Alvin and Brittany, along with their friends, have extraordinary singing talents. When they are forced to move to Los Angeles because their house burned down, they get discovered by a small struggling music label owner – Dave. Alvin and Brittany have been dating for 3 years prior and are still in love. Dave forms a band with Alvin as the centre along with Theodore, Simon and Brittany. However, Alvin’s band is failing, they are not making money and Dave’s small record label can barely support them. During a gig at a local cruise ship, Brittany gets scouted by a large record label – Dee’s Big Hits – to be a solo artist. However, the contract also entails a dating ban. Back at home, Dave produces a new track – The Chipmunk Song – that he swears will be THE BREAKTHROUGH.

In 2023, Canada passed Bill C-18 or the online news act. This limited the bargaining power of news corporations and “digital news intermediaries” (in this case, social media and television companies) for the purpose of balancing the visibility and power held by major news sources (ie. CBC). As a response to this bill, companies like Meta (including Facebook and Instagram) has removed all Canadian news source accounts from their platforms.

Since the assassination of the Haitian prime minister in 2021, the Haitian government has collapsed to gang violence with its prime minister recently resigning. In 2021, the Haitian police force (HNP) suffered over 100 casualties and mass declines down to less than 9000 officers for a country with over 11 million citizens. For scale, the city of New York has over 36,000 officers for around 8 million citizens. The Haitian capital, Port-au–Prince, is estimated to be 90% in full gang control with over 2000 civilians dying each year in gang violence. In response, the UN has launched the MSS (the Multinational Security Support Mission) in Haiti, led by Kenya. For 2 years that this mission has been active, there’s been little to marginal change in any aspect. The UN has the Responsibility to Protect doctrine (R2P), giving them the power to infringe a country’s national sovereignty with military involvement and political influence to try to gain peace. Preserving Haiti’s autonomy is a top priority. Past peacekeeping missions in similar states have had some success, however not guaranteed.

After hundreds of years of french-english disputes, irrecognition of Quebecois culture and people in Canada, there was an overwhelming will of the Quebecois people to establish independence. In 1980, Quebec held an official referendum (an official citizen vote) on whether or not to secede from Canada. Secession is the act of removing oneself from the past state, in this case Canada, to establish a new, independent, sovereign, nation-state. The results of this referendum was 59.56% for staying as part of Canada and 40.44% for seceding. Post referendum, the Canadian government has given the Quebecois provincial government slight devolutions of power (ie. ability to set their own taxes, separate provincial social services and the recognition of French as an official language) however the people still feel alienated from the rest of Canada. 

The “American Dream” is the ideal by which equality of opportunity is available to any American, allowing the highest aspirations and goals to be achieved.

The Experience Machine is a device that simulates their life with any experiences the participant could ever want (eg. pure happiness, the experience of being in love, the experience of enjoying friendships, etc.). The participant cannot distinguish any difference between the simulated happiness and reality. The machine is guaranteed not to fail or break down. Once you plug into the machine, you cannot later opt out and return to Reality.

The right to burn is the right to use carbon and related products to grow a country's economy. This concept is often invoked by developing nations during international climate negotiations to justify their continued use of fossil fuels for economic growth.

You and your debate partner are successful debaters with a strong partnership. You have broken at numerous tournaments and still have at least another year to continue competing together. You have recently discovered feelings for your partner.

An iPad kid describes a child who is raised with an overreliance on technological devices (i.e. parents offering screentime to their children as an incentive to perform chores, infant tantrums being resolved with cocomelon videos)