Guelph Politicast

GUELPH POLITICAST #260 - Still COVID [Winter Edition] with Dr. Mercer

As this week started, the 7-day moving rate of confirmed cases is just a few points above the red line of 40 per 100,000, while the test positivity rate is now at 3.6 per cent. This is good news since it was just a month ago that the numbers were over 115 per 100,000 and five per cent. The numbers are going down, but where does the local medical officer think we stand in all this?
According to data presented at the Board of Health meeting last week, the second wave peaked in our region on January 9, and that was before the outbreak at the University of Guelph. At the same time, we've also seen a precipitous increase in fatalities from the virus in the last month, which is especially noteworthy since there were months that went by where we had no deaths from COVID in our area.
Things have changed though. While delays in receiving vaccine distribution are a pain, Public Health has completed a full round of first doses for residents in long-term care homes, and are now handing our second doses. Our numbers are steering lower, and there was the announcement Monday that Ontario will be lifting the state of emergency and lockdown measures in most of the province by this time next week. The hope is that the worst is over, but there are still so many unanswered questions about the road ahead.
This week we’re joined by Medical Officer of Health Dr. Nicola Mercer, for the fourth time in the last year, to cover the latest in pandemic developments. Mercer will address the vaccine delivery delays, and why we shouldn’t be worried about short-term holdups. She will also talk about variants, and how we will know if there’s a case of one of the variants in the region. And finally, Mercer will discuss the long-term effects of COVID, and the reasons why we’re see so much loss of life in our senior population. 
So let's catch-up on COVID-19 in our area with Dr. Mercer on the Guelph Politicast!
You can visit the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health website for up-to-date information about the pandemic, and the latest public health advice. Look for further guidance about the re-opening of the local economy to be released sometime later this week, and look for coverage on 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 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 #312 - February 4, 2021

This week's Open Sources Guelph has a lot of ground to cover, which is weird because there's not much we can do about foreign travel with new Federal government restrictions. So we're not going anywhere, but we will be talking about the coup in Myanmar along with those new travel restrictions. In the back half, our featured guest will be the former environmental commissioner who's got a tough appraisal of the green record of the provincial government.
This Thursday, February 4, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
No Jab for Cutie. There's been a lot of discussion these last few weeks about Canada's place in the international supply chain pecking order for COVID-19 vaccines, and that's got a lot of people sweating. At the same time, the Federal government introduced new restrictions on foreign travel, especially to sunny destination spots, which has earned the vicious ire of snowbirds everywhere. We'll talk about the Federal government's latest actions to fight the pandemic.
The Parallax Coup. Myanmar is back under military control after a weekend coup d'etat that unfolded in live view of a woman hosting an aerobics video (see above). Aung San Suu Kyi, once seen as the shiny promise of democratic reform, is back under arrest, which forces world governments to call out the Myanmar military in support of a democratically elected leader who oversaw the continued oppression of a Muslim minority. We'll try to untangle this complicated story.
Saxe of All Trades. For years, Dianne Saxe was the tough but fair Environmental Commissioner for the Province of Ontario, but the Ford government eliminated the position in 2019, and then proceeded to do other things that got on the nerves of environmentalists province-wide. Saxe is now the deputy leader of the Green Party of Ontario, and she joins us this week to talk about getting into politics, and the environmental issues coming out of the pandemic.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #184 - February 3, 2021(Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)

This week on End Credits, we continue a streak that's now more timely with our first episode for the month of February. In this edition of the show, we will review another Black story featuring a Black cast and a Black director, and it's called Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. And in an effort to further diversity, we will officially kick off Black Heritage Month with a tribute to the directors.
This Wednesday, February 3, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Black Heritage Month: The Directors. Like the headline says, the month is February and that means it's time to reflect on Black History. This week, End Credits does its part by considering great Black directors and their signature films; from Spike Lee and Ryan Coogler, to John Singleton and Kasi Clemmons, and all the incredible talent in-between, we'll give a great list of films and we'll tell you where to find them.
REVIEW: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020). The year is 1927, and Ma Rainey is the Mother of the Blues. One day in Chicago, she and her band record a new album, and the consequences will be felt for years. Viola Davis delivers a powerhouse performance as Ma, but attention also goes to Chadwick Boseman in what would turn out to be his final performance. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a veritable supernova of acting talent, so how does this August Wilson adaptation stand among the year's other great performances?

GUELPH POLITICAST #259 - It's Been a Weird Year for Pets Too

According to an article on the CBC website last month more than one in three Canadian homes now has a dog, and two out of every five homes now has a cat, and then there are all the birds, hamsters, guinea pigs, lizards and goldfish who are just as beloved by their humans. The reason for this shift is COVID-19, more people are spending time at home, and they are looking for company. So it’s a good news story, right?
Not quite. There have been instances in our area of people falling victim to scams; they buy a puppy online, but no actual puppy ever arrives as some con man walks away with their wire transfer. That’s one of the reasons why people put their trust in the Humane Society, an organization with a 125-year history of “protecting and caring for the many animals with whom we share our community and our lives.”
Still, there have been uphill challenges for the Humane Society, who were supposed to have moved in to their new and more spacious home in the Hanlon Creek Business Park by now, but got delayed because of COVID-19. From pet care, to hosting potential new pet owners, to taking pets to get needed care at the veterinarian, there’s a lot of work at the Humane Society that doesn’t stop because of the pandemic. So how are they coping?
This week, we’re joined by Adrienne McBride, who is the executive director of the Guelph Humane Society, to talk about the issues they’re dealing with, and the effects of the pandemic on both people and the animals. She will also talk about the pandemic's impact on fundraising, especially in the case of building the Human Society’s new headquarters, which is behind schedule and still $2.3 million short of its fundraising goal for the project, and more.
So let's talk about pets and the pandemic on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about the Guelph Humane Society, how you can help, or how you can potentially adopt a pet of your own, you can find all that information on their website. You can also go to UnleashHope.ca to learn about how you can support the fundraising efforts to finish construction on the Human Society’s new “fur-ever” home. (Sorry.)
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 #311 - January 28, 2021

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're all about the outrages and there are so many. In Canada, we've got a disgraced Governor General who's been thoroughly disavowed, in the U.S. (and elsewhere) there's an army of deflated conspiracy theorists that don't understand why the plan fell apart, and Canadian companies might be unknowingly (or knowingly) benefiting from slave labour. Just another week in 2021.
This Thursday, January 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Julie is the Beast. Rideau Hall was a toxic workplace under Governor General Julie Payette according to a third-party report that has not yet been released, but apparently everyone has already read. There are a number of questions now following Payette's resignation. Does she deserve a pension? Do the staff deserve compensation? And what about the role of Governor General itself? Why do we still need a representative from the Queen in Canada in 2021? Let's consider.
Q-a-gone? They said that a storm was coming. All the evil doers in the media, Hollywood, and the Democratic Party were going to be rounded up, put on trial on live TV, and executed while Donald Trump retained the presidency. But that didn't happen? So what is a QAnon ardent to do now? Some followers are deflated, but is the lack of results from Q going to show them the light back to facts and reality, or is it going to force them deeper down the rabbit hole?
Big Trouble in China Shipping. There's a holocaust happening in China. The Muslim Uyghur minority is being persecuted, millions are now in Concentration Camps, and there's more than circumstantial evidence that they're being used as forced labour, or as it's more conventionally known, 'slavery'. On top of that, some Canadian companies may be the beneficiary of that slave labour, and we'll talk to one of the reporters who broke that story, the Guelph Mercury Tribune's own Graeme McNaughton.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #183 - Janaury 27, 2021 (One Night in Miami)

This week on End Credits, we're going to talk. Well, this is a radio show, so of course we're going to talk, but this week's movie is a film about a talk, a chat if you will, that all unfolded One Night in Miami, which is a film that should definitely get some Oscars. Speaking of awards, there were a lot of awards-worthy movies in 1996, and we will reminisce about some of them.
This Wednesday, January 27, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Class of '96. Twenty-five years is lifetime in movies, and looking back a quarter century to 1996, the movie landscape is barely recognizable compared to today, but there were still some signs of things to come. We'll talk about those this week, and shine a light on 10 of the movies that 1996 needs to be remembered for, from Shakespeare, to Space Jam, to the wood-chipper!
REVIEW: One Night in Miami (2020). Suppose on the night that Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) beat Sonny Liston to become the Heavy Weight Champion of the World that Malcolm X gathered Clay, football player Jim Brown, and singer/songwriter Sam Cooke in a Miami hotel room to talk about the future of Black culture in America. Regina King won an Oscar for acting, and her feature directorial debut is an acting showcase that's timely, pointed and insightful, but how did *we* like it?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #258 - They Had a Plan to "Defund the Police"

“Defund the Police” is a simple three-word slogan for a complex idea. Some people mistakenly think that it means literally taking away all police funding, but more precisely it means re-examining how police services are funded, and rededicating that money to social programs. It’s easier said than done, but a group of folks in Waterloo actually came up with a real plan to defund the police.
Like many towns and cities, there was Black Lives Matter march in downtown Kitchener last June. Fast forward a few months, and the Waterloo Region Police presented a request for  an additional $5.3 million in their 2021 budget, and not only did many activists see this request as a bit tone deaf, but the police budget represented the only increase to Waterloo Region’s 2021 budget.
During the budget process, a group called ReAllocate WR came forward with a proposal of their own: Half of the proposed $5 million police budget increase would go to build a police-free public safety model led by local community groups disproportionately, and the other half would go to transit, community health, social services and other initiatives that attack the root issues of crime. Reallocate’s vision would not come to pass, but they did plant the seed of an idea, so how did they do it, and what comes next?
This week on the podcast, Teneile Warren of ReAllocate WR will talk about the origins of the group, and how they came up with their recommendations for council. She also discusses the counterarguments from Waterloo Region Police Chief Bryan Larkin, and how Reallocate feels about the end result at last week’s final vote on the budget. And finally, she will talk about the next steps, and how ReAllocate will be staying on top of Regional Council with the two minor victories they were able to achieve. 
So let's talk about how you make a plan to "Defund the Police" on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can can learn more about ReAllocate WR and their plan to re-invest in the community on their website. For a local angle you can scroll down on your podcast player and listed to the interview we did with Chief Gord Cobey of the Guelph Police Service on last week’s episode of Open Sources Guelph.
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 #310 - Janaury 21, 2021

 
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we celebrate survival. We made it to the end of the Trump reality show presidency, and are enjoying the first full-day of the Biden era. We'll have some thoughts about that, including a surprising Canadian connection, and we'll also talk about how Canadian conservatives are concerned now about their own Trump connections. In the back half of the show, our special guest will be the man that leads Guelph's police officers.
This Thursday, January 21, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
This American Carnage Stops Right Here. After four years, 30,000 lies and one coup attempt, the Donald Trump era came to an end on Wednesday with the 45th President refusing to acknowledge reality, and the 46th President, Joe Biden, resetting the political clock by acknowledging 400,000 dead people from COVID-19 in a pre-inauguration ceremony. We'll talk about the hard work going forward including the cancellation of a certain pipeline that rhymes with "Bee-stone".
Nazi Gold. A Press Progress investigation revealed that a famous Neo-Nazi made a campaign donation to the Conservative leadership campaign of Derek Sloan. It's never a great time to hear that someone in your caucus is getting donations from Nazis, but the news broke after Conservative leader Erin O'Toole made it known that he did not want to be Canada's Donald Trump, but does he have any choice with so many people in his own party being caught in MAGA hats?
Zoom Patrol. Last year the world took a good, hard look at the police, and how policing is done in communities like Guelph, and there are still a lot of questions left outstanding. We'll try and get some answers this week in an interview with Guelph Police Chief Gord Cobey as we talk about his thoughts on the "Defund the Police" movement, how the Guelph Police are trying to adapt to community concerns, and what lessons he learned from 2020 that he's applying to 2021.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #182 - January 20, 2021 (If Not Now, When?)

This week on End Credits is all about living vicariously. Let us enjoy a long summer's day where life is pandemic-free and hanging out with some new friends in the relationship drama If Not Now, When? Before that, we will talk about the week's movie news where there's a lot of talk about with new projects being worked on, and how only some of them are likely to come true.
This Wednesday, January 20, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
New Year News. January is usually a slow month for movie news, and at least that much is still true in 2021. There's no awards season because of COVID, but there is some awards news. John Carpenter's making horror again, just not horror movies. Kevin Smith is talking about Clerks III again, but is it more than just talk this time? Oh, and Chris Evans might be coming back to the MCU! Or not.
REVIEW: In Not Now, When? (2021). This film from Tamara Bass and Meagan Good is an exquisite fantasy where you can go to a friend's house and hang out for hours, unmasked, in the warm ocean breeze and soft California sunshine. Of course, If Not Now, When? is not strictly a fantasy outside of COVID-adjusted terms, but it does offer a glimpse inside Black female friendship as four L.A. residents deal with life, love, and changing personal and professional circumstances that have nothing to do with mask-wearing or hand sanitizer.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #257 - Gone Gryphon

For many thousands of students at the University of Guelph, sport is a big part of their daily routine. Whether they’re a varsity athlete, play on an intramural team, or simply enjoy access to the gym, pool, or rink for personal exercise or enjoyment, athletics is an important part of student life, but what part does athletics play when there’s hardly any student life on campus?
Back in March 2020, campus emptied overnight as COVID-19 turned from an international news story into a global pandemic, and 20,000 undergrad students had to leave in-person learning behind. The end of March usually means playoff time for varsity teams, or it means students trying to burn off end-of-the-semester stress in the gym, but the start of the COVID-19 was the beginning of an all-new kinds of stress.
Before the fall semester, the U of G athletics department was able to put in place new safety protocols for the few hundred students living on campus or going to campus for one of a few in-person classes. Still, the Ontario University Association, the governing body for university athletics in Ontario, cancelled all team play and tournaments for the fall and winter, and now with a new lockdown, there's that feeling that something very important in the fabric of student life has been lost, or at least temporarily misplaced. 
This week on the podcast, University of Guelph Athletics Director Scott McRoberts takes us inside campus athletics, such as it is, at the U of G. He will discuss the COVID realities of athletics on campus, and how many people were using the facilities before the lockdown. He will also talk about how Guelph’s varsity athletes, including several Olympians, have had to pivot their training without their usual access, and what McRoberts is missing the most about his normally very busy athletics facilities. 
So let's talk about university athletics in the age of COVID on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can get updates about all University of Guelph teams, sports and athletic facilities at their website, although there are no games or tournaments planned for the rest of the semester. If you’re missing Gryphon Athletics, you can at least listen to the Gryph Nation podcast, and you can find that wherever you get your podcasts.
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.