Guelph Politicast

Open Sources Guelph #415 - March 2, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're crowding the national news leaders by stealing their thunder. From our non-existent news headquarters in Ottawa, we're going to look at the increase in use and rhetoric around unofficial border crossings, plus the new controversy around Chinese election interference. We're also going to discuss the importation of far-right European politics (for a week anyway), and then the two old men who host this show are going to discuss Tik Tok!
This Thursday, March 2, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
On the Roxham. Canada's most famous unofficial border crossing is back in the news with an increased number of people coming into Quebec from the U.S. since the end of 2022. Quebec Premier François Legault and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre are both demanding that Roxham Road be closed but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has warned that this comes with its own set of complications. Can Canada respond compassionately, or are we doomed to a 'Build the Wall' narrative?
China Breach. So it's not a good week for Trudeau or his party now with competing investigations into alleged election interference involving the Liberal Party, key ridings, and the Chinese government. Media reports accuse the PM of ignoring the warning signs in 2019 and 2021, and the opposition parties are united in their demand for further investigation, but how long can Trudeau ignore the issue and are we seeing the cracks that will lead to another election?
The Passion Over Christine. Unless you're a fan of the Freedom Convoy or far-right European politics, you probably haven't heard of Christine Anderson. Essentially, her political party, the AfD, is the closest thing to the Nazis that Germany has seen in 80 years, and last week, Anderson did a tour of Canada that some politicians, including sitting Members of Parliament from the Conservative Party, are trying to live down. We'll talk about why this is a big deal.
Tik Tok... Boom! Back to China concerns, and it was a rough week for everyone's favourite new social media phenomenon. Tik Tok has now been banned on all Federal government devices, several provincial governments have made, or are thinking about making, the same move, and even the City of Guelph is taking a good, long look at the app. Security and privacy concerns are rank when it comes to Tik Tok, but is there a way to balance those concerns and its popularity and influence?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #286 - March 1, 2023 (The Fabelmans)

This week on End Credits, we're going to talk about movie magic. Of course, that's essentially the basis of this show, but on this episode we're deconstructing some of that magic with the person more credited than most with creating it. We're going to review The Fabelmans and we're also going to turn a famous director's illustrious career into a game.
This Wednesday, March 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Spielberg Draft. We've talked a lot about Steven Spielberg on this show, and why wouldn't we because if you grew up anytime during the 70s and afterwards then Spielberg has been a pretty big part of your pop culture experience. This week, we will draft what we think is the best work for the director from each of the last five decades, or "Spielb-eras", and come up with another definitive list of the best from the Greatest of All Time (?).
The Fabelmans (2022). In Steven Spielberg's 34th movie, he finally turns the camera on himself. A lot of Spielberg's movies have been about some aspect of the director's inner-life, but The Fabelmans is very explicitly *his* story, and that of his family. In the 1950s, young Sammy Fabelman is taken to The Greatest Show on Earth, the Oscar-winning movie, and he's set on a course that will take him to the upper strata of Hollywood, but not before his family breaks up and apart, which would further inform Sammy's - Steven's - vision. So how does this one rank?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #362 - A-Salt on the Water

The weather has been pretty good reminding us this past week that winter is dangerous, especially when driving on snowy icy streets. That’s why we salt, but the evidence is building that we salt our roads too much and it’s had a profoundly negative impact on our rivers and streams. So are we sacrificing our water quality for winter road safety, and is there a way that we can have both?
It was about two years ago that a study was released in the journal Facets that found levels of salt in rivers and streams exceeded federal exposure guidelines in 89 per cent of samples from four different watersheds in the greater Toronto area, and that one-third of the studied sites showed that one-quarter of all species are impacted. The real concerning part though was these sample were taken in the proverbial dog days of summer, late July and August.
If salt levels are hitting dangerous levels in summer, what must they look like in the winter with all the winter maintenance? Or what happens in a winter like this, where we get a winter storm, lay down salt, and then watch it wash away with a rise in temperatures, melting and then rain before starting the process all over again? Lauren Lawson, who’s an ecologist, conservation scientist and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto, will try and answer those questions.
Lawson joins us on this week's podcast to talk about our history with road salt, why high salt levels are so dangerous to waterways and animal life, and why it’s so dangerous to human beings as well. She will also discuss why the salt levels are so surprisingly high in the summer, and whether or not the damage to the environment is reversible. And finally, she will talk about best salt management practices, and how Lawson made this problem her academic life’s work. 
So let's talk about things getting too salty out there on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can watch a webinar Lawson hosted for Watershed Canada here, plus you can check out this info sheet with facts and information about proper and sustainable use of road salt. You can also find the City of Guelph’s own salt management plan on the City’s website, and you can follow Lawson on Twitter and through her 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 #414 - February 23, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we go back into the shadows. In the realm of extremism and conspiracy theories it was a rough week because one year after the Freedom Convoy it turns out that the government was right to use the Emergencies Act after all. That's okay though, because we're found the real cause of all our problems, and you will never guess what it is! For the interview, we're talking to a local city councillor about more down-to-Earth issues.
This Thursday, February 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Commission Complete. The Public Order Emergencies Commission delivered their final report last Friday, and their finding was that the Federal government met the “very high threshold” for using the Emergencies Act. That's not the end of the story because the report also pointed out that there were missed opportunities to stop the so-called "Freedom Convoy" before it got out of hand, and there were some especially harsh words for the inaction of the Ontario government. But did we learn anything new?
15-Minute Warning. The idea of 15-minute communities has been around for years. It's an urban planning concept that proposes that everything you need daily in a community - shopping, services, schools, and employment - should be a 15-minute walk or bike ride away, but now some people are calling 15-minute communities part of the global cabal's efforts to control your life, and some big names like Chris Sky and Jordan Peterson are running with it. We'll look at this latest silliness.
Dan With a Plan. It's only February, but it's been a very busy year so far at Guelph City Council. Lately, there have been some concerns about the proposed operations campus, renewed calls for affordable housing by leveraging private developments, and coming up next week is the Ontario government's housing pledge and the intricacies of expanding the Elliott. To look at these issues from his perch at one end of the horseshoe is Ward 1 Councillor Dan Gibson, who will share with us his thoughts on all these council developments.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #285 - February 22, 2023 (Somebody I Used to Know)

This week on End Credits, we've got a little bit of a post-Valentine's Day treat for you, the listener. On the docket for this episode is a romantic comedy made by a husband-and-wife filmmaking team, which kind of makes it a Valentine for Valentine's. So we're reviewing Somebody I Used to Know and talking about other movies made by couples.
This Wednesday, February 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Power Couple Rankings. This week's movie is the combined effort of a director and star who are married in real-life, which is not an unusual condition in Hollywood where romantic partnerships are born of professional ones, and vice versa. So to kick off this week's show, we will talk about some our favourite movies that work (or not) thanks to the love match behind the scenes and the interpersonal dynamics of the filmmaker and their lead both in-front and behind the camera.
Somebody I Used to Know (2023). It's not an original story, a small town A-type personality sees their well-laid dreams come to a sudden halt, which forces them to reconsider their lives back home where a romantic reunion makes them rethink their future. This time, the star is Alison Brie, she co-wrote the script with her director and husband Dave Franco, and the story finds reality show producer Ally landing at home just in time for her old boyfriend's wedding weekend in her quaint little Washington State hometown. So how well do we know Somebody I Used to Know?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #361 – The Convoy Was the End of the Beginning

Thursday marks one-year since the official end of the “Freedom Convoy”, a series of protests against COVID protection measures, vaccine mandates and lockdowns that paralyzed downtown Ottawa and border crossings at Windsor and Coutts for weeks. Yes, the Convoy flamed out, but the complex web of thoughts and ideas behind the Convoy are still out there.
The images from the Freedom Convoy, especially in the Ottawa Capital Region around Parliament Hill, are pretty indelible. You might think about the appearance of Nazi regalia or the party atmosphere with people in hot tubs, or people moving around jerry cans filled with diesel, or trucks and vehicles running all hours of the day. Still, the average Canadian had no idea how the Freedom Convoy came about, or how online radicalization turned into full blown civil disturbance I.R.L.
This week, we're joined by a few of the people connecting those dots at the Canadian Institute for Far-Right Studies, an independent think tank dedicated to the critical study of the far-right in Canada. This panel includes Dr. Luc Cousineau, the co-director of research who studies gender and power; Dr. Amy Mack, the other co-director of research who focuses on how social media radicalizes people into entho-nationalism and white supremacy; and Kathleen Mah, a research fellow investigating critical public health and anti-mask groups. 
This distinguished panel joins us to talk about their immediate academic reaction to the Convoy, and how they’ve been tracking the groups and leaders after the Convoy was broken up a year ago. They will also discuss how we can use education without being accused of indoctrination, and how real problems feed into far-right extremism without presenting any real solutions, And finally, they will talk about the responsibility that politicians have in spreading information whether they’re pro- or anti-Convoy.
So let's talk about the future of the Convoy, even if there is no Convoy, on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Canadian Institute for Far-Right Studies at their website, or on Twitter. You can read the report from the Public Inquiry into the 2022 Public Order Emergency at their website, and we will be discussing it on this week’s Open Sources Guelph on Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU.
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 #413 - February 16, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're feeling the love. Yes, it's two days after Valentine's Day technically, but the love for covering hot button issues and concerning political trends burns strong. On the menu today is a variety of topics including a new conflict of interest scandal for the premier, and a new sex scandal for the Mayor of Toronto. Abroad, we will look at the latest developments around a year-long war, and the same old same old from the death cult that now runs the American legislature.
This Thursday, February 16, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Wedding Spinner. More conflict of interest news in Doug World last week as it was revealed that developers were invited to the Stag and Doe Party for Premier Doug Ford's daughter and her then-future husband. For people who already smell a rat when it comes to the Ontario government's handling of the Greenbelt, it's another clue that the fix was in for people looking to make a profit on land that was supposedly protected. How much longer can Ford laugh off these allegations?
Mayor of Swingstown. It was a Friday night surprise when Toronto Mayor John Tory came out and announced that he's resigning his office after the Toronto Star exposed that Tory had an inappropriate relationship with a female staffer. It seems like a boneheaded move from the someone who was supposed to be the face of technocratic, business-like management at City Hall, so why did Tory screw up so badly, and does this provide Toronto a rare opportunity to examine what kind of mayor they want and need?
The Post Dangerous Year. February 24 will mark one-year since the start of the full Russian invasion of Ukraine, and many people have an eye on Moscow to see if their planning a commemoration of sorts. Of course, the first anniversary is paper, but no one's expecting Russia to sign any piece of paper saying that they're ending their war efforts. Quite the contrary. So while we wait and see what Russia's next move is going to be, we will talk about the year's lessons for Russia and Ukraine's resiliency.
Tech War. Last week, President Joe Biden gave the State of the Union, but the atmosphere screamed amateur night at Chuckle Hut. If this is your first encounter 118th Congress, you might be shocked, but the new team really showed their stuff at a series of hearings about the supposed bias against the right in big tech, which only ended up affirming that that no such bias exists and that platforms like Twitter went out of their way to not apply their own rules to GOP racists and conspiracy theorists. So does any of this matter?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #284 - February 15, 2023 (Knock at the Cabin)

This week on End Credits, we're back at the end of the world. Again. Our tour guide is M. Night Shyamalan, a man with many hits and many misses and not much in between. So is Knock at the Cabin one of the hits or is one of the misses? We will make that determination, and we will also talk about other entries from the Shyamalan canon that definitely qualify as hits.
This Wednesday, February 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Night Carte. M. Night Shyamalan has been making movies for nearly 30 years, and it's hard to think of many filmmakers who've experienced both the highest highs and the lowest lows of box office success. Before digging into the latest Shyamalan joint, we will look at our favourite moments from the director's previous efforts; from his meditations on faith to his ghost stories and his recent efforts about a mysterious man with many personalities.
REVIEW: Knock at the Cabin (2023). Imagine you're enjoying a nice vacation with your family at a cabin in the woods and then somebody knocks at the door. Four strangers tell you the apocalypse is here, and the only way to stop it is that you, or another family member, has to die. What would you do? Based on a novel with the same name and premise, M. Night Shyamalan paints a moral conundrum where everything may not be as it seems. Or maybe it is. Dave Bautista leads a talent ensemble, but can they make you believe it's the end of the world?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST – Freedom to Read Week Again

It hasn't gotten any better. Last year about this time, the news was grim with stories about the banning of certain books, political influence on what's being taught in schools, and rhetorical fist fights on whether library material is appropriate given the subject matter. What little difference a year makes because Freedom to Read Week rises again with more threats against Free Expression.
You might have heard the news about some of the things going on in Florida with the passage of legislation like the "Stop Woke" Act, which has seen entire libraries boxed up at schools, or Gov. Ron DeSantis' conservative takeover of a small liberal arts college. But this is not a Florida phenomenon, or even an American one. Here in Canada several anti-woke politicians ran for school boards last fall, and the Government of Alberta's been recently accused of interference at Athabasca University. 
So just in time for all this news is Freedom to Read Week, an annual endeavour from the Book and Periodical Council that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom, which is guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Last year, Shelagh Paterson, the executive director of the Ontario Library Association, joined us to contextualize some of these issues which are still ongoing 12 months later.
So this week we will revisit Paterson's appearance on the podcast in 2022, and you will hear her talk about the meaning of intellectual freedom and freedom of expression, as well as censorship, and how we can deal with the misinformation and disinformation landscape without censorship. Paterson will also talk about how not all libraries are created equally, the digital divide in terms of access to information, and the other kinds of barriers that should remind us that not everyone’s access to information is equal.
So let’s talk again about Freedom Read Week issues in this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Freedom to Read Week runs from February 19 to 25 this year, and you can find all sorts of materials here. You can also click here to learn more about the Ontario Library Association. If you want to cut out the proverbial middle man, you can visit your local branch of Guelph Public Library, and they can probably point you in the right direction of some challenging materials.
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 #412 - February 9, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we look up. We look northeast-ward to Ottawa to see if there might finally be a new healthcare deal between levels of government, and then we look to the sky for more Chinese spy balloons because that's a thing now. After that, we go back to Ottawa to revisit the fallout from the "Freedom Convoy" exactly one year ago, and specifically the effect on the people living there, which has now been documented in a convenient new report.
This Thursday, February 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Premier Leagues. Canada's premiers finally got their chance to have a sit down with the Federal government to talk about healthcare spending and getting more money to deal with the crisis. It's long been a point of contention because the premiers want a blank cheque, and the Feds want a plan, including the Federal NDP and Greens who want to be sure that the increased funds will not go to further privatization. So were they able to overcome the impasse, and what do these talks mean for people caught in healthcare limbo?
99 Problems But a Red Balloon Ain't One. It was a situation so dumb it's actually surprising that there was no Simpsons precedent. Last week, a Chinese spy balloon slowly travelled over Alaska, Alberta and then entered mainland U.S. airspace passing near sensitive military installations in what's become the greatest national security failure since the Rosenbergs were caught. Right? We'll peel back the layers of right-wing hyperbole to talk about the implications for China at a time where both they and the U.S. were trying to cool tensions.
The People's Court. The report by the official inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act was delayed a couple of weeks, but the report by the Ottawa People's Commission was delivered right on time. Organized by Centretown Community Health Centre, the OPC aimed to document the human toll of the "Freedom Convoy", and this week, we'll talk to Alex Neve, an adjunct professor in international human rights law at the University of Ottawa, who served as one of the commissioners and will tell us about their findings and why the convoy was a human rights issue.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.