Guelph Politicast

GUELPH POLITICAST #319 - A Movie’s Case for Kindness

In good company after last week's episode with Marlene director Wendy Hill-Tout, and just in time for both Canadian Film Day on April 20 and this year's edition of the Hot Docs documentary film festival starting on April 28, this week, we're talking to a documentary filmmaker. You know about the COVID-19 pandemic, but another pandemic has been affected people a lot longer. This is one of those stories.
This week's episode of the podcast features actor and filmmaker Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers. Her recent documentary, Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy, is a homecoming of sorts as she visits the Kainai First Nation in Alberta, her people, who have been hit hard by the overdose crisis. It's also a personal story because one of the first responders in Kainai is Tailfeathers' own mother.
Kímmapiiyipitssini, which is a Blackfoot word meaning "giving kindness to others", is a story about our commitment to Truth and Reconciliation and the generational trauma of our First Nations people. It's also a story familiar to every community in Canada regardless of location or ethnicity. It's an exhaustive case study of the systemic, cultural and governmental barriers thrown up to fight drug addition and how community leaders have had to be savvy and think outside the box in order to make an impact.
This interview with Tailfeathers, which is a longer version of one that was played last fall on End Credits, covers the making of Kímmapiiyipitssini, how the director had to separate personal and professional commitments, and working with her mom as her film's main character. She also discusses the difficulties in rephrasing addiction as a health crisis, whether her film represents an inflection point with the crisis, and the recent mass cultural embrace of Indigenous stories, both real and imagined.
So let's talk about the meaning of empathy on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy is now streaming on the subscription version of the National Film Board's site, but if you're a student or teacher in either of the two local school boards in the region you already have free access. You can also see Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers work as an actor in Blood Quantum and Night Raiders, and you can stream both those movies on Crave.
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 #372 - April 7, 2022

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're covering a lot of ground. In part one somehow things have gotten even worse in Ukraine, and speaking of things getting worse, we've got to talk about COVID again. In the second half of the show, we go back to Europe to check-up with the far-right's favourite western democracy, and then we come back to Canda to keep the chat about far-right stuff going.
This Thursday, April 7, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Bucha Shadows. In terms of new developments around the war in Ukraine this week all eyes were on Bucha, a community outside the capital city Kiev. In Bucha, the retreating Russians left a house of horrors: People shot and left in the streets, bodies burned or buried behind apartment buildings, and it gets worse from there. Will this change the international reaction, and how can Vladimir Putin be held accountable?
The Sixth Wave Sense. In the last week, the number of health professional and doctors who have been throwing around the term "sixth wave" has increased. Almost three weeks after the lifting of mask mandates in Ontario, the number of total cases and the number of hospitalizations have gone up, but there seems to be no worry from the government. Why does "living with COVID" mean basically ignoring it?
Viktor Viktorious. Hungarian President Viktor Orbán won his fourth term this week, but you have to use the term "won" loosely because winning an election is easy when you run the media and change election laws in your favour. That's just the kind of level-headed autocracy that makes Orbán such a hit with far-right leaders around the world, so what does Orbán's electioneering teach us about creeping authoritarianism?
So Dark, the Convoy of Man. In terms of far-right sentiment closer to home, we haven't really talked about the Freedom Convoy since Ottawa Police broke up the weeks-long protest in downtown Ottawa back in February. Pat King is still in detention, and most everyone ended up going home, but none of that is to say the dangers of activism spurned by misinformation and white nationalism is over. What's next?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #242 - April 6, 2022 (Fresh)

This week on End Credits, we've got an appetite. Under the themes of food and desire, we will review a movie that checks both of those boxes in the new film Fresh, which is is now streaming on Disney+. Before that, we will pay tribute a Hollywood actor whose decided to take his final bow and retire even though is production output has never been higher.
This Wednesday, April 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Bruce Alrighty. Last week's announcement that Bruce Willis is retiring from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia hit movie fans hard, and despite his recent slate of small roles in low-budget action pics, the news conjured a lot of fond remembrances of Willis' Hollywood career. We will share some of those memories this week. From ghost stories, to heist films, to several jaunts into the future, we will look back at Bruce Willis, the actor.
REVIEW: Fresh (2022). Dating in the 21st century is difficult enough; it's hard to know who to trust, but do every worry that the guy you met at the grocery store is grooming you... to be his next meal? Fresh is a horror film, but it's also a romantic-comedy. Starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan, Fresh plays with assumptions and doesn't fit comfortably in any one genre. It does however fit comfortably somewhere between Get Out and Promising Young Woman, but it's got a kick that's all it's own. So how delicious is Fresh anyway?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #318 - Telling Marlene’s Story

We don’t get a lot of movie premieres here in Guelph, so when one happens it’s kind of a big deal. Coming to the Bookshelf Cinema this Friday is Marlene, the story of self-selecting Guelphites Marlene Truscott and her husband Steven Truscott, whose life story involves one of the worst miscarriages of justice in Canadian history. Now it's a movie, and according to its director, a romance at that.
Steven Truscott was the youngest person ever to be sentenced to death in Canada, and it was for the 1959 rape and murder of 12-year-old Lynne Harper in Clinton, Ontario. Truscott himself was just 14 at the time, and though he was later remanded to life in prison, he always maintained his innocence. Truscott was paroled in 1969, and was finally acquitted by the Court of Appeal in 2007, 48 years after his conviction.
Throughout much of Truscott’s nearly 50-year journey from condemnation to exoneration, Marlene was by his side though they didn't meet until years after his conviction. Marlene ended up becoming Steven's most passionate and vocal advocate, and they got married and had a family together after he was paroled. This was a story ready made for the movies, an innocent man endures a terrible fate only to find great love in his darkest time. It was a story Wendy Hill-Tout wanted to tell.
Hill-Tout joins us on this week's podcast to talk about the making of Marlene, how she got interested in the story, and why she decided to make Marlene Truscott the point of view for telling it. We also talk about the the political and social issues around Steve Truscott’s experience, like how young Truscott was a victim of the “tough on crime” ethos, how the media played a crucial role in promoting his case, and the role sentencing a 14-year-old to hang played in ending capital punishment in Canada.
So let's talk about telling Marlene's story on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Marlene premieres Friday night at the Bookshelf Cinema with star Kristen Booth and Ryan Truscott in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. Marlene will then screen nightly at the Bookshelf from April 8 to 14. You can learn more about the work of Wendy Hill-Tout by visiting the website for her production company, Voice Pictures.
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.
Image from Marlene courtesy of Voice Pictures.

Open Sources Guelph #371 - March 31, 2022

This week on Open Sources Guelph, slap coverage will be kept to a minimum, unless, of course, the topic of a very immature social media post from the Alberta Premier comes up. Jason Kenney is among our topics of conversation this week, and we will also, obviously, talk about the latest war news from Ukraine. Closer to home, one of CFRU's city councillors will join us to talk about plans of the official variety.
This Thursday, March 31, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Ukraine Drain. We're now more than a month into the war, and there are small signs for hope. At peace talks in Turkey, the Russians said that they might drawn down their numbers in Ukraine, but that comes with a lot of skepticism from allies. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden got into trouble for flirting with regime change in Russia while going off-script in a speech, which the White House later walked back. So what's next?
You've Got Mail-in. If the upcoming leadership review for the United Conservative Party wasn't controversial enough, the announcement that their review will be done by mail-in ballot instead of in-person in Red Deer on April 9 took the controversy up to 110. Premier Jason Kenney is reportedly worried about “crazies” and “kooks" hijacking the meeting, but is he going to end up offending some of the supporters he needs?
Leanne with a Plan. On Wednesday, council met to have the planning meeting for the next Official Plan Amendment for the City of Guelph. There's a lot of pressure with all the growing pains falling on the Royal City, so providing some insight this week is Ward 5 Councillor Leanne Caron who will talk about the the battle to find the right density for Guelph, and the need to make sure open space in the city is protected.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #241 - March 30, 2022 (Nightmare Alley)

This week on End Credits we're reliving past successes. For our feature review on this week's show, we're looking at one of the biggest high-profile remakes of the last few years - almost Oscar-worthy - Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley. And before that, we will kick off the theme by looking at other good movies that are equal to, or better, than the original versions.
This Wednesday, March 30, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Remake Redemptions. Yes, this week's movie review is technically a remake, but would it surprise you to learn that not all remarks are bad. Before diving into Nightmare Alley, we will consider other well-known and accomplished remakes from the world of cinema, including a monster movie, a sci-fi classic, a gangster tale, and a western. These movies might have come second (or third), but they prove that a remake can have something important to say.
REVIEW: Nightmare Alley (2021). And that brings us to this week's review, the remake of the 1947 Edmund Goulding film noir, Nightmare Alley. This time, it's Guillermo del Toro behind the camera, but the story's the same: a drifter becomes a talented mentalist only to find himself outsmarted and ruined at the height of his power. Bradley Cooper stars (and produces) leading an all-star cast in this film that received four Academy Award nominations, and though it didn't receive any, that doesn't mean who shouldn't still catch up with this finely crafted movie.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #317 - Is the End of the Pandemic*?

*You might be forgiven to think this whole COVID-19 pandemic is in the bag. It’s been a week-and-a-half since the mask mandates were repealed in Ontario and in the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health region, and like clockwork the number of COVID cases in the public, and in the hospital, are going up. You might be fed up, you might be fully vaccinated and boosted, but that doesn't mean the pandemic is over.
Since the announcement earlier this month that the mask mandates were coming to an end, the advise from all doctors and public health officials as been the same: Yes, you no longer have to wear a mask, but you should almost definitely be wearing a mask whenever you’re in an indoor public space. That's not the message being received though because there's a lot less masking going on.
We've got two guest on this week's podcast to help us make sense of this pandemic moment.
First, we're joined by Dr. Rose Zacharias, the President-Elect of the Ontario Medical Association. She will talk to us about what we should call this phase of the pandemic, and why the recent increase in new COVID cases is to be expected. She will also tell us when and why wearing a mask is still the best policy, and how best to judge your own health and safety in public indoor environments.
Second, we will talk to Dr. Jane Purvis, who is the President of the Ontario Rheumatology Association. Dr. Purvis will talk about how life has changed for people who are immunocompromised, and why masking is so important to make conditions safer for everyone, but especially people with immunity issues. Also, she will discuss the trouble with complex public health messaging, and trying to reach the people who are eligible for a fourth dose of a vaccine.
So let's talk about protecting yourself in a world without mandates on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Ontario Medical Association and you can learn more about the Ontario Rheumatology Association at their websites, and you can also still get the latest case count and vaccine information in our region at out Public Health unit's website. If you have any question concerning medical advice or your own health, seek out the expertise and advice of your family physician. 
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.
Image from The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird, aka: The "Is this a pigeon?" meme courtesy of Sunrise Studios.

Open Sources Guelph #370 - March 24, 2022

This week on Open Sources Guelph, there's war, peace and optimism. The war part is obvious, it's another week of death and despair in Ukraine, and still with now end in sight. In peace news though, two major Federal parties have reached a deal to govern for the next few years if they can figure out how to make it world. Optimism? Well, we have a candidate who hopes he will be Guelph's next Member of Provincial Parliament.
This Thursday, March 24, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Russian Maul. This week, leaders from NATO countries are meeting in Brussels to talk about the war in Ukraine, where the fourth brutal week of fighting has seen Russian forces dig in around Kiev, which they're still no where close to seizing, while pretty much bombing the port city of Mariupol back to the Stone Age. All this as the world tries to guess just how serious Vladimir Putin's nuclear threats are. We'll discuss the latest.
Singh for the Moment. In a surprise move, it was announced on Tuesday that the Federal Liberals and NDP had reached a deal: Jagmeet Singh and his caucus will hold up the government until 2025, and in exchange Justin Trudeau and his team will go to bat for key New Democratic priorities. It's a shrewd move on the part of Trudeau, and a big risk for Singh, but does this have a chance of working out as planned.
Parr For the Course. Last week, the local NDP members chose their candidate for the coming provincial election, and it's James Parr. The long-time Guelphite and mechanical engineer is playing up his millennial bonafides as a young person that knows the struggles of modern young people, from coping with mental health to the challenges of buying a house. He joins us this week to talk about how he wants to fix all that.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #240 - March 23, 2022 (Windfall)

This week on End Credits, we're going to find out what people really think. In the first part of the show, we're going to talk to the director of an indie horror movie made in Wellington County and find out what scares him. For the review, we're going to get inside the heads of three people caught in a hostage situation, likely for production during COVID reasons.
This Wednesday, March 23, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
INTERVIEW: Ali Akbar Akbar Kamal, director of Godforsaken. In the new film Godforsaken, a man returns to his hometown in Wellington County for the funeral of an old friend, only to walk into a horror when the deceased crashes their own funeral. This found footage entry comes from the mind of director Ali Akbar Akbar Kamal, and he joins us this week to talk about his inspiration, his ambition, and the overwhelming number of creepy basements in Harriston.
REVIEW: Windfall (2022). In Charlie McDowell's new movie he revisits some of the same ground as his breakthrough, The One I Love. A couple shows up at their vacation home, but instead of finding doppelgängers, they find a man robbing them, and the nameless robber has a very personal reason to want to steal from this arrogant CEO and his lovely (but unhappy?) wife. Jason Segel, Lily Collins and Oscar-nominee Jesse Plemons spend 90 minutes testing themselves and the audience, but who is the real bad guy, and do any of us care in the end?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #316 - Can You Archeologically Dig It?

There’s a lot of interest in the excavation of Baker Street. Maybe it’s the ghoulish quality of uncovering remains from an old graveyard, or maybe it’s because this is all literally happening on the main street, but a lot of eyes are on this big hole being dug in the old Baker Street lot. This week, we go inside that hole with the two men holding the shovels.
Once upon a time, the newly founded Guelph settlement needed somewhere to bury their dead, and for some strange reason they chose the site of a future downtown parking lot. Jokes aside, nearly 170 years after the graveyard next to the site of the original St. George’s Anglican Church was closed, and after all the people buried there were supposed to have been moved to Woodlawn Memorial Park, we’re still finding people under Baker who never left.
The history under the parking lot entered modern public consciousness in 2005 when work on Baker Street revealed remains from some of Guelph’s earliest residents. More remains were discovered in 2010 and 2016, so dealing with the graves that remain under Baker was a necessary first step in getting the site ready for redevelopment. With work scheduled to begin again next month, the time is ripe to sit down talk about what we've learned so far. 
City of Guelph Project Manager Stephen Gazzola and Project Archaeologist with Archaeological Research Associates Limited Mike McCready join us for this week podcast to talk about all that. They will discuss what else they’ve found in the Baker lot other than remains, what they’ve learned about Guelph’s early years in the process, and how they cope when the dig reveals something they didn’t expect to find. Also, they'll talk about what work is left to be done and how they'll know if they’ve found everything.
So let's dig into Baker Street on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can follow the progress of the dig on the City of Guelph’s website, and now that winter’s over, work will begin on the excavation will begin again sometime next month. You can see the latest virtual open house about the next phase of the Baker Street redevelopment right now, and leave your questions and comments, on the City’s Have Your Say site. 
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.