine Dmen, Antonton Wonton, & Spedmen Migee

Simulated Country: Lizzolandia
School: Harold Panabaker Jr High School
Instructor: Ms. Loretta Lock
Location: Calgary, AB

A landslide victory for Alfred Jiao of the UPP, this result comes after a grueling day and a half campaign waged against the leader of the Midwing party, Addy MacDonald. The results leave Mr Jiao as the Prime Minister and his cabinet consisting of Mr Darryl Cheung, Mr Wyatt Fusick, Mr Mikeljan Deda, and Mr Lucas Finlay. Leaving the opposition leader as Addy MacDonald and her cabinet consisting of Tim and Mx. Cat. The first act of the new leader took was to federalize all property in order to make the country truly great.

Written by: Youngsoo Kim

Simulated Country: FROC
School: Heritage Woods Secondary
Instructor: Mr. Paul Chaffee
Location: Port Moody, BC

The year 2001 recently dawned on the Federal Republic of Chaffestan. As the marking of another era, a new year generally leads to new beginnings
and new resolutions –
in other words, it is a time of change.

Prime Minister Josh Cheng of the Peace Love and Happiness Party made clear in the House of Commons earlier this week that change is of no concern to his government. Certainly, he is interested in feigning change, and conning the citizens of FROC into believing it is actually occurring, but the idea of enacting change itself is simply foreign to him.

During the legislative procedures, Cheng and his MPs announced the creation of six bills in addition to so-called “revisions” to old bills, such as last year’s E/I bill. While these announcements were at first touted as improvements, it is in this writer’s opinion that they would do nothing to solve FROC’s problems. For example, the new Residences Bill initially demanded all rent prices capped at $950, a needlessly high number that would only lead to more citizens not being able to afford proper living conditions. Also launched was the Welfare Bill, which was to be funded by donations from FROC’s wealthiest citizens and the government deciding on which citizens would receive support. This immediately posed several issues, namely the discriminatory attitude towards the destitute.

Cheng’s government also outright ignored other problems plaguing FROC, primarily the wealth gap. It remains the biggest source of destruction to this country’s stability. The richest citizen of FROC has a whopping $18,207 more than the second richest citizen, and a good $10,671 more than the government itself. The fact that Josh Cheng and his government is spinning their wheels while a good fraction of the population is toiling in poverty is outrageous. In this writer’s opinion, despite the government’s trumpeting of all these faux-changes, it is plain to see that our leaders remains the same wolf under a different sheep’s clothing.

Written by: Kelsey Bateman

Simulated Country: Froggy Chair
School: Prescott Learning Centre
Instructor: Mrs. Christy Haggarty
Location: Spruce Grove, AB

With the election being recently finished in the land of Froggy Chair, the hex auction was expected to be an exciting affair with few alliances. This was not the case. There was talk of a “gang” that had been spread before and during the election, but it was only from a few select citizens. The CFC party ended up winning the election and formed majority government, with The Afterparty as the official opposition.

Throughout the hex auction, however, multiple citizens banded together to form what they called an “anarchy”. The anarchy began to pool together money in order to bet against the government. The government had promised in their platform that they would own the E/I hex, but the anarchy bidded over $10 000, until the government came out victorious after spending $11 000 on the valuable hex. Later in the day, they began to put up posters promoting their rebellion, including defacing the CFC party’s posters. As an MP and part of the CFC myself, I decided to ask member of the Afterparty and active member of the rebellion Victoria on her views. She said that the rebellion was formed “for fun”. When asked the goals of the rebellion, she responded simply “still deciding”. I’m very interested to see how this plays out, and I look forward to updating as the story continues.

Written by: Eli Ziehr

Simulated Country: Sporknife Island
School: St Peter the Apostle
Instructor: Mrs. Lenna Zimmer
Location: Spruce Grove, AB

Written by: Ashley D

Simulated Country: St. Wakanda
School: ST. JOHN XXIII
Instructor: Mr. Kris Christianson
Location: Edmonton, AB

Good evening my fellow St. Wakandians and welcome to the first issue of Black Panter News! This will be a (bi?)weekly newspaper covering important events in our country. In this article we will cover the results of our first ever election. After the debate, the NWO party won the majority of the seats in the House of Commons and Alex became the first Prime Minister. Josh became the leader of the Opposition, and Hazea and I became the only girls in Parliament. This is the list of people who made it to the House of Commons: Alex, Reece, Caio, Noah, Josh, Hazea, and Ashley.

Congratulations to everyone who made it in and thank you to everyone who voted and voiced their opinion. This was certainly an interesting experience. I am really excited to see what kind of laws we pass and I am looking forward to whatever this year will bring us. Thank you for tuning in to Black Panther News, have a great day.

Written by: Jessica Bear

Simulated Country: Concoria
School: Centennial Collegiate & Vocational Institute
Instructor: Ms. Katie Gad
Location: Guelph, ON

After elections the public quickly released that their government only wanted money, making only one rule that made them the only ones in control of all. Boasting about their recent “success” they spent their time relaxing. Making no laws, trade is unfair and pricey. The public races agents each other for the peanuts so that they have money. Will this government make the country bankrupt? Will the country be poor and begging for food? Will the government even stay in power? Will the public retaliate? Will the next government be better? What is in store for Concoria.

Written by: Bruce Scott

Simulated Country: ECC
School: Abbey Park High School
Instructor: Ms. Melissa Sinclair
Location: Oakville, ON

This developing story is as shocking as it sounds! The government of the island country ECC has just denied a developer electricity to build a hospital for sick kids. At this time we don’t quite know where the electricity was sent but it definitely wasn’t for sick children. This whole situation is outrageous and just goes to show how unfair the world can be sometimes.

The developers name is Bruce Scott, the developer was going to clear a small area in the north-east sector of ECC to build a hospital. Scott has the money but needs electricity for the development. Other “hexes” are currently being developed with this electricity but it is for factory’s, not hospitals. This whole situation is outrageous.

I think we can all learn a lesson from this. The lesson is that we can’t let power get in the way of our moral compass. To any other citizen, factory over hospital would sound crazy. But maybe not to a power hungry prime minister, help us here at ECC news stop this disgraceful situation.

Keep checking the news feed for current updates on this developing story.

Written by: Kieran MacDonell

Simulated Country: Sporknife Island
School: St Peter the Apostle
Instructor: Ms. Lenna Zimmer
Location: Spruce Grove, AB

Shalom my fellow Sporknifians I am glad to present to you the first edition of my annual news articles which will be talking about the previous days news and events. The auction for land mass on the island of Sporknife occurred today at 11:00 mountain time and resulted in some interesting ownership’s. Some of the highlights from this auction includes a very exciting mixup/joke made from the lack of silence in the room making for a very tense and serious moment of voting to determine whether, I, KieranM should pay 6000$ for a river hex with the outcome being no. Other highlights include bidding wars for a farm between KieranM and the government, for AndrewM’s apartment complex and finally, for the power unit between the government and JamesK. Some of the largest bids we saw today were from the wealthier of the peoples and some very notable and expensive ones being bought out from under the people by the government with the purchase of a farm for a record breaking 6,300$ and the power plant for 4,600$. Some amazing private bids that were among the most expensive are by: AndrewM for an apartment complex, JamesK for a farm, KieranM for education and EliZ for Medical services. The cheapest buys of the day were made by: MackenzieM for a green hex, NoahK for a river hex, AmberD for a house and BrianaSaskiw with a mansion. Some questions people were walking away with include the major question of how the Government will acquire such sociable things like health care for themselves with the low budget they have been left with by Prime Minister KrystianP. Will the government buy shares in the units they believe should be public and owned by them? Or will they forcefully try to take these hexes by intimidation or by hiring hackers to exploit and acquire these hexes? We have to all remain sturdy in this time of uncertainty and make sure to protect our computers and make sure they are not left unattended. Don’t forget to read up on the news everyday and protect your computer.!!!!