Guelph Politicast

GUELPH POLITICAST #266 - This Woman's Work Didn't Stop for COVID

In the pandemic, some people have been lucky enough to get to work at home, but there are still thousands of people in Ontario that have to go to a physical work location everyday, and they're putting themselves in danger of catching COVID-19 in the process. Are these people being protected like they should, and who is looking out for them?
Around this time last year, Debora De Angelis of the United Food and Commercial Worker (UFCW) union appeared on the podcast to talk how the workers she represents saw pay raises and new benefits because of the first COVID lockdown. She was optimistic, but that optimism was short-lived as summer arrived and that pandemic pay and other compensation went away. It also didn't come back for the bigger and deadlier second wave.
This is not a new story for Deena Ladd, who's been fighting for workers for over 20 years now. She’s advocated for improved wages and working conditions, sought better protections for migrant workers, taught workers how to advocate and unionize, and she’s protected People of Colour in precarious jobs who've had no where else to go. It’s hard to think of a better person to talk about the subject of work during COVID, and how it still needs to change.
On this week's podcast, Ladd will share her overall thoughts about COVID’s effect on work, and how she thinks work will be forever changed because of the pandemic. She will also talk about the political side of fighting for workers rights, and the difficulty developing solidarity among all workers. And finally, Ladd will also discuss her concerns about post-pandemic austerity, and the issues facing migrant workers in Ontario as the growing season begins.
So let's talk about workers and their pandemic-related issues on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can follow Deena Ladd on Twitter, and you can learn more about the work and advocacy of the Workers Action Centre at its website. Keep in mind that under the Canadian Labour Code you have the right to refuse dangerous work, and you can file a complaint with the Ministry of Labour by calling toll free at 1-877-202-0008.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, 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 #318 - March 18, 2021

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we skip over the luck of the Irish and get right to the anger of the Scots, and there's a lot to be angry about. From a COVID conspiracy shindig in our town to a mega-media merger that's unlikely to help anyone with access or pricing, we will make our outrage known. After that, we will turn to Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield, who will hopefully help bring the temperature down.
This Thursday, March 18, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Buggy Like the Wolfe. There was an anti-mask demonstration in downtown Guelph last weekend, but they didn't want it known as an anti-mask demonstration. It was the largest gathering of its kind in our city, but it featured a lot of of familiar faces of from the movement from out of town, including Kellyanne Wolfe, who's previously been arrested for her civil disobedience. We'll talk about the bad, the really bad, and the ugly.
Win, Lose and Shaw. This week, Rogers announced that they were buying Shaw Communications, taking two big Canadian media companies and making one bigger media company. The combined company promises efficiencies, but what about jobs, competition, and cell phone and internet charges that never, ever seem to come down? Should the Canadian government approve another media monopoly? Will they?
Longfield Deeds. It's constituency week for Members of Parliament, and this week Lloyd Longfield will talk to his constituents through CFRU. In his latest appearance on the show, Guelph MP Longfield will talk about the vaccine rollout, and how the Federal government is keeping on eye on the safety of vaccine supplies. He will also talk about the delay in delivering this year's budget, and his thoughts on the last year and how the government's pandemic response could have been improved.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

A GREAT DEBATE #1: The Downtown Dining District

Next Monday, city council will meet to ratify their decisions about the 2021-2023 patio program for downtown Guelph. Or change it. There's been an undercurrent of dissatisfaction about the decision made to close downtown streets for special occasions only; some people want a summer-long closure, others want no closure or something in between. This has all the makings of A GREAT DEBATE!
In what could be the pilot for a new monthly video feature (like the video and comment if you want some more), we're joined by Guelph's famous mapmaker Abhi Kantamneni to talk about the issues surrounding the potential implementation of a Downtown Dining District this year. Do we close it all down like last year to create the same experience, or do we adjust to accommodate people with concerns about transit, accessibility and fairness? How do we do that?
As you may recall, Committee of the Whole approved a plan for the 2021-2023 patio season to allow for some expansion of patio areas into parking spots and lanes of traffic, but roads will only be closed to traffic for special occasions per permit approval. This was one of three staff options offered to the committee along with a program similar to last year's dining district in either the form of a seasonal closure, or a limited closure every weekend on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
There's been some disagreement on the right direction in the community, and not all of it's been friendly. In this inaugural GREAT DEBATE, Abhi and I will talk about the arguments, the issues, and what may be the best way forward for all involved. Is compromise easier than we think it is? What kind of compromises do we have to make for everyone to get the most out of outdoor dining and other business renewal opportunities in the core this summer?
Note: This is the audio version of a video recording, which you can find on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOWal2sJ0sY

End Credits #190 - MArch 17, 2021 (I'm Your Woman)

This week on End Credits, we go on the run! Even though it's St. Patrick's Day, there's no party you can go to, so why not stay in, watch a movie, and listen to us talk about it? This week, the movie is I'm Your Woman, which is now streamable on Amazon Prime, and we will also make room to celebrate another matter, the Academy Award nominations.
This Wednesday, March 17, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Gold Rushes. They were a little late, but the nominations for the Academy Awards were announced this week, and they were certainly historic. Two directors of Asian decent were nominated for Best Director, and so were two women, and those are just a few of the historic firsts in this year's nods, which we'll run down this week along with their opposites, the Golden Raspberry nominations.
REVIEW: I'm Your Woman (2020). Rachel Brosnahan is well known as the star of Amazon Prime's acclaimed comedy series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but there's nothing funny about I'm Your Woman. The 1970s-set crime drama features Brosnahan as a wife and mother on the run and in hiding after her criminal husband starts a mob war, but can a bored house wife take back her agency and control her own destiny with a baby in one hand and a gun in the other? Let's tune in and find out.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #265 - COVID-19: One Year Later...

Outside of the City of Guelph or Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, it’s hard to think of a group that’s been more entwined with the day-in/day-out issues of COVID-19 than the Guelph Family Health Team. From testing to vaccination, the Family Health Team has been in the thick of it through the pandemic, and one year later it seems timely to get some insight from behind the scenes.
March 17, 2020 was not the start of the pandemic in Ontario, but it was the day that the proverbial stuff got real. Entirely new public health measures in response to the burgeoning pandemic were initiated, seemingly overnight, but the response in Guelph and area was the result of weeks of pre-planning among various parties, groups and government agencies, including the Guelph Family Health Team.
Already part of the Guelph and Area Ontario Health Team, the GFHT was an appropriate choice to help co-ordinate the local COVID response. Their experience allowed a testing clinic next to Guelph General Hospital to be rapidly set up and established to accept potential COVID cases. Now, this past Monday, the team helped open a second vaccine clinic in Guelph, which is remarkable work because all this has been happening while the Family Health Team is still providing primary care to its own patients.
Ross Kirkconnell, the executive director of the Family Health Team, is the guest on this week’s podcast, and he will talk about how the team got involved in pandemic planning, how they’ve been balancing that with their primary patient care. Kirkconnell will also talk about how Guelph’s good social fabric helped make the pandemic response easier, and how it's proving why integrated healthcare matters. And finally, he will discuss the vaccine rollout, and what lessons we should learn from the events of the last year.
So let's talk about pandemic management on this week’s episode of the Guelph Politicast.
You can learn more about the Guelph Family Health Team at their website and you can also find them easily on social media. The Guelph Family Health Team is helping to manage vaccination sites at Skyjack and the University of Guelph, but for any information concerning the vaccination effort or when and how you can get a vaccine, you have to go to Public Health’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 Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, 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 #317 - March 11, 2021

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're in a mood to celebrate, or we would be if the special occasion in question was something other than the start of a global pandemic. On this paper anniversary of the COVID-19 lockdown, we will talk about the politics of vaccines, and the racial politics of being royal. And in terms of local politics, we will talk about the surprisingly bitter politics of patios.
This Thursday, March 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Needle Things. Developments have been moving very quickly on the vaccine rollout in the last couple of days, including the announcement of distribution through pharmacies and doctors' offices, but is this really the good news story it appears to be? The Ontario government is showing signs that it's still responding to COVID-19 on the fly with a sign-up system that may not be ready, and Premier Doug Ford still refusing to consider paid time off to get vaccinated. Where are we one year after the pandemic started?
The Meg. Sunday's interview of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex by Oprah Winfrey created an upheaval between the British Royal Family and the general public that has not been seen since the immediate aftermath of the death of the Princess of Wales. Allegations of racism in the family, and their apparent unwillingness to address racist attacks against the Duchess, have spurned a new conversation about just how ready for the 21st century the Royals really are, but is a real test of equality, or is it just gossip?
District Dine. Last week at Committee of the Whole, city council voted in favour of a more limited downtown patio program instead of a full street closure, and that got a lot of people upset about the lack of ambition. One of those people was not Councillor James Gordon because he proposed a compromise to just close the streets on the weekend. This week, Gordon joins us to talk about why weekends were a good middle path, and what his concerns about a summer-long street closure are, plus he will talk about his personal experience the past year being a local rock star and having no place to play because of the pandemic. 
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits#189 - March 10, 2021 (Coming 2 America)

This week on End Credits, we're going to America. Not literally, or course, there's still a pandemic, but if Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall can go back to America, than we can go with them, and we do on this week's episode with the sequel Coming 2 America. We will discuss that movie, and we will also discuss some of the other stuff we're watching and you might be watching too.
This Wednesday, March 10, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
What We're Watching. There's so much content, certainly more than what can be covered in a week, so to begin with on this week's show let's consider some of the other stuff we're watching. From the Canadian premiere of a new documentary about the alt-right, to the WandaVision finale that only gave fans emotional closure, we'll talk about that, and the cancellation of Pepe Le Pew.
REVIEW: Coming 2 America (2021). Thirty years before Black Panther another powerful and influential African prince took the world by storm. Eddie Murphy didn't fight the Avengers, but he did slay in the comedy hit Coming to America. Three decades later, Prince Akeem has ascended to the throne, but royal complications force a return to Queens and a meeting with the son he didn't know he had. So is this return to America worth the wait, or is it just another pointless legacy-sequel with I.P. to burn?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #264 - Step Up and Do Better

Exactly one week from today, it’s the one-year anniversary of the declaration of a state of emergency in Ontario. The days leading up to March 17, 2020 were the first test of our collective mental health, watching the number of COVID cases steadily increase until things started locking down. But the struggles didn’t end last March, and they show no signs of abating this current month even though the end of the pandemic may be near.
Noah Irvine knows something about living with the consequences of mental health issues for a long time. He lost both his parents to the crisis, and then, while he was still in high school, he decided to try and do something about it. He started writing letters to political leaders at all levels of government, and he enjoyed some success too, but whether it's Guelph’s mayor or Canada's prime minister, one letter only gets you so far.
So recently Irvine, now a University of Guelph student, was back at. In his new letter, he tackled not just the greater need for mental health and addiction assistance due to COVID-19, but the fact that the pandemic has created another barrier to access. As we now sit on the cusp of the first anniversary of the start of the pandemic emergency, it seems like a good time to review the ways that our world has changed, and this week, we’ll start with what’s going on in our heads.
Noah Irvine is on the podcast this week to talk about that, his personal story, and what he’s learned about advocacy in the last four years. He will also talk about life as a U of G student these days, how his undergrad experience will be defined by COVID-19, and what long-term effects there will be on Irvine and his classmates in the Class of ‘23. And finally, Irvine will discuss his future plans, and why there needs to be a non-partisan effort to step up and create immediate and lasting solutions for the mental health crisis.
So let's talk about fighting for improved access to mental healthcare on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn about Noah Irvine's efforts to promote government action on mental health at his website, and you can follow him on social media on Instagram. You can read Irvine's most recent letter to Members of Parliament by clicking 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 Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, 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 #316 - March 4, 2021

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we going to go far north if only in spirit because we can't presently leave our protective bunkers. Dr. Pierre Fogal, a certified climate change hero, will take us around 80 degrees north this week as we talk about his work and his research at the Arctic Circle. Before that, we will stick closer to home with Alberta politics, and then go far afield with the intelligence report about the high-profile murder of a journalist.
This Thursday, March 4, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Kenney on the Block. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is in trouble, and so is his United Conservative Party government. There's widespread dissatisfaction with the COVID-19 response, the economic tumult from the low cost of oil, and another austerity budget that promises better days once COVID is gone and with the "return of crude", but it looks like there are a lot of people in the Wildrose Province that don't share that optimism. Is this the beginning of the end for Kenney?
Legends of Jamal. As promised, the Biden administration released the full report on the cold blooded murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018. The report unequivocally named Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman the prime suspect, but despite promises to the contrary, there was no follow-up announcement of sanctions against the Saudi government, royal family, or MBS himself. So what's the long game for dealing with Saudi Arabia?
Fogal Prize. This week, University of Toronto physicist Dr. Pierre Fogal will receive eMERGE's Climate Change hero of the year award. It's a distinguished prize for a distinguished scientist who's spent much of the last 15 years shuttling to and from the Arctic Circle managing one of Canada's most remote research stations where so much vital climate research is happening. Fogal will join us to talk about his work, his new award, and what he's learned in the Greater White North.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #188 - March 3, 2021 (To All the Boys: Always and Forever)

This week on End Credits, it may be March, but we're still in the mood for love. Our movie this week will take us back to high school and the difficult balancing act of school, romance, and the future. We're reviewing To All the Boys: Always and Forever, and we're also going to talk about another love affair, Hollywood's love of affirmation through the awarding of gold statues.
This Wednesday, March 3, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Golden Jeers. The Golden Globes were handed out last weekend, and it was horrible. People were attacking the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for its lack of diversity, they attacked the glitch-heavy Zoom-centric ceremonies, and all the usual jokes that fell flat. On the plus side, Chloe Zhao, Nomadland, and the late Chadwick Boseman won so things weren't all bad, right?
REVIEW: To All the Boys: Always and Forever (2021). Will Lara Jean and Peter end up together forever?! If you're a fan of the two previous To All the Boys I've Loved Before movies, this question has haunted you since this time last year, but for everyone else just know that Lara Jean and Peter are the Bella and Edward of the 20s sans the vampirism. In the end, forces try to keep our favourite couple apart, but can they overcome all challenges, ahem, always and forever?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.