Guelph Politicast

Open Sources Guelph #335 - July 15, 2021

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to science the sh!t out of this episode, at least in the first half of the show. We're going to discuss balancing space exploration with paying ones taxes, and we're going to talk about the latest issues around the vaccine rollout here and around the world. In the back half, we've got a visitor from city council to talk about what's going on locally at city hall.
This Thursday, July 15, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Pigs in Space. On Sunday, Virgin founder Richard Branson became the first billionaire in space (depended on how you define space). This week, Amazon founder Jeff Bazos joined him, and the breathless coverage by the mainstream media heralded it all, welcoming the new space race. But where's the balance? Why is nobody talking about reporting around the tax dodging that allows these billionaires to cosplay as astronauts?
Vax and Spend. The vaccine rollout here in Canada is going so well that we're now buying vaccines to send overseas. Still, it looks like things are slowing down in the number of people getting one dose even as more than half the country is now fully vaccinated, and what's this talk about a third shot? We'll talk about that, and the kettle of fish opened by the World Health Organization about mixing vaccine doses.
Rodrigo One, We Go All. This week, Guelph City Council approved another housing project, this one to be run by Wellington County out of the heritage property at 65 Delhi Street. Delhi Street is safely ensconced in Ward 2, and on this episode, we will be joined by one of the Ward 2 Councillors, Rodrigo Goller, to talk about the latest project, the City's fight against homelessness, and why this fight over 65 Delhi may not be over yet.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #207 - July 14, 2021 (Black Widow)

This week on End Credits, we're not back in the movie theatre yet, but we're getting so very close, and we're going to talk a little about that. There's a lot of ground to cover in our first news segment in a while, and we're going to tackle one of the biggest movies released so far in this pre-post-pandemic era, the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe entry, Black Widow.
This Wednesday, July 14, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
A Donner Party. When the man who made Goonies, Superman the Movie, and the Lethal Weapon movies passes away, you have to mark his passing. The death of Richard Donner is one of the news stories we'll talk about this week, along with the passing of his fellow filmmaker Robert Downey Sr., the next big Zack Snyder project for Netflix, a tomorrow for Tomorrow War, and the plan to finally re-open movie theatres here in Ontario later this week.
REVIEW: Black Widow (2021). Can you believe it's been almost two year since we've gotten a new Marvel Studios movie? For 10 years, there's been a new Marvel movie every year, and it's been a decade since Scarlett Johansson first graced our screens as Black Widow, the assassin turned spy turned Avenger who was the first prominent female hero in the MCU. Now, Black Widow finally gets a starring role in her own named film, a globe-trotting adventure that takes her into the past she thought she put behind her, so is Black Widow the movie worth the wait?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #282 – The Future with Guelph's Exec Team

As we start reaching the potential end of the pandemic, it seems prudent to pause and ask the question, what does the future for Guelph look like? In a few months when almost everyone is vaccinated, do we go back to the way things were, or do we embrace a new normal? The logical place to start answering those questions is to ask the three people who manage City of Guelph services, and their boss.
This coming Friday, Ontario begins stage three of the economic re-opening, and although it’s a sign of renewed optimism, don’t mistake the start of stage three as the end of the pandemic. All venues will still have certain limitations depending on their size and function, masks and physical distancing are still the rule of the land, and despite great progress in vaccinations, there’s still a lot of work left to be done to make sure everyone has had two doses.
With all that in mind, there are several considerations for the future of Guelph in a post-pandemic world. Can local businesses recover, how long will it take to build transit service back to pre-pandemic levels of ridership, and what will work look like for City employees? These decisions are being made now among the managers and supervisors in various City offices, but they will all have to pass through the desktops of the four people being featured on this week’s podcast.
This week we're joined by Chief Administrative Officer Scott Stewart, and Deputy CAOs Colleen Clack-Bush, Jayne Holmes, and Trevor Lee. The combined administrative experience of this panel will be brought to bear on critical questions about the City's future from infrastructure demands, to City programs and services, to organizational details. Hopefully, the conversation will give you some context about how the City, as an organization, has survived the pandemic, and how it still plans to be, as the Community Plan says, “Future Ready.”
Let's talk about the future on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
That council meeting to discuss the service rationalization review is this coming Monday. The open session begins at 4 pm, and you can find the preview of the meeting here. There are three meetings of council next week, which are the last three meetings before the summer break, and you can stay up to date with all those details here at Guelph Politico.
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 Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, 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 #334 - July 8, 2021

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we bring you some good news and some bad news. We start with bad news and more signs of the growing climate catastrophe, but there is some good news on the Indigenous file after weeks of basically terrible news. However, to end the show, we go back to the bad in U.S. politics where alternate realities continue to collide half-a-year after everything should have changed.
This Thursday, July 8, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
It's Just the End of the World. Recent events have cast the media spotlight on climate change. In Florida, rising sea levels may have have started a structural chain reaction that brought down a residential tower. From the Pacific Northwest to Pakistan, record high temperatures are testing human tolerance. In B.C.. a sudden forest fire wiped a town off the map in a single night. So, are we finally ready for climate action?
Land Back For Good. For more than a year, a group of Indigenous protestors have been occupying land meant for a new residential development in Six Nations resulting in a months-long stalemate between courts, land defenders and developers. But last week, the developers admitted defeated and announced that they're refunding down-payments. So are we to take this as a positive sign for reconciliation?
There's Something About Mary. Speaking of positive signs, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Tuesday that Mary Simon would be the 30th Governor General of Canada. The broadcaster, public servant and diplomat is the first Indigenous person to serve in the position of the Crown's surrogate in Canada, but is history being buried by the appearance that Trudeau is getting stuff lined up for a late summer/fall election?
The Revulsion Will Be Televised. Tuesday marked six months since the Capitol Insurrection, and the attempted overthrow of the 2020 election results, and while many are in jail awaiting trial or plea bargains, much of the American Right has become invested in perpetuating "the Big Lie" and embracing a type of 9/11 trutherism about the day. Is there anything that can be done at this point to save America from itself?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #206 - July 07, 2021 (The White Tiger)

This week on End Credits, we're going to do crimes. Well, *we* aren't the ones who are going to be doing those crimes, but we will be enjoying them in a voyeuristic sense with this week's review, which is the Netflix crime drama The White Tiger. Crime is a regular staple of summer movies, and speaking of which, we will once again hop in the wayback machine to a summer from the past.
This Wednesday, July 7, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and  will discuss:
Summer Lovin’ Part 9: 1992. It was nearly 30 years ago, when the movies from 1992 hit the big screen, and it was a summer with some choice picks. The Alien series briefly ended, a caveman learned to ride a skateboard, Van Damme fought Lundgren, and Tom Hanks led an all-female team of baseball players. There was also a Batman movies complete with an evil circus, and the most disturbing version of the Penguin even concocted. We'll look at all the oddities.
REVIEW: The White Tiger (2021). It's a well known story: a young man from an underprivileged background wants something better, and he's willing to do anything to make it happen. Based on a novel of the same name, The White Tiger follows Balram, as he discovers just how hard it is to escape India's outdated caste system and the urban/rural divide. Servitude is supposed to be second nature to Balram, but what happens when a chauffeur from the country starts to embrace his inner white tiger and chase something bigger for himself? Let's find out!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #281 – #CancelCanadaDay

It was a very unusual Canada Day, wasn't it? In some ways, it was even more unusual than last year's Canada Day in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic's first wave, but there was a lot of room for some kind of outdoor festivities, but there wasn't much in terms of will. In the aftermath of our frightening new understanding of our own history, is there a better way to mark Canada Day in 2021 than protest?
In May, it began with the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. Then in June there was the discovery of 751 graves on the grounds of the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan and an additional 182 graves at the the former St. Eugene’s Mission School near Cranbrook, B.C. found just last week. New searches will begin soon at places like the Mohawk Institute and the St. Albert Métis Community, and who knows what will be found.
Ignorance is the issue. A poll last month said that two-thirds of Canadians knew little or nothing about Canada's residential school system, a fact that both stymies healing, and ensures that the victims of residential schools will continue to suffer in silence. Four of the 94 calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation report have to do with education, and insuring that the history of residential schools and the trauma they created are known by every Canadian. But where to begin?
The obvious place is with the people most affected by what happened at the country's residential schools, the Indigenous people. Presented without commentary by the podcast's usually obnoxious host, we will hear from the line-up of speakers at the Cancel Canada Day protest and march in front of the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate downtown. Co-organizer Maura Winkup, 1492 Landback Lane spokesperson Skyler Williams, and local agitator Xico Lopez were among the speakers during that protest.
Let's press play on the voices of our local Indigenous community on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can hear an interview with the organizers of the Cancel Canada Day march on this past Monday's podcast edition of Open Sources Guelph, and you can see the Politico coverage of the march here. If you're looking for a way to help, you can give to the Indian Residential Schools Survivors Society, True North Aid, the Legacy of Hope Foundation, and the Orange Shirt Society.
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 Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, 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 #333 - July 1, 2021

This week on Open Sources Guelph, the holiday is a work day. By a matter of cosmic coincidence, and some slight mathematical adjustments authorized by Pope Gregory XIII in the 16th century, this week's show is on Canada Day, and our focus is on the original Canadians. We're discussing residential schools, Canada Day, and we'll have an interview with three local Indigenous people about challenging all that.
This Thursday, July 1, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Marieval Times. It happened again. Over 700 unmarked graves were found on the property of the former Marieval Indian Residential School as we literally uncover the lost history of Canada's anti-Indigenous past. This will not be the last discovery, and the nearby Six Nations reserve is preparing their own search of the Mohawk School grounds, but how do we keep attention on this issue without reducing it to a statistic?
Blame Canada Day. Since we're airing on Canada Day, it seems appropriate to talk about what Canada Day means this year after having our country's genocide being rubbed in our collective faces for the last month. Some politicians see the calls to put on pause all patriotic pride as a new front in the Cancel Culture wars, but is there a way we can give both Canada's good parts and its wicked history equal weight on July 1?
Raising Local Indigenous Voices. Speaking of Cancelling Canada Day, there's an event in Guelph that's literally called "Cancel Canada Day." For the interview this week, we're joined by Hannah Geauvreau-Turner, Desi Fekete, and Maura Winkup who will talk about organizing their counter-Canada Day protest, the issues that local Indigenous people care about, and their own personal family histories with the residential school system.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #205 - June 30, 2021 (Luca)

This week on End Credits, it might be time for a swim. It's been pretty hot lately, so who isn't thinking about a relaxing dip, perhaps along the romantic and picturesque Italian seaside? In lieu of travel through, we will just have to enjoy all that in animated form on your favourite streaming site. We're reviewing Luca, and we're going to keep the summer movie journey going.
This Wednesday, June 30, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Summer Lovin’ Part 8: 1991. Before the Summer of 1991, the one movie everyone thought was going to be the hit of the year was a new action flick with a big Hollywood star and directed by a man who knows how to make action, but Hudson Hawk bombed. Horribly. Thirty years later, it's Terminator 2: Judgement Day everyone was talking about, and it a good thing they were because it was about the only big blockbuster from that summer. So what about the rest?
REVIEW: Luca (2021). Pixar Studios has become synonymous with deeply personal and ambitious stories like Up, Inside Out, and the recent Soul, but what about a Pixar movie that 's as low stakes and easygoing as a summer vacation on the coast of Italy. Marrying the works of Federico Fellini and Hayao Miyazaki, Luca is about a pair of so-called sea monsters that try out life on dry land as a way to escape a dreary life under the sea in an idyllic coastal town, but can they keep their secret while at same time entering a race to when a precious Vespa scooter?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #280 - Deconstructing That Big School Board Decision

For much of the last year, the Upper Grand District School Board began an investigation into the effect of having police officers in school, especially the School Resource Officer program, after the Black Lives Matter march last June in Downtown Guelph. The task force recommended, among other things, that the SRO come to end, but that was not the easy decision you might have thought it was.
Back in April, the Upper Grand District School Board unanimously adopted the eight recommendations from the Police Presence in Schools Task Force. The biggest recommendation though was about removing the SRO from schools, and it’s been the biggest point of discussion since the task force announced the results of their deliberations. Come what may, police will now be an occasional presence in schools, not a frequent one.
There’s been some disagreement on that point. A letter sent to local media from Guelph Police Association president Matt Jotham touted the positive effects of the SRO, while the Wellington Catholic District Board voted to keep their SRO. Still, just last week, the Waterloo Region School Board ended their own SRO after a top level review, which is a reminder that this situation is much more complicated than keeping the police out of schools. It demands a deeper exploration.
This week we're joined by Cheryl Van Ooteghem and Marva Wisdom, who were co-chairs of the Police Presence in Schools Task Force; Van Ooteghem is the Superintendent of Education at the UGDSB, and Wisdom is the head of Wisdom Consulting and a community organizer with a long history of local service. We will talk about the origins of the School Resource Officer, and why the program has needed a re-evalution for some time. We will also discuss the wide-ranging feedback that they received, and what factors went into the final recommendation.
Let's deconstruct the the decision on police presence in schools on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can read the full 150-page from the Police Presence in Schools Task Force on the Upper Grand District School Board’s website. You can also review the Guelph Politico coverage of the April meeting here on the Guelph Politico 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 Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, 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 #332 - June 24, 2021

This week on Open Sources Guelph it feels like summer. Yes, the House of Commons has wrapped up for the year, but have they wrapped up forever? (Yes, that was an Alice Cooper reference.) Speaking of being out forever, we will talk about the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, while closer to home, we will hear from some members of our Muslim community about their everyday concerns in Canada.
This Thursday, June 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The End of the Term As We Know It (And We Feel Confused). This term of the House of Commons finished up on Wednesday, and there seems to be widespread agreement that we're not going back in the fall, we're going to the polls. But why? Exactly how high is the possibility of holding a national election sometime this fall? We will talk about that, and we will talk about the last few votes of a contentious year on Parliament Hill.
Withdrawal Remorse? President Joe Biden set a deadline for September 11, 2021 to end the U.S. War in Afghanistan, but it seems like the withdrawal of troops might be complete sooner. In the meantime, the Taliban are having an incredible streak of success in taking various parts of the country, prompting concerns about Afghanistan's future. We will look at the complex web of issues to end America's longest war.
A Sense of Community. After the hate-driven attack on a London family earlier this month, a number of communities got together to show their support for Muslim neighbours, and Guelph was no exception. This week, we will play some sound from the Guelph Muslim Society gathering as local leaders talk about fighting Islamophobia in their everyday lives, and the struggle to just feel like themselves in their neighbourhood.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.