Guelph Politicast

GUELPH POLITICAST #372 - When Lunch Attacks

There are about 1,700 food-based businesses across the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph region, and they all get regularly inspected, but sometimes accidents happen, just like it did last month at a luncheon for International Women’s Day at an Orangeville hotel and conference centre. We've made it through the COVID-19 health emergency, but what happens when the health crisis is something we ate?
On March 8th, Family Transition Place in Orangeville held their annual International Women’s Day Celebration Luncheon, and for the first time in three years it was in-person. The venue was the Best Western Plus Orangeville Inn & Suites, the number of guests was in the neighbourhood of 244, and at some point during the event, people started getting sick.
By 2:30 that afternoon, the reports started coming in. People were sick with various symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, and nausea and the likely source was something they ate at the luncheon, food prepared by an outside caterer used by the hotel. In all, 88 people said that they experienced symptoms, and eventually the culprit was identified as Bacillus cereus. It was on the quinoa and sweet potato in the chicken bowl, but how did Public Health put it all together?
Paul Medeiros, who is a Manager of Environmental Health at Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, will walk us step-by-step through the investigative process, from the reporting, to the investigation, to the testing, and the conclusions. We will talk about the ways that Public Health prepares for these crises, whether there’s more general awareness about public health in these now post-pandemic times, and how new food-based businesses are making the job of food inspectors harder. Plus, what happens next time?
So let's talk about investigating a lunch gone bad on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can check out Medeiros’ report in the May Board of Health meeting package at the Public Health website, or you can see Guelph Politico’s coverage of the meeting for the relevant links. Mangez!, Guelph Politico’s dine safe guide, still gets published at the first and 16th of every month, but if you just can’t wait, can see all the latest inspection results here.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, Stitcher, Google, TuneIn and Spotify .
Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

Open Sources Guelph #424 - May 4, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we would make a May the 4th joke, but we've got some serious stuff to discuss. First, there's a provincial election going in Alberta now, which is a pretty big deal, but what's happening in Sudan is even a bigger deal as violence and civil strife has erupted once again. In the second half of the show, we'll talk about issues around abortion here in Canada, and believe us there are some.
This Thursday, May 4, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Will Be Wild (Rose)! It began on Monday, the long-awaited showdown between United Conservative Party Premier Danielle Smith and the former NDP Premier Rachel Notley. At stake are two competing visions for Alberta, but it's tough to say how all this is going to end; has Smith's UCP become too extreme for the averagely conservative Albertan, or can that same voter hold their nose and support a little social progress in their provincial government? We have four weeks to answer that question.
Meanwhile in Sudan... No one's calling it a civil war, but it sure feels like it is. Political tensions with their roots in Sudan's last civil war has erupted again with violence across Darfur and in the capital city of Khartoum, humanitarian workers have been killed and a widespread evacuation of foreign nationals from the county is underway. It's a complicated story, so we will look at the roots of the current conflict, what's happening on the ground, and what's happening with the Sudanese people as foreigners flee.
Canada Has Abortion Issues Too. There's a lot of attention on abortion issues south of the border, but while no government or court is trying to get end the right to an abortion here in Canada, there's still a lot of anti-abortion activism, and some of it can be sneaky. This week, we're joined by Galya Bravo, a board member of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, who will talk about the problem with "crisis pregnancy centres" and how these unregulated clinics are backdooring abortion misinformation by appealing to pregnant people.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #295 - May 3, 2023 (Beau is Afraid)

This week on End Credits we're going to go big or go home. Well, we're going to go big and then go home because why can't we do both? We're going to try this week with a very peculiar movie from one of our most peculiar directors right now, and since he's taking a gamble, we take a gamble too by talking about other directors that like to embrace risk.
This Wednesday, May 3, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Big Swings! This week's movie might be characterized as a big swing, meaning a director with clout who uses every bit of it on a movie that has a 50/50 chance of working out. Maybe that's the work of some British director who gets ahead of his American counterparts by two decades, and maybe that's the executive who bets his studio on some New Zealand's director's interpretation of a fantasy novel, but the thing they have in common is they're... big swings!
REVIEW: Beau is Afraid (2023). Ari Aster knows how to provoke an audience. He did it with Hereditary, he did it with Midsommar, and he's back again with Beau is Afraid, the story of man trying to get home. Joaquin Phoenix plays the titular Beau, who lives in a vaguely near future America in a horrible urban hellscape. And then his mother dies. If you don't think things can't get any worse for Beau, you've clearly never seen any Ari Aster movie because its obviously going to get worse. The question is whether or not we want to take the ride, so do we?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #371 – They Are Legion (A May the 4th Special)

Sandwiched between May Day and Cinco de Mayo in the first week in May is Star Wars Day, May the 4th. It’s a portmanteau, “May the Force be with you” becomes May the 4th be with you. May the 4th. Star Wars is more than a good time at the movies for some people, but what drives someone to spend hours studying pictures and videos to figure out how to make movie accurate Stormtrooper costumes?
You can call what the 501st Legion does cosplay, but that’s actually too simplistic in their case because they have standards. Their costumes aren’t just sorta accurate, they are screen accurate and if you’re going to be an official member of the 501st Legion you have to measure up. Now it’s not a contest, the community is very welcoming and helpful if you want to join up, but the point is that these people take their fandom seriously.
The 501st is more than 4,000 members strong with garrisons across the U.S. and around the world, including the Canadian Garrison, which launched in 1999 and has over 200 active members. They show up at charity events, fundraisers, movie premieres, parades, promotional events, and conventions, and, as you can imagine, May the 4th is basically their Christmas. This week, we're joined by Santa.
Jim Sobota, who is the C.O. of the Canadian Garrison of the 501st Legion, will talk to us about how he got involved in the organization, and what he finds appealing about dressing up as a Stormtrooper. He also talk about the difficulty level making movie-accurate Star Wars costumes, and how various members choose the costumes they make. Also, Sobota discusses what type of event he would like to do but hasn’t done yet, and his favourite Star Wars movie or series.
So let's see if the Fourth is with us on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about the 501st Legion, go to their website. You will be able to see the Legion this week in-person on Thursday at the REC Room in Toronto, at the LEGO Store in Yorkdale on Friday, and at Heroes Cards and Comics in London and GNU Books in Oshawa on Saturday for Free Comic Book Day. The 501st Legion won't be there, but you can take part in Free Comic Book Day festivities at The Dragon in Downtown Guelph on Saturday.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, Stitcher, Google, TuneIn and Spotify .
Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

Open Sources Guelph #423 - April 27, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're caught between the picket line and the receiving line. You may have heard that there's a strike going on right now, so we will talk about the labour issues therein, and after that we go to the other side and the crowning of a king, which apparently we're not all excited about. In the second half, we're going to talk about the future, and the past, with a member of Guelph City Council.
This Thursday, April 27, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Strike Back. The Public Service Alliance of Canada has been on strike for over a week now and there seems to be no sign of a resolution soon (unless there's some serious negotiating going on behind the scenes). The strike is about some of the usual stuff like wages, but the post-pandemic working environment is also at stake with people wanting to enshrine work from home and hybrid work options. Meanwhile, the strike comes at the end of tax season, so are Canadians just more concerned about their refund cheques?
Charles in Charge. Next week, King Charles III will take the throne of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland in a more discreetly garish coronation ceremony, but it seems like Canadians don't care. According to an Angus Reid poll, a bare majority of Canadians, 52 per cent, want to flirt with republicanism, and not even a third of Canadians say they have a favourable view of the King. So are Charles' days as king numbered before they even formally begin?
Five Alive! As usual, it's been a busy couple of weeks at city council; the Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw update was passed, the Ontario government returned a decision about the City's latest Official Plan, and they approved changes coming soon to the fare structures for Guelph Transit. Here to help us make sense of all this is Ward 5 Councillor Leanne Caron, who will join us to talk about all these important matters, and, as the unofficial Minister of Local Heritage, get us excited about Doors Open Guelph this weekend.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #294 - April 26, 2023 (Quasi)

This week on End Credits we light the match on summer. Yes, we know it's still April for a few more days, but in movie terms summer is almost here, and we have decide to celebrate in the only way that we can. So we'll draft! And for the movie this week we're going back to the stream for a comedy that is sending up the funniest time in human history: Medieval France!
This Wednesday, April 26, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
2023 Summer Movie Draft. Next week, the summer move season officially begins with the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 so you know what that means? It's time to get excited about the movies that we're going to be fed up with by the time September gets here! This week, we draft our summer movie picks in the realm of comedy, drama, franchise, action/horror and, as always, the wildcard. Join us to see who makes the cut this summer.
REVIEW: Quasi (2023). The Broken Lizard gang is back... In time! The guys who made Super Troopers and Freeloaders had expanded their oeuvre into what can nominally be called an adaptation of the Victor Hugo classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This time, you can call the titular Hunchback Quasi, and through a series of misunderstandings he finds himself caught between the King of France and the Pope and their quests to get rid of each other. Can Quasi get himself out of this tough medieval jam, and can he do it while making us laugh?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #370 - The Day of Mourning Show

If it’s the end of April, then it’s time for the Workers’ Day of Mourning. For 40 years, workers across the country have stopped to remember those who lost their lives on the job and to inspire workers to fight to prevent further tragedies. It's widely considered a rare opportunity to make a point that only sometimes penetrates our common narrative: Are all workplaces as healthy and safe as they could be, and are they equally safe for everyone?
According to the WSIB Ontario, the number one workplace injury in 2021 and 2022 was sprains and strains. The second? COVID-19. CUPE Ontario notes that workers are “facing increased pressure to ‘get back to normal’”, and interestingly, workers have gotten “back to normal” in one very specific and disappointing way according to the WSIB... There were 255,318 claims in 2022, which is about 2,000 short of the 10-year high in 2019, right before the start of COVID.
In the wake of the pandemic, which despite what you may have heard is still not technically over, the pressure on workers, and the pressure to look out for their own health and safety, is immense. Staffing pressures are forcing workers to put in more hours, and increased workloads make it harder to focus on the so-called little things, like whether the work your doing is dangerous, or even if you’re qualified to do it. And what ever happened to 10 sick days?
This week, we will examine that and other questions with the President of CUPE Ontario Fred Hahn, and co-chair of CUPE’s Health and Safety Committee Brittany Nesbitt. They will talk about their personal thoughts on this year’s Day of Mourning, what health and safety issues they're seeing right now, and the ongoing health and safety impacts from COVID-19. Plus, they will talk about empowering workers to look out for their rights and their concerns about the relaxing of child labour laws in some U.S. states.
So let's talk health and safety on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
The Workers’ Day of Mourning is this Friday April 28. The Guelph commemoration hosted by the Guelph & District Labour Council takes place at Goldie Mill Park at 5:30 pm with local labour historian Bonnie Durtnall as the special guest speaker. You can learn about all the various CUPE campaigns and work actions at their website.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, Stitcher, Google, TuneIn and Spotify .
Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

Open Sources Guelph #422 - April 20, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we meet some characters. Did you know that four dozen people want to be the next mayor of Toronto? Perhaps they're all animated by the potential fate of the Toronto waterfront, which is once again in the news. Some of them would likely find good company with Elon Musk who has no problem finding strange bedfellows, and speaking of strange bedfellows we need to talk about Fox News. What a week to talk smack about the news!
This Thursday, April 20, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Ready Mayor One. The first poll in the Toronto Mayoral By-election came out and it revealed a four-way race between current Toronto councillor Josh Matlow, former councillor Ana Bailão, former police chief Mark Saunders, and Olivia Chow, who just got into the race on Monday. There are nearly 50 candidates in all now including a wannabe auteur, a Toronto Sun columnist, and a genuine white nationalist, so where do things sit nearly two months till Election Day?
A Disquiet Place. After several days of speculation, Premier Doug Ford finally announced that the plan for the new Ontario Place is going to include moving the Ontario Science Centre down to the waterfront where it will join a European spa chain and a new Live Nation concert venue. If it's starting to feel like everyone's making it up as they go along, you're not alone, so is there really a plan when it comes to revitalizing Ontario Place, and why do it in the middle of a mayoral election?
Off Label. Elon Musk's Heart of Darkness-like journey to render Twitter unusable to anyone but far-right gadflies won new favour this week with Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre. After Twitter labelled accounts from NPR and the BBC as "government-funded media", Poilievre wrote to Musk on Conservative Party letterhead to ask Musk to do the same thing for the CBC, and guess what happened next? What does Poilievre get out of this weird alliance?
Fox on the Run. It was supposed to be the trial of the century and a test of nearly half-a-century of precedent in media law, but after lunchtime on Tuesday it was clear that Dominion Voting System's defamation lawsuit against Fox News had resulted in a settlement agreement. And while it's true that Dominion is getting more than three-quarters-of-a-billion dollars for Fox News lies, we won't see their famous stars swearing to that on the stand, or on their TV network. Was this the best outcome?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #293 - April 19, 2023 (Renfield)

This week on End Credits, we want to suck... [turns page] Your blood! Who doesn't love a good vampire movie, especially when the story ais centred around the greatest and most famous vampire of all time. So on this episode, we're going to talk about Dracula's latest in the horror-comedy Renfield, and also talk about some of Dracula's greatest hits!
This Wednesday, April 19, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Too Many Draculas! There are two characters that have been in more movies than any other, one is Sherlock Holmes and the other is Count Dracula. Yet another Dracula is the [co-] star of this week's film, but to begin with we're going to countdown some of the other Draculas. From the classic portrayal in 1931, to an even more classic portrayal from the silent era, and then more recent efforts with actors of every sort, we'll count off (heh) the best Draculas.
REVIEW: Renfield (2023). Being Dracula is easy, but being the guy that lures Dracula's victims to a blood curdling doom and then cleaning up the mess is hard. This is the premise of Renfield, in which Nicholas Hoult plays the long put-upon minion of the dark prince, while Nicolas Cage plays the most famous vampire of all-time. Transplanted from Europe to New Orleans, and time-shifted from the Victoria Age to modern day, does this horror-comedy raise Dracula from the pop culture grave or is it merely just the walking dead?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #369 - What’s the Deal with OPA 80?

This has been an exceptionally busy week for the City of Guelph's planning department. As the staff were getting for the final approval of the new Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw this week - the first update in nearly 30 years, remember - the Government of Ontario dropped their decision on Official Plan Amendment #80, the latest version of Guelph's Official Plan. It never rains, but it pours!
Cities, towns and villages all over Ontario were required to file updates to their Official Plan before last year's municipal elections, and Guelph was one them. But because the Ontario government had an election last summer, it's created a kind of backlog at the ministry, so even though Guelph passed OPA80 last summer, we only just got the provincial approval last week.
In all there were 18 changes, and none of them can be appealed because the last word goes to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. The most controversial part of the decision was that the skyline of Downtown Guelph can now max out at 23 storeys, which has provoked a lot of doom and gloom scenarios in the news and on social media, but that's an oversimplification. Today, we're going to dig a bit deeper. 
To help us, we're joined by the City of Guelph’s General Manager of Planning and Building Services Krista Walkey and the City’s Manager of Policy Planning and Urban Design Melissa Aldunate. They're going to talk about the impact of the changes on various other pieces of Guelph planning business and the complexity of planning downtown beyond the maximum building height. They'll also discuss why Guelph has limited options around major transit stations, and why you don’t need to worry about Guelph growing beyond its borders in the immediate future.
So let's get the 4-1-1 on OPA #80 on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can see the decision on OPA80 from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing here, and you can see the staff memo on the decision that was provided in a council information report here.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, Stitcher, Google, TuneIn and Spotify .
Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.