Guelph Politicast

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.

End Credits #283 - February 8, 2023 (Aftersun)

This week on End Credits, we're once again on vacation vicariously. There have been a lot of movies about life-changing things happening at resorts while on vacation, and Aftersun is definitely one of them. In other news, we're returning to another favoured trope on this show: movies that don't exist yet, but we definitely want to see them when they are.
This Wednesday, February 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Paint it Blacklist. Despite all the complaints that there's nothing new under the sun, or in the movie theatre, screenwriters are still plugging away on original ideas, and many of them end up on the Blacklist, the list of the so-called best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood. This week, we're going to check out this year's Blacklist and talk about the scripts that we would like to see make it all the way to the finish line and into the cinema.
Aftersun (2022). You may not have heard of Aftersun until star Paul Mescal won an Oscar-nomination for Best Actor a couple of weeks now. Now part of the conversation, Aftersun is waiting on VOD to take you on a trip through time and memory. Based in part on writer and director Charlotte Wells' own life, the movie follows a father and daughter on vacation at a Turkish resort where the surface level fun in the sun hides a lot of complicated issues underneath the surface. So is this another subtext-filled vacation we need to take?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #360 – When Ambulances Are the Emergency

The story is familiar at this point: A Code Red is called, and there are no ambulances available to respond to an emergency. It’s a piece of the healthcare puzzle that doesn’t get a lot of attention; we sit up when we hear the words “Code Red”, or when we see those line-ups of ambulances on social media, but the problems are ongoing, and in many ways they’re the same problems affecting other aspects of our healthcare system.
A couple of weeks ago, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) local 231 posted a picture of a long line of ambulances on Delhi Street. The message was that the same sort of burnout previously discussed with doctors, nurses and other hospital workers are affecting paramedics. They burnout too! If you and your colleagues are doing 9,400 hours of overtime, it doesn’t seem so far-fetched to think that some paramedics might be wanting a career change.
You don’t hear about these issues as loudly from the paramedics point of view when compared to nurses or doctors though, so it takes some doing to get that first hand perspective. How are the people who man - so to speak - our ambulances dealing with this current healthcare crisis?  Today we fix that by talking to Nick Di Ruzza, the president of the OPSEU Local 231, who take us behind the scenes of the Code Red state of emergency.
Di Ruzza will talk about what a day in the life of a paramedic looks like both before COVID-19 and today, and he will also talk about Paramedics Services’ success despite their challenges. He will tell us about the human resources issues his local is trying to overcome, and how paramedics approach standards of care beyond answering emergency calls. Later, he will discuss the problems around doing advocacy on behalf of paramedics, support from management and what the community can all do to help.
So let's make room for paramedics in the healthcare discussion on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can follow OPSEU Local 231 on Twitter. Guelph Wellington Paramedic Services Chief Stephen Dewar has been delivering a monthly report about the demands on the service at the Wellington County Social Services Committee Meeting, and the next one's in March. To learn more about our local paramedic service, you can find them under the “Living” section of the City of Guelph website or on Twitter.
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 #411 - February 2, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's Groundhog Day! This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's Groundhog Day! Now that we've got that out of our system, let's talk about what we're doing on this week's show. First, we will talk about a recently passed Ontario politician and the parts of her career most people aren't talking about, and then we will talk about the very sad sequel to last year's biggest blockbuster protest. For the interview? We're going to have some municipal money talk.
This Thursday, February 1, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Hurricane. Former Mississauga Mayor "Hurricane" Hazel McCallion passed away last week at the age of 101, and given her accomplishments and longevity, the plaudits were immediate and they were many. But have we white-washed McCallion's legacy? Her conflicts of interest, the sprawl she rubberstamped, and the fact that she had Doug Ford's back on shaving the Greenbelt right up till the end are all concerning notes despite McCallion's accomplishments, so we will take a good hard look at her legacy.
Convoy the Silence. A comparatively smaller group got together last weekend in front of Parliament Hill to protest COVID mandates(?) and mark 365 days from the day the so-called "Freedom Convoy" arrived in Ottawa. Yes, we're still dealing with the fallout of the Convoy with the report on the Federal government's use of the Emergencies Act is coming later this month, and the Alberta government interfering with court cases around the Coutts blockade, so where are we one year later on "Freedom"?
Count Downer. Guelph City Council confirmed the 2023 budget last week after nine hours of shaving and padding that got the final levy increase down to 4.46 per cent for the year. That's not the end of the discussion though because the pressures on this year's budget are still going to be there when council debates the next multi-year budget at the end of 2023, and Ward 5 Councillor Cathy Downer joins us this week to look ahead, and behind, at the big fiscal picture at City Hall and the increasing challenges.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #282 - February 1, 2023 (M3GAN)

This week on End Credits, it's playtime! We're finally catching up with the biggest hit of 2023 (so far) by making friends with M3GAN (pronounced "Megan" if you're unaware), you're new best friend or worst enemy depending on what side of her programming you're on. And speaking of friends and enemies, we're going to talk about the Oscar nominations.
This Wednesday, February 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Oscars So Trite? The Oscar nominations were announced last week, and if you were a fan of Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Fabelmans, Elvis, and All Quiet on the Western Front, you had a good day. On the other hand, there were some definite snubs, and the most notable was a distinct lack of women nominees for Best Director after women have won the last two years in a row. We'll break down the categories with the hits, the misses, and the likely-to-wins.
REVIEW: M3GAN (2023). An early social media phenom for the year, M3GAN came out of the gates as the first must-see hit of 2023. That should hardly be surprising, every couple of months there's a new horror movie from Blumhouse eager to receive the warm embrace of the audience, but might there be something special about M3GAN? We've gotten killer robot movies before, and killer doll movies, but M3GAN combines the two thanks to an inspiration from Conjuring godfather James Wan so is M3GAN bigger than the hype and ready to be your friend till the end (credits)?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #359 - Starting Fresh

For this first new podcast of 2023, let's clear the air. In the process of going non-stop 52 weeks a year on all the issues that come at us on a regular basis, how often do we just stop and take stock? How can we keep up with everything and not get caught in the undertow? How can we overcome that feeling that we’re not doing enough and stay hopeful in an ever changing world?
Let’s stop and think about where we are on Wednesday February 1, 2023. The pandemic isn’t over, even if we’re pretty much acting like it’s over. We have issues with homelessness and mental health, but despite a community-wide response it feels like we’re only making a drop in the bucket. We’re faced with economic inequality, social inequality, environmental degradation, and, oh yeah, the Nazis are back! No wonder we have a mental health crisis.
It’s easy to get stuck in this feeling of malaise. Public participation is down with pitifully low voter turnout and a dramatic decrease in the number of available volunteers. People are feeling tapped out after three years of being on their toes, always adapting to a shifting landscape that often pivots on a dime, so it shouldn’t be very surprising that people don’t have the energy for even paying attention to politics, let alone changing the world. If you’re somewhere between anger and exhaustion, you’re not alone.
To help us sort these conflicting feelings, we're joined by John Borthwick, who is the minister at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in downtown Guelph. He's going to talk about how to centre ourselves in the maelstrom of issues coming at us everyday, and why we should embrace the adaptability of human beings. He will also discuss the struggle to listen and understand each other despite our differences, and why nostalgia is both attractive and damaging. And finally, he will talk about his 20 years in Guelph, and how the community has changed for the better, and the worse, in that time.
Let's talk about starting fresh on this week's Guelph Politicast!
If you’re in need of spiritual guidance you can find Reverend Borthwick at the pulpit every Sunday morning at St. Andrew’s on Norfolk Street, which is also still broadcast on YouTube on the church's channel @standrewsguelph. For something a little more secular, you can follow him on Twitter.
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 for January 26, 2023

We're got none! Open Sources Guelph is taking the week off due to special programming on CFRU, the celebration of the station's birth many decades ago. What you can do instead is tune in between 5 to 8 pm where you can listen to some of your favourite programmers spin tunes and celebrate 50-something (Shhhhhhh!) years of your favourite campus and community station, which this time is broadcasting live from the Bullring! Tune in on the radio or brave the snow to be there in-person!! As for the OSG gang, we'll see you again next week!!!

End Credits #281 - January 25, 2023 (The Menu)

This week on End Credits, it's time to eat! Although our show plays at mid-afternoon every Wednesday, perhaps you might enjoy a small snack while you listen because, this week, we're going to make you hungry. Along with our review, which is about The Menu now streaming on Disney+, we will talk about some food-based movies to tease the palette. 
This Wednesday, January 25, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
More Eats. Movies centred around eating, or the business of eating, have provided so much rich fodder for numerous movies over the years that's it's almost its own subgenre. From a luscious drama about the transformative power of chocolate to the brutal history of betrayal behind the most famous fast food chain on Earth, we will look at some of our favourite movies about food and eating, and yes, there will be cannibalism!
REVIEW: The Menu (2022). Finally, a movie for foodies, about foodies! A dozen people head out to an exclusive restaurant on a secluded island for a meal they will never forget... Their last! That's what The Menu is about in a nutshell, but there are a lot of intricacies to this overlooked movie from last fall which features Ralph Fiennes as the famously eccentric chef and Anya Taylor-Joy as the mysterious dinner guest who throws a wrench into the chef's thoroughly planned out meal. The result? A meal of a movie with nourishing themes and acting!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #358 - The State of the City, A Year Ago

Every year, the Mayor of Guelph is invited to an event called the State of the City where he or she gives a speech to the members of the Chamber of Commerce about the current issues facing Guelph and how city council plans on addressing them. It once was said that to understand the future, you have to look to the past, so what was on the mayor’s mind last year when he talked to the Chamber?
The 2022 State of the City took place on March 31, delayed from the usual late-January/early-February perch for the event due pandemic circumstances at the time. (Remember, there was another lockdown last January.) It was an election year, so Guthrie was going to be called on to set the stage for his then-undeclared re-election campaign, not to mention some advocacy and politicking that could be done in the then-upcoming provincial election too.
So how much has changed since the last State of the City? Guthrie was re-elected, and so was the Progressive Conservative government in Queen’s Park, and while COVID-19 has receded further into the background, the effects of the pandemic are still lingering. But cities have also been whammied by massive policy changes from the Province that don’t seem to address the problems and only create new headaches for municipalities like Guelph to deal with.
There’s an entire suite of issues that might make the final cut in this year’s State of the City, but on this edition of the podcast, we’re going back to 2022. Mayor Guthrie used the conceit of the then-internet phenom Wordle to lay out the City of Guelph’s priorities in five-letter word chunks, and you'll also hear from Medical Officer of Health Dr. Nicola Mercer who was honoured by Guthrie during the State of the City for her leadership during the pandemic.
So let's go back in time to last year's State of the City on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
The 2023 State of the City hosted by the Guelph Chamber of Commerce is Thursday February 2 at 7 am at the Delta Hotel and Conference Centre on Stone Road. Tickets are $50 for members and $70 for future members. To find out more information, call the Chamber office at 519-822-8081 or go to the Chamber’s 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.