Guelph Politicast

GUELPH POLITICAST #253 - Give Blood.

It’s the holiday season, and along with the usual need to give presents, food, and other festive delights is the life-or-death need to give blood. The hospital is still in business treating more than just COVID-19, and there are a myriad of medical emergencies that require blood from millions of generous donors from across Canada, including Guelph. ‘Tis the season for giving after all, so why not give blood?
We’ve heard a lot about essential services in this pandemic, and it’s hard to think of a service more essential than blood donation. Even though we’re under lockdown again, local blood donor clinics are still open and have been open though the entirety of the pandemic. Like your local grocery shore, or your doctor’s office, Canadian Blood Services has gone to great pains to make sure people can give blood, and give safely despite COVID.
According to Health Canada’s own website, “Donating blood in Canada remains safe. Every day blood products are needed for patients undergoing surgery, cancer treatments, and to save lives following traumas such as motor vehicle accidents.” Pop-up clinics haven't been running, and donation clinics can't take walk-ins like the used to, but Canadian Blood Services wants people to know that the need is still very real, and your help would be very appreciated.
So on this special bonus edition of the podcast, we are joined by Kersten Dupuis, the Territory Manager at the Guelph clinic of Canadian Blood Services. She will share her personal about the importance of blood donation, and how it inspires her to promote blood donation at her job every day. She will also  explain what the experience of giving blood is like now, the process you'll have to go through, and why there’s a lot of pressure to get blood donations over the holidays. 
Let's talk about why you should roll up your sleeve this holiday season on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Canadian Blood Services in their Guelph location at 130 Silvercreek Parkway North is open during the holidays despite the lockdown that’s now in effect, but you do have to make an appointment to donate. To find out how, visit their website, or call 1 888 2 DONATE (1-888-236-6283).
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.

End Credits - December 23, 2020 (Christmas Movie Music)

This week on End Credits, it's Christmas. Or nearly Christmas, we suppose. There's a lot of holiday doings going down, and some of you may still be able to go to the store and do some Christmas shopping, so why not get in the car, tune the radio to CFRU and dig some movie-related Christmas tunes, while making those trivia points that will come in handy after holiday dinner.
This Wednesday, December 23, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Sounds of the Season. It's two days before Christmas, and all through the house, no one's watching the movies, because it's less than 48 hours till Christmas, yo!!!! So why bother with something new this week? Let's just flip on the radio and enjoy some holiday music from the movies, complete with some colour commentary about the origins of the music, and how they're used in the movies they're found in. So tune in, drop out, and bring on the egg nog!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #252 - Christmas With Cam

Looking back at 2020, one recalls the loft aspirations for the year that Mayor Cam Guthrie articulated at his annual State of the City speech. That was the first week of February. Less than six weeks later, the world was closed and Guthrie had to lead the city through what might be the most complicated and multifaceted crisis that Guelph has ever faced in its 193-year history. So how did it go?
You may recall that Mayor Guthrie took part in an episode of the Politicast earlier this year where we tried to deconstruct his political thinking and how he’s tried to govern as mayor. These were the salad days before the pandemic, when COVID-19 was still this weird international news story that was happening to China, and almost definitely wouldn’t affect us here.
Even at the best of times, it’s worth knowing how our political leaders think and how they make decisions beyond the bare knuckle fact of how they voted on a specific measure when it comes up in the council chamber. Looking back, given the unprecedented nature of this year’s events, it seems like we did that interview at the perfect time because whatever leadership instincts that Guthrie brought with him into 2020 have surely been tested daily since mid-March when the world was shutdown.
So this week on the podcast, Mayor Guthrie will join us to look back at the year 2020, and talk about what his weekly schedule looks like now and how he's managed relations with upper levels of government through the pandemic. He also discusses what he’s learned about leadership in the last year, and what he’s learned about Guelph, especially on matters of equality. And finally, Guthrie will also talk about what he would like to do in 2021, and he will tacitly announce his intention to run for a third term in 2022.
So let's have a Christmastime talk with the mayor on this week's episode of the Guelph Politicast!
You can find the mayor easily enough on all his social media channels, and his own mayoral website. Meetings of city council will resume on January 11 with the first Committee of the Whole meeting of 2021, and that agenda will be released next week on New Year’s Eve.
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 - December 17, 2020

This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's the beginning of the end... of the pandemic. Hopefully. On this episode, we'll talk about the politics of the vaccine roll out, and the politics of rolling back into taking climate action seriously. After that, we will talk about the man behind the tweets and the bizarre little opposite world he's creating, and a topic you've long been waiting for us to tackle: hardcore pornography!
This Thursday, December 17, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Jab and Go. In record time, the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer has begun distribution across Canada and around the world, but even with a second vaccine on the way from Moderna, there's still months and months left to go in this pandemic before we get back to "normal". But what about vaccine politics? Are governments handling the rollout in the best possible way, and what about all those anti-vaxxers that won't likely get their shots, what are we to do about them?
Carbon State. With the end of the pandemic in site, it seems like it's time to start getting ourselves re-oriented to the other existential threat we're facing: climate change. Last week, the Federal government recommitted to reaching climate targets and announced increases to the carbon tax, while world leaders celebrate the fifth anniversary of Paris Accord, and the U.S.' eventual return to the fold. A good news story, or are we trying to cover for a lost year fighting climate change?
The Biggest Loser. The American Electoral College met on Monday, and to no one's surprise they confirmed that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the President Elect and Vice-President Elect respectively. Meanwhile, somewhere in the White House, current President Donald Trump, out of sight from the general public, is rage tweeting all the nutsy conspiracy stuff he can, apparently unwilling to concede defeat. Meanwhile COVID rages, and there's a new Russia hacking scandal. Is it January 20 yet?
Freaks and MindGeek. A report in the New York Times cast a new, harsh spotlight on Pornhub over thousands of videos posted to the site that don't exactly celebrate positive sexual relations between consenting adults. The story laid some responsibility at the door of the Federal government since Pornhub's parent company, MindGeek, is based in Montreal, and thus the door was opened to the idea of more government oversight of the porn business. But are we treating this like a tech issue, or a sex issue?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits - December 16, 2020 (Mank)

This week on End Credits, we get a couple of nice pre-Christmas presents! For the review this week, we're talking about the first David Fincher movie to be released in over six years, and because it's awards season, it's a movie about the movies! Before the review, we're going to talk about your favourite* topic: more Marvel and Star Wars TV shows!!!
This Wednesday, December 16, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Disney Bomb! Last week offered a veritable explosion of news on Disney properties via an call with Disney company investors. The short version is that the studio is investing big in their streaming service Disney+, which means dozens and dozens of new series including ones under the Marvel and Star Wars banners. We'll talk about those, and how you will be able to see Wonder Woman 1984, in Canada, without going to the theatre!
REVIEW: Mank (2020). There's a grand mythology around Citizen Kane, the first movie by radio wunderkind Orson Welles, and widely considered by many to be one of the best movies of all time if not *the* best. But what about the guy who shared the credit, and the Oscar, for writing Citizen Kane with Welles? David Fincher directs his late father's script and uses all the technical tricks of Hollywood's Golden Age, but can Fincher's vision live up to the legacy of Kane?
*This item may not actually be your favourite topic.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #251 - The Other Pandemic of 2020

We’ve heard a lot about one health crisis this year, the one tied to a global pandemic that broke the economy, brought healthcare to the brink, and pretty much shutdown society for four months earlier this year. But while COVID-19 has been our preoccupation in 2020, there has been another public health issue in our community at the same time, and it’s one that started before the pandemic and has stayed with us through the darkest days of the last 10 months.
The ongoing issues of drug addiction in Guelph came to the fore once again last week with two items in the news. First, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health issued a warning about another overdose death in Guelph related to fentanyl. And then on Friday, Guelph Police announced that they had successfully arrested 16 people on 34 drug-related charges. These are the stories that break through the news cycle, but what about all the daily stories of struggle and suffering by those afflicted with addiction?
A report from Public Health Ontario in June noted a nearly 40 per cent increase in the number of overdose deaths in the first 15 weeks of the pandemic. Most of those deaths were accidental in nature, and many of them are being driven by circumstances exacerbated by the pandemic itself. While you can easily say that the COVID-19 pandemic has made our drug and overdose pandemic worse, there has not been such swift and immediate reaction to the drug crisis as there has been to COVID-19.
To talk about all these issues, and more, we're joined by Adrienne Crowder, who is the manager of the Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy. Crowder will talk about the number of overdoses in Guelph-Wellington this year, and how support services have had to adjust in the pandemic. She will also talk about the ways COVID has impacted addiction issues, including the ways it’s affected the fight to get more support, and how the pandemic has affected mental health issues that are so key to understanding addiction.
So let's look at the other pandemic of 2020 on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about the Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy and their programs, you can visit their website. To learn about the Consumption and Treatment Site, and other programs, you can visit the Guelph Community Health Centre at their 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 -December 10, 2020

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got a full slate of the issues that aren't getting a lot of attention these days. In the first half, we'll talk about the action to undermine provincial conservation authorities, and the lack of action on homelessness in places across Canada. On top of that, we'll consult an expert on the topic of hate groups in Canada, and we just might need to dedicate a whole show to discussing all the various under-reported facets there!
This Thursday, December 10, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Authority Configure. In a move straight out of the pre-COVID era of Ford governance, the 2020-21 Ontario budget omnibus bill was used as a Trojan horse to undermine the authority of Ontario's conservation authorities. It's seemed like it's been a priority for the current Ontario government to undermine conservation efforts to make development easier, and they've finally been able to squeak something through despite widespread disagreement. So what happens now?
Take Shelter. In Montreal on the weekend, a tent city where over 60 homeless people lived was victim to a fire started by a forgotten candle. Reaction from authorities was that the people in the tent city need to find someplace else to go, which proves that despite the pandemic, we still have the same rather limited series of ideas about how to fight homelessness. Why is it still so hard to get housing treated as a right in Canada, even here in our own community?
The Hateful Slate. It's been a long year in so many ways, but despite the progress made on social justice and equity in 2020, there's still be a lot of hate festering on the fringes. This week, we will be joined by Peter Smith from the Canadian Anti-Hate Network to talk about the Venn diagram between hate groups and anti-mask groups, the ongoing revelations of the Toronto van attack trial, and what we should be on the look out for as the fight against hate groups continues in 2021.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits - December 9 (The Christmas Chronicles 2)

This week on End Credits, get some corn for popping and tune in to CFRU for a Christmas-themed review. In this edition, we're going to (maybe) celebrate the return of Cool Santa in The Christmas Chronicles 2, and in our decidedly not Christmas-related pre-game, we will run the series on a filmmaker we don't talk about, and that's the first and second rule!
This Wednesday, December 9, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Run the Series: The Films of David Fincher. This week, David Fincher's newest film, Mank, was released on Netflix. It's Fincher's 11th film, and his past works have covered a wide range of topics including serial killers, fight clubs, true crime, and websites that destroy democracies. This week, we will do the impossible and rank all 10 of Fincher's movies. Will Alien 3 finish last?*
REVIEW: The Christmas Chronicles 2. In case you didn't know, it's Christmastime, and your Netflix queue is full of holiday delights, and this week we will reach in and pick one. The Christmas Chronicles 2 is a sequel to the 2018 Netflix original movie featuring Kurt Russell as a rock 'n' roll, devil-may-care Santa, who returns for part 2 with his real-life Mrs Claus Goldie Hawn, and this time they have to thwart a mischievous elf out to ruin Christmas. Is this one a gift, or is it a lump of coal?
*Probably.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #250 - Empty Campus

See that picture of an empty University Centre? That was taken on Friday around early afternoon last week. Even now, in the middle of exams, that space would be full of people getting lunch, grabbing a coffee, studying, meeting people, or buying a bus ticket home for the holidays. But it’s empty. How do you lead a student body when the vast majority of the body can't be there?
Obviously, this is not the student experience that Tyler Poirier, president of the Central Student Association, and his vice-presidents were planning when they ran in their elections last February. Their term started, and will likely finish, with most of Guelph’s 20,000 undergrad students having never once step foot on campus. To simply say that the situation is unprecedented does not feel like we’re doing the events of the last year justice. 
So this year, there would be no O-week festivities, no student experience, no club days, no hanging out at the Bullring, no Project Serve, and none of the numerous events, concerts, or gatherings that typically make up the campus experience every fall. And what about all of the CSA's services? Some, like the food bank, are busier than ever, but there's no use for the student bus pass, or campus Safe Walk. If you’re the person at the top of the CSA, how do you manage the COVID crisis, and all the problems it creates? 
This week, we will explore that question with Poirier as he tells us about how often he’s on campus these days, and how much work at the CSA is being done from their office. He will talk about the effect of the pandemic on CSA programs, and how he would rank the response of the U of G admin to the pandemic. And finally, he will talk about what’s coming up in the winter-semester, and what Poirier himself has learned about political leadership from his very impactful year as the head of the CSA. 
So let us return to campus, spiritually anyway, on this week's Guelph Politicast! 
To learn more about the CSA, their services, or their service levels, go to their website, or find them on social media @csaguelph. The first "Livestock from the Bullring" concert featuring the sister act Liv and Anita Cazzola, aka the Lifers, is this Thursday at 7 pm and you can watch on Twitch.
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 - December 3, 2020

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we happily take a break from the dramedy in the United States and the insanity of Toronto barbecue joints. In this edition, we're going to talk about the politics of requisitioning the vaccine, and the politics of the appointment of Ontario's most important health official. After that, we'll talk about more local matters with one of the Ward 1 City Councillors who helped make some pretty big (local) news of his own this week.
This Thursday, December 3, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Medicine, Man! More good news this week on the vaccine front with a fourth candidate ready for emergency approval and word on Wednesday morning that the U.K. had approved one for immediate distribution. Meanwhile, here in Canada, concern over our place in the queue for getting a vaccine has become something close to a national hysteria. Are the opposition understandably concerned, or do Canadians really need to sweat about our place in line to receive a COVID vaccine?
Health Scarred. In the midst of the vaccine scramble, and the the startling increase in cases of COVID cases, the Ontario government decided to extend the tenure of Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams. Easy, right? Not so fast because there a lot of people in the medical community in Ontario that don't feel that Williams has lived up to the job, and the opposition has taken up their voice on the subject. What's behind the controversy of renewing Dr. Williams?
Gibson Tide. On Tuesday night, city council passed a budget that had one of the lowest levy increases in recent years despite the circumstances of the pandemic, and one of the people that will gladly take a victory lap on that is Ward 1 Councillor Dan Gibson. Gibson will join us this week to take that lap and answer some questions about the long-term implications, the ongoing effects of the pandemic on the City's bottom line, and the one motion of his that got away.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.