Guelph Politicast: Recent Episodes
Adam A. Donaldson
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we’re on vacation. No, seriously. Sure, someone once said that there’s no rest for the wicked, but here at OSG headquarters on Snake Mountain, we believe that a restful two-week summer vacation makes our biting political commentary even more biting. As we rest and recreate, we’re pleased to bring you some previously enjoyed episodes of the show, and you may still enjoy them indeed!
Proof of Life. Many you come here to learn what we’re talking about on Open Sources this week, or maybe you always come here when the podcast version of the episode is posted. You may now be concerned to learn that there is no episode these two weeks, and you maybe be concerned that something has happened to Adam and Scotty that now makes them unable to deliver a high-quality sardonic take on the news plus engaging interviews with local newsmakers, but take our word for it, we’ll be back!
*Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will return with new episodes on Thursday August 20.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we say "goodbye"... for two weeks. Next week, we're taking our usual summer vacation, and we can think of no better way to leave things than to review the massive superhero sequel Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which you can now see in a theatre near you. We're also going to dig into a list of powerful directors, and the summer movies... of 2027!
This Wednesday, August 5, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Influence Peddling. Recently, Vulture published a list of the 100 most powerful directors in Hollywood, and - spoiler alert! - Christopher Nolan is number one! That was the least surprising part of the list. We will dig in and talk about some of the more surprising choices and placements.
Never Too Early For Next Summer. Although summer's not technically over till Labour Day, we're going to dedicate some of our time this week to looking forward to next summer. From a new Star Wars starring Ryan Gosling, a Minecraft sequel and a prequel for Rambo and Ocean's 11 respectively, we will draft some of the (currently) hottest picks.
REVIEW: Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026). It's been nearly five years since Spider-Man defeated a rogues gallery of his villains (not to mention the Omicron wave of COVID) to save the world, but what it cost him was a magic spell that made everyone forget Peter Parker. Now, in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Peter confronts his isolation, his mutating powers, a deceitful government agency, and an antagonist from an entirely different Marvel franchise (?!). History shows us that you can never bet against a Spider-Man movie, but is there more to this than money?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
*Programming Note: End Credits will be running previously enjoyed episodes on Wednesday August 12 and 19. We will be back with new episodes on Wednesday August 26.
This is a big year for Guelph. Our downtown landscape is changing, we have an election in the fall that will usher in a new mayor and council, and then we will mark the city's 200th birthday in the spring. Two centuries ago, it all began with one man from Scotland cutting down a tree near what we now call the Eramosa River, but how much about John Galt do we actually know? Well, as you will recall, one local academic knows a lot...
A lot of assumptions have been made about Galt, and the popular wisdom for years was that he was a failure as the head of the Canada Company, yet the city he created survives and thrives 200 years later. But what about Galt as a colonizer? It may surprise you to learn that Galt, ever the iconoclast, had some unusual ideas for how settlers and Indigenous people should get along as equals, and it was among the reasons why he was sent back to Scotland two years after founding Guelph.
This week, we’re joined by someone who might know Galt better than anyone (in the 21st century). Gil Stelter, a professor emeritus from the history department at the University of Guelph, has dedicated his life’s studious endeavours to the man who’s name is on the proverbial patent for Guelph. In his career, Stelter has amassed quite a number of insight into the man, his career as a businessman and author, and what his intentions were for Guelph, some of which actually came to pass.
Revisiting an interview from the podcast in August 2023, Stelter gives us a breakdown on who John Galt was, and his notoriety beyond the borders of Guelph. He will also talk about what Galt’s written works tell us about his thinking, how his relationship with John Brant informed his thinking when settling Guelph, and what Galt might think of Guelph now nearly 200 years later. Also, he will talk about how Galt might have been right at home among the celebrity businessmen of modern day.
So let’s talk again about the John Galt you don’t know on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
Learning the basics about the life of John Galt is relatively easy, but if you want to follow up on this particular discussion, you can consult Galt’s written works, including The Apostate or Atlantis Destroyed, which you can buy through Vocamus Press. You can also watch Stelter’s presentation to the Guelph Historical Society on Rogers’ YouTube channel.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're building bridges. And speaking of bridges, we will talk about a famous new bridge down in Windsor, which may now be a monument to the latest phase of the Canada/U.S. trade war. In other news, we will talk about a new study that paints a worrying picture of Canada's healthcare system (again!), and in the interview we will focus on local matters and the end of the council term with a member of Guelph city council.
This Thursday, July 30, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Howe You See Me. The Gordie Howe Bridge spanning Windsor and Detroit finally opened this week, but only after Canada capitulated to Trump administration demands, and in the midst of a renewed trade war no less with President Donald Trump seeking supposed payback for Canada's hard line on American alcohol, lumber and dairy products. Canadians, especially opposition Conservatives, are now wondering if Mark Carney has a plan to take on Trump and his cronies, but when, if ever, will we see it?
Emergency Care. A new report released this week shows that 1-in-10 emergency room doctors are thinking about quitting their specialty. Why? They feel like they're not being given the support they need to give patients the care they deserve. This comes a week after Canada's first ministers released a statement demanding more stable funding from the federal government, and yet it's the provinces that are in charge of healthcare spending. So is anyone listening to doctors or are they just passing the buck?
Term Limits. Guelph City Council is now on summer break, and when they return in September there will be only two more meetings before the election. So we're essentially at the end of the term, and who better to indulge in a little self-examination that Ward 3 Councillor Phil Allt? Allt will join us to talk about the ways this term of council will be remembered, plus he will wax on some of the breaking news this week including the sale of the Niska lands and the repeated appeals of police officer Corey McArthur.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
Programming Note: Open Sources will be running previously enjoyed episodes on Thursday August 6 and 13. We will be back with new episodes on Thursday August 20.
This week on End Credits we get topical. We're tackling two movies this week, one new and one old, and they both have the state of society on their minds. First up, from 1976, we will continue with our ongoing series and a satire that's still razor sharp, and for the review we will get into the latest film from a provocative filmmaker that was recently in theatres for too short a time.
This Wednesday, July 29, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
6 For '76: Network. Continuing on with our series dedicated to the movies of 1976 we come to the pièce de résistance: Sidney Lumet's Network. Hailed for the last 50 years as a stinging satire, and a prescient polemic, Network has one of the most famous scenes in movie history when Peter Finch as network news anchor Howard Beale declares, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore." How does this movie still hit so hard in 2026?
REVIEW: I Love Boosters (2026). It's been eight years since Boots Riley's first film, Sorry to Bother You, a stunning and star-studded debut that was bursting with ideas and a point of view. Get ready for I Love Boosters, which is also full of ideas but this time it focuses on a group of organized shoplifters - called Boosters - practicing "fashion forward filanthropy" (branding!). That's just the beginning though because the plot gets so much more complicated, and weirder, than you can possibly imagine. So the question of the hour is, do we love I Love Boosters?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Guelph City Council is now on summer break, a long break and then just a few more meetings before the municipal election campaign can really get underway. Perhaps you can't handle anymore council talk, maybe you just want to be free to think about getting an ice cream at the Boathouse, or plan to visit all your favourite vendors at Ribfest, but after this you will be free... The recap of May, June and July's council meetings!
A lot of big stuff came down in the last few months. Remember the debate over the McQuillan's Bridge and whether the City should get a newer, cheaper bridge? Of course that wasn't the only debate involving trails, which was a recurring theme with a lot of planning discussions. And speaking of planning, there was also a big debate about eight hectates of the Niska lands, a debate that did not turn out the way people hoped. And on the topic of hopes, how is the City of Guelph doing with achieving the goals of the strategic plan?
Let's find out as we recap the spring and summer events at council on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
There are two more council meetings before the election, and they're both in September. First the planning meeting will take place on Wednesday September 9 and that agenda will drop on the City of Guelph website on Thursday August 27. Stay on top of council coverage every week by following @adamadonaldson on Blue Sky and by subscribing to the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet newsletter. The Thursday edition is the recap of that week’s council meeting.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we get suave. There's always controversy to be had in these late summer months and no one does controversy bigger than the Ontario government and this one might be their biggest blunder yet. Meanwhile in London, the prime minister hopes to avoid controversy with effectiveness, but can he succeed? As for the interview, it's going to be lit because we're talking to a expert on wildfires for some very timely insights.
This Thursday, July 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Accommodation Tax. Another spending scandal at Queen's Park has scooped up over a dozen government members and has already cost one cabinet minister his position. The revelation that members of the PC Party have been enjoying stays at downtown Toronto hotel rooms despite the fact that they live a short (and in some cases very short) drive from the legislature has rocked a government that normally doesn't get rocked by this sort of thing. Will "Hotelgate" bring down the Ford government?
Fine and Andy? In the space of about a month, Andy Burnham has gone from Mayor Manchester to MP of Makerfield and now he's the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and leader of the Labour Party. Such a meteoric rise would be notable if not for the fact that Burnham is the seventh PM in the last decade, and before him are all the same problems that stymied his predecessors and pushed them all to an early retirement. Can the so-called "King of the North" rise to the occasion?
The Quest for Firefighting. The smoke has cleared here in southern Ontario but the fires still burn up north, and all the reports say that this is going down as the worst year for wildfires there's ever been in Ontario, and the University of Guelph's Dr. Ze’ev Gedalof agrees. The director of the Climate and Ecosystem Dynamics Research lab joins us to talk about why this fire season is so bad, the ways that climate change is making the problem worse, and what governments should be doing to make sure we're better prepared.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we go big and go home! It feels like we've been waiting for it forever, and last weekend it finally arrived on all the biggest screens available. That's right, we're talking about Christopher's Nolan's epic re-telling of The Odyssey, now definitely in a theatre near you, and sticking with Nolan, we will talk about one of his forgotten(?) classics.
This Wednesday, July 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Tenet and the Mind of Christopher Nolan. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Christopher Nolan insisted that they release his sci-fi action flick Tenet in theatres no matter how limited the attendance restrictions could be. That's one of the reasons Tenet is seen as a rare Nolan misfire, but as we look ahead to The Odyssey, and Nolan's status as a Hollywood blockbuster juggernaut, we will re-examine Tenet and what it can tell us about the director.
REVIEW: The Odyssey (2026). Hotly anticipated for well over a year, we are finally delivered The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan's follow-up to his Oscar-winning magnum opus Oppenheimer. The story is well-known, Trojan War hero Odysseus undertakes a decades long quest to return to his home and his wife, while Penelope is being courted by a large group of suitors who want to replace him on the throne of Ithaca. Matt Damon leads an all-star cast who all fill parts big and small, but is Nolan's epic "too big to fail", or is it worthy of all the hype?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It seemed to pass by without much commentary earlier this year, but January 29 marked the tenth anniversary of the last edition of the Guelph Mercury. Recently, with the closure of 570 News in Kitchener, a discussion about the shrinking state of local news is timely again, and as we head into municipal election season, shouldn’t it be more top of mind as we get ready to elect a new mayor and council?
Two weeks ago, Rogers Sports & Media announced that they were cutting 230 jobs and closing six radio stations across Canada, including 570 News in Kitchener. It’s kind of a big hit to the Waterloo Region eco-system because The Mike Farwell Show was a fairly popular platform to discuss local issues, and 570 was the radio broadcast home for the Kitchener Rangers. An important community hub was zapped just like that on a random Tuesday!
And on top of that, these cuts come at the worst possible time as every Ontario municipality enters election season this fall. So in the wake of these recent cuts, and in anticipation of the labour intensive work coming this fall, we tap into the experience and expertise of the Ink-Stained Wretches, a grassroots advocacy group dedicated to building a culture of appreciation for quality journalism in aid of democracy. How can we know who we're voting for without a robust local media eco-system?
Mirko Petricevic. the chief "Ink-stigator" of Ink-Stained Wretches, joins us today on this edition of the pod as we talk about why the closure of 570 News came as such a big blow, and why it continues to be so hard to make the erosion of local news a community issue. He will also talk about walking the fine line between mutual interest and accountability, why local media still has an advantage in securing people’s trust, and why we need a “buy local” campaign for our community news outlets.
So let's talk again about the state of local news on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Ink-Stained Wretches at their website, or you can follow them on Facebook and Blue Sky. For some more conversation about the state of local media, especially in Waterloo Region, you can check out a panel discussion that was hosted at the Ink-Stained Wretches Journalism Film Festival, which took place earlier this spring, at Midtown Radio 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we... [coughcoughcough]! Ugh! This air is just [cough]! I mean really you can't [coughcough]! without [coughcoughcough]! Yes, the air is bad, but then again, so is the news. We're heading back to Iran, and then we're heading back to Alberta for our first showdown with data centres. And if we can spare the air, we will spend the second half of the show talking to a Farmer who has some Climate Solutions!
This Thursday, July 16, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Strait Story. It's been almost five months since Donald Trump launched his two-week war against Iran and this week peace seemed more elusive than ever. After reports about a standing threat against Trump's life by Iran, the United States went back to nightly bombings, and Trump began pondering war crimes again like bombing critical infrastructure. How many do-overs does Trump have left in order to stop the war he so foolishly started?
Data Centre Stage. Last week, Meta announced that they're building a new A.I. data centre in a small Alberta town. Premier Danielle Smith thinks that this is great news, but an increasing number of Canadians don't like the sound of more data centres opening, or the potentially negative impacts on power and water supplies. Is there a hope that the people might have a say in how much time, effort and energy is put into these data centres, or is this project the first domino to fall?
Farming Out Climate Solutions. Notice something strange about the air and sky this week? Once again the signs of the climate crisis are all around us and interest in solving it seems to be at an all-time low, but there are people who's livelihood depends on having an environment in good working order, and the livelihood of all us depends on them too. This week, we're joined by Brenda Hsueh of Farmers for Climate Solutions to talk about how farmers are working the problem, and why they need more help to get it done.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're doing a clip show! Taking a break from the summer movie madness, we will revisit our reviews for what are objectionably the best movies of the year so far, one is a buddy space adventure to save the world, one is a buddy movie about suffering for your art, and the last one is a buddy film about pushing your buddy too far. Well, sort of.
This Wednesday, July 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Peter Salmon and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The Best of 2026 So Far. Critics can have different ideas about what does and doesn't make a "Best of the Year" list, but for 2026 so far, there seems to be three picks that just about every critic agrees are the best of this year! On this week's show we will go back to space with Tim for Project Hail Mary, try and get a show at the Rivoli with Peter and Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie, and we will break a One Wish Willow and get obsessed all over again with Obsession. Relax this week as we get mentally ready for the next big thing...
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Due to circumstances beyond our control, this week's episode of the Guelph Politicast is a combination of two interviews from recent editions of Open Sources Guelph. Housing remains a big issue in this city, as we saw as recently as last night's council meeting, but housing is an Ontario-wide issue too so for this episode of the pod we will open our gaze to areas beyond our borders.
Two times now, Waterloo Region has tried to evict a homeless encampment on the site of proposed transit hub project in Kitchener, and twice an Ontario court has upheld the Charter rights of the people living there. Now, the Region and the Ontario government are trying to take things to the Court of Appeals, but will they have any greater success there? In part one, Waterloo Region Community Legal Services executive director Ashley Schuitema, who represents the residents, will tell us why she’s holding all the cards.
For years, we’ve been waiting for all levels of government to make substantial progress on getting more affordable homes built, but some advocates are now wondering if maybe working within the present system is worth their while. In part 2 we will be joined by Matt Whitfield and Gaetan Heroux, organizers of the People’s Assembly for Housing Justice, who tell us why fighting Toronto’s housing crisis may not involve getting involved in the local election this fall.
So let's look at some housing issues beyond the immediate Guelph area on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Waterloo Region Community Legal Services, including updates about the fight for the Kitchener encampment on their website. You can learn more about the Parkdale Housing Justine Network on Instagram and you can learn about the Toronto Tenant Union at their website. If you would like to learn more about Guelph's own nascent tenant union will be taking part in Breezy Breakfast this Thursday at 8 am at Uptown Grill.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we're maximizing profit. We're just following in the fine example of Canada's governments with all the money we're putting into pipelines, and all the money were spending supporting big league soccer. We're maybe not so sure if we can make money off of dissecting incel culture, but after a thousand years, it and other regressive positions have got to be showing a profit by now, right?
This Thursday, July 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Don't Believe the Pipe! Just before Canada Day, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada is not going to meet it's climate change commitments, which was followed by announcements about two big new pipeline projects heading west and east from the oil sands, all in the same week as extreme weather and heatwaves here hitting parts of Canada and other places around the globe. Have we completely abandoned climate action for pure fossil fuel profit?
Cup Half Full? The FIFA World Cup has a couple of more weeks left in it, but they've played all the games scheduled for Canadian venues. So was it a success? Depends on how you mean. The early numbers from hotel stays and restaurant receipts don't show much of an impact, but on the other hand the community investments are paying off and there's been no major impact on traffic flow, transit or city life. So was hosting the World Cup money well spent in the end?
Party Like It's 999. A manifesto left behind by the suspect in a shooting last month outside the headquarters of the corporate owners of PornHub in Montreal had a certain familiarity, combining Marxist and incel ideologies in one 104-page document. While the tone is familiar in these modern times, it's also familiar to those who study gender politics in Medieval times. This week, we're joined by University of Guelph history prof. Dr. Jacqueline Murrary who will tell us why the misogyny promoted by the man-o-sphere isn't at all original.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we promise you fireworks! If the sparks are flying, then you can probably blame the movie we're reviewing this week, which is the new romantic crime thriller Carolina Caroline, which you can now rent on VOD, Fireworks are also for special occasions, like the 30th anniversary of 1996's biggest blockbuster hit, which we will revisit.
This Wednesday, July 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Independence Day at 30! This past weekend, America celebrated the 250th anniversary of its Independence Day, but we would rather mark the 30th anniversary of the real Independence Day, the Roland Emmerich alien invasion movie of the same name. From the iconic special effects to the rising star power of Will Smith to the peak hotness of Jeff Goldblum, we will revisit ID4, and why it's still so totemic 30 years later!
REVIEW: Carolina Caroline (2026). Two lovers meet and then go out on the run and commit crimes together on their way to a tragic end. Been there, done that, right? Maybe. Adam Carter Rehmeier's follow up to Snack Shack follows con man Kyle Gallner and his very willing apprentice Samara Weaving as they make their way across the American South graduating from small change cons to bank heists while becoming more and more the focus of the police. So why is a movie that seems so familiar winning so many fans, and are we among them?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Sometimes it seems like municipal politics is an older person’s game. Look around at the faces of Guelph City Council, or even Wellington County Council, and you see a lot of wrinkles and a lot of grey hairs. Now, we love our elders, and everyone should be welcome to serve in municipal governance, but as we approach the end of this term of Guelph city council, we will talk to its two youngest members about going where few people their age have gone before.
This is the last of three episodes dedicated to the first-term councillors. A lot can change in a term, and for Councillors Carly Klassen and Ken Yee Chew there have been some pretty big personal changes to match the ones they experienced on the job; Chew became a married man while Klassen became a first-time mom. With so many things that are so important personally, it doesn’t leave much room for the rapidly changing pace of municipal business.
On that account, this last term probably broke speed records. The Ontario government introduced changes to municipal oversite, funding and planning pretty much every six months, and there’s also been the increasing centralization of power. Despite the challenges they’ve encountered, and the changes in their personal lives, Klassen and Chew have both decided to re-up for the next term of council, and with a slate of young people eager to join them, what can Klassen and Chew teach us based on their experiences?
Carly Klassen and Ken Yee Chew join us on this edition of the podcast to talk about the things they wish they knew before they ran for office, the learning curve (especially with all the changes mandated by the provincial government), and the ways their personal lives have changed in the last four years. They will also discuss how they’ve balanced their commitments, what it means to be representative of young people on council, and the challenges in chasing their own agendas.
So let's talk about what the young ones have learned on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Council business continues, at least until the end of the month, and you can find the agendas on the City of Guelph’s “City Government” page here, and you can see all the ongoing coverage here on Guelph Politico. The last day to file nominations for this fall’s municipal elections is Friday August 21 when the campaign begins in earnest, and Election Day itself is Monday October 26. Learn more about who's running and important dates 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, like so many people, we are not going to the fair. As Americans looks for alternative plans to celebrate their 250th birthday, we will use the occasion to create a fake awards show for someone that really, really loves fake awards. In the realm of real accomplishments though, we will talk to one of the people that wants to lead Ontario's third place political party back to the number one poll position.
This Thursday, June 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Trumpies. It's a summer holiday week, much of the news is taking some time off, so why don't we catch up with everyone's favourite political disaster and some of his latest dumpster fires. And, as a bonus, let's make an awards show out of it! As we all know, Donald Trump is retired from annual year-end awards, but what if we make up a mid-year awards show entirely in his honour? For the first, and hopefully last time, we'll hand out The Trumpies (TM)!!
Built Fairclough. Lee Fairclough was one of the first people to enter the Ontario Liberal leadership race, and was one of a handful of new Liberal MPPs to return the party to official status in last year's election. While the Liberals are holding their own in the polls, they're still struggling for an identity and struggling to build a team that will carry them back to power, so what's the prescription to the party's problems from the woman who led St. Mary's hospital in Kitchener through the COVID-19 pandemic?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits there's no holiday. While you may be enjoying the show in the midst of a midsummer holiday week, we're still cranking out content but not the way the Jackass gang is still cranking it out! We will review the final (?) entry in the franchise, Best and Last, which you can now seen in a theatre near you, plus, let's talk about Can-Con!
This Wednesday, July 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Canada Day Canadian Movie Draft! This week's episode goes live on Canada Day, so is there a better way to celebrate our nation's 159th birthday than to gift us all with a game about Can-Con? Obviously not! We're drafting again with some unique new topics including the covers non-Canadian movies set in Canada, Canadian horror movies, low-budget or indie Canadian flicks. Plus, there's the eternal question: Cronenberg versus Eqoyan as Canada's film king?!
REVIEW: Jackass: Best and Last (2026). It's all been leading to this... Sort of. Johnny, Chris, Steve-O, Dave, Wee-Man, Danger Ehren and the whole gang are back for one last ride in Jackass: Best and Last. This fifth entry in the franchise reckons with old age, the guys can't do those same old body breaking stunts the way they used to, so instead they're doing some less traumatic stunts, reminiscing about old times and playing some never-seen-before B-sides. So are we ready to let Jackass go after one more round of genital trauma?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
If you’re listening to this on Wednesday, then it’s Canada Day, and you might expect that we would dig into something of national importance but with a Guelph edge. Instead, we’re going to go ultra local. There’s a neighbourhood in the City’s south end that has concerns about traffic that will be created from over 200 new units that have been long in development. At the same time, one Guelphite is saying that print is not dead!
First, in the Hart Village area east of Rickson Road in Guelph’s south end, signs have popped up along Carrington Drive, Rodgers Road, and Ryder Avenue, all trying to raise awareness about two new projects coming to the top of the hill on Lovett Lane and their possible impacts on traffic flow in the area. Some might call them NIMBY, but in an election year do these residents have the political capital to use the occasion for their issue?
Second, you may have noticed a new print media outlet around town at some of your favourite coffee shops and stores, something we used to call an alt-weekly. It’s been a good 15 years since Echo Weekly stopped publishing, but now Net Weekly hopes to fill the void by “trying to help you stay off your phone just a little bit more”. Can an alt-weekly still be a Bible for Guelph arts culture, even if its not really online and printed on regular paper?
David Deacon of the neighbourhood group Plan the Right Access will join us in part one to tell us about all the questions on Lovett Lane, the lack of answers from city hall, and why he and his neighbours are actually excited about the project. In part two, Michael K. Newton, the founder of Net Weekly, will talk about why Guelph has been missing an alt-weekly, how he’s building an audience, and why printed paper is the best way to build it!
So let's get local this Canada Day on the Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the effort to send the Lovett Lane development back to council at their website or by visiting them on Instagram. Net Weekly releases a new edition every Thursday at locations around Guelph including The Beat Goes On, Red Brick Cafe, The Dragon, and more, plus you can find back issues here. If you have a pitch or are interested in advertising, you can send Newton an email at netweeklyguelph [at] gmail.com.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're doing our homework. We've got another pair of interviews for you that will hopefully shed light on issues in the news. First up, we will talk to a verified young person about their thoughts on a matter that could be facing young people soon, and then we will talk to a lawyer who recently won their case in court even though two levels of government don't like it!
This Thursday, June 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Youth About Youth. Earlier this month, the federal government announced that they were going to ban social media for anyone under the age of 16, but no one who's a Member of Parliament is that young, so how do the youth feel about it? Why don't we ask one? Joining us this week is Wyatt Sharpe, an independent journalist with his own YouTube channel, which he started long before he was 17. Wyatt will tell us what he thinks about the ban and why he believes it won't work.
Appeal Plan. Two times now, Waterloo Region has tried to evict a homeless encampment on the site of proposed transit hub project in Kitchener, and twice an Ontario court has upheld the Charter rights of the people living there. Now, the Region and the Ontario government are trying to take things to the Court of Appeals, but will they have any greater success there? Waterloo Region Community Legal Services executive director Ashley Schuitema, who represents the residents, will tell us why she's holding all the cards.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
If you watch film reviews on YouTube, what do you see? There are a thousand reviews of the biggest releases and the hottest franchises, and it normally comes down to a question: Does it rock, or does it suck? Can anyone do nuance in film criticism anymore? Can nuance stand out in the noise and conflict of influencer culture? You may be surprised that the answer is yes.
On this edition of End Credits Conversations, we're joined by Adam Manary, who is a former teacher turned corporate videographer and film critic. His site, Points of Review, does long form written criticism and film festival coverage, and he does video reviews on YouTube too, but he’s doing criticism the hard way. He will talk to us about trying to stand out among the critics chasing click bait, the challenges of building your own outlet, and what makes a good film festival.
You can read Adam Manary's reviews and film festival coverage at Points of Review.
End Credits Conversations returns next month on the fourth Saturday. End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This week on End Credits, we're all about disclosure. Having said that, you can probably already guess that the movie this week is a little number called Disclosure Day, an entry from a real up-and-comer named Steven Spielberg, and in other disclosures we will share some of the movies we believe have stood out so far among the 2026 releases.
This Wednesday, June 24, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Best of the Year... So Far. It's been a big year at the movies so far with some pretty predictable hits like Super Mario Galaxy Movie, to some out of nowhere game changers like Backrooms. Are these some of the best movies of the year so far? Maybe (well, probably not in the case of the former), but the movies that do make out Best of the Year so far list will have many familiar names, from a fictional Canadian band to a real survivor situation.
REVIEW: Disclosure Day (2026). Some of Steven Spielberg's biggest movies have been about aliens - Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., War of the Worlds - so it makes sense that he'd go back to that well as he goes back to blockbuster filmmaking. In Disclosure Day, a group of do-gooders are attempted to release proof that aliens are real and that the government is covering them up, but anything worth doing is going to make you the target of malicious black ops agents. Still, this is Spielberg we're talking about, so this one has to be a winner, right?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Does this one feel a little slow? There’s no doubt that there’s a lot of passion in the community for a variety of issues from affordability to housing development in this election, and there are a lot of new faces eager to take the reins around the council horseshoe, but a little over halfway through the nomination process, do the races this fall feel exciting, especially the open mayor’s race? Is there change in the air? Are people paying attention?
Last week, there was finally a break in the mayor’s race. Ward 6 Councillor Ken Yee Chew submitted his name to become the next Mayor of Guelph and thus presented a challenge to his colleague, Ward 5 Councillor Leanne Caron. Now technically, there are four people in the race, but if this comes down to past council experience, for now, this is Caron versus Chew to lead Guelph into its post-Guthrie years.
But that’s just the mayor’s race. If you look at the list of competitors in the six ward races, some of them are busier than others, especially Ward 1, which usually attracts a large variety of candidates in every election. There's still a question mark around two seats, one in Ward 4 and another in Ward 5; Councillors Christine Billings and Cathy Downer have yet to announce their intentions. And what about the school board races? Only four people have signed up across the four different school boards, why is that?
To break down some of these questions, and more, we will be joined by Open Sources Guelph co-host Scotty Hertz. We will talk about whether this is a slow start to an election, why candidates need to have those social media accounts ready, and why no candidate can rest on social media alone. We will also talk about the top issues being discussed on the campaign trail, why candidates need to be ready to talk about cuts if they’re running against high taxes, and we will make a pit stop to talk about Mississauga politics.
So let's talk about the election, two months down four to go, on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can see the full list of candidates running in all the races here. You can listen to Scotty and I talk every week, Thursday at 5 pm, on Open Sources Guelph, which airs on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca. We will be ramping up our election coverage there later this summer, and in the meantime, you can stay up to date on election stuff on Guelph Politico and by subscribing to the Tip Sheet newsletter.
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, 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.
anyone under the age of 16 and introducing new regulations around A.I. chatbots including a responsibility to direct people with suicidal ideation to places they can get help. With Australia's own ban struggling to take hold, and Canada's history of chickening out when tech companies push back, is this the answer people have been waiting for?
No Big Deal. Nearly four months after promising the war would only take two weeks, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that one of his birthday presents was a deal to end the "skirmish" he started. With still 24 hours left to screw it up before the Friday self-induced deadline, we will talk about what we know about this still unknown (at press time) deal, and whether or not it means peace in our time or peace for short time.
The Responsibility Sandwich. It was a busy week last week at city council with a divisive debate about securing more of the Niska property, a new charitable hub project with some big unknown unknowns and the long awaited renoviction bylaw and vacant home tax. To help us talk about how it all went down, and what comes next, is Ward 1 Councillor Erin Caton, who will also join us to talk about the "responsibility sandwich" when it comes to filling gaps in local shelter programs.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we get obsessed. Finally, about a month after the fact, we will dig into a verifiable summer sensation, that other low-budget horror from a YouTube trained filmmaker.You guessed it, we will be reviewing Obsession, which is still in theatres, and then we will look even further back at the long history of an animation powerhouse.
This Wednesday, June 17, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Three Decades of Toy Story and Pixar. It was over 30 years ago that Pixar became a household name thanks to Toy Story, the first fully CG animated movie. The next Pixar movie, which is Toy Story 5, comes out this Friday, so to mark the occasion we will talk about the strange journey of the Toy Story franchise, the creative ups and downs of the studio over the last few years, and why you need to see Pixar's other 2026 hit, Hoppers, if you're an activist.
REVIEW: Obsession (2026). It's the box office phenomenon of the summer, a horror movie morality tale about being careful what you wish for. Bear loves Nikki, but he's not so sure that he loves her back, so he foolishly one night makes a wish using a "magical" doodad called a One Wish Willow to make Nikki love him more than anyone else in the world. And that's where everything starts to go wrong. In its fourth week in theatres, Curry Barker's Obsession still sits pretty with audiences, but now our team will offer our two cents about the biggest movie of 2026!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
One of the big initiatives in this term of council, especially as we emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, was the effort to promote Guelph as a tourist destination. There are two major projects now in the pipeline that would do a lot to brandish Guelph as regional, provincial and nation destination, but as we look to the next term of council, will there be the political capacity to help make these projects a reality?
We’ve talked about both of these projects in previous episodes of the pod. Royal City Science is an effort to build a science centre in Guelph, and last fall they released their feasibility study, which laid out the plan for a 100,000 square foot facility to be built in three phases and will include exhibition halls, education spaces, a planetarium and an IMAX theatre. (That would be a first for this area by the way.)
When it comes to the National Urban Park, we know that infrastructure isn’t the problem because the land is already there, and while Guelph City Council has endorsed the idea, three very important people have held back: The Mayor, our Member of Provincial Parliament, and our Members of Parliament. In the meantime though, there’s a massive community investment in the project and they're ready to go! So what’s happening now with both of these projects?
Joanne O’Meara, one of the organizers of Royal City Science, and P. Brian Skerrett, a heritage advocate and creator of Urban Park Guelph, will join us on this edition of the pod to talk about the latest with these initiatives. O’Meara will talk about the search for a site to build the science centre and whether the drama around the Ontario Science Centre is a drain on this project, and then we will then talk to Skerrett about community versus political support and getting ready to make an updated pitch to Parks Canada.
So let's talk about Guelph as a city of attractions on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about Royal City Science at their website, or follow them on Instagram. The monthly Science on Top events at Royal City Brewing will return this fall. You can also learn more about the effort to turn the OR Lands into a National Urban Park their website, on Facebook. The Yorklands Green Hub regularly hosts events on the property, and you can find more information about what’s coming up here, and learn more about other Guelph tourism events 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're splitting our time between politicians and activists. On the one hand, we will talk to our local representative at the federal level about matters local and international, and on the other, we will talk to two housing advocates out of Toronto who are taking a break from coping with the World Cup to talk about their uphill climb on the issue that's important to them.
This Thursday, June 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Federal Dollars. Unlike their Ontario counterparts, reps in the House of Commons will still be sitting for another couple of weeks, but in the mad dash to finish up before summer vacation, we will be joined by Guelph MP Dominique O'Rourke who will talk to us about recent funding announcements for Guelph Transit, the present economic picture as Canada enters trade talks, and the highly combative discourse over Canada's response to the genocide in Gaza.
Housing Advocates Assemble. For years, we've been waiting for all levels of government to make substantial progress on getting more affordable homes built, but some advocates are now wondering if maybe working within the present system is worth their while. We will be joined by Matt Whitfield and Gaetan Heroux, organizers of the People’s Assembly for Housing Justice, who tell us why fighting Toronto’s housing crisis may not involve getting involved in the local election this fall.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, there's a chill in the air. No, it's not the weather, because it's finally fairly warm outside, but in the movie theatre, that's not just the air conditioning you're feeling. For the review we will finally check out the Backrooms, which is currently making bank, and we will also go back to 1976, and high school, for a lesson in kindness.
This Wednesday, June 10, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
6 For '76: Carrie. Returning to our series about the movies from 1976 we arrive at what might be the scariest. Brian De Palma, still looking for his first hit, took a gamble on the first novel from a new author named Stephen King about a mousy high school student who is pranked one time too many by her classmates. We will talk about the enduring appeal of Carrie, De Palma's trademark style, and the repeated efforts to try and remake perfection.
REVIEW: Backrooms (2006). This may be the story of the year: A 20-year-old first-time filmmaker, Kane Parsons, turned the YouTube series he made in high school into a movie starring two Oscar nominees that's presently outstripping a new Star Wars movie at the box office. Not too shabby, so let's talk about the movie itself, which finds a strung out man played by Chiwetel Ejiofor discovering a vast, magical enclosed space beyond the wall of his furniture store. Why does Backrooms work for audiences, and does it work for these reviewers?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Half of city council is new in terms this being their first term in office, but that doesn’t mean that some of those people were politically inexperienced entering this office. For decades, the farm league for politicians has been the local school board, which is about as direct as democracy can get. Looking back at this term, and the rapid pace of change that councillors have had to deal with, have the councillors with that school board experience had a leg up?
It was literally the day after the 2022 municipal elections that the Ontario government announced Bill 23 and sweeping changes to local planning policy. Later, Strong Mayor Powers were expanded beyond Ontario’s biggest and then the downloading began again. It’s safe to say that being a city councillor in 2026 is not the same as it was in 2021, so can you persevere in a job that’s no longer the one you applied for?
This may be the key question of this election, at least when we’re talking about the DNA of local governance. Here in Guelph, two of the first-term councillors are ready to keep going and perhaps unsurprisingly, they were the two formally of the Upper Grand District School Board. They're used to being the underdog in an all too familiar fight for fairness, so as we head into this fall’s election, what are the hard lessons they’ve learned that make them want to take the fight into a second term?
Ward 4 Councillor Linda Busuttil and Ward 6 Councillor Katherine Hauser join us on this edition of the pod to discuss how the job has changed in the last four years, how the council experience differs from serving on the school board, and whether or not they had any doubt about running for re-election this October. We will also talk about the three Bs, managing expectations and criticism from constituents, and handling the constant flow of information that’s coming in with the weekly council reports.
So let's talk again about the last four years on council on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Once again, nominations for mayor, city councillor, and school board trustee are open until August 21. You can learn more about how to run, who’s running and other important information here. If you’re listening to this on Wednesday, there’s a city council meeting later today starting at 4 pm, and you can get all the council agendas on the City Government page of the City of Guelph website, and you can follow up with all the coverage here 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we boogey! And yet, there's not much time to celebrate because the news keeps on coming. We will see who won the B.C. Conservative leadership race and talk about what the next steps, and then we will look at a certain prime minister's weak spot when it comes to a very green issue. Closer to home, we have a guest from Guelph city council to talk about, among other things, the next council.
This Thursday, June 4, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Findlay's Wake. Last weekend, Kerry-Lynne Findlay become the new leader of the B.C. Conservative Party, and there's a lot of hope that this former Harper government member and current subject of an Elections Canada probe might be the unifier that this upstart political party is looking for but, as we've seen, unifying a party of made of small 'c' conservatives and fringe-y cranks is easier said than done, so has Findlay got what it takes?
Carney, Climate, Catastrophe? In the year since he's became prime minister, Mark Carney has undone a lot of the climate action policies by his predecessor Justin Trudeau, and we were reminded of that last week when all of Trudeau's old environmental ministers were together in the same room, including Steven Guilbeault who just quit the caucus. Does Carney care about his lack of a climate plan, and does he care about the growing number of objectors in his own party?
Ward One is Enough. When it was announced that Mayor Cam Guthrie was not running for re-election, many people looked to Ward 1 Councillor Dan Gibson as a potential replacement. He's not doing it, but he is looking to run again for this current seat, and this week we will tell us why he made that call. Gibson will also talk to us about what he hopes to achieve these next four years, the realities of municipal budgeting and his thoughts on council's closed meeting politics.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
Just this week there were more warning from the federal government about the threats of out malleable information ecosystem, warnings that Russia is targeting Canada with misinformation to sew divisions and erode confidence in democratic institutions. In an era of partisan media and A.I. deep fakes, how do you know that what you’re reading or seeing is the truth? Let's talk about it...
It may surprise you that the idea of universally objective press is a relatively modern idea. In the past, anyone with the means, money and ability could start a pamphlet or newspaper if they had a point of view, whether that was supporting a political party or candidate, or advancing a business interest. In a sense, our media landscape has gone backwards in the last several years, we have returned to the days of partisan newspapers (in a sense).
When you’re doom scrolling on your favourite social media app, how to you know if the post you’re seeing has a specific political slant, even compared to the next post you see on the very same topic? Now there’s the added complication of artificial intelligence but how do you know that the story you’re reading, the video you’re watching of the picture you’re seeing is even real? The odds are against you, right?
Maybe, but that doesn’t mean you’re alone, or that you can’t get smarter on these issues. At a recent edition of Breezy Breakfast hosted at Uptown Grill, Trillium reporter Steve Cornwell, and I took part in a conversation that covers all the bases including A.I. slop, foreign misinformation campaigns, internet anonymity and how these issues impact us on even a local level. This was recorded at the May 21 edition of Breezy Breakfast.
So let's talk about fighting A.I. and misinformation on this bonus edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can read the reporting of Cornwell and his colleagues at Queen’s Park, including their new hire Tina Yazdani, here, and you can sign up for Webb’s newsletter “In Other News” here. If you’re looking for help when it comes to the ways of combating misinformation, you can find resources on at Canada’s Centre of Digital Media Literacy, or the Centre for Information Integrity at the University of Ottawa. Breezy Breakfast happens every Thursday at 8 am at Uptown Grill and you can find out more by sending an email to breezybullhorn [at] gmail.com.
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, 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.
This week on End Credits, we've got pitch! Our movie this week combines a love and appreciation for both classical music and classical crime in the new indie thrill Tuner, which you can now see in a theatre near you. And for something completely different, we will take the opportunity to mark some our favourite war movies as a new one also enters theatres.
This Wednesday, June 3, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
War Movies Are Hell. This week marks the 82nd anniversary of D-Day, and not coincidentally there's a new movie in theatres that's about the weatherman who provided the forecast for the invasion (it's called Pressure by the way). So in that spirit, we will talk about some our favourite war movies, but with a twist: each of our picks have to be from a different war! From the trenches of the Great War to the deserts of Afghanistan, we will prove again that war movies are... you know.
REVIEW: Tuner (2026). It's a story that's been told several times: Down on his luck guy with a special skill finds success in a life of small time crime until things go horribly wrong and he wants out! In Tuner, that's Niki who's extreme hearing sensitivity makes him an excellent piano tuner... and an excellent safe cracker. From Academy Award winning documentarian Daniel Roher (though it's not a documentary), Tuner is being sold as a crime movie with a heart with a talented new leading man at it's centre, but is this new take on an old story pitch perfect, or does it hit a sour note?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Remember MZOs. Early on in the Ford government, Ministerial Zoning Orders were the hot thing to cut through red tape and get construction started faster by overriding public planning procedures, like the one being sought now for a one million square foot facility on zoned agricultural land in Puslinch. As upper levels of government accelerate pro-business policies and override environmental concerns and assessments, can one group of activists still win?
It’s been a while since we’ve had to deal with the overuse, and maybe the misuse, of the Ministerial Zoning Order. The Ford government issued a record 120 MZOs between 2018 and 2024, which prompted the auditor general to say in December of that year that the process needs an overhaul, not the least of which because only 12 per cent of those projects made it to completion. Some, like the glass plant in Stratford, never even got started.
That’s why the MZO being sought by Danby and Upper Canada Forest Group for a new headquarters in Puslinch is so fraught. Local residents are concerned about putting something this big on sensitive agricultural land and right next door to the Donkey Sanctuary of Canada, plus there are issues around road access and the more appropriate employment lands zoned nearby. One group has managed to stop the project this far, but are they ready for this fight to go all the way to Queen’s Park?
Justin Wilson of Help Protect Puslinch will join us on this edition of the podcast to talk about the group’s objections to the project, the practical planning reasons why the town council has repeatedly rejected the project, and balancing growth and small town charm in Puslinch. He will also talk about the room for compromise on this issue, whether they've had a chance to talk to Danby CEO Jim Estill directly, and the lessons learned from other MZO fights. Also, are Wilson and his associates NIMBYs?
So let's talk about the latest MZO fight in our own backyard on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn about the group Help Protect Puslinch at their website, and you can follow them on social media on Facebook and on Instagram. If you’re listening to this on Wednesday and you want to get involved, that public meeting we talked about is tonight at the Puslinch Community Centre at 7 pm. To learn more about the Small Change Fund, you can go to 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we get into some trouble, but not the kind that bars you from campus. The strange doings of YouTube pranksters and influencers is one of the topics this week, and so is the reaction to the latest court decision about encampments and their legality. For the interview, we will talk to a transit advocate about a piece of provincial legislation that you might have missed in the news.
This Thursday, May 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Cockamamie, Notwithstanding. Last week, an Ontario court said again that the Region of Waterloo can't evict an encampment of unhoused people from the site of a proposed transit hub in Kitchener. To say that Premier Doug Ford was apoplectic about the decision is something of an understatement, and that he's open to using the notwithstanding clause to make the eviction happen, but are we really just this devoid of ideas about how to help the homeless?
Off Campus. Last fall, a YouTube prankster came to campus at Ontario Tech, crashed a lecture and made some curry on a portable hotplate before starting a food fight. Probably not a great time for anyone in that classroom, and it wasn't the first time Fique Ayub Fique made a nuisance of himself at Ontario Tech. Now the university is threatening to sue him for damages, but is that the right response to this kind of disruption, and what is the impact on the openness of campus life for everyone else?
98 of the Furious. Have you heard about Ontario's Bill 98, the Building Homes and Improving Transportation Infrastructure Act? The main point was to find new ways to accelerate housing construction, but buried in the act were some incredible new powers for the Ontario government to hold over regional and municipal transit agencies. We will be joined by August Pantitlán Puranauth from TTC Riders to talk about why we should all be concerned about what Bill 98 is cooking up for transit users in Ontario.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, for the first time in a while, the Force is with us! If you haven't guessed already, we will be reviewing the 13th entry in the sci-fi adventure franchise, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, which you can now see in a theatre near you. And if we're watching a new Star Wars movie, then what better time is there to hand out The Star Wars Awards?!
This Wednesday, May 27, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The Star Wars Awards. How can we celebrate the return of Star Wars to theatres everywhere? we could do a ranking of all 12 previous movies in the franchise, but that seems kind of simple, and we have to recognize that Star Wars isn't just a movie series, it's a cultural touchstone. So to mark this week's new release we will hand out the first annual (?) Star Wars Awards in five different categories, from Best Lightsaber Fight to Star Wars MVP!
REVIEW: Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu (2026). It's been seven years since we last saw a new Star Wars movie in theatres, and this one is about a masked bounty hunter and his little buddy. Based on the Disney+ series, The Mandalorian and Grogu follows the continuing adventures of Din Djarin and his sidekick sometimes known as "Baby Yoda" as they chase warlords, gangsters and sometimes fellow bounty hunters across a galaxy far, far away, but does this first big screen outing for the franchise re-establish Star Wars former box office and creative glory?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This term has presented a lot of challenges to transit and transit users, not the least of which was ridership recovering following the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has, thankfully, not only returned but grown in the last four years. Logistically speaking though, there are other challenges to transit that have stacked up including financial pressures, but what else is coming for transit in the next four years?
Coming into this term of council, there was a lot to look forward to with Guelph Transit: investments to modernize transit routes, new real time update signs, new apps and tech, and a new fleet facility that would house this growing fleet of EV buses. The reality though is that whole portions of the Future Ready Action plan were delayed, the OnYourWay app will be discontinued this summer due to ongoing problems, and the construction on that new fleet facility has only just begun.
While Guelph has struggled to keep up with its transit promises, there’s been a lot of new pressure on transit too from the creation of major transit areas, the lack of new regional transit connections, especially on the weekend, and the passage of Bill 98, which gives a number of new powers to the provincial government that they can exercise over transit authorities and municipalities. Transit cannot be treated as some small issue in this election, but are our local candidates ready to make it a priority?
Lending us some insight is to Steve Petric, the co-chair of the Transit Action Alliance Guelph, or TAAG. He will talk about if we’re better off now than we were four years ago with transit service, and the reasons why we’ve seen an increase in ridership. Additionally, he will discuss transit management, and the disconnect between transit’s issues and the first-hand experience of council. Also he will discuss the concerns about Bill 98 and what TAAG is planning in terms of advocacy this fall.
So let's talk about transit now and the next four years on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Transit Action Alliance Guelph at their website, and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can also subscribe to their Substack newsletter here. You can comment now on the Guelph Transit: Future Ready Action Plan update by visiting the City of Guelph’s Have Your Say page. To learn more about the potential impacts of Bill 98 from the transit advocacy group TTC Riders 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we manage the chaos. Even a simple candidate nomination meeting in the Toronto area did not go as planned for any of the people involved, and that's to say nothing of the reporting of war crimes against Palestinians in the so-called "paper of record". But if you're looking for provincial chaos, look no further that one of our western provinces, and our guest this week is going to lend some of his insights into it.
This Thursday, May 21, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
South By Scarborough Southwest. A simple nomination contest in a Toronto riding to fill a vacancy at Queen's Park has turned into a tale of dysfunction and possible skullduggery. For Nate Erskine-Smith, winning the nomination was supposed to be a lift off of sorts to becoming the new Liberal leader, but now he's throwing around accusations that his 19-vote loss for the Scarborough Southwest nomination was a hatchet job. Are the Ontario Liberals okay?
From Israel with Lawfare? After long being only the subject of reports from U.N. and human rights groups, allegations of sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners by Israeli Defence Forces finally made the pages of The New York Times, which has prompted Israel itself to cry, "lawsuit". In other news, a group called the Israel Law Center has threaten to sue the Canadian Museum of Human Rights because of a new exhibit about the creation of Israel from the Palestinian perspective. So this is lawfare, right?
Wild Wild Rose Country. A couple of weeks ago, we tried to dip into Alberta politics but it was hard for two Ontario lads to make heads or tails of that crazy scene, so now we've brought in a stringer. For this episode, we're joined by Jeremy Appel of The Orchard newsletter, the man who broke the news about the Alberta voters' list and The Centurion Project, to lend his perspective on the state of Alberta politics, what Danielle Smith is thinking, and why Naheed Nenshi can't seem to make a play.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're going to work it. No one would accuse this podcast of being fashionable, but with this episode we head work our way back to style in addition to our usual substance by reviewing The Devil Wears Prada 2, which is now in a theatre near you. And since we're going back, let us also go back in time to the Summer of 2006 for another draft!
This Wednesday, May 20, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Summer Movies of 2006 Draft. Twenty years ago from this summer, we watched as the Pirates of the Caribbean fought for a dead man's chest. Tom Hanks raced around Paris search for the Da Vinci Code. The X-Men took their last stand (not really). Superman returned, and so did the clerks. The house was a monster, the ex-girlfriend was super and the Devil wore Prada. These are among the movies we might draft as we go back to the Summer of 2006!
REVIEW: The Devil Wear Prada 2 (2026). Based loosely on legendary (infamous) Vogue editor Anna Wintour, the original The Devil Wears Prada followed an aspiring journalist played by Anne Hathaway going to work for a demanding magazine editor played by Meryl Streep. Now, 20 years later, Hathaway and Streep, plus co-stars Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt, all return for an encore as Streep's Miranda needs Hathaway's Andy to rescue her reputation, and her magazine, in the midst of PR crisis, but is The Devil still as delicious with the second bite?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
On Friday, Guelph Politico received a video of someone accessing the website "michellebowman.ca". Michelle Bowman is a candidate running in Ward 2 in this fall’s municipal election, so one would think that if you typed in her name with the domain extension ".ca" that it would lead to her website. It doesn't. Barely three weeks into this election, do we already need to have a conservation about the rules and ethics of running for local office?
A second source on the weekend then provided Politico with a link to a website set up by someone who was declaring themselves as a council candidate, although they had not yet filed their nominations papers. Concerning here was the inclusion of a donate button when the election rules state that you cannot collect donations, or spend donations on campaigning, until you’re a registered candidate in the mayor, council, or school board trustee elections.
So how concerned should we be about these recent develops? Is there already election skullduggery afoot less than a month into this municipal election? That’s tough to say. In so much as people are invested in knowing who wants to form the next city council and what they intend to do with that position, people are also invested in making sure they do it the proper way. Should we be guarded for more people testing the system over the next couple of months?
To learn more about where the lines are this election, we will seek out the advice of Dylan McMahon, Guelph’s city clerk and essentially the chief electoral officer for municipal elections. We turn to him with these two situations that arose over the weekend: Is it improper for someone else to own the domain of a candidate, can you raise money and campaign before you are officially a candidate, and what can you do if you have a cause for concern in the way some candidates are running?
So let's talk about election concerns on this week's Guelph Politicast!
If you have questions or concerns about the election or the election rules, you can go to the City of Guelph’s website or can call the clerk’s office at 519-837-5625 or send an email to guelphvotes@guelph.ca. If you want to learn more about available domain names, or learn what legal recourse you have if someone’s using your name as a domain name, you can go to the Canadian Internet Registration Authority website.
In one last note, Guelph Politico reached out to Thai Mac, the owner of Caught in Guelph, to get comment about whether or not he owns the domain "michellebowman.ca", but he did not respond before press time.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, things get heavy. We've got back-to-back interviews today with two different guests, both of who are going to get into topics around sexual violence and need to do more for survivors. First, we will talk to an advocate who wants to give survivors more options to get justice for themselves aside from the court system, and then we will talk to a provincial politician trying to improve the criminal justice system we have now.
This Thursday, May 14, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Listener discretion is advised: Today's show contains conversations about sexual violence and the effects of sexual violence.
When the Justice System Isn't Enough. Recent high profile sex assault trials involving Hockey Canada players, Jeffrey Sloka, and Frank Stonach have shown that justice is still hard to obtain for survivors using the system as its presently built. To help us mark Sexual Violence Prevention Month, we will be joined by Lola Graham from the Ontario chapter of Survivors 4 Justice Reform about why survivors should have the option to seek restorative justice and not just the court kind.
The CONestoga Game(?). Last week, the Ontario government announced that they were putting an administrator in charge of Conestoga College due financial mismanagement, and one of the people caught off-guard by the move was Catherine Fife, who's the MPP of Waterloo. Fife will join us again to talk about the fallout from Conestoga, the impact on students, and her legislative quest to get justice in the legislature for survivors of sexual assault.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
Centre Wellington is the largest municipality inside the county, and it includes Elora and Fergus. In the literal and figurative middle of Wellington, representing it around the council table, unsurprisingly, is a two-person job. From this vantage point, they must have a unique view of relations between the city and county, and one of those councillors has an even bigger vantage point then that?
Diane Ballantyne represents the southern side of Centre Wellington, which is also known as Ward 6. Listeners of this show may be familiar with her previous attempts to become the MPP of Wellington-Halton Hills, but since 2018 she’s been the Ward 6 county councillor, and has put some impressive points on the board in the process taking part in several key committees and sitting on the board of Groves Memorial Community Hospital.
More than that, Ballantyne is one of the directors on the county caucus of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and was named an honourable mention in Municipal World’s 2024 Women of Influence honours. Can Ballantyne’s high profile be attributed to the fact that she’s got one? She’s one of the only people on county council with a social media footprint, so why aren’t more of her colleagues talking about county politics on the socials?
That’s one of the things we’ll talk about with Diane Ballantyne on this edition of the podcast as we get into her background before politics, dividing the civic responsibility for Centre Wellington, and whether or not it’s Fergusite or Fergusonian. We will also discuss her role representing Wellington at AMO, her view on the Guelph/Wellington relationship, and why differences don’t need to divide us across jurisdictions. Also, we will talk about running for re-election and why social media doesn't have to divide us.
So let's head to the middle, or the south part of the middle, on this month's Wellington County Politicast!
You can learn more about Diane Ballantyne and the work she does at her website. You can also follow her on social media on Facebook and Instagram. Although there wasn't any time to get into it, you can also check out one of Ballantyne’s side projects, Centre Wellington Pride, of which she was a co-founder, and you can find information about that group and its events at their website.
The Wellington County Politicast will return next month!!
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, 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.
This week on End Credits, we get international. The review today comes from Spain, with a universal take of family dynamics that just so happens to be in Spanish in 53 Sundays, which you can now stream on Netflix. Along similar lines, this entire show will be about a language other than English, at least so far as the movies are concerned!
This Wednesday, May 13, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Películas en un idioma distinto al inglés. This roughly translates into "films in a non-English language", which might also be called "international movies" or "foreign language films" depending on who you're talking to. Since this week's selection is in Spanish, we will take the opportunity to talk about other non-English films we enjoy, from serious dramas to silly genre fare, we will travel the world cinema in around 30 minutes before the main review...
REVIEW: 53 Sundays (2026). The new Spanish film 53 domingos plays out a conversation that probably happens in many families: What do we do about an aging parent that can't fully be trusted to live on their own any more? Writer and director Cesc Gay stages a chamber dramedy about three siblings trying to answer that question, but really they're more interested in twisting the knife and sticking one of them with the exclusive responsibility for their father. Was 53 Sundays the darkly cynical balm we needed for this past Mother's Day weekend?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Is there a bigger political lightning rod when it comes to the City of Guelph budget than the police budget? For some people, we spend too much on the police and at the expense of expanded funding for social services, and for others we don’t spend nearly enough on the police. As we look to the next term at city hall, what challenges around policing will be presented to the new council?
In their 2024-2027 Strategic Plan, the Guelph Police Service outlined six priority areas: community policing, investigative excellence, community wellness, organizational health and service effectiveness, road safety, and policing downtown. To help achieve those ends, GPS committed to a Staffing & Service Delivery study performed by KPMG, which said the service needed more investment to bring it up to par with similarly sized cities.
It was hardly the best time for such big budget increases based on the fallout of Black Lives Matter and the affordability crisis, but the budget increases over the last few years have produced results. The challenges though keep multiplying, and so do the funds needed, and while the police are not political, the funding of police is. As we start debating the issues in this election, what are the police leaders thinking about before the next term of council in terms of their priorities?
To that end, we have on this edition both Guelph Police Services Chief Gord Cobey and chair of the Guelph Police Services Board Peter McSherry. Together, they will will discuss the inner workings of the Police Board, balancing affordability and growth over the last couple of budgets and whether the Guelph Police has achieved or exceeded their expectations. We will also talk about the police’s role in educating the public about the budget and whether there’s an education role for the police in this election.
So let's talk about the future of police and this election on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Guelph Police Service, and find all its published reports on their website. The next meeting of the Guelph Police Services Board is on Thursday May 21, and you will be able to watch it on the Guelph Police YouTube channel. The agenda for that meeting will be available on Friday on the GPS website. Stay tuned for more reporting and insight about the election on Guelph Politico and the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet newsletter.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're straining to do some explaining. How can you make sense of the news when the news barely makes sense? This is going to be really put to the test this week as we get into the ups and downs of the War in Iran, and then we will turn our attention to this race to referendum in Alberta. Maybe things closer to home will be easier to understand and we have a guest that will help us do that.
This Thursday, May 7, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Skirmish to End all Mini Wars. It's now been over two months since the U.S. and Israel started a war with Iran, but don't call it a war! If you've been confused about President Donald Trump's justifications and goals for this "skirmish" before, that's nothing compared to the roller coaster in the last week alone. Up first, we will try to make sense of the blockade that's either working or not happening and the war that's either over or just beginning.
Separation of Glowers. Take Back Alberta believes that it has more than enough signatures to finally put the question of separation before the voters in the Wild Rose province, but it's not that easy. David Parker, one of the leaders of the movement, is being accused of having inappropriate access to Elections Alberta's list of electors, and there's also reports of interference being stoked from the U.S. and Russia, so can we have a good, decent debate on this without the skullduggery?
Summer in the City Hall. The 2026 municipal election is now underway, but that doesn't mean that our current city council isn't putting out any new hits. This week, we will be joined by Ward 3 City Councillor Michele Richardson, who has already announced her retirement, to talk about some the latest business at city hall including construction complaints, fiscal pressures, traffic calming questions, and the upcoming receipt of the renoviction bylaw and vacant home tax.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're listening. For the movie review today, we will get into a movie you don't just have to watch because it's also a listening experience. Yes, we are going to talk about the new horror movie Undertone, and speaking of not-so-easy listening, we will continue on with our "6 For '76" series with a story about love and music!
This Wednesday, May 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
6 For '76: A Star Is Born. Not for the first time, and definitely not for the last time, director Frank Pierson remade the 1937 movie A Star Is Born in 1976. This one shook up the formula, moving the action from the movie industry to the music industry and telling the story of the ill-fated romance between a falling star played by Kris Kristofferson and a rising star played by Barbara Streisand. Our "6 For '76" series rolls on with the second biggest movie of that year!
REVIEW: Undertone (2026). Called "The scariest movie you will ever hear," Undertone has a lot to live up to. Director Ian Tuason, inspired by his own experiences caring for his dying parents, crafted a sonic experience of a movie about a podcaster caring for her comatose mother while slowly coming to the realization that her childhood home might be haunted. Or maybe it's in her mind. This low-budget horror is the latest in a line of successful Canadian movies that have come out so far in 2026 and this week we take our chance to talk about it.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Sure, it's an election year, but that doesn't mean that the current city council is coasting in their last year in office. The council calendar has been pretty busy these first four months of 2026, and some of the things that have kept them busy might surprise you. This week, if you don't follow the news, or subscribe to this website, or have heard about it somewhere else, you will get your chance to catch-up on all the latest council business here.
In January, the council year got started early with an emergency meeting to respond to the sudden cancellation of a daytime shelter program. No one saw it coming, but that was the case with a lot of the most difficult issues at the council table. From the plan to speed up development downtown, to the crunch over ice time at rec facilities, to the options for traffic calming around town, council had some tough debates and made some tougher decisions.
So let's recap the events at council so far this year on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Stay on top of council coverage every week by following @adamadonaldson on Blue Sky and by subscribing to the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet newsletter. The Thursday edition is the recap of that week's council meeting.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's a lot. There was another disaster involving guns in America, but this time the target was some of the most powerful people in the country. Here in Canada, the Premier of B.C. seems to have stepped in a deep puddle with Indigenous people, but perhaps we can find some salvation with a good economy news story? Out special guest this week will help us make sense of that last one.
This Thursday, April 30, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
My Dinner With Decay. Saturday's White House Correspondence Dinner was broken up by sadly familiar American tradition of its own, an attempted mass shooting. The WHCD, or "nerd prom" is a big deal for a certain upper echelon of Washington, and it was super special this year with Donald Trump himself making an appearance. From the conspiracies about false flags to commentary about the self-importance of the event, we need to ask the question: Will we ever learn?
DRIPA-Lash. In the span of a month, British Columbia Premier David Eby went from on the attack to full retreat. After a court found that the government's mineral claim was inconsistent with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. Eby proposed amending the act to allow the project to proceed, but First Nations leaders in the province called it an "absolute betrayal". Eby eventually backed off, but what does this do for the cause of reconciliation?
Spring Bling! On Tuesday, the Government of Canada unveiled the spring economic update and it was a good news story! The deficit for this year, and the unemployment rate, are slightly less than what we thought they were going to be. Cool. There were announcements too: more money for skills development in the trades, more investment in national sport, and something called a sovereign wealth fund(?!). David-Alexandre Brassard, chief economist of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada returns to lend his insights.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, things get real, which is to say that we're going to put the best face on reality. The prime example this week is the new music bio-pic MIchael, which is about the life of Michael Jackson and getting darts and laurels depending on what side you're on. There's no doubt that Michael is going to be a big hit, but good news, we are entering a season of big hits!
This Wednesday, April 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Summer Movie Preview. It's finally here! Summer Movie Season!! The next few months are reserved for some of the biggest, boldest, blow-up-iest movies of the year from superheros to super troopers, and from ancient Greece to the Met Gala. As usual, we will talk about the summer movies worth waiting for, but we will frame it through a new game. What movies are worth investing in, from the sure-to-be blockbusters to the dark horses with potential.
REVIEW: Michael (2026). After years of trying, a bio-pic about Michael Jackson is now in theatres with all the requisite controversy that conjures up. Antoine Fuqua's film looks at the early years of Jackson's life, from growing up under his authoritarian father Joseph in the Jackson 5, to his his breakout solo albums, but then stops the story right before certain allegations emerge. Produced by the Jackson family themselves, and starring Michael Jackson's own nephew, there's reason to wonder if Michael is just all about the music (revenue)?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Near the end of every council term, we invite the rookies who were elected in the previous election onto this podcast to talk about their experience. This time it’s different because one, there were so many new councillors in 2022, and two, in this case, we have two people who’ve decided that one term is enough. How can just four years on Guelph city council possibly be enough?
The day after Municipal Election Day in 2022, the Ontario government announced Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act, and its sweeping changes. It was an early, practical lesson that cities are creatures of the province, and the province was going to reshape them as they saw fit. Over the last four years, Queen’s Park has been freely changing the rules and it seems without a lot of consultation with the local political leaders.
This was the atmosphere that both Erin Caton and Michele Richardson walked into when they took office in November 2022. Both these councillors have a lot in common: Being a Guelph city councillor was their first gig in politics, they both became wardmates to long serving councillors and succeeded other long serving councillors, and they’ve both decided that they do not want to run for re-election. Why have they decided to walk away now, and what lessons will they take with them?
Ward 1 City Councillor Erin Caton and Ward 3 City Councillor Michele Richardson will share their thinking on this edition of the pod. They will talk about what factors went into their decision to retire, what they wish they had known about the job in advance, and the ways it was tough to adapt to all those changes as a first-timer. They will also talk about advice for their successors, the things they want to finish before October, what they plan on doing next, and whether they might ever run for office again.
So let's talk about the city council experience on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The nominations for mayor, city councillor, and school trustee opens this Friday, May 1 and will continue to be open until late August. You can learn more about how to run, who’s running and other important information here. Council business continues for the next few months, and the next meeting is on Tuesday May 5 at 2 pm, which is the Committee of the Whole meeting. Get all the council agendas here, and you can get all coverage here 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to have our dessert first. Predictably, we have some thoughts about the Premier of Ontario going plane shopping, but more seriously then that there are some serious issues in the province's jails that we need to talk about. Speaking of talks, there's one being hosted at the Kitchener Public Library on kids and tech, and we will have two of the panelists for a little pre-show chat.
This Thursday, April 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Takes on a Plane. Utterly unproductive to Ontario's litany of problems, but still the topic of the week, was the news that the Ontario government bought a private plane for the premier's use. The so-called "gravy plane" was the story of the week, and the reaction was so overwhelmingly negative that it secured a rare Doug Ford reversal. Mischief managed, right? Not so fast because pundits and politicians are now wondering if Ford's plane dreams have cut a fatal wound.
Rock House Jail. In more serious news, comes word that over 100 people in Ontario jails may have been "improperly" released in a serious of administrative snafus over a five year period. We've talked before about the dangerous overcrowding in Ontario's jails, and how most of the people there are just awaiting trial, but have the issues with the province's prisons now extend to mismanagement in the Solicitor General's office?
Little Minds and Big Tech. What is the effect of our digital culture on young people? How should we teach kids to manage life with artificial intelligence? What can parents do to help kids make good tech decisions? These are big questions with no easy answer, but the Early Language Learning & Literacy Alliance of Waterloo Region (ELLA) will be hosting an event on Monday that will try to answer them. Before that, we will be joined by two of the participants - Media Stamped host Nicole Stamp and executive director of Project READ Literacy Network Waterloo-Wellington Robin Crank - to start thinking about the future.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
What does it mean to review movies today? How do professional critics stand apart from the pack between Rotten Tomatoes and Letterboxd? Does a film critic even matter when measured against social media publicity and influencers? In this new monthly side series, we will talk to critics, vloggers or podcasters about the state of modern film criticism, why they do it, and why it still matters indeed!
To kick off this series, we talk to an old fashioned newspaper film critic. Barry Hertz is the deputy arts editor and film editor of The Globe & Mail, which is just a fancy way of saying his that paper's senior film writer. He's also the author of the definitive book about the Fast & Furious franchise, Welcome to the Family: The Explosive Story Behind Fast & Furious, the Blockbusters that Supercharged the World. Today he joins us fresh off spending the week at CinemaCon in Las Vegas to talk about the fine art of reviewing, what he looks for in movies, and why he's not ashamed of his unequivocal support for Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie!
End Credits Conversations returns next month on the fourth Saturday. End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This week on End Credits, we grow up. The movie this week is another coming of age story about a young person finding themselves but the twist is that it's a Canadian movie about a Canadian in Canada. We will review Mile End Kicks, which you can now (and should) see in theatres everywhere, and we will also talk about that festival in France!
This Wednesday, April 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Yes We Cannes. In a couple of weeks, Hollywood heads to the south of France for the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival. What makes Cannes different? Well, it's exclusively for people in the industry, and the press, so you can't just line up and buy rush tickets, but in recent years it's been more famous for how long people stand and clap at the end, or whether or not they booed. Instead, we'll talk about some of our favourite Cannes movie premieres.
REVIEW: Mile End Kicks (2026). The year is 2011, and the place is Montreal. Aspiring Toronto Burlington music critic Grace Pine is here to find love (or at least sex) and write a book about Alanis Morrisette's Jagged Little Pill, but sometimes important life lessons and the lead singer of an up and coming band have other ideas. Chandler Levack's follow-up to I Like Movies is another coming of age slice from her own life, but can Levack capture that same magic, not to mention a sense of nostalgic early 21st century Canadiana, again?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Today is Earth Day if you’re listening to this promptly on Wednesday, but it’s hard to think of a time in the last 30 years where it seems like the environment has been less of an issue. Despite the increasing frequency of dangerous weather events, the rapid loss of farmland, and concerns about ground water, environmental issues seem less and less to be a priority, and few people know that better than the Green Party of Ontario leader.
This interview was recorded on Friday, which was coincidentally the same day it was reported that the Ontario government had bought a private plan for the premier’s use. It seems unlikely that that Doug Ford was going to be hoping on that private plan to fly to the next COP conference, but if you want to criticize the Ontario government for its environmental record, or lack thereof, there’s an embarrassment of riches.
According to Mark Winfield, co-chair of the Sustainable Energy Initiative at York University, Doug Ford has “the worst environmental record of any Ontario government of the modern (post Second World War) era," and there's no shortage of evidence to back that up (listen to the episode to hear the list). Good thing there’s a Green Party leader in the House, but he rarely gets a chance to opine about the environment. Today though... he gets that that chance
Mike Schreiner, MPP for Guelph and the leader of the Green Party of Ontario, is the guest on this week's podcast and he will spend a whole interview talking about the environment! He will discuss what it takes to make environmental issues a priority, and what the people in the government tell him about environmental issues off the record. He will also talk about what we can learn from the pandemic response about solving big issues, and why we need to remain optimistic.
So let's get into Earth Day politics on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
If you’re looking for some Earth Day-slash-Month things to do, you can sign up to join the Guelph Team for the Earth Month Ecochallenge 2026, or you can can go to the City of Guelph website to find some personal environmental challenges you can do at home. The Rotary Club of Guelph and Trees for Guelph will host a tree planting on Laird Road this coming Saturday at 9 am. Seniors for Climate Action are also hosting a number of events around town over the next week.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, the winds are changing. There's a lot of hot air about the result of three federal byelections this week and what that means for Canada, and there's some good news from eastern Europe where some other election results might paint a positive picture. Closer to home, we will talk to a member of city council about working collaborative with other governments and an election closer to home.
This Thursday, April 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Age of Majority. After a year of plotting and scheming and incrementalism, Prime Minister Mark Carney finally secured his majority government. On Tuesday, he promised "more stability" and "less showboating", which seems rich after the Liberals spent the weekend showboating at their policy convention in Montreal with Carney's own celebration of the new Canadian order! So what happens now?
Leave, Viktor. On Sunday, Viktor Orbán was successfully deposed as the Prime Minister of Hungary by Peter Magyar, a man who once saw Orbán as a mentor but has now become the face of a more hopeful and European-centric future. For years now Orbán has been seen as example for white nationalist authoritarians across Europe and North America, so has Magyar now shown a path for the pro-democracy movement as the fight against fascism continues?
Local Linda. If you've been noticing a bit of friction between the City of Guelph and the County of Wellington when it comes to housing a social services, you're not alone. Ward 4 City Councillor Linda Busuttil, who is the chair of the Joint Social Services and Land Ambulance Committee, will join us to talk about the growing pains in that relationship, working with upper levels of government on housing, and her re-election plans last this year.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, things are going to get dangerous! For the movie this week, we get hardcore with ballerinas that kill as five young women have to take out a bar full of bad guys in Pretty Lethal on Amazon Prime. We will also mark Earth Day (or is it month now?) by talking about some of our favourite environmentally-themed movie... except for the obvious ones.
This Wednesday, April 15, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Green Movies. Earth Day is next Wednesday, and we are going to get you in the mood to save the Earth with some movies that focus on environmental themes. It would be easy to talk about flicks like The Day After Tomorrow, FernGully: The Last Rainforest, or the Avatar trilogy, but we will dig deep to find some real bangers including monster movies, action classics, hidden gems from the 70s, and political thrillers.
REVIEW: Pretty Lethal (2026). Is there anyone tougher than a ballerina? That's the question in Pretty Lethal, which follows five ballerinas lost in Hungary who end up at a mob bar to wait for a ride only to end up having to fight their way out. From David Leitch, one of the creators of John Wick, and his production company 87North, which made Nobody, The Fall Guy and Love Hurts, can five skilled dancers apply their craft to beating a bar full of Euro-trash baddies and crime boss Uma Thurman (?!). Cue the "Swan Lake" suite!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It’s an interesting time for someone new to take on the reins of this organization, and not just because of the housing crisis. This is the 25th birthday of Habitat for Humanity in Guelph and Wellington, so it’s a time of celebration, along with a time of tremendous challenge. In the overwhelming crunch of the crisis, how does the brand name in affordable housing celebrate its silver anniversary?
You can’t say that when Habitat for Humanity became an officially registered charity in 2001 that Guelph didn’t have any housing issues but that started changing in the last 25 years, slowly at first and then super accelerated though the pandemic and the immediate aftermath of it. With not just a lack of housing, but a lack of affordable and deeply affordable housing, the community was left scrambling, and that’s put a lot of pressure on established non-profits, like Habitat for Humanity.
Habitat has been busy for these last few years of the housing crisis with a stacked townhome development on Guelph’s eastside on Cityview Drive, a 32-unit project called Garafraxa Village in Fergus and next a new 30-home community on Speedvale Avenue East. At this pivotal moment, Habitat now has a new CEO, and as you’ll hear, she brings with her the experience of a business person and someone who’s been a part of the fabric of Habitat as its been navigating these difficult times. So what comes next for the new CEO?
On this episode, we're joined by that new CEO, Sarah Spry, who will discuss her background and experience, how Habitat works and how they’ve been impacted by the housing crisis and the growing need. She will then talk about how the challenges of building non-profit housing are not that different from the for-profit ones, why the Habitat model works, and her vision for the organization. Also, you will learn how you can get involved, and what the next 25 years of Habitat will look like.
So let's celebrate affordable housing builders on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Habitat for Humanity Guelph Wellington, and all the ways you can take part in their efforts at their website, and you can follow them on Facebook and Instagram. You can also visit the two ReStore locations in the region, the one in Guelph is in the north end on Dawson Road and the other is in Fergus on Tower Street South.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we recover from the Easter weekend. See the guy in this picture with the Easter Bunny? He made it very hard to relax with some very vivid saber-rattling over the pointless war he started in the Middle East. Closer to home, we will talk about trains and plans for trains, plus the attack on the newest federal leader that might indicate a greater degree of confusion in the discourse.
This Thursday, April 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
This is the End? If you didn't know what was going on with the War in Iran before the weekend, you're probably really confused now. U.S. President Donald Trump set an arbitrary Tuesday night deadline to end the war or "an entire civilization will die." Trump got a ceasefire instead, which he took, but the exact conditions of it were still unknown 24 hours later, and since no one really stopped shooting, it didn't matter. So does anything matter?
Alto Railroaded? The federal government is in the process of developing a high speed rail corridor between Toronto and Quebec City. It's already been in the works for 10 years, and it will be other 20 before its finally finished, at least unless Pierre Poilievre has anything to say about it. As the Alto Train gets closer to finalizing its plans, opposition is consolidating its own plan to stop it, so will the Alto become just another train dream (so to speak)?
The Problem with Avi? No sooner was Avi Lewis elected the new leader of the federal NDP, did a campaign begin to call him anti-Semitic. Interesting turn for someone from a prominent Jewish Canadian family, but his stands against Israel's genocide in Gaza and support for the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement hasn't won him many friends in Zionist circles. Is the smearing of Lewis a sign that we're confusing legitimate critiques of the secular Israeli government with very real hate crimes?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
Wellington County's Ward 9 is the Town of Erin, the eastern most end of the county and it faces a number of issues that might sound kind of familiar to politically tuned in Guelphites. How much do we have in common with our friends from Erin? That is a one of the questions that will guide this first entry in a brand new side story of the Guelph Politicast adventure as we start digging into the politics our our next door neighbours...
Erin is caught in the middle in a very real way. It’s a rural cushion between the encroaching urbanity of Peel and Halton Regions and it represents the halfway point between Guelph and Orangeville. Like all the municipalities that make up Wellington County, Erin has its own mayor and town council, and it sends a separate councillor to represent them on county council along with the mayor, and since 2018 that person has been Jeff Duncan.
In addition to his seat on council, Duncan also takes part in the Information, Heritage and Seniors Committee and the Economic Development Committee, which puts him in a pretty good position on a couple of key issues, like, for instance, the long shadow of water taking for botting purposes. Duncan has also been on top of a radical issue, at least radical so far as the county’s concerned: live streaming of council meetings, which sounds easy but comes with a number of challenges that he'll get into.
On this inaugural edition Duncan will describe for us the unique political structure of the county, his own political background and navigating the intricacies of a two-tiered government system. He will also discuss protecting Erin’s water from growth and profit, how Erin is sitting at a literal and figurative crossroads, what it’s like dealing with Guelph from the county point of view, and trying to play catch-up on live streaming.
So let's head out to the east side of the county on this first edition of the Wellington County Politicast!
You can learn about all things Wellington County on the their website, and you can send Councillor Duncan an email at jeffd [at] wellington.ca. Unfortunately you missed the Information, Heritage and Seniors Committee for this month, but the Economic Development Committee is on Tuesday April 21 at 10 am at the County administration building and County Council will hold its monthly meeting on Thursday April 30 at 10 am.
The Wellington County Politicast will return next month!!
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, 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.
This week on End Credits, things get dramatic. We will skip the blockbuster of the week for the more nutritious meal in the form of the star-studded indie The Drama, which you can, and should, see in a theatre near you. We will also talk about the phenomenon of the video game movie, a kind of sequel itself from our last conversation on the subject nearly eight years ago!
This Wednesday, April 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Game On! Maybe you were one of the millions of people who spent part of the weekend seeing The Super Mario Bros. Galaxy Movie, probably in the company of your kids. For over 30 years Hollywood has tried to capture the youthful excitement and fun of video games in movie form, but are we getting any closer to making it a unique genre like comic book movies? This week, we will look at video game, and video game adjacent, movies.
REVIEW: The Drama (2026). It's probably the most excellent counter-programing to The Super Mario Bros. Galaxy Movie, an A24 romantic dramedy starring two genuine movie stars with a sick twist at the beginning of the movie. Considering our spoiler adverse culture, we won't ruin the movie here, but in our review, we will dig into the spoiler-y goodness about seeing a couple played by Robert Pattinson and Zendaya fall apart on their wedding week. Does The Drama deliver on the promise of its name, or is it much ado about nothing?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Campus and community radio stations are under pressure from all sides: provincial governments, student governments, activists, advertisers and big tech. There’s a growing spectre of doom for campus media, and the people charged with supporting radio stations across Canada are looking to bolster themselves with help from a newly fiscally prudent federal government. So has time run out for your campus radio station?
The pressure is real. Last week, the student union of Memorial University in Newfoundland voted to end funding to CHMR, the campus radio station. Why? They determined after one poll that the station is “underutilized” by undergraduates. Last December at the University of Ottawa, the campus radio station CHUO finally stopped producing live broadcasts two years after students voted to cease the special levy through which the station got the lion’s share of its funding.
Stations at Fanshawe and Algonquin College have become casualties to the loss of funding to Ontario’s colleges due the deep cuts in international student enrollment, which was doubly insulting since both radio stations were used as a training ground for students studying journalism and broadcasting. This fall, campus radio stations in Ontario that survived the Student Choice Initiative will face similar changes that were approved in Bill 33 last November. Can campus media survive these pressures?
Barry Rooke, executive director of the National Campus and Community Radio Association, believe it can with help, and he's going to talk about that on this week's show. He will discuss how the NCRA is trying to answer all the various challenges facing campus radio, how some stations are trying to pivot and why it's so hard for some stations to make a change in order to survive. He will also look at the importance of campus media, the plan to protect the stations still standing and his beginnings at CFRU.
So let's save campus and community radio on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the National Campus and Community Radio Association at their website. The NCRC 44 RadioDays North America event, which is the annual conference hosted by the NCRA, runs from May 4 till 9 in Toronto, and you can also find information about that on their website. You can also find a link to the Canadian Press story here, and, of course, you can learn more about Guelph’s campus and community radio station 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're trying to go for the under-reported stories. First, we will journey to Cuba where somehow things have gotten even worse for the people that live there even without a war (yet). Then, we will consider an important court case out of the United States that might start to generate some accountability for the harms of social media. For more physical harms, like hunger, we have a special guest to discuss those issues.
This Thursday, April 2, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Crisis in Cuba. While the U.S. is focused on the War in Iran, it hasn't stopped President Donald Trump from pondering his next quagmire closer to home. Since January, Cuba has been facing a growing humanitarian crisis that the United Nations is now calling a catastrophe. Already embargoed for decades, Cuba is now running out of fuel as supplies from Venezuela have been cut off by Trump and there's no sign that the world wants to act. Why is Cuba's suffering being ignored?
Social Media's Tobacco Moment. In courts in California and New Mexico last week, social media companies were found liable for getting users addicted to their platforms and refusing to accept responsibility for putting young people at risk. Insulated from consequences by their net worth and a Congress unwilling to regulate, are social media companies finally facing a reckoning in America's court rooms as more governments, attorneys general and school boards file suit?
Easter Food Hunt. We know that over 1 million Ontarians now use food banks to fill their daily needs, and we know that more and more working people are accessing food banks for the first time. We also know that the high cost of housing and the ability to pay for one's groceries are tied together in the affordability crisis, but are the upper levels of government doing anything to close the gap this Easter week. Carolyn Stewart, CEO of Feed Ontario, will join us and offer an update on food insecurity issues in Ontario.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're got hope and pessimism. The former comes from a new movie in theatres everywhere about a literal one-man quest to save the world, but with some alien help in the new sci-fi adventure Project Hail Mary. As for the latter, we head half-a-century into the past for the start of a new series about a big movie year and some of the most consequential releases.
This Wednesday, March 25, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
6 For '76 Part 1: Taxi Driver. On this episode, we're kick off a new project. It's been 50 years since 1976, an important year for movies in an important decade for movies, and over the next several months we're going to consider six movies from 1976 starting with Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. The tale of a malcontent wallowing in the malaise and moral decay of 1970s New York has been many things to many people, but what does it mean in 2026?
REVIEW: Project Hail Mary (2026). Based on another book by the author of The Martian, Project Hail Mary arrives at an opportune time. It's about humanity's best and brightest working to solve a world ending calamity, it's about putting hope in science and technology to help us find the answers, and it's about Ryan Gosling as a middle school teacher plus a rocky-looking alien creature on who our survival depends. Project Hail Mary has become the first big hit of 2026, but can it's hope-ium sustain a cynical movie audience going into the Easter long weekend?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
There’s no escaping just how crushing the increasing cost of groceries is, and it’s even been affecting the people we might consider affluent, so how tough is it for the organizations we depend on who are trying to level the playing field, and can they overcome those same economic pressures themselves? On this holiday week, we tackle the essential questions on local food security with two people who know about it.
More people are feeling food insecure, and Feed Ontario’s last Hunger Report said that over a million people in the province are now using food banks, with over one-third of them accessing those services for the first time. Some municipalities are declaring emergencies in food security, and the City of Toronto recently approved a pilot to open government-owned grocery stores, but how do we address the problem right here and right now in our own community?
Such a big problem requires the assistance of two guests starting with Guelph Food Bank CEO Carolyn McLeod-McCarthy. She’s going to talk about the logistics of their spring donation drive, the things that they need now and always need, and the ways they’re struggling to keep up with demand in areas like distribution and access. We will also talk about how current economic conditions are impacting the amount of donations they’re receiving.
After that, we will talk to Dawn Wheeler, a support worker for the West Village Co-op neighbourhood group. She will discuss the unique challenges in the west end, the number of people they’re helping out, and the ways they have to be creative to help as many people as possible. She will also talk about filling people’s needs beyond food, and the ways they specifically need assistance when it comes to donations, and volunteer opportunities.
So let's talk about local food insecurity on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The Guelph Food Bank’s Spring Food Drive runs through April 22, and donating is as easy as dropping food off in the marked bins at your neighbourhood grocery store. You can also learn about other ways to give or give back at their website. You can also learn more about all the programs at the West Village Co-op on their website. For more discussion on food security, tune into Open Sources Guelph on Friday for an interview with Feed Ontario CEO Carolyn Stewart.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we go federal again. It's been a busy week for three of the country's main parties, and there are busy times to come in at least one case. On this edition of the show we will look ahead to this weekend and one party's crucial vote, we look back at a federal leader's busy itinerary abroad making new friends, and we will consider the last year under Canada's first-time politician turned first-term PM.
This Thursday, March 26, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Orange Counting. This weekend, members of the federal New Democratic Party will gather in Winnipeg to decide who will succeed Jagmeet Singh as their leader. In a sense, this vote is just the end of the beginning of the struggle because the new leader has to rebuild the party, payoff debts, choose a direction and start recruiting future candidates, so are any of the five confirmed candidates up for the massive job ahead?
Pierre Does America. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre went on his own world tour last week, or at least an American one. He made several requisite stops at various media outlets, including the biggest one of all, The Joe Rogan Experience! Perhaps to his credit, Poilievre didn't disgrace himself with Rogan or take any of his conspiracy claptrap bait, but can we say that Pierre looked prime ministerial fresh from his trip south of the border.
Mark'ed For a Year. It's been one year since Mark Carney won the emergency Liberal leadership convention and became the prime minister, and what a difference a year makes! Once the Liberals were on a backfoot, accused of being out of touch and out to lunch, and then Carney comes in and Canada's natural governing party reclaims its place at the centre of the universe. How did he do it, and how long can Carney stay on top?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we get a-political, with the "a" standing for "apocalypse". Our movie of the week is now on PVOD after a brief theatrical run and given it's about the dangers of A.I. and social media, it's no wonder. We will review Good Luck Have Fun Don't Die, and in the same corner of streaming we will revisit a different dark future now 20 years later in V For Vendetta.
This Wednesday, March 25, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
V For Vendetta at 20! Two decades ago, a movie about a masked man taking on a totalitarian government in the United Kingdom was released in the wake of the War on Terror, 9/11 and a backlash against LGBTQ+ rights. Based on the graphic novel and produce by the Wachowskis, it seemed V's moment came and went, but in the Trump era, and a new war in the Middle East, maybe V For Vendetta's time has come again. This week, we will re-watch and render our judgement.
REVIEW: Good Luck Have Fun Don't Die (2026). There's been a lot of concern about A.I. in narrative fiction for a while, and now it's everywhere! Too late for us? Not quite because Oscar-winner Sam Rockwell is here to save the day, and the future, from an A.I.pocalypse that destroys the world as humanity watches it all pass by doom scrolling on their phones. Gore Verbinski's (the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy) first movie in 10 years has its finger on the pulse, but can he deliver on this bizarre and unique mix of sci-fi, adventure, comedy and cultural commentary?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Last Saturday, the group Resistance and Resilience Guelph gathered over 50 people on the fourth floor of 10C to cook up possible directions for a union to represent renters in the city. Over one-third of Guelph residents rent the place they live, and those residents are under incredible pressure with some of them under a very real threat of losing their homes. Is unionizing Guelph’s renters the best way to fight back outside of government action?
The stories in Guelph have become quite familiar. From Brant Avenue to Cedar Street, there have been numerous high-profile renovictions that have made the news, and many, many more that have not. The Guelph-Wellington Legal Clinic has report that there's been a 245 per cent increase in the use of N13s since 2020, translating into 500 people losing their housing in a combined 280 units, and that's just this one very specific type of landlord/tenant interaction.
City of Guelph staff are now in the process of working on a renovicton bylaw, over their own objections, and are aiming to get it done by sometime later this year. There’s also still a desire to press on the provincial government to take action, as it would be so much easier for them to make those changes. But in the wake of governments unwilling to act quickly, or just unwilling to act, a Guelph group is trying to build a new movement, and this week, we will check in on their progress.
Janice Folk-Dawson, a long-time labour activist, former federal candidate and now one of the main orgainzers of Guelph’s new, under construction tenant union joins us this week to share those details. She will tell us what a tenant union is, what it will do for renters in the city, and what their immediate priorities are. She will also talk about what came out of Saturday’s meeting, what comes next, and the role of a tenant union in the political system and a coming municipal election.
So let's talk about building a tenant union on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can find Resistance and Resilience Guelph on Facebook and Instagram, and you can send them an email at rrg [at] gmail.com. Save the date of Saturday May 2 for the next public portion of the tenant union’s development, and you will find those details when they're released on RRG’s social media feeds. In the meantime, if you need legal advise about your rental situation, you can reach out to the Legal Clinic of Guelph and Wellington County at clinic [at] gw.clcj.ca or by calling 1-800-628-9205.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we let others do the talking. The news is just too damn busy, so we're going to double the number of special guests we usually have on this episode with one local politician and one labour organizer from Ottawa. First up, a member of city council will talk to us about a surprising development in the coming local elections, and after that we'll talk about the back and forth between the federal government and federal government workers.
This Thursday, March 19, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
City Hall Pass. Guelph City Council is technically taking the week off, but there was big council news earlier this week when Mayor Cam Guthrie announced that he was not going to stand for re-election in this fall's Guelph municipal election. This week, we're joined by one of Guthrie's council colleagues, Ward 5 rep Leanne Caron, to talk about this leadership vacuum at city hall, her future plans, and what's immediately coming up at council.
Public Service Inquiries. Meanwhile in Ottawa, federal government employees are under pressure as Mark Carney and his team are looking to save money by shrinking the work force. At the same time, workers are fighting return to office mandates so they're caught in a trap: They're too important to be allowed to work from home, but they're also not important enough to keep them all employed. We'll be joined by Sean O’Reilly, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), to talk about the issues and the conflict.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we've got true Hollywood stories! For the first half of the show, we will talk about our thoughts fresh from watching this year's Academy Awards and what we think of the winners and losers. For the review, we will tune in to AppleTV to check out a documentary about a young actress, which comes, in part, from a Guelph filmmaker.
This Wednesday, March 18, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
One Oscar After Another. The awards season showdown between One Battle After Another and Sinners practically ended in a draw; OBAA got Best Picture, Best Director and four other trophies while Sinners scored Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay plus two more. There was a rare tie in the Best Short Film category, Frankenstein and KPop Demon Hunters got some love, and Baby Yoda put in a cameo mid-ceremony. We will recap those, and other highlights, from 98th Oscars!
REVIEW: She Was Here (2026). Heather O'Rourke starred in three Poltergeist movies over the 1980s, but before finishing the third entry she suddenly passed away due to medical complications. It's hard when a young person dies, but Heather's death became ground zero for the "Poltergeist curse", the long-standing belief about how the series, and its stars, were seemingly besieged by tragedy. But in the new documentary She Was Here, director Nick Bailey focuses on the girl, and peels away the rumour to talk about a young and promising life that ended too soon.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It was something of a surprise last week when Niagara Region chair Bob Gale announced his sudden resignation less than four months after being appointed by the Ontario government, but it was even more surprising when we found out why: He purchased a signed original copy of Adolf Hitler’s memoir and manifesto, Mein Kampf. Gale said he was a history buff, but anti-racism activists saw an entirely different explanation amidst the growing boldness of white supremacy in the region.
From a fight at the Stampede Ranch last weekend where racial slurs were allegedly uttered to an Aggie pub night at the University of Guelph in January where some students were allegedly wearing t-shirts with hate symbols and discriminatory slurs, and from a demonstration by white nationalists on a London overpass last fall to a similar gathering outside Hamilton city hall last month, there's a startling trend of racist groups in Ontario feeling increasingly emboldened.
Niagara Region seems particularly susceptible to these groups and this year alone there have been a pair of incidents in Grimsby, including one outside a Tim Hortons, and also last Labour Day when there was a gathering of Second Sons at Brock’s Monument in Queenston Heights. Given what’s going on in communities around Niagara Region, is it easier to understand why people were concerned that the regional chair was the proud owner of a signed copy of Hitler’s book?
To talk about it, we're joined by Saleh Wazirudden from the Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association who will talk about the state of fighting white supremacy in Niagara Region, why these groups are feeling so emboldened and why so many of them seem to be operating in the area. We will also talk about why Gale can’t hide behind his excuse of history enthusiasm, connecting the dots across Ontario, and what you should be on the look out for when it comes to white nationalist activity in your community.
So let's get back into fighting white supremacy on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association at their website, or you can follow them on social media @TheNRARA on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. For other groups trying to raise awareness about white supremacy locally and in the rest of Canada you can check out No Hate in the Hammer out of Hamilton, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and, of course, the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're still thinking about war and peace. There's a lot of the former, which makes the latter seem rather fleeting, but if you're confused about what you're seeing on the news, or in your social media feed, imagine how the leaders of American and Canada's governments are feeling. We will catch up on the situation in Iran, and then we will catch up on the situation coming to Queen's Park with our special guest!
This Thursday, March 12, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Trump's War. Nearly two weeks into the war he started, U.S. President Donald Trump is still struggling to explain why he launched a war with Iran, how long he will keep fighting it, and what he wants aside from "unconditional surrender". In the meantime, a new Supreme Leader has been chosen, the U.S. may have committed a war crime, and the region is sinking further into a conflict with no end in sight. We'll recap this week's insanity from the Middle East.
Carney's Struggle. The confusion about the Iran conflict doesn't end in the halls of the White House or the Pentagon. In the House of Commons it seems like there's a great deal of uncertainty about what our own prime minister is thinking about the war, or Canada's role in it. After skipping out on an emergency House debate, and submitting at least three different takes on the subject, what exactly does Mark Carney think about the U.S. War in Iran?
Schreiner's View. After nearly 100 days off, Ontario's elected representatives will return to Queen's Park a week from Monday and there will be a lot to talk about. From building new islands in the middle of Lake Ontario, to the changing face of education, to the still monumental challenges of housing and homelessness, there will be a lot to chew on and this week we will be joined by Guelph MPP and Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner to feast at the all-you-can-eat political buffet!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we won’t say “It’s alive!” Our movie this week is ambitious, and it clearly has a lot to say, but how well it says it has been a matter of taste, and opinion. Regardless, on this show we will give our own thoughts on The Bride! and we will also talk about who we think should score one of those little gold men at a certain awards show…
This Wednesday, March 4, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
If We Picked the Winners! This coming Sunday is Oscar night! The 98th annual Academy Awards has been a battle between Sinners and One Battle After Another for Best Picture, and a pitched battle between various different categories among other nominees, and while we don’t know the future, we can certainly talk about who we think should win in all the various categories Just like Siskel & Ebert used to do, we will pick the winners we’d vote for.
REVIEW: The Bride (2026). Released in the 1930s, The Bride of Frankenstein is iconic, but would you be surprised to learn that The Bride herself is basically in only the last five minutes of the movie? Director Maggie Gyllenhaal makes The Bride her central focus in the movie of the same name, this time played by likely Oscar-winner Jessie Buckley as a gangster’s moll turned feminist revolutionary and icon in 1930s Chicago. With Christian Bale as The Monster by her side, can this Bride! write her own story, and can Gyllenhaal cash her first blank cheque?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
On Open Sources Guelph, we try our best to condense a week’s worth of news into a couple of topics to allow for some in-depth discussion, but when it comes to the work of covering the provincial government, sometimes that almost needs its own weekly show. As we gear up for the return of Ontario’s MPPs to Queen’s Park in a couple of weeks for the spring sitting, we will tee up the issues that await Premier Doug Ford, his cabinet, caucus and opposition.
In the last week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has made news about wanting to build new artificial islands along the Toronto waterfront on which a new convention centre will be built, and he's floated the idea of taking over the Billy Bishop Airport, a move that would be pretty unusual because the province plays no role in airports. In both cases, Ford has not kept the City of Toronto looped in on these initiatives.
It’s been observed before that Ford is acting like the Mayor of Toronto, but he's actually been elected three times to be the premier for the entire province of Ontario, and at the Ontario PC convention last month, he announced his intention to serve as premier into a fourth term and beyond. Right now though, he's facing an exhaustive list or issues, and it has some people wondering if maybe he's losing sight of the forest for the trees, including the ones he’s planting?
Scotty Hertz, co-host of Open Sources Guelph, will join us this week to offer his take on the Top 10 issues we think are facing the Ford government. From maximizing Toronto’s waterfront, to the further crushing of our conservation authorities, and from the still unknown fate of school boards and to the use of private devices and accounts for government business, let’s dig into all the things that should be keeping Doug Ford up at night during the last few weeks of his winter break.
So let's countdown Doug Ford's problems on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can listen to Open Sources Guelph every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca, and on this feed every Monday. This week, we will have an interview with Guelph MPP and Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner. The Ontario legislature will return for its spring sitting on Monday March 23, and on Tuesday it was announced that they will release the budget on Thursday March 26.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we get déjà vu. Once again, the United States is at war with a country whose name begins with I-R-A, and so much has happened on this file in the last few days we have to dedicate half a show to it. In the other half, we go local to talk to a Guelph business owner about the issues facing your favourite local restaurants and how using a popular app on your phone might be doing them more harm than good.
This Thursday, March 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
This Again?! It was a surprise to all us waking up last Saturday morning that the United States and Israel had launched a full-scale war on Iran, which in the opening hours killed the Cleric and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In the days that followed, we've received a confusing mix of reasons and rationales about the goal of the attacks, how long they've been planned, and what their ultimate reason it started in the first place. So why has the so-called "Peace President" Donald Trump plunged his country into another Middle East forever war, and what comes next?
Gaffe Priced Apps. A recent report from Restaurants Canada painted a dire picture of the economics at the nation's restaurants: 4,000 of them cross-country are at risk of shutting down for good at the end of this year. There are many reasons for that including the increasing price of food and rent, but there's also pressure from third party apps like Skip the Dishes and Door Dash who take a big portion of the profit but take on none of the risk. This week, we're joined by Guelph restaurateur Hitesh Jagad, co-owner of Kirtida’s Kitchen, to talk about the need to rethink the use of these apps and how they're more hindrance than benefit to local businesses.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, March comes in like its Halloween! To kick off the third month of the year, we will dig into an all-horror episode by marking an important birthday for the Scream franchise! Before digging into the latest entry in the series, which you can now see in a theatre near you, we will talk about Scream's legacy, and that of the franchise's creator.
This Wednesday, March 4, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
I Scream, You Scream... This year marks the 30th anniversary release of the first Scream movie. An instant sensation, the movie awoken the horror genre from its 90s malaise, led to a dozen imitators, and has still managed to innovate for new generations of horror fans to new levels of success. Before digging into the next chapter, we will look at the ongoing influence of the Scream franchise and the career of its creator Kevin Williamson.
REVIEW: Scream 7 (2006). $64 million at the box office can't be wrong, right? The opening weekend haul of Scream 7 indicates that the franchise still has its fans, and so does the returning final girl Neve Campbell. After sitting out Scream VI, Campbell's Sidney Prescott takes centre stage again as her quiet family life in a small town is shattered when Ghostface re-enters the chat, and this time Sidney's daughter Tatem will learn what it takes to be a Scream Queen too. Intriguing, but can Scream still slay in its seventh outing?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
In this space and others, we’ve talked a lot about the effect of misinformation and conspiracy theories on our political culture, but there’s a growing and pronounced impact on our legal system as well. From local missing person’s cases to crimes so heinous that they capture the consciousness of a country, can our online culture be trusted with their role in law and order matters?
Last week in Guelph, a photo of a father and his daughter at a local coffee shop was shared on social media as part of a human trafficking inquiry, and a few months ago, CTV News Kitchener reported that the search for a missing Kitchener man was being hampered by online sleuths who had some very peculiar ideas of what happened to the man. Both of these cases are local, and so are their impacts, but what happens when online detectives focus their fire on a national tragedy?
This happened last month in the case of the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. In the immediate aftermath, people scoured the internet and social media to find information about the shooter, and as fate would have it, an Ontario woman with the same last name as the shooter’s mother was misidentified as Jesse Van Rootselaar. How does something like this happen? Are we overlooking how conspiracy theories and online detectives with an agenda are affecting crime coverage?
If anyone might have some insight into this issue it's Dr. Ahmed al-Rawi, who is an associate professor of News, Social Media, and Public Communication and the director of the Disinformation Project at the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. He will talk to us about the current state of the information ecosystem when it comes to crime reporting, why context matters in any reporting, and whether our obsessions with true crime primed the pump for all these amateur detectives online.
So let's talk about the dangers of crime and conspiracies on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about The Disinformation Project at the Simon Fraser University website. You can also visit Dr. al-Rawi’s personal website. You can check out the straightforward, community reporting 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're feasting on news as we leave much of Canada to its own devices for a week. In the United States the continued revelations of a certain dead criminal's emails are having global implications, and one of the places feeling the heat is inside Westminster, seat of power for the government of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. As for that criminal's best friend who's now President of the United States, he's got problems too.
This Thursday, February 26, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Jeffed Up. Revelations from the Epstein Files continue to reverberate around the world, from former prime ministers in Norway to advisors to the current prime minister in the U.K. to one of the co-founders of the Perimeter Institute up the road in Waterloo. But you know who hasn't been feeling the burn from these revelations? This week, we will talk about the latest insights from Jeffrey Epstein's emails and whether everyone mentioned in them will face accountability.
State of the Furious. U.S. President Donald Trump delivered the State of the Union on Tuesday and essentially turned it into an awards show. It was about the only highlight in a week that included bad economic numbers, a Supreme Court verdict that went against him, and a potential war against Iran to obliterate the nuclear program that had already been obliterated. We're used to the proverbial fire hose when it comes to Trump news, but is the act finally wearing thin?
Keirs of a Clown. One of the big takedowns of the Epstein Files is Peter Mandelson, former ambassador to the U.S. and an advisor to several U.K. governments, including the present one under Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Labour Party. The scandal has galvanized a growing malaise in a government that's not even two years old, and there are rising challenges from both within Labour and inside the rising racist Reform Party. Is it time to get out the lettuce for Keir?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we go back in time, figuratively and literally! In the review, we will go back to 2008 with two Canadian boys in the sure-to-be classic Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie, and we will take one last ride through Black Heritage Month by honouring a director who is no longer with us (although his films always will be).
This Wednesday, February 25, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Black Heritage Month Special: The Movies of John Singleton. In 1991, John Singleton released his first film Boyz in the Hood, and he became the first Black person to get nominated for the Best Director Oscar and the youngest. It was the start of a promising career, one that was cut short when Singleton passed away at the age of 51 in 2019. This week, we wrap up Black Heritage Month by paying tribute to two of Singleton's movies, Poetic Justice and Shaft.
REVIEW: Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie (2026). For years, Matt and Jay have done everything possible to get a show at Toronto's legendary Rivoli venue, except for the most obvious. In Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie they hatch their most daring scheme yet as the popular webseries makes the jump to the big screen with big ambitions, and the most faithful homage to Back the Future you've even seen, but can the director of BlackBerry make his cult favourite show (band?) a CanCon blockbuster for the ages?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Breezy Breakfast has been one of the primary venues for local political discussion and information for the last 10 years. Now, not everyone can take time out first thing in their busy day to have a sit down breakfast and chew the fat about the doings at city hall, so presented here thanks to the miracle of digital recording tech is all the hot goss and chit chat that you missed when maybe you were on your way to work, or were maybe already there...
To put this succinctly, the guest of last week's Breezy Breakfast was some guy named Adam A. Donaldson. The point was to offer some thoughts on Mayor Cam Guthrie's recent State of the City speech, but that was only the beginning of the conversation. In the course of about 60 minutes, we touched on the State of the City, the state of the coming election slate, trying to go behind the curtain of closed meetings of council, the water capacity issues in Waterloo and what it means for Guelph, and the still lingering questions about what went down with the daytime shelter issue over the holidays.
So let's grab some breakfast, and politics, on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
There will be another edition of Breezy Breakfast this Thursday at 8 am at the Uptown Grill, and the special guest will be Guelph MPP Mike Schreniner. You can learn more about Breezy Breakfast by following them on Facebook, where you can find a link to sign up for the newsletter. You can also get more information by email at breezybullhorn [at] gmail.com.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph there's tragedy and triumph. First we will head out to B.C. to separate fact from fiction when it comes to events in Tumbler Ridge, which is something we can do thanks to a liberal arts education that the Ontario government is now making more difficult to attain. As for triumph, that's a local matter. We will talk to the newest member of Guelph City Council about some good news stories.
This Thursday, February 12, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Tumbler Ridge. There was tragedy in northern B.C. last week when 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar killed nine people and injured 25 others in the worst school shooting in Canadian history. A lot of the controversy has focused on Van Rootselaar's gender orientation, but there's been little focus on her deeply rooted mental health issues, or the limited resources to deal with such things in small communities like Tumbler Ridge. Are we missing the so-called forest for the trees here?
Taking the 'Fun' Out of Funding. You can't say that the provincial government isn't working because still over a month before their inevitable return to Queen's Park, they announced changes to funding for post-secondary institutions in Ontario. Say "Hello" to more money and "Goodbye" to the tuition freeze and an OSAP formula were students get more in grants than loans. Doug Ford says you'll be fine if you don't major in "basket weaving", but will we?
Waterfowl Play. Last week at Guelph City Council tackled two big deals, one was the re-designation of the old Kortright Waterfowl Park on Niska Road and the other was the final vote to designation the Ontario Reformatory Lands as a heritage district. One of the people trying to make sense of it all was Ward 6 City Councillor Katherine Hauser, and in her Open Sources Guelph debut she will talk about deliberating on these difficult files, and the questions about how much city councillors should be paid.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we find a good Rip. In fact, it's a Rip of a Rip, one of the greatest Rips you will ever see. Boy howdy, are we using the word "Rip" a lot in the new Netflix movie The Rip, which is the title were reviewing today. In other news, we will continue with our celebration of Black Heritage Month by doing a deep dive on another great Black director.
This Wednesday, February 18, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Black Heritage Month Special: The Movies of Antoine Fuqua. We've done the legend, we've done the indie darling, and now we're doing the populist. Antoine Fuqua started in music videos and graduated to features with the little-seen The Replacement Killers, but his breakthrough was Training Day, which scored Denzel Washington his second Oscar. Washington, one of Fuqua's regular contributors. also led the other move we'll talk about, The Magnificent Seven.
REVIEW: The Rip (2026). Based on a true store about Miami cops that found $20 million in drug money hidden in the walls of a home, The Rip takes things in a decidedly dingy direction, a morality play in the best tradition of Narc filmmaker Joe Carnahan. In this one, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon lead of a team of overworked, underpaid cops who find $20 million in a wall, and then all hell breaks loose. Who can they trust? Can they trust each other? A low stakes, high drama crime movie is the epitome of a "Dumpuary" classic, but can The Rip get us there?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Last week’s discussion at city council about the City of Guelph buying a portion of the old Kortright Waterfowl Park lands on Niska Road captured a lot of attention from the community and community activists. No one’s going to debate the need for more parks and open space, but it's hard to get a full sense of the history of this because it goes back before the internet, so can we ever really have a firm sense of that background and the stakes?
We're going to try harder this week with a Real Audio News segment. In this one, you will first hear delegations from the September 22, 2023 and June 28, 2024 Grand River Conservation Authority board meetings where they discussed the Niska Land Management plan. After that, you will hear the delegations from the July 16, 2025 special meeting of Guelph City Council where the land management plan was discussed in connection to the Strategic Plan. And finally, to wrap up, you will hear a portion of this week’s Open Sources Guelph interview with Ward 6 Councillor Katherine Hauser about where the work to protect the waterfowl park goes next.
For some supplementary reading, you might also want to check these links out:
- Niska Land Holdings 2023 Draft Management Plan
- Dr. Hugh Whiteley's timeline of the site
- A 2016 community editorial piece by Susan Radcliffe.
Let's get into the Wayback Machine on Niska on this episode of the Guelph Politicast!
You can hear the whole interview with Councillor Hauser on Open Sources Guelph on Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU. You are encouraged to check out the further reading linked to above, and a final decision about the rezoning of the property as open space/parkland should come back to council sometime in June or possibly July. You can also hear the two part Policticast pods about the Niska lands by clicking here and 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're walking our beat. To begin with we've got eyes on potential corruption in Toronto-area police services, and then we'll be taking a couple of our biggest political leaders aside to see how much they're colluding together to get us back to the polls. And speaking of polls, we will talk to someone presently running for office, in fact, you might say that they want to be a leader.
This Thursday, February 12, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Cop Rocked. Last week, York Regional Police announced a massive bust that included charges against seven current and one retired officer in the Toronto Police Service. The alleged crimes are numerous and quite concerning in their implications, and now Ontario's new inspector general on policing is looking at every police service in the province to make sure their officers are acting above board. Will this lead to any real changes in policing?
Marked for Election? A Globe & Mail article painted a picture of an interesting political alliance: Ontario Premier Doug Ford is advising Prime Minister Mark Carney to call an early election and secure the majority he needs to bring economic stability to a trouble land. The polls say that fortune may be in Carney's favour, but it does raise some questions about why Ontario's Conservative premier is making strange bedfellows with the Liberal PM. What's the political calculation?
Pick Heather? While some people are getting ready for another national election, the NDP are looking to elect a new leader, and one of the candidates in that race is Edmonton Strathcona MP Heather McPherson. With less than two months to go before the membership make their final decision, McPherson will tell us how the NDP needs to rebuild for tomorrow, and the next election, and why their next leader has to lead from inside the House of Commons.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we will hear the call... of death! What a movie choice for Valentine's Day week as we blow a whistle calling for a painful and excruciating end in the new horror movie Whistle, which you can now see in a theatre near you. Also, we will talk about our latest entry in marking great Black directors for this Black Heritage Month!
This Wednesday, February 11, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Black Heritage Month Special: The Movies of Kasi Lemmons. Black Heritage Month marches on, and this week we get to our indie pick. Kasi Lemmons started her career as an actress, usually as the white female protagonist's best friend, and then transitioned to a career behind the camera. This week, we will look at two of her films, the one that started her directorial career, Eve's Bayou, and a recent historical epic she made, Harriet.
REVIEW: Whistle (2026). If you found a creepy Aztec whistle in your locker - which used to belong to a dead boy - on your first day of school, would you blow it? If you would, you might be in a horror movie! In Corin Hardy's Whistle, five photogenic high schoolers find themselves in just such a predicament, unaware that whoever hears the whistle blows will end up being hunted down and killed by their own death. Creepy? Absolutely. Whistle is the kind of 80s-style crowd-pleaser horror that they just don't make anymore. Is it good, or does it blow?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This time last year, we were in the middle of a provincial election, and that made a lot of things complicated, not the least of which was a delay in funding for the Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment, or HART Hub. But almost one year later, and after a recent announcement about funding for expanded service, do we need to ask the question: Is the HART Hub actually working?
To recap, let’s talk about what the HART Hub is. The goal is to provide care, housing, and treatment for people in the community with the most complex needs including people experiencing complex mental health and/or addiction challenges, housing instability or homelessness. For Guelph and Wellington area Community Health teamed up with CMHA Waterloo Wellington, Stonehenge, Wyndham House and Homewood and despite provincial disarray, they opened on time last April.
How did they do it? As you will hear, a lot of the work at the CTS that went beyond the provision of a safe space to use substances, made it easy to convert to the HART Hub model. Then last week there was news that might definitely indicate its working when the Hub received funding to support an additional 150 people through enhanced housing stability and clinical supports. So is the HART Hub experiment a success, or is it still too soon to tell?
Melissa Kwiatkowski, the CEO of Guelph Community Health Centre, will joins us to discuss the progress made in the last year, pivoting to prevention, and how the additional funding will complement the current services offered at the Hub. She will also talk about the ongoing effects from the closure of the CTS, the difficulty in measuring success of its programs, how the HART Hub will grow next, and whether they're able to do any long-term planning so far as provincial funding is concerned.
So let's take the pulse of the HART Hub on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Guelph Community Health Centre at their website, or you can follow them on Facebook and Instagram. You can learn more about the HART Hub specifically here, and if you’re looking for help for yourself, a friend, or family member you can call Here 24/7 at 1-844-HERE247 (437-3247), or call the Wyndham Street office directly at 519-821-6638, and press option #3.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we have doubts. In Alberta, we're really skeptical about the ability of the ones that want to separate, and in the U.S. we're have regret about writing off some people as cranks in the wake of some very scandalous revelations. For the interview, we have doubts that anyone is thinking about the most vulnerable students in Ontario and our guest this week thinks so too.
This Thursday, February 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Wexit By the Grift Shop. Since last summer, there's been a growing separation movement in Alberta, and it got mega-charged last weekend with the federal Conservative policy convention in Calgary and news that political organizers are meeting with the Trump administration for support. There are still an awful lot of hoops to jump through, including an actually referendum, so is the Wexit movement getting ahead of their skis or is it all just a show?
Was QAnon Right All Along? The release of over three million emails by the U.S. Department of Justice in the case of deceased serial human trafficker and sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein show a man with all kinds of relationships and liaisons among business leaders, academics and politicians, some of which looked innocent and some of which very much not so innocent. Have we been too hard on those conspiracy theorists this whole time?
Not Cool In Your School. The recent move by the Ontario government to take over schools boards is having an impact on students, but some students are feeling the impact more than others. David Lepofsky of the AODA Alliance was already in a fight about the lack of action at Queen's Park over a report to improve accessibility, but now the school board takeovers might exacerbate those problems. Lepofsky will join us to talk about why disabled students are getting left behind even more than before.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we get a little sun and surf... At the movies of course. For the review, we're going to a not-so-tropical paradise with some old friends in the new hit Send Help, which you can now see in a theatre near you. Also on this episode, February means more than just Valentine's as we dig into some of the greatest hits from great Black filmmakers!
This Wednesday, February 4, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Black Heritage Month Special: The Movies of Spike Lee. To mark Black Heritage Month, End Credits is going to dedicate a portion of our February episodes to highlighting two movies from talented Black directors and we will begin with the legend himself, Spike Lee! For nearly 40 years, Lee has been challenging audiences across many genres and on this episode we will talk about two of his most underappreciated entries, He Got Game and Miracle at St. Anna.
REVIEW: Send Help (2026). "We're not in the office anymore, Bradley"; a statement of unambiguous fact or a tacit threat? Director Sam Raimi is back and he's talking a trip to the tropics with Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien, but don't you call it a vacation! In the new dark comedy thriller, McAdams is a woman with exceptional survival skills and O'Brien is her affluent nepo baby boss, and when the two of them end up on a deserted island in the Pacific you have no idea where it's going to go. We will try and sell you on Send Help spoiler-free.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Fascism, have you heard of it? It’s certainly been hard not to see it, especially over the last few weeks with images from the United States. The problem is that it’s hard to recognize fascism until it gets to this point, so as people in the U.S. try and figure out how to get out of this mess, many Canadians are trying to stop us from joining them. Where can you begin? There’s a symposium for that!
In 2018, Crawford Killian posted a piece in The Tyee called “Fourteen Steps to Fascism”. Among the steps are many of them will sound familiar and while they may make you think about the fiefdom of Donald Trump and MAGA, be honest, we’ve seen a lot of that up here in Canada too. Nobody wants to call it fascism because people so closely associate that with a war that ended almost a hundred years ago, but as we’re seeing in front of our eyes, fascism is a process.
Seems like a good time to try and educate yourself, so enter an annual appointment in the local activism calendar, the Rebel Knowledge Symposium hosted by the Ontario Public Interest Research Group, or OPIRG. This year marks OPIRG’s 50th birthday, and what better way to celebrate (?) than organizing people on how best to identify fascism at home and abroad and fight it. If you think “Everything sucks right now!” you might be ready for Rebel Knowledge, but how does it all come together?
Illyria Volcansek, the external outreach co-ordinator of this year’s Rebel Knowledge Symposium, joins us on this edition of podcast to talk about how she ended up co-organizing this year’s symposium, and how OPIRG decided to centre the theme on fighting fascism. She will also talk about finding fascistic tendencies in our own backyard, how to push back when people think that describing things as fascist is a bridge too far, and the greatness of OPIRG as a Guelph community institution.
So let's talk about fight fascism and rebel knowledge on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The 2026 Rebel Knowledge Symposium, “Here We Go Again: Fighting Fascism Then & Now”, kicks off this Friday February 6 with a live taping of "Sandy and Nora Do Politics" in Peter Clark Hall. The symposium goes all weekend in the University Centre at the University of Guelph with all kinds of talks and workshops and activities - and it’s all free! You can learn more and see the full schedule here. You can also learn more about OPIRG at their main 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we catch up with old friends. While Mark Carney was hugging it out with a Canadian celebrity, MPs were returning to Ottawa for another session or where else detoured by bad winter weather. We will also detour, but to the United States where there's another kind of chill in the air, plus we will keep winter matters front of mind with our special guest from Guelph city council.
This Thursday, January 22, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
They Killed a Nurse This Time. Last weekend, immigration and border enforcement agents upped the ante in Minneapolis by killing nurse Alex Pretti as he was coming to the aid of a woman being assaulted with pepper spray. The cold-blooded execution of Pretti in front of a dozen witnesses and their iPhones has further ratcheted up tensions on American streets as even unexpected sources like the NRA are calling out ICE's Gestapo tactics. What happens next?
Bonhomme and Badness. The House of Commons returned this week... Well, some of them. Many MPs were snowed in and unable to make it Monday, while Mark Carney met Ontario Premier Doug Ford for a slice of pizza in Toronto and to hopefully talk him off the proverbial ledge over all this China trade talk. Meanwhile Pierre Poilievre faces the music this weekend in a leadership review and Avi Lewis looks more and more like the next NDP leader. We'll catch with the latest from Ottawa.
Goller Back. Guelph City Council has a busy week ahead with the budget for the seven shared services and, just in time for all the complaining, a review of winter road maintenance. But what about those lingering questions about daytime shelter arrangements, not to mention the winter response on these very cold nights? Also, how much work does one councillor expect to get done in this election year? We will seek all these answers from Ward 2 rep Rodrigo Goller who is our returning guest this week.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're feeling the chill. But if the weather outside is cold, wait until you take another wild ride through the high drama of being a modern mom in the new movie If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, which you can now rent on video-on-demand. Speaking of the cold, we will salute the movies made by the coldest film festival (weather-wise) on the calendar!
This Wednesday, January 28, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
One Last Ride... In Park City. Currently underway is the Sundance Film Festival, but this year it's different because this is the last year the festival is taking place in Park City, Utah and it's the first year without prominent co-founder Robert Redford. We will do our part to mark Sundance's impact on the culture by talking about some of their biggest success stories from genre fare, to blockbusters, Oscar winners and the first timers that went on to massive success!
REVIEW: If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025). Coming out of last year's Sundance is the entry in the "motherhood is hell" subgenre, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You. The film from Mary Bronstein tells the story of a woman besieged by sick child, a hole in her ceiling, a dispassionate therapist, and too many clients as dysfunctional as she is, in what may be a career best (and Oscar nominated) performance by Rose Byrne. As Oscar season begins, we will catch up with one of the race's sleeper successes because motherhood may be hell, but does it make for great cinema?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
What if I told you that for a fraction of the price of building all the highway projects currently planned by the Ontario government - Highway 413, the Brantford Bypass, and the tunnel under the 401 - you could fund all the major transit projects on the province-wide wishlist? Don’t take my word for it, this is all part of an analysis recently published by Environmental Defence.
The numbers are stark. The economic impact of traffic congestion is $10 billion per year, but the estimated impact to the quality of life is about $35 billion, and according to worldwide surveys the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area has some of the worst traffic congestion. To combat this, the Ontario government has proposed $80 billion in new highway projects and all of them controversial and now all branded as projects of significant economic interest.
So is there another way? Obviously, Environmental Defence is proposing that instead of $80 billion on highways, not to mention the extra $100 billion for a tunnel under the 401, the provincial government should take $14 billion and fund all the GTA-West Rapid Transit projects, including the $1.5 billion for the work on the Kitchener Line that will make two-way, all-day GO train service possible. But is there an audience will to pursue these ideas at Queen’s Park?
Mike Marcolongo, the associate director of Environmental Defence, believes there might be, and he's going to tell us about the intentions of this report, and why transit improvement has to be a non-partisan project of multiple levels of government. He will also talk about the lack of co-ordination across transit systems in the GTHA, looking at rapid bus transit as an option, and whether the difficulties building the Finch and Eglinton LRTs dissuade people from supporting the investment in others like them.
So let's talk again about building better transit on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the group at their website, or follow them at social media at Facebook, Blue Sky, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. You can also learn more about Transport Action Ontario at their website. As for the report itself, you can find “Transit Over Traffic: Hard Truths for Addressing Gricklock in the GTA” on Environmental Defence’s website under the “reports” section.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's Blew Thursday. You've heard of Blue Monday, the saddest day of the year, well this is the dumbest day of the year, and we're talking about the people who blew it, or are blowing it. First, the Quebec premier once thought invincible has quit, and then our PM is shaking and baking again on the world stage but not necessarily to the satisfaction of his constituents. For the interview, an old friend with housing concerns.
This Thursday, January 22, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Should He Stay or Should He Legault Now. Quebec Premier and Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) leader François Legault announced suddenly last week that he was quitting. He's the second provincial leader to step down in the last couple of months, and with less than a year till the next provincial election, but Legault has long had the goal of trying to be the first Quebec premier to get more than two majority governments in a row in nearly 70 years. So what went wrong?
Mark Carney Vs The World Part 3. Prime Minister Mark Carney is back collecting Air Miles and in the last week he's made stops in China and the United Arab Emirates, where he announced new trade deals, and then he pulled up to the World Economic Forum in Davos where he brought down the house with a speech declaring that "The old order is not coming back." Tough talk from Carney, and the Davos crowd ate it up, but does this do anything for Canadians?
The Realtor World. So housing is expensive in Canada. This is known, but will 2026 be the year that we finally get back to something resembling affordability? Some people think so, but friend of the show David-Alexandre Brassard, chief economist of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada, is not so sure, and he joins us this week to talk about his thoughts about Canada's housing market and to remind us why it's so much more complicated than we think it is.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it's back to two of our favourite topics: Awards and the undead! On this episode we're heading back to the land of fast zombies for the latest entry in the 28 Years Later saga, which is called The Bone Temple, and before that we're going to talk about something else that won't die: The desire to make Oscar predictions!
This Wednesday, January 21, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
We Pick Some Oscars. This week, the nominees will be announced for the 97th annual Awards for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, or as you might otherwise know them, The Oscars. Before the Academy offers their official nominations, we will use the first part of this week's show to offer our unofficial picks for Best Picture, Director, the acting categories, and a dealer's choice option, including (perhaps) the newest category.
REVIEW: 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026). Picking up where last summer's 28 Years Later left off, we re-enter the zombie infested U.K. and catch up with Dr. Ian of the titular Bone Temple, who may have stumbled onto something that might change the game. Meanwhile, our young lad Spike has fallen into a rough crowd called the Jimmies, who are making the most of the post-apocalyptic landscape by being as bad as they want to be. These two stories are on a collision course in this (supposedly) middle chapter. but does this movie have - ahem - bite?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It's been quite a year so far, and it's only been about three weeks long. Unfortunately, there's no guest on this week's show, nobody seems to want to talk about the biggest issue in town, but that doesn't mean we can't chat about it on our own. For this peculiar episode of the podcast, we will talk about the questions left over from the daytime shelter story, how we've been trying to cover it, and what's going on at Politico HQ as we look to an even busier year ahead!
So let's not beat around the bush and get down to this solo edition of the Guelph Politicast!
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's non-stop controversy only two weeks into the new year. From the United States, just when you thought there was nothing new to get angry about, more state-sponsored violence, and then the international situation is getting even more dicey with new drama in Iran. More locally, we've got drama right here in our own backyard concerning daytime shelter services that may or may not be coming.
This Thursday, January 15, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Renee For Good. Last week in Minneapolis, a woman named Renee Nicole Good was killed by an agent of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Why? That depends on who you ask. The killing of Good has become a flashpoint, people who've been warning about the use of ICE as Donald Trump's personal brute squad now have someone to rally around, a dead mother of three who seemed to be killed because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Has the tide turned?
Iran For Change. Over the last several weeks, small gatherings of merchants upset about the loss of value on the Rial, Iran's national currency, have became a full-blown national demonstration against the ruling regime, and they're feeling the pressure. Thousands of protestors have been maimed or killed, but as Iranians abroad now push for western intervention is there a way we can do it that doesn't repeat regime change mistakes of the past?
Gimme (Daytime) Shelter. So local controversy arose to start the year in Guelph! A new daytime shelter run by Stepping Stone and Royal City Mission approved in November was supposed to be a done deal and ready to open this week, and then there was the surprise announcement last week that that there was no deal in the end. What happened? Here to help us sort that out is Ward 5 City Councillor Cathy Downer who will talk about how we got here and where we might go next?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're heading back to space, where no one can hear you sigh. Yup, we're going back to Pandora and all it's imaginative creatures and landscapes in James Cameron's newest, Avatar: Fire and Ash, and while we're on the subject of Cameron, we will take time out to rank all 10 of the director's movies so far, up to, but not including, the latest one!
This Wednesday, January 14, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Ranking James Cameron. Since emerging as a talent in the 80s, there has been no one like James Cameron working in movies. Technically sophisticated, meticulous in detail and always working on the biggest possible canvas, Cameron has bet big on himself every time and has almost always beaten the odds and the house. So to begin this show, we're going to rank his 10 (official) movies from Terminator to Titanic and his two deep sea documentaries.
REVIEW: Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025). It's time to go back to Pandora. Since the last time we were on this mysterious world, the Sully clan were irreparably changed in the wake of a family tragedy and the growing war between humans and Na'vi for the planet's precious resources. Avatar: Fire and Ash though introduces us to a new tribe of Na'vi, ones that may like to buy what the human invaders are selling. In this third entry in his highly complex, and highly lucrative, franchise, is there still space for James Cameron's epic sci-fi parable or shall we call it a trilogy?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The State of the City is a key event on the annual political calendar as it gives some insight into the mind of the mayor; what do they value, what do they consider accomplishments, and what do they see as the biggest challenges? It’s also a look inside the mind of the mayor and how they see the big picture outside the day-to-day issues and crises that come up. So let’s look inside the mayor’s head from one year ago.
In his speech, Mayor Cam Guthrie called Guelph a “city of resilience”; our challenges are many but the will of people to overcome and their willingness to embrace innovation is strong. The housing picture is rough, but Guelph is not unique in that issue, and there’s also a lot going in the city that is worth noting beyond those tough conditions. Yes, there are some good news stories in Guelph!
In the end, the mayor said that the city is strong, and united, and was sitting on a solid foundation at the beginning of 2025 to deliver more great things in the 12 months that would follow, so let us remind ourselves where we once sat. For this week's podcast, Cam Guthrie will take the microphone to talk about the State of the City, as he saw it, around this time in 2025.
In this flashback, you will hear Guthrie discuss Guelph’s economic big picture, the accomplishments achieved in 2024, the new positive directions he foresaw, and the opportunities and warning signs that he believed were coming for the city in 2025. As we approach the State of the City for 2026 in a couple of weeks, we pause today, as we do at this time every year, to look back at the mayor’s agenda for the year that just ended.
So let's revisit the 2025 State of the City on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can revisit coverage of the State of the City last year and every year in the archives of Guelph Politico. Or, if you would rather look forward, the next State of the City event will be on Thursday February 12 at 7 am at the Delta Guelph Hotel and Conference Centre. You can get more information and buy tickets at the Guelph Chamber of Commerce’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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we enter the new year like we left the old year: chaotically. For this first episode of the year, we will catch you up with all the news you might have missed either intentionally or on purpose during the holidays, and split into three distinct areas. We will tackle the latest drama south of the border, the travel plans of Canada's prime minister, and whatever the heck in going on with the leader of Ontario.
This Thursday, January 8, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Don-roe They Didn't! What a way to start the second year of his second term! U.S. military forces dropped into Venezuela in the dead of night, and kidnapped Nicolás Maduro and his wife and arrested them. There's no doubt that Maduro is, to borrow a phase, a bad hombre, but why him and why now? From the direction to seize Venezuela's oil wealth to renewed speculation about regime change in Cuba, we'll talk about Donald Trump's latest mad man move.
Mark Carney Vs. The World (2026 Edition). New year, more Air Miles. In this first week of 2026 Prime Minister Mark Carney went to Europe to stand with Ukraine and Greenland as they face two very different aggressors, and next week he heads to China to further the project of selling Canada to the world. Carney's globetrotting comes as his old rival Chrystia Freeland takes a job with Ukraine and new questions about ensuring Canadian sovereignty arise, so how will Carney respond?
The Doug Phone. Technically, the Ontario government will continue to be on winter break until sometime around the beginning of spring. As school board trustees wait for the other shoe to drop, as conservation authorities face a loss of autonomy, and as people continue to be concerned about the high cost of living, Doug Ford is focused on what's important: cancelling Crown Royal and protecting the use of his private phone for government business. We'll catch up with what Doug's been up to.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're back with the first new episode of 2026 and what might be the best movie of 2025...? We will dig into Marty Supreme, which you can now see in a theatre near you, and we will let you know if it matches the hype, and we're also going to go into the vault and talk about another acclaimed film that has perhaps even gotten better with time.
This Wednesday, January 7, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Heat at 30. Somewhere in Hollywood, Michael Mann is toiling on a sequel to what might be his masterpiece: Heat. The crime thriller was notable for many reasons, not the least of which was the first on-screen face-off between Robert De Niro and Al Pacino as career criminal Neil McCauley and LAPD Lieutenant Vincent Hanna respectively. So three decades later, how does Heat hold up and, frankly, do we even need a sequel?
REVIEW: Marty Supreme (2025). In the competitive world of table tennis in the 1950s, no one is more competitive than Marty Mauser. From director Josh Safdie, and starring the man of the moment Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme has the urgency of the Safdies past efforts like Uncut Gems, while having the underdog qualities of all great sports dramas and also being centered around a character whose own self-determination borders on reckless and self-destructive. So is Marty Supreme the movie of our times, and is Timmy finally achieved the greatness he's striving for?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm
Guelph City Council is taking an extended holiday (but not as extended at the Ontario government), so as we wait for their inevitable return, it seems fitting to pause here at the start of the year and to look back at all the action last fall in the council chambers. Before we unlock the future we must first find the keys to the past so join us in this search for the keys...
It was a busy fall at city council on the planning side. There was a major proposal to redevelop a plaza at the corner of Gordon and Clair, and there was the rollout of the block plan for the first two phases of the Guelph Innovation District lands. The consequences of those decisions may take decades to unfold, certainly beyond the time and space of this current council (who term out this November).
In terms of policy, council looked at making it easier to build more accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, and considered five or more units as-of-right on certain low residential properties. They also strongly endorsed the creation of a renoviction bylaw and a vacant home tax in order to stop the loss of affordable housing before it happened. There was also some weird thing with parking restrictions in one section of the Ward that caused some controversy.
There were also some city building projects on the agendas. Redeveloping the area around the Macdonell Bridge took up a lot of bandwidth, especially when it comes to keeping portions of the Allan Dam, or not keeping them as the case may be. Council also looked at the final design of St. George's Square after advising staff to ratchet up that "wow factor", and as they do almost every fall, there was the passage of the budget and all the drama there.
So let's get into events at city council last fall in this week's Guelph Politicast!
The next council meeting is the January planning meeting on Tuesday January 20 at 4 pm in the council chambers at city hall. The agenda will be posted on the City of Guelph website sometime this coming Thursday. As usual, stay tuned to Guelph Politico for all the latest developments before, during and after every city council meeting!
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we kick off 2026 by kicking out 2025. As usual on New Year's Week, we will hand out the annual awards in the four categories we mark at this time every year. We cover the good, the bad and ugly as we look at the people who made us hopeful, the people who made us weep, and the issues that keep us warm because the fire from the rage burns so bright!
This Thursday, January 1, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Worst Politician of 2024. Always an embarrassment of riches, there were a lot of nominees for the Worst Person in Politics in 2025, and that's with two of the most obvious candidates sidelined due to their status as lifetime honourees. As usual, we will kick off the awards show with the person or persons that exemplified the worst of our politics, from leaders who failed to politicians in Canada trying to copy Ugly Americanism.
Good News Story of the Year. There was good news this year? That's always the joke, isn't it? But yes, there was good news and it was not so hard to find after all. In this category we will reach for some light at the end of the tunnel, and it perhaps should be unsurprising that it involves the young people (not that fixing all out our problems should be put on their heads, of course). For this year's good news, we will look to the youth.
Dumpster Fire of the Year. Is 2025 the most dumpster or fires? Well, there was no shortage of fuel in any event. From the loss of momentum on climate action, to the return of the Trump circus to Washington D.C., to far right hooliganism there were more dumpsters on fire than ever before! (Or maybe it just felt that way.) Somehow, we managed to get that big list down to pair of fires, and they may be the worst of all.
Best Politician of 2024. If there is a worst, then there must also be a best. The nominees were not as numerous in this category, but like the Good News Story of the Year section they are there if you're willing to look for them. To wrap up the show, we will have a ray of hope about what comes next, or make that who comes next. Whether that's a Gen Zeer who's now a party leader on Canada's west coast to the (possible) next President of the United States.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits it's the end... of the year! As usual when we get to the end of the year, we will talk about our favourites from the last 12 months, the movies that we will always remember when we think about the ones that mattered in 2025. The gang's all here for the only New Year's Eve party that matters, at least if you're a local movie fan!
This Wednesday, December 31, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Peter Salmon, and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The Top 5 of 2025. We survived till '25, and it was a wild year at the movies indeed. As the industry shifts under massive changes in how people watch movies and rich pricks fight over who ends up running studios, we're focusing on what's important this New Year's Eve: Quality! As usual when it comes around to the turning of the year, we will pause and reflect about the best movies of the year, which in 2025 includes revolutionaries, bootleggers, playwrights, and Aunt Gladys!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Thirty years. That’s how long it’s taken to get the new main library this far, and it still won’t open for several more months. The ambitions of multiple library boards, library CEOs, city councils, and patrons will finally be realized this year after three decades of debate, negotiation and preparation, but at the end of this long road, can the new main library deliver on the hype and will it be the good news story downtown Guelph needs exactly when it needs it the most?
Back at the turn of the century, the plan was to buy the old post office on upper Wyndham and renovate that. The whole project was going to cost $10.5 million for a 80,000 square foot building, and it was well on it's way to becoming reality when a more conservative mayor and council put the kibosh on all that progress and it was back to the drawing board. (If you’re interested in the full timeline, it’s an 88-page document on the Library’s website.)
More recently, the $67.1 million library project was approved in 2019 for the Baker District Redevelopment, but there was some further fiddling in the fall of 2020 that solidified the project as it exists now. Despite all the wonderful aspects of the project though there's still questions about whether it will meet all the expectations put upon it. So as we enter this pivotal year, is the library staff ready to meet the challenges that come after the building is open?
For this first pod of the year, we're joined by two of those staff members, CEO Dan Atkins and manager of public services Meg Forestell-Page. They will talk about the progress on the new building’s construction, and the progress on planning for all the new programs that will take place there. They will also talk about the impact on the other library branches, the fate of the current main library, and how the new building will continue to serve as a community hub for the people most in need.
So let's look forward again to the new library on this additional episode of the Guelph Politicast!
The new main library is scheduled to open sometime later this year in the fall. To learn more about what to expect and review the progress so far, you can go to the library’s website. and you can learn more about the entire Baker District Redevelopment at the City of Guelph’s website. If you missed it yesterday, you can still listen to the first What’s Next ‘26 podcast about the South End Community Centre.
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, 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.
It’s the start of a new year, but more than that it’s the start of a big year for Guelph, and not just because there’s a municipal election in October. To end 2025, and to start 2026, this podcast will be airing back-to-back episodes that will mark the pending completion of two major construction projects by this time next year: Today we’re talking all about the South End Community Centre!
Drive down Clair Road West and you can see it peaking over the hills on the left hand side: The South End Community Centre. Construction began in 2023, but like most massive construction projects in Guelph it’s a story that goes back decades. A June 2014 report recommended that a nearly $60 million facility be built on lands south of Bishop MacDonell Secondary School, but it took three years to get to detailed design and it took another three years to get it ready to start construction.
The SECC will feature twin ice pads, an aquatic centre with a lap and teaching pool, a double gymnasium, walking track and multi-purpose rooms, all connected by a central lobby covering a total of 160,000 square feet. But then there are the expectations. Guelph is presently underserviced by rec facilities, the pool at Centennial had to close early, and there’s a whole Parks and Rec Master Plan approved a few years ago banking on new opportunities at the new centre. So is city staff ready to deliver?
The people who can answer that are today's guests, the City of Guelph's general manager of culture and recreation Danna Evans, and the general manager of facilities and energy management Ian Scott. They will talk about the current state of construction, what work is left to be done and if there are any issues that might prevent it from opening on time. Plus, they will talk about staffing the centre, planning for the programming, and whether or not the South End Community Centre will have a proper name!
So let's look forward to the South End Community Centre on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The South End Community Centre is currently scheduled to open sometime in the fall of 2026. You can follow the progress on construction on the City of Guelph’s website here, and you learn more about the facility itself here. Come back to this feed tomorrow for a podcast about the other big construction project that will be opening in the fall of 2026, the new main library downtown.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we ask, "What day is this?" And we answer, "Why it's Christmas Day, sir." And since it's Christmas Day, or there abouts, the time has come for our annual entry the political movies special. As usual at this time of year, we've lined up four new politically-themed movies to discuss including two comedies, a French movie in black and white and an Academy Award-winning documentary!
This Thursday, December 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Adam’s Pick #1: Canadian Bacon (1995). "In a desperate bid to revive his abysmal peacetime approval rating, the President of the United States (Alan Alda) agrees to launch a top-secret propaganda campaign to vilify Canada. As U.S. citizens get caught up in a xenophobic hysteria, a group of residents of Niagara, N.Y., wielding machine guns, organize a vigilante invasion that could trigger a real war with America's gentle neighbor to the north."
Scotty’s Pick #1: Hate/La Haine (1995). "When a young Arab is arrested and beaten unconscious by police, a riot erupts in the notoriously violent suburbs outside of Paris. Three of the victim's peers, Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Said (Said Taghmaoui) and Hubert (Hubert Koundé), wander aimlessly about their home turf in the aftermath of the violence as they try to come to grips with their outrage over the brutal incident."
Adam’s Pick #2: Burn After Reading (2008). "The misplaced memoirs of a recently jobless CIA analyst, Osborne Cox (John Malkovich), are found by a pair of dimwitted gym employees (Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt). When they mistake the memoirs for classified government documents, they undergo a series of misadventures in an attempt to profit from their find."
Scotty’s Pick #2: No Other Land (2025). "This film made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective shows the destruction of the occupied West Bank's Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers and the alliance which develops between the Palestinian activist Basel and Israeli journalist Yuval."
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, Christmas is almost here. To celebrate, and to take a holiday break, we depart from our usual format to come at Christmas movies from three different angles with the assistance of some special guests. We will cover all your holiday favourites from the classics, to the new classics, and the ones that are so bad they're good.
This Wednesday, December 24, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Peter Salmon, Candice Lepage, and special guests Phil Allt and Mike Ashkewe will discuss:
Phil's Christmas Story. Guelph Ward 3 City Councillor Phil Allt has long been associated with A Christmas Story after he was gifted a replica leg lamp from that movie by his wife. So how does Phil feel about being so closely linked to this classic for years? Adam A. Donaldson talks to Allt about the things that keep us coming back to A Christmas Story, and the role of nostalgia in Christmas movies.
The Best Christmas Movies of the 21st Century So Far... Do we make classic Christmas movies anymore? Tough to say. A lot of the movies we watch and enjoy every December tend to be from the 20th century. So where are the new classics? Peter Salmon and Mike Ashkewe might have some ideas about that, from comedies about one special Santa's helper, to action movies where Santa gets violent.
The Best Worst Christmas Movies. Christmas movies are typically quite formulaic, and sometimes we confuse how filmmakers using something that works as them just being lazy. But even the most formulaic of movies can get you in the feels, or maybe just surprise you with how bad that bad can get. Candice Lepage and Tim Phillips will look at some of their favourite so-called Worst Christmas movies, and what makes them not so bad.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Christmas is a time to get together with old friends and for this podcast, there’s been no older friend in Guelph than the gang at Ed Video! Ed Video is one of the longest running arts centres in Canada, and has attracted a wide variety of artists over the years, but in the year 2025, we know that the arts are having trouble bouncing back from COVID. So why has this maybe been a good year for Ed Video despite it all?
Now, the year started off pretty tough for Ed Video. They moved out of their old space at 404 York Road and took up residence at Silence on Essex Street. At nearly the same time, staff were laid off for several weeks as a cost saving measure, and then the executive director moved on to new opportunities. John F. Kennedy once noted somewhat erroneously that the Chinese word for crisis comes from the words “danger” and “opportunity” but even if that’s not true, might it be true this time for Ed Video?
The answer is maybe. Ed Video has faced moments of danger and opportunity before, so this is nothing new to the centre, and hoping to lead them out of it again is Julie René de Cotret. Originally from Montreal, Julie is an independent programmer who curated exhibitions in Canada and around the world, co-founded the artist residency program at the School of Environmental Science at the University of Guelph and is artistic director of The Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film.
On this holiday episode of the podcast, Julie will talk about the state of Ed Video right now, and the state of the arts sector locally and across Canada. She will also talk about the ongoing challenges at the centre, the opportunity in creating more co-ordination with other local arts groups, the ways that local government can support the arts, and what Ed Video might deliver during its golden anniversary next year. Yes, next year Ed Video turns 50!
So let's check in with Ed Video on this Christmas edition of the Guelph Politicast!!
You can learn more about Ed Video by following them on social media @edvideoguelph on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. You can also visit their website where you can learn more information about volunteer opportunities, workshops, equipment rentals and shows. You can learn more about Julie René de Cotret’s personal art projects at their own website. Also, Merry Christmas and stay tuned for back-to-back episodes next week!
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're getting our passports ready for a hour-long trip around the world. First, we will go to Australia where holiday celebrations turned to terror, while in this hemisphere it's looking more and more like a war is coming for one oil rich South American country and you-know-who's to blame. For the interview, we will talk to one of our federal representatives who definitely has some worldly thoughts of his own.
This Thursday, December 18, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Bondi Beach. A tourist hot spot in Australia, beautiful summer weather, and the first day of Hanukkah. It was the perfect recipe for a celebration to remember, and then things turned tragic. A father and son inspired, apparently, by ISIS, killed 15 people in the worst mass shooting in the county in 27 years. The victims were as young as 10 and included a Holocaust survivor. Are we finally ready to take the threats of antisemitism seriously?
Narcos(?). For the last several weeks, the American military has been attacking fishing boats off the coast of Venezuela, although they're supposedly drug boats piloted by so-called "narco terrorists". President Donald Trump upped the ante this week but ordering a "total and complete blockade" of the country, effectively another act of war, and an interview with White House senior staff points to even further military action to force regime change. Whatever happened to "Donald the Dove"?
Chong Turn. There's a lot going on in the world right now, so wouldn't it be nice to talk to a foreign affairs critic right now? Michael Chong, MP for Wellington-Halton Hills North, fills that role for the Conservative Party, so we will ask him about the progress in resolving the trade war, and fighting the global rise in antisemitism. Also, we're going to talk about his critiques of Mark Carney's first year as prime minister, and a difficult couple of weeks in the Conservative caucus room on Parliament Hill.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we get high. On Christmas. Kind of. We will have our full Christmas show as usual next week, but for this week we're going to put our focus on one new holiday-themed movie, which you can stream on Amazon Prime. We will review Oh. What. Fun., and we will also pay tribute to some of our beloved movie stoners.
This Wednesday, December 10, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Episode 420. This is the 420th episode of End Credits, so what better way is there to celebrate this auspicious occasion than to light up a blunt and talk about our favourite movie stoners. It might be argued that the great stoner movie is a thing of the past, ruined to a degree by legalization in the real world, but the legacy remains as a true subgenre and character trope. To start the show, we will catch with some old buds.
REVIEW: Oh. What. Fun. (2025). It's officially the start of Christmas week, and as this episode goes to air it's exactly one week till Christmas Eve. So why not do a new Christmas movie for this last, full review of the year? In Oh. What. Fun., Michelle Pfeiffer plays a put upon mother trying to make everything perfect for Christmas for her three large adult children, but suffering from a lack of gratitude she hits the road and leaves the family to their own devices. So is there any Christmas magic in this Amazon offering for the holidays, or is it a lump of coal?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It’s been over 10 years since Karen Farbridge left office, technically defeated in the 2014 election by then one-term City Councillor Cam Guthrie. It ended up being an end to her days in elected office, but Farbridge isn’t gone, and she certainly isn’t forgotten, and in the last few weeks she’s been the one doing the remembering with a new series of Substack newsletters about lessons she learned from her career in politics. But what more can she tell us?
Karen Farbridge's tenure as Guelph's mayor was marked by a number of changes, some of which were successful like the preservation of the Loretto Convent which became home to the Guelph Civic Museum, and some of them were unsuccessful like the Community Energy Project that's since been dismantled. Like many politicians, time got away from her and there was an appetite for change, and her last re-election bid ended in defeat in October 2014.
Since she left office, some remember Farbridge fondly for thinking and acting boldly for Guelph’s future while others have labelled her as a tax-and-spend liberal whose legacy is sullied in once tidy word, "Urbacon", the firm that was hired, and fired, from building the new city hall at 1 Carden Street. For her part, Farbridge has been willing to stay out of the local political games but then she started a Substack newsletter that chronicled some of the lessons she learned from 20 years as a woman in politics.
So for this, the 500th episode of the Politicast, it seemed right to talk to former Mayor Farbridge about her legacy, and all those lessons learned. She will talk about how she got into politics back in the 90s, the unexpected ways that sexism got in the way, and why political memories in Guelph are so long. Also, we will discuss her thoughts on her own political legacy, whether she’s ever thought about getting back into electoral politics, and whether her newsletter is the beginning of something, or the end
So let's catch up with a former mayor on this 500th edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can follow and subscribe to Karen Farbridge's Substack newsletter "Unfinished Agendas” here. You can also follow her on social media @karenfarbridge on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. If you would like to check her work as a consultant you can go to the website for Karen Farbridge and Associates 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to jail! "Finally," some would say. Well too bad because we're not actually going to jail, but we are going to talk about jail and who is going there in the first part of the show. Also, in this all news episode, we will look at the aftermath of lower international student enrollment and then head to a land down under and a great social (media) experiment underway there now.
This Thursday, December 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Prison Experiment. A CBC investigation published this week shows what we've all know for some time: Ontario's jails are dangerously overcrowded. More than that, four out of five people in prison are actually awaiting trail, which means they're technically innocent, at least in the eyes of the law. As the Ontario government flaunts their law & order agenda, and "Jail, Not Bail", are we missing the forest for the trees with this story?
Student Services. A lot has been done to vilify international students in Ontario, but as their numbers continue to dwindle, we're seeing the follow on effects. In Brampton and Waterloo, transit systems are looking at service cuts because there are now fewer riders, and redevelopment plans in downtown Guelph and Kitchener are delayed as Conestoga College faces a budget crunch. So are international students the real villains, or can we finally talk about the ways they were exploited all along?
Antisocial. Australia took the first step this week, becoming so far the only country in the world to ban social media for anyone under the age of 16. A few other countries are considering it, and many more are watching and waiting to see the results, but this will definitely be a big test for the tech oligarchs who have long shirked government regulation and other controls on their business, even if it means not protecting kids from the potential harms of social media. Is this the future?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
For years now, we’ve seen the pressures of housing and affordability explode into a crisis, and the answers to that crisis never seem to make themselves known. Maybe things are changing. In November, the City of Guelph and Wyndham House announced that by this time next year, they will have effectively ended youth homelessness in Guelph. What makes them so confident?
The media release said, “Guelph is on track to become the first mid-sized city in Canada to end chronic youth homelessness.” The project in question is at 107 and 109 Waterloo Avenue; 109 will have 24/7 wraparound care and on-site health services while 107 will have three apartments for youth preparing to move into permanent housing. With this impressive progress, Wyndham House boldly stated that Guelph will have functionally zero youth homelessness in this city by the end of 2026.
So how did they do it? According to Wyndham House, youth homelessness has dropped by 76 per cent over the last three years, which they credit to early interventions that stop youth from ending up homeless in the first place. Forty-four per cent of homeless adults are unhoused for the first time before they turn 25, so if you can stop any young people from ending up homeless in the first place, that can have a big impact on stopping homelessness in the future. But is it really that simple?
Kristen Cairney, who is the executive director of Wyndham House, is going to tell us why they're so confident in this bonus edition of the podcast. We will talk about the Waterloo Avenue project, how it will allow Guelph to get to "functional zero” on youth homelessness, and what that means practically for the community. Also, we will talk about the things that Guelph is doing to make this possible, how they’re reaching out to young people everyday, and what Wyndham House is working on next.
So let's find the good news on this week's episode of the Guelph Politicast!
If you would like to learn more about Wyndham House, access their services, or are interested in volunteering, you can go to their website, and you can follow them on special media on Facebook and on Instagram. You can also learn more about the City of Guelph Housing Affordability Strategy at the City's website.
Programming Note: The 500th episode of the show will air in the usual timeslot this Wednesday.
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, 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.
This week on End Credits, we go to church. Well, the movie goes to church, but we go along for the ride. A house of worship becomes the scene of the crime in the latest Knives Out entry, Wake Up Dead Man, but before diving into one of the last reviews of the year, we will look at some of the movies coming next year!
This Wednesday, December 10, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Three to See in 2026. As you may have noticed, 2025 is almost over. What kind of year has it been? We'll get to that in a couple of weeks. but for this week we will look ahead to 2026 and some of the movies we're anticipating in the next 12 months. Now, there are some big ones like Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Mandalorian & Grogu, not to mention Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, but we will consider some of the other potential hits coming your way.
REVIEW: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025). Blanc's Back! In the latest entry into the Knives Out franchise, murder is afoot in a small town church where the fire-and-brimstone monseigneur is killed in a locked room mystery and the prime suspect is his young colleague, a fellow priest. Daniel Craig returns as everyone's favourite southern gentleman detective, and an all-star cast fills out the ranks of potential suspects, but does this third entry in Rian Johnson's murder-mystery franchise still deliver suspense and surprises?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Since the Ontario provincial election in February, we’ve spent a lot of time on this podcast trying to shine a light on some of the under-reported issues that the provincial government is ignoring, or actively making worse. Law and order though? That’s supposed to be under the Ford government’s bailiwick as they sell us a story of rampant criminality set loose on Ontario, but what if the real crime is happening inside Ontario’s jails?
A CBC investigation published this week had some startling insight into who makes up the population of provincial jails. In the first six months of 2025, the jail population averaged 10,800 prisoners. And why are these people in jail? Well, the figures obtained in a Freedom of Information request shows that nearly 82 per cent of all prisoners detained last year were on remand, meaning that most of them are awaiting trial and are legally innocent.
So with our jails overflowing, why is the Ontario government demanding “Jail, Not Bail”? Well, they are pushing for more jail construction across the province, but many of those spaces are months and years away, some of them won’t be ready until well into the next decade. Also, that means there will be even less money for the things that would help keep people out of prison, like supportive housing, drug treatment programs, or job training assistance.
Justin Piché, who is a criminology professor at the University of Ottawa and a member of the advocacy group Coalition Against Proposed Prisons, or CAPP, joins us this week to tell us why building more prisons doesn’t necessarily build safer communities. We will talk about the incredible amounts of money that the Ontario government has proposed to spend on prisons, how that money can be better spent to spare people from doing things that lead to jail sentences, and why creating more jails isn’t a partisan issue.
So let's pass go and head straight to jail and the issues there on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about The Coalition Against Proposed Prisons at their website, and you can also find them on Instagram and YouTube. It’s also worth check out the CBC investigation, “Ontario jails set to hit overcrowding record as bail reform looms, data shows,” and you can find the direct link to that article here.
Programming Note: A new episode of the Politicast will be posted this weekend, and then we will post the 500th episode of the show next week
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph things are not going according to plan. From Queen's Park to Parliament Hill, our provincial and federal governments are missing the goal posts and are facing some rather harsh scrutiny. And speaking of scrutiny, we will talk to one of our city councillors about making the tough decisions that you probably didn't like about next year's city budget.
This Thursday, December 4, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Pipeline Dreams. Last week (after deadline we might add), Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed a deal that, theoretically, will see a pipeline built from the tar sands to the Pacific coast. So good news, right? Depending on your point of view. B.C. Premier David Eby registered his outrage about being cut out, First Nations want the deal torn up, and Smith, for some reason, was booed by her own party members. Is the pipeline deal dead before the ink is dry?
The King of Wasteful Spending. The Auditor General of Ontario released her annual report this week and... yikes! Focusing on healthcare, the report says - among other things - that OHIP is letting physicians overbill in the extreme, that the effort to expand the number of family doctors is desperately falling short, that there's no discernible plan for the expansion of med schools, and that a billion dollars in PPE's been written off after being allowed to expire. So what now?
Dual of the Caton. Guelph city council approved the 2026 budget last week, which is technically the mayor's budget but they still get a say. There were two stories out of that budget, one was the nearly eight per cent likely increase for the year, and the second was the decision to not plow bike lanes this winter. Ward 1 City Councillor Erin Caton will join us now that they are on the other side to talk about making the tough calls and whether this is a budget they can run on.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, things are getting bittersweet. We will return to the sorted land of Norway where life imitates art imitates art in the smash Cannes success, Sentimental Value. We will also continue our contemplations on the year that's still here for another 27 days by looking at what he noticed about the movies over the last 11 or 12 months.
This Wednesday, December 3, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Movie Trends of 2025. It's been a busy year, and as we're counting down to New Year's Eve and our annual Top 5 of the Year show, we're going to look at some of the things that made 2025 so notable at the movies. From the business side like increasing consolidation and political interference to creative concerns like the use or A.I. and the state of franchises, we will look at what 2025 told us about the state of Hollywood and the state of movies.
REVIEW: Sentimental Value (2025). Joachim Trier's follow up to The Worst Person in the World is another tale of heartbreak and hope. This time, Renate Reinsve plays a successful stage actress who's filmmaker father (Stellan Skarsgård) returns with what he calls the role of a lifetime, playing his mother in a semi-biographical movie. When his own daughter refuses, he turns to a famous Hollywood actress (played by actual famous Hollywood actress Elle Fanning). Is the movie the thing to capture this family dysfunction, and does it do it well?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
We often hear how a budget tells us what a city values, and one of the things that residents clearly valued in the City of Guelph budget was funding for the park stewards program. We often talk about environmentalism and civic pride as big reasons to live in Guelph, so is the park steward program the ultimate expression of that, and if it is, why didn't we talk about it before we almost lost it?
According to the City of Guelph’s website, the steward program is a series of community-led projects where groups come together to ‘adopt’ and help care for parks city-wide, which can mean just about anything from planting native plant species, cleaning up litter, or helping to protect habitats. Several stewards came out on the budget delegation night to speak in defense of their program, which was among the initial round of proposed cuts before the funding was restored.
To learn more about the stewards, what they do, and why they’re so dedicated, we'll talk to Margaret Middleton, a steward for Rickson Park who delegated at the aforementioned council meeting. Rickson Park is situated along the Royal City Trail, and between two schools; there’s a lot of greenspace, and it services all kinds of people in the area from families, young kids, university students, and dog walkers. So what kind of person takes on the responsibility for making their local park better?
Middleton will join us to tell us about the Rickson Park she knows, how she found about the park steward program, and what the relatively small amount of money they receive from the City of Guelph pays for. She will also talk about how the program is rooted in sustainability, and working with other stewards and groups across the city. And finally, she will discuss organizing for the budget fight and how you can get involved either in Rickson Park or your own area park.
So let's head down to the park - in spirit - on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about the park stewards program you can visit the City of Guelph’s website, and you can also find a link to the list of parks that are presently taking part in the program. You can also send an email to stewardship [at] guelph.ca get in touch with the steward at your local park or perhaps to volunteer as the steward of your local park.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph it's all going according to plan. Sort of. At least that's what the Prime Minister of Canada wants us to think as he seeks out foreign investment around the globe. Closer to home, trouble is brewing for his provincial counterparts in Quebec, while even more closer to home we will talk to the head of Guelph city council about all the things he can't or won't do when it comes to the city budget.
This Thursday, November 27, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Trading Post. Prime Minister Mark Carney has been laser focused on the economy, but not wanting to deal with you-know-who in the White House has prompted some strange bedfellows, and it's seen Carney making deals with both Narendra Modi and Danielle Smith. But in the midst of all this deal-making is Carney losing the moral high ground on foreign interference and fighting climate change? Also, should we care that he doesn't care about meeting with Trump?
The French Deflection. In June, the Quebec Liberal Party chose former federal cabinet minister Pablo Rodriguez to lead them into next year's provincial election, and to have a shot at unseating the incumbent Coalition Avenir Quebec all they had to do was stay scandal-free. Oops. Now, twin scandals of a fired chief of staff and allegations of vote buying in the leadership contest are kicking up dirt that could scuttle the new image of the squeaky clean Liberals. What's going in the National Assembly?
Mayor Cake. This week Guelph city council made amendments to the 2026 budget, which is now technically speaking the mayor's budget thanks to legislative changes from Queen's Park. Before the meeting, we sat down with the Mayor of Guelph, Cam Guthrie, to talk about his considerations going into the budget vote, the worst case scenarios he considered, the growing gap between fiscal need and financial resources, and the red line he needs to reach before using his veto pen.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're off to see the Wizard. Again. Inevitably, we return to the Land of Oz and all of our old, familiar friends who are back on the screen just in time for awards consideration in Wicked: For Good. And since we're getting close to that year end mark, we're going to make our best guess about what other movies we've yet to see that might be among the best.
This Wednesday, November 26, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Three to See. We're rapidly coming up on the end of the year, and you know what that means: The Top 5 of the Year episode is coming! Between now and then, the gang will be making their lists and considering their options and that includes deciding on what movies are worth their time and which ones might be finalists for those five slots. So, before getting into this week's movies, we will talk about other movies we'll be seeing in the weeks to come.
REVIEW: Wicked For Good (2025). When we last left the world of Wicked, the powerful witch Elphaba discovers that the Wonderful Wizard of Oz in nothing but a con man, and leaves her best friend Glinda to mount a full blown insurrection against his growing authoritarian tendencies. In the epic conclusion, a new wrench is thrown into the mix with the arrival of a girl from Kansas in a tornado, but is the so-called Wicked Witch of the West able to re-write her own ending? Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande return, but will those big crowds that came out for part one join them?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
There was a lot of celebrating this time last year when it was announced that Blue Triton was closing their water bottling operations across Ontario, including the one down the road in Puslinch. Current events have conspired to put water taking issues back on the frontburner but between concerns about the impact on renters in Bill 60 and the undermining of local oversight of school boards in Bill 33, is there any room on the agenda for protecting our water?
In the background of all the activity at Queen’s Park this fall, there have been efforts in the Environment, Conservation and Parks Ministry to streamline permit renewals for water taking, and to make it easier to take over existing permits at the same location instead of forcing them to file a new application. This is no small thing because water resources are already being stretched in communities that are dependent on ground water, like Guelph, where rapid growth and pressure to grow even faster is raising the alarm.
But that’s not all! Recently, the Government of Ontario announced changes to conservation authorities that will take the province’s 32 agencies and amalgamate them into seven! And just when you thought local drinking water was safe, news came earlier this month that White Wolf Property Management Inc. had purchased wells in Hillsburgh and Aberfoyle for “water taking for the purposes of water bottling.”
This week we're joined by Theresa McClenaghan, who is the executive director and counsel at the Canadian Environmental Law Association. She will tell us about the extent of the changes we’re talking about with water taking permits, what source water protection means legally speaking, and why the provincial Environmental Bill of Rights still has some teeth. Also, what are we learning about the Ontario government’s environmental agenda, and why the long-term consequences need to be better thought out.
So let's dive into changes to water taking on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Canadian Environmental Law Association at their website. The last day to provide comment to changes to the Clean Water Act, aka: “Regulatory changes for accelerating and improving protections for Ontario’s drinking water sources” is Thursday December 4, and you can find a direct link here. If you’re interested in getting involved in local activism about water taking, you can always get in touch with Water Watchers.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're thinking globally and poding locally. Environmental issues are on our minds this week as we tackle a new pair of interviews, first with a delegate at the annual climate conference where there's so much hope for an organized action on climate change, and then, closer to home, we will talk to the Green Progressive that wants to make fighting climate change the backbone of a new political union.
This Thursday, November 20, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
COP Out. For the last couple of weeks, delegates from all around the world have been meeting in Belém, Brazil. This is the setting for this year's Conference of the Parties or COP, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. As the product of global climate change becomes more and more apparent, we will have an on-the-ground report from the conference with Edson Krenak, the Brazil program manager for Cultural Survival who will talk about why Brazil is the ideal setting for demanding climate action and why Indigenous reconciliation is a necessary component to a climate deal.
McQuail Hunt. As you probably know, there's a leadership race happening right now for the federal New Democrats and while there are a lot of professional politicians in the race, there's only one farmer. Tony McQuail has spent a lifetime creating alliances between local farmers and supporting sustainable farming practices, and now he's looking to bring those lessons to the House of Commons leading the NDP. McQuail will join us this week to talk about his outsider campaign, why his message is a winning one, and why the path to an NDP comeback is forming an alliance with the Green Party.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're heading back to space! Leaving the bounds of Earth behind, we go to the stars looking for old friends and familiar faces. First, we will stop by Pandora, setting for James Cameron's very successful sci-fi series Avatar, and then we will head to Genna where the wildest game in the galaxy is waiting for a hunter in Predator: Badlands.
This Wednesday, November 12, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Back to Pandora: Avatar Revisited. In a few weeks, Avatar: Fire and Ash will be released in theatres everywhere, and unless something really weird happens, it will easily skate to more than a billion dollars at the box office. But Avatar is a rare feat in more ways that one, a massively successful, original, sci-fi franchise that has no broader cultural footprint. So to try and understand the phenomenon we will revisit Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water.
REVIEW: Predator: Badlands (2025). In space, no franchise is ever really over and guess who's back again? Predator: Badlands is the eighth film in the series (if you count the Alien Vs Predator films), and the second one from Dan Trachtenberg, director of 2022's Prey, but it's the first to feature a Predator, or Yautja as they're technically known, as the lead heroic character. On the deadliest planet in the universe our Predator hero will test his mantle with an android sidekick played by Elle Fanning, but is Badlands a movie worth turning into a trophy?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
If there’s a reason that Guelph City Council opted to proceed with a vacant home tax a few weeks ago, at least some of that credits goes to Get Involved Guelph who have been raising concerns for years about the number of houses in the Royal City staying empty, especially in the midst of a housing crisis. Well, the City of Guelph finally agreed that it's time to act, so what does Get Involved Guelph do for an encore?
A few weeks ago, council not only opted to proceed with two new affordable housing projects on City-owned lands, but more notable than that, they approved two new measures to preserve affordable housing that already exists: a renoviction bylaw that will stop predatory landlords from forcing people out of rent controlled units in the name of renovation, and a four per cent vacant home tax on units that stay empty for extended periods of time
This last one was a huge pivot because there have been calls for years for just such a tax, and City of Guelph staff have always hesitated saying that there weren’t enough vacant homes in town to make such a policy worthwhile. With another election beckoning next fall, and a housing crisis that’s every bit as potent now as it was three years ago, if not more so, let us consider how a civic group can still have an impact with two people dedicated enough to change the conversation.
Two members of Get Involved Guelph, Ken Thompson and Susan Watson, will join us on this week’s podcast to talk about the long road to get city hall to act on the need of a vacant home tax. We also talk about courting engagement on Reddit, why the vacant home tax is so important even if it can’t solve the problem of available housing, the next big issue they want to tackle, and how they will attract more new blood to help them achieve their goals, especially with an election next year.
So let's Get Involved, Guelph on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Get Involved Guelph, sign up for their newsletter, or even nominate a vacant home on their website. The council decisions about proceed with a renoviction bylaw and the vacant home tax will be ratified at the city council meeting next week on Tuesday November 25, and you have until this Friday at 10 am to either send a correspondence or sign up to delegate, and to learn how to do that go to the City of Guelph 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, the thirteenth is unlucky for some, even though it's a Thursday. Luck is definitely not on the side of the leader of the federal opposition, unless we're talking about bad luck of course, and coming off Remembrance Day there was some rare controversy that might have been blown out of proportion. For the interview, we've got someone looking for some luck as he tries to convince members of his party that he's got what it take to lead.
This Thursday, November 13, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Battleship Poilievre. Before the federal budget was released last week there were a lot of questions about whether or not Mark Carney and his government would survive. Now, over a week later, the question is whether or not Pierre Poilievre's leadership of the Conservative Party will survive. We will look at the party infighting in the opposition bench as the leader looks at what was always going to be a contentious leadership review in the new year that's gotten much more complicated.
Poppy Goes the World. In Nova Scotia, Premier Tim Houston started a silly culture war over the poppy, the symbol of honouring Canada's war dead every 11th of November. The controversy involves the long-standing court tradition of dissuading court works from wearing the poppy in order to maintain impartiality, and the blowback Houston created forced Nova Scotia's top judges make a rare political statement. Are we mistaking virtue signalling for actual remembrance?
All About Yves. The NDP leadership race is more or less a five person race, and if that holds up, might Yves Engler be considered the odd man out? In more ways that one because Engler is not a politician, he's an author and activist, and his platform calls for a working class revolution, the end of capitalism, and an end to NDP efforts to appeal to moderates from the centre right and left. Engler joins us this week from his leadership tour to talk about why an outsider is the best choice to rebuild the federal NDP and make it a movement.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're feeling the music! Our focus on this episode is musicians and movies about musicians with two very specific examples. First up, we will revisit a biographical movie from 2005 about a man with a trouble past and even more troubled present as he struggles with stardom, and a new movie from here in 2025 that covers... much of the same ground.
This Wednesday, November 12, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Walk The Line at 20! In November 2005, James Mangold's Walk The Line opened in theatres everywhere and it was an instant success. Later, it resulted in a Oscar-nomination for Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash, and an Oscar win for Reese Witherspoon as June Carter, but in the decades tine the film's release it's become kind of a short-hand for the traps and cliches of the musical bio pic subgenre. So 20 years later, does Walk The Line still hold up?
REVIEW: Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (2025). In 1981, Bruce Springsteen came off a sold-out tour, retired to his New Jersey hometown and end up writing two albums, one a deeply personal artistic statement and another that would make him a global superstar. Jeremy Allan White plays The Boss, while Jeremy Strong plays his supportive agent and friend Jon Landau, and while these are two accomplished actors doing notable work, is there any way that this Springsteen can break free of the well worn path of previous musical bio pics like you-know-what?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It was about 10 years ago this time that Justin Trudeau strode up to Rideau Hall and made history being sworn in as Canada’s 23rd prime minister. There was a lot of hope about what the future of Trudeau’s premiership held, but perhaps no other constituency were hit harder by the political realities of the Trudeau-mania hangover than electoral reform activists. Can changing our voting system still possibly get a fair hearing?
What does Mark Carney think about electoral reform? Believe it or not the topic came up in the federal election campaign earlier this year at an event in Sault Ste. Marie. It was clear that Carney was not going to be making an promises about ending our First Past the Post electoral system, but it was also clear that it was not going to be a priority until all the other problems are solved, and as you may have noticed, we’re still waiting for that deal with Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, the Ontario government announced last month that they were scrapping fixed election dates, raising the donation cap to $5,000 and eliminating pre-election spending limits for third parties. These are probably not the kinds of electoral changes that people like Fair Vote Canada are seeking. They are on the leading edge of proponents wanting to change the way we elect the people that govern us, and this week, we will talk to one of them about where we presently sit in the process of reforming our elections.
Kevin Bowman joins on this edition of the pod to dive deep into the current state of electoral reform activism, why people are more open to the issue than we might conventionally think, and whether any meaningful progress can be made while the federal NDP and Greens are in the political wilderness. Also, how can the issue be promoted back to prominence again, and what will members of Fair Vote be saying to delegates at this weekend’s Liberal convention in Hamilton
So let's re-embrace electoral reform on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Fair Vote Guelph at their website, and you can access the nation-wide Fair Vote Canada at their website. If you’re interested in getting involved with the cause of electoral reform you can access Democracy Watch and the National Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform. If you like, you can revisit the federal government’s 2016 report, “Strengthening Democracy in Canada: Principles, Process and Public Engagement for Electoral Reform” on the Government of Canada 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we witness history. The good kind. Before heading south of the border to talk about some rare encouraging news (we won't call it good), we will talk about the latest test for the new Prime Minister and Government of Canada with their first budget. In other news, we will look at a possible schism here in Ontario between two different groups of conservatives who have some very different ideas about what that means.
This Thursday, November 6, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Champagne Wishes and Carney Dreams. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne delivered their first budget. The concern was that they would deliver big austerity, but there's actually a lot of spending in the plan, and an even bigger deficit. Will any of it help the cause of affordability? Unlikely. Will any of this lead us into another federal election? We will ask, and answer, all the questions you have about the new financial plan for Canada.
Blue is the Warmest Colour. For the first time in a year, Democrats had a good night. It was a smaller than usual election night in the United States, but overwhelming victories in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and California could mean serious trouble for U.S. President Donald Trump in next year's midterms. And what do we make of Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old Democratic Socialist who's now the head of America's biggest city? We'll talk about another wild election night.
Room for Improvement. Three majority governments in a row should be a cause for celebration among Ontario PC voters, but now there's a new group emerging that has some doubts. There are some conservatives who don't like the high deficits of the Ford government, it's focus on pet projects like getting rid of bike lanes, or it's lack of progress on solving the housing crisis. Doug Ford calls Project Ontario a bunch of yahoos, but Matt Spoke will join us this week and explain why they're not, and why Ford needs to start taking them seriously.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we work smarter and party harder. Since this episode intersects with the start of our local documentary film festival we will talk about documentaries you can watch that don't require a festival pass, but they do maybe require a streaming subscription. Speaking of streaming, there's a party on Amazon Prime and we're inviting ourselves to check it out.
This Wednesday, November 4, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and, Candice Lepage will discuss:
Doc Plan. This week, the latest edition of the Guelph Film Festival begins, and it will bring some cool new documentaries from across Canada and around the world that you will be able to see with a crowd. And yet, in this steaming era, there are a great many documentaries that you can see this very minute on one of the numerous available apps, free or otherwise. In honour of GFF, we will look at some of our favourite docs on our favourite (?) steamers.
Hedda (2025). Hedda is one of the great roles in theatre, but it's safe to say that you've never seen a Hedda quite like this. Director Nia DaCosta has reteamed with the star of her breakthrough film - Tessa Thompson - to reimagine Henrik Ibsen's classic play about a party with a lot of drama and the hostess with the mostess churning it all up. DiCosta is a filmmaker with a lot of promise, and Thompson is an engaging star, so can the two of them together cook up something new, strange and interesting with a theatrical classic?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Since they resumed sitting the week after Thanksgiving, the Government of Ontario has been throwing a lot at us, and then on Halloween they proposed sweeping changes to conservation authorities in Ontario. If it feels like we’ve been here before we kind of have, and while conservation authorities have weathered provincial meddling before, can they survive it again?
According to Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks Todd McCarthy, the new Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency will provide centralized leadership, efficient governance, strategic direction and oversight of all conservation authorities to - you guessed it! - reduce delays and get shovels in the ground faster! Solving the housing crisis, it seems, passes through barriers being held up by conservation authorities, at least that’s what the government wants us to think.
But no legislation has been tabled, it was just announced in a press release on a busy Friday proposing a massive change to an important sectors whose primary function isn’t actually planning, but flood control. If all this sounds confusing to you, it’s actually just as confusing to the people that live and breathe provincial planning. Why is the provincial government going after conservation authorities again after already committing them to massive changes at least once already.
Phil Pothen, who is Counsel and Ontario Environment Program Manager at the advocacy group Environmental Defence, joins us to talk about his thoughts on these new changes, or at least what we know about these changes so far. He will discuss whether or not there’s room for improvement with the way authorities do planning, if a conservation authority has ever actually scuttled a planning proposal, and what these moves tell us about the Ontario government’s climate change priorities (or lack there of).
So let's talk about what's next for conservation authorities on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Environmental Defence all its advocacy work on numerous issues, including conservation authorities at their website, or you can follow them on social media on Facebook, Blue Sky, Instagram and YouTube. As of this recording, there’s no announcement about when the Ontario government will table this legislation, but you can read the full press release on the Government of Ontario’s media page 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're getting more literate. While we go to air on the eve of All Hallow's Eve, the only think that's really haunting is the growing threat of misinformation so good it's hard to tell the difference between what's fake and what's real. We will talk to someone who has some ideas about how to fight it, but before that we will hear from a member of city council who himself is being haunted... By the numbers in the budget.
This Thursday, October 30, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Phil Pickles. This week, Guelph City Council sat around and chewed on the 2026 budget update for the first time, and among them was Ward 3 Councillor Phil Allt. Now Councillor Allt has seen a few budgets since he joined city council in 2014, so he's just the person to ask: Is all of this getting harder, or is council losing an unending battle to do more with less? Allt will join us this week to talk about the budget pressures facing the City of Guelph, and whether there's any relief.
Fake News, Real Strategies. This is Media Literacy Week in Canada, and what a time for such an occasion! Forget ghouls and goblins, the scariest things to think about this week is fake news and A.I. slop, and there's a very real concern that it's getting increasingly harder for people to know what's real. But there's still a way, and Matthew Johnson, the Director of Education for MediaSmarts, has some advice about how you trust a source and how you can trust your instincts online.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it's time again to gather our friends for an annual festival marking the return of the ones who've passed before. Of course, we're talking about the Halloween Horror Movie Draft! Once again, we will be lining up our players in a contest of wits as we pit our favourite ghost stories, remakes, and based on a true spooky tale selections against each other!
This Wednesday, October 29, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Peter Salmon, Candice Lepage, and special guest Mike Ashkewe will discuss:
Hellbound: Halloween Movie Draft Part II! It's once again time to embrace the spooky and the macabre. Now granted, horror movies have been doing very well all-year long, and more than a few have been featured on this show in 2025, but this is Halloween, and that means it's time for a venerable horror franchise to get a sequel. The whole gang is back again for the second installment of the Halloween Horror Movie Draft and we have such sights to show you!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It was about this time two years ago that former Guelph CAO Scott Stewart told city council in an open meeting that there needed to be a new deal for Ontario municipalities; that they were trying to solve 21st century problems with 19th century rules. As Guelph tackles another difficult budget season, one regional councillor is putting this issue in stark terms: Ontario’s councils are “on the verge of life support”!
In a recent letter to the editor in Cambridge Today, Doug Craig raised the alarm. He was Mayor of Cambridge for 18 years and then joined Waterloo Regional Council in 2022, so if there’s someone that might understand the challenge of cities in this day and age, it’s probably Craig. He notes that provincial tampering and voter apathy are the reasons why municipalities are caught between this rock and a hard place.
To those of us that observe municipal politics carefully, this encapsulates the struggle we know too well. The provincial government has forced reductions and discounts onto municipalities and reduced the amount of fees collected while offering additional funding in the form of a contest for meeting housing targets from a pledge they strong-armed cities into adopting and now seem to be abandoning. Is it time to finally talk about that new deal?
Doug Craig will answer those and other questions on this edition of the podcast including why it’s tricky to get these concerns heard even when your local MPP sits in the government bench, what would happen in the unlikely event that the provincial government were to be open to changes, and the role of municipal councillors in educating the public about what their limitations are. Plus, is there a role for the business community in promoting improved local government?
So let's talk about how to save our local government on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can reach out to him through the Region of Waterloo’s website, and to read his latest letter, “Local councils are on the verge of life support”, at the Cambridge Today website. Here in Guelph, the first budget meeting is today, Wednesday, at 9 am and public delegation night will be on Tuesday November 18 at 6 pm.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we work hard, but not as hard as the Ontario government, which is trying to do a year's worth of legislating in seven week or (likely) less. And since we're talking about provincial politics, we will head out east where there's a new Progressive Conservative government in charge for the first time in a decade. Closer to home, we will welcome a local councillor who's warming up her calculator app.
This Thursday, October 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
28 Days? Later! That's how long this legislative session is scheduled to last at Queen's Park, and only three days in there's no shortage of controversy from the misuse of the Skills Development Fund as an apparent reward to certain party friends to the introduction of legislation to fire a couple of very specific school board trustees. We will talk about all the style and substance of these first few abrasive days in the Ontario Legislature's fall sitting.
Top of the Rock. Last week's provincial election in Newfoundland and Labrador delivered a very interesting result: Despite a popular incumbent Liberal government, the Progressive Conservatives were able to eek out an election win with the 21 seats needed to secure a majority. To say it was won on the margins is something of an understatement, so is there anything new that this election can tell us about the national political picture?
Klassen Your Seatbelts! It's going to be a bumpy ride as the City of Guelph enters its annual budget confirmation cycle! Joining us this week is Ward 2 City Councillor Carly Klassen who's going to talk to us about once again rising to the challenge, balancing affordability with the needs of the city, and the ongoing strangeness of the Strong Mayor Budget. Plus, we will talk about the changes coming to downtown, and why she wants Guelph to take the Elect Respect pledge for next year's campaign.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we seek divine intervention, and one week till Devil's Night at that. For the movie this week, we will pray to Keanu Reeves who will deliver us from the gig economy in the new film, Good Fortune. And in the first part of the show, given the bounty of new movies we've received, we will talk about some other choice flicks!
This Wednesday, October 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
What Else Have We Been Watching? We're almost at the end of October and the movies are coming fast and furiously. A lot of films are seeking a potential awards berth, and some are just seeking some box office revenue, but we can only do one movie at a time on this show, so we're going to take a moment to do a kind of lightening round. We will talk about some of the other stuff we've been watching lately, and maybe why you should watch it too!
REVIEW: Good Fortune (2005). Deal with the Devil? How about a deal with Keanu? In the new comedy Good Fortune, Reeves plays an angel that decides to get personally involved in the life of a gig worker played by Aziz Ansari. When Arj switches places with a venture capitalist played by Seth Rogen, Reeves' angel hopes they'll all learn a valuable lesson, but this is not It's a Wonderful Life. Ansari's latest directorial effort was good enough to get him a spot at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, but is it good enough for the discerning tastes of this movie show?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
You might not have heard of The Guelph Lab, but you’ve definitely seen the fruits of its research. From food insecurity to public washroom access downtown, The Guelph Lab highlights s unique partnership between the City of Guelph and the University of Guelph by taking academic research power and applying it to problems facing our municipality. This week, we’re going to take a peek under the hood to learn how they do it...
The Guelph Lab, which is now marking 10 years of existence, is a “catalyst for research, collaboration and experimentation. It brings together the University, City and community partners to create innovative solutions for shared challenges across Guelph.” They decide what projects they want to pursue and select from a roster of community partners and experts for each specific assignment. It’s like Mission: Impossible but for municipal policy nerds.
The work of The Guelph Lab has been multifaceted; they looked at what areas of the city are more marginalized in terms of road safety, and they've also guided the refresh of Guelph’s advisory committees of council. All these projects took months or years of research to complete, but how does The Guelph Lab work? How do they choose the projects they pursue? Is its work academic, or is it meant to come up with actionable suggestions that the municipality will follow?
To answer these, and other questions, we're joined by Dr. Elizabeth Jackson, Director of the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute at the University of Guelph, and Jodie Sales, GM of Strategy, Innovation and Intergovernmental Relations at the City of Guelph. The two of them will also discuss the kinds of projects that they won’t take on, the oversight of The Guelph Lab, working with other governments and groups outside the city, and what they’re working on next.
So let's see what can be cooked up in The Guelph Labs on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about The Guelph Lab at their website. A report marking 10 years of The Guelph Lab will be shared on the City of Guelph’s website as an information report to council, which are published every Friday. Just go to the council calendar page on the City’s website and click the link when it’s available.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're eating news leftovers. First, we will catch up with the latest develops in Gaza where there's now a precarious peace, and we will also talk about the early phase of the race to find a new leader for a federal party. For the interview, we engage in another annual fall tradition, the late return to Queen's Park for another truncated sitting that solves none of our problems.
This Thursday, October 16, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Peace at Last? A little over two years after the war began, peace came to Gaza this weekend as the last living hostages were returned to Israel, and humanitarian aid finally started flowing into the Strip. U.S. President Donald Trump took a victory lap in Egypt on Monday, and many world leaders joined him, but this is just the beginning of a process, not the end. What happens now to rebuild Gaza? Is there still a path to a two-state solution? And can Israel rehabilitate its global image?
Orange on a New Track. The federal NDP leadership race is now underway, and there are five declared candidates so far including a sitting MP, a city councillor from B.C., a scion of the party, a labour activist, and a regenerative farmer. The question before all of the candidates is whether they have the right mix of talent, policy and organizing to bring the party back from the political wilderness, and on the brink of the first debate and the six-month countdown to the convention, we will consider the odds.
Clancy That. Next week, the Ontario Legislature will sit for the first time since the beginning of June and what can we expect? The passage of Bill 33 and the changes to oversight of school boards and a new bill eliminating all speed enforcement cameras in the province. What is not on the agenda? New ways to tackle homelessness, any response to the climate crisis, and a plan to tackle youth unemployment. Kitchener Centre MPP and Deputy leader of the Green Party Aislinn Clancy will talk about her ideas for those topics and how she's ready to help set the agenda.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we eat leftovers... from the Toronto International Film Festival. We will talk about this year's opening night film, John Candy: I Like Me, which you can now stream on Amazon Prime Video. And speaking of Candy, we will talk about the work he did along with some other very talented people who got their start on a seminal Canadian sketch comedy show.
This Wednesday, October 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The SCTV Cast Movie Draft. Like a lot of very famous, and very funny people, John Candy got his start on SCTV. A group of young comedians from Second City Toronto including Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, and Andrea Martin were all recruited and in 1976 SCTV went on the air and into infamy. Before talking about Candy, we will talk about the movies from him and all is SCTV colleagues as we draft the best ones.
REVIEW: John Candy: I Like Me (2025). A true Canadian success story if there ever was one, John Candy made his way from the stages and clubs in Toronto, to SCTV, and then on into movie stardom as one of the most reliable comedic actors of the 80s. You may think you know John Candy, but the new documentary John Candy: I Like Me dares to ask, maybe you don't(?). The new doc that opened this year's Toronto International Film Festival arrives on streaming Prime Video, and we will decide if we like I Like Me and the way it tells John Candy's story.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Climate change, despite the inference, is not a hot topic, politically speaking. We had two big elections this year and you can probably count on one hand how many times the environment came up in conversation. Perhaps the time has come for a re-examination of our priorities: Can Guelph still be a climate leader in a political time when no one wants to talk about climate change?
Back in May, City of Guelph staff presented to council the “Guelph’s Community Call to Climate Action.” It was not a good news story. According to this report, the City of Guelph has made “moderate” progress in its greenhouse gas goals, so staff opted to lay out a way that they could engage the broader community to join the effort; from building more energy efficient low carbon buildings to using more sustainable transportation options.
Then, September’s “Draw the Line” protest tried to centre climate action along with peace and poverty as the crises of our time, and the Community Climate Forum 2025 next week will try to follow up on that with a formal event bringing together activists, politicians, experts and regular folk on the best ways to really cut down our carbon footprint. Can Guelph get green again? That is the question we will put to Donna Jennison, a member of the Guelph Climate Action Network.
On this week's pod, Jennison will talk about the state of climate activism in Guelph, and the goals of the climate conference. She will also discuss how we make climate change a priority issue again, how we reclaim Guelph’s position as an environmental leader, and why climate action is something everyone can do. Finally, she will talk about why we don’t need to wait for upper levels of government to take action, and what keeps her hopeful while taking on this fight.
So let's talk about making climate action a priority again on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The Guelph Community Climate Forum will take place on Sunday October 26 from 1:30 to 4:30 pm at the Italian Canadian Club. You can learn more and register to attend the event for free on the website for the Guelph Climate Action Network. If you want to do your homework first, check out the Community Call to Climate Action on the City of Guelph website 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're thankful that dysfunction is a national phenomenon. We will head out west where there is inter-party friction in British Columbia's official opposition, and then we will look at a dispute between teachers and a provincial government in an entirely different part of the country. In even more serious news, we will mark the second anniversary of a devastating war by talking about the people covering it.
This Thursday, October 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
West Coast Debenture. There is some interesting things happening in the B.C. legislature. While Premier David Eby is fighting trade wars and Alberta's desire for a pipeline to the coast, the new BC Conservative Party is fighting, well, each other. Despite almost winning power one year ago, John Rustad's insurgent party is now experiencing growing pains. Meanwhile, the Green Party has elected a 25-year-old to lead them at this critical time. We'll get into the wild west.
Wildrose Lessons. Right now, Alberta's teachers are on strike. It's the first time the teachers have been on the picket line in 23 years and their issues are no unfamiliar: Not enough pay, not enough teachers, not enough resources... It should come as no surprise then that Alberta, which has been using schools as fronts for American-style culture wars, is having troubles with teachers, so has Danielle Smith finally bit off more than she can chew?
Covering the War. Tuesday marked the second anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel that started a war on Gaza that's still in progress. In the course of this war, there have been a number of disturbing things, but one of the most concerning is the 237 journalists who have been killed so far, which is to say nothing of the ones still alive and fighting starvation even as their fighting to get the story. This week, we will be joined by Palestinian journalist Walid Batrawi, who has over 30 years of experience covering the region, to talk about what his colleagues are facing, and what we get wrong covering the war here in Canada.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're ready to rock! Of perhaps we should say we're ready to Kpop. You know it, and maybe you love it, but this week we will finally catch up on the phenomenon called KPop Demon Hunters, which you can now watch on Netflix in regular and sing-along versions. Also, we will talk about other great animated movies you should see.
This Wednesday, October 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Animation Domination. This week we're re-entering the realm of animation, which is a filmmaking style we do occasionally get into, but perhaps not as often as we like. So in honour of the movie we're reviewing, we're going to talk about some of our favourite underappreciated animated movies, from the best of Don Bluth to maybe the most accessible movie from an upstate New York underground animator. Not quite Disney-free, but close...
REVIEW: KPop Demon Hunters (2025). It is the biggest phenomenon of the year! It's topped the box office charts, the streaming charts, and the music charts simultaneously, and it just broke another record on its own platform this weekend. It's KPop Demon Hunters, the story of a girl group who use their music to protect the Earth from demons, who then turn around to fight fire with fire by creating a demon boy band. KPop Demon Hunters is the movie no one saw coming and this week we will arrive late to the party and see if we can squeeze onto the bandwagon.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It seemed like we had turned a corner on making cycling a true equal partner when it comes to road share, but like a lot of progressive policy now we’re in the midst of a blowback. The Ontario government voted to tear out bike lanes last year, and now they have their sights set on pulling down all automated speed enforcement cameras. Perhaps, the time is right for the a new kind of Guelph mayor... A Bicycle Mayor!
Just a few weeks ago there was another cycling fatality on the roads of Guelph, a 37-year-old man had been riding his bike near Elmira and Massey when he was killed after being struck by a garbage truck. It’s getting dangerous out there, and while we have the City of Guelph’s Vision Zero initiative trying to make an impact, people are still being killed and injured on our streets in vehicle collisions.
Perhaps then this is the perfect time for a Bicycle Mayor! Andrea Bidgood has been a part of various community building initiatives, and now, as the Bicycle Mayor, she will next take part in the Guelph Transportation Summit next week. As one of the featured speakers, Bidgood will talk about the ways that transit and cycling work together to create attractive alternatives to our car-centric streets, but first, she will face the tough questions on this podcast!
Bidgood will talk about the role of Bicycle Mayor, why she wanted to wear that hat, and how her own personal experiences with on the mean streets of Guelph as a cyclists made her want to be more active. She will also talk about the different cycling demands across the city, why she leads from the idea of safety first, whether the onus for road safety is put on the backs of cyclists more than car drivers, and what role the Bicycle Mayor might have when we elect the actual mayor next year.
So let's catch up with the Bicycle Mayor on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can follow Andrea Bidgood on Instagram and you can subscribe to her newsletter on Substack. You can learn more about the Guelph Community for Active Transportation at their website, and the Guelph Transportation Summit will take place on Saturday October 18 at 10 am at Dublin Street United Church. You can find the itinerary and a link to reserve your free ticket 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, 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.
This week's Open Sources Guelph is going to the birds! Both of our main topics this week intersects with the Supreme Court of Canada, which is presently tackling the extent of federal and provincial separation of powers and whether or not food inspectors can do their job when it comes to animal control and infectious disease. In non-court news, we will talk to a city councillor about planning in Guelph, and whether that's going to the birds...
This Thursday, October 2, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
33 and Me. The Notwithstanding Clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was a necessary compromise in getting the Constitution approved in 1982, but is there a chance that it's being abused by provincial governments who don't want the bother and hassle of judicial oversight? That is the question the federal government wants answered after they entered the chat with a factum in the case over Quebec's Bill 21, but is this a question we need answered?
The Birds. There were a lot of eyes on a B.C. ostrich farm last week when it was announced that the 300 some-odd birds there would be allowed to live until the Supreme Court here's the full case. On the one hand, this seems like a silly news story, but when you dig a little deeper there's actually a lot driving this case from anti-government sentiment to fringe healthcare influencers. Get you shovel out as we go behind the ostriches (so to speak).
More to Chew On. Guelph City Council has dealing with two pretty big planning files a couple of weeks ago, one concerned the redevelopment of a popular corner in the south end and one concerning the block plans for the Guelph Innovation District property. The two projects have big questions that require big answers, and to get them we host Ward 6 City Councillor Ken Yee Chew this week to get his perspective as a planner and a politician.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, our plans go awry. Or to put it another way, it's One Battle After Another. We will catch up with Paul Thomas Anderson who's new movie just dropped to rave reviews, but how do we feel about it? You'll learn that in due time after we flashback to 1995 and a wild weekend of strippers and serial killers at the movie theatre!
This Wednesday, October 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Showgirls Vs. Seven. On the weekend of September 22, 1995, two very different movies opened wide at the North American box office: one is a stylish film noir about cops searching for a serial killer, and the other is a lavish Las Vegas satire about a dancer trying to climb the ladder to fame and fortune. To start the show, we will talk about the life and legacy of Showgirls and Seven and how these two very different movies launched at the same time.
REVIEW: One Battle After Another (2025). One of the most anticipated movies of the year, Paul Thomas Anderson finally teams up with Leonardo DiCaprio for a timely story about balancing revolution and parenthood. DiCaprio plays a retired resistance fighter trying to protect his 16-year-old daughter as government troops lead by Sean Penn search for them. A lot of praise has been showered onto Battle, and PTA has a lot of eager fans in the film bro community, but is this movie on track to be the Best of 2025, or, for that matter, can it possibly live up to the hype?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Sometimes information gathering doesn’t happen in the perfect audio conditions of a studio or the Zoom link, you have to occasionally get out there and find the news. To that end, we will visit a picket line on Speedvale Avenue, attend an annual event that reminds us that there’s still some ways to go when it comes to eliminating gender-based violence, and hear about a program fighting food insecurity in the west end.
First up we meet Nisha Jagtap and Will Snyder, two of the hundreds of college support workers on strike and are about to enter their third week on the line. Both sides released statements on Monday saying the other is prolonging the strike, but that’s what is going on at the high level. What’s going on at Conestoga College’s Guelph campus? Jagtap and Snyder will share their thoughts from the picket line, how students are being affected, and what they want from a new contract.
Next, we will rewind to Thursday September 18, which was the annual commemoration of Take Back the Night. Cindy McMann, public educator at Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis, spoke at the event and talked about why recent events prove that it’s still hard for women who are the victims of sexual violence to get justice for themselves in an outdated and restrictive justice system and the ways we can work towards systemic change.
And finally, we will go to Shelldale last Friday and hear from some of the people who take part in the f.u.n. Fridays program, which stands for "Food United Neighbours". The f.u.n. Fridays initiative is an effort to improve food access for the Onward Willow neighbourhood, and Guelph MP Dominique O’Rourke announced new funds for the University of Guelph that will allow the f.u.n. Friday partners to expand into Centre Wellington and bring similar improved access to quality healthy foods to the Fergus area.
So let's get into some real audio news on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the programs at Shelldale at their website, and f.u.n. Fridays takes place every Friday in the Shelldale gym and you can learn more about them on social media. You can access the programs of Guelph Wellington Women in Crisis or learn how to donate and volunteer at their website, and you can learn more about the efforts to change the justice system here. And finally, you can learn more about college support workers strike 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to meetings. There's a big one at U.N. headquarters in New York this week, and Canada sent the new kid to dazzle everyone. Meanwhile, closer to home, Ontario's opposition parties have been having meetings and in some cases, they're shaking up the guest list. Even more closer to home, we don't do meetings, we do protests and marches on a Saturday.
This Thursday, September 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
UNGA for Carney. While another typically unhinged Donald Trump speech seized much of the attention, it seemed like Prime Minister Mark Carney was the proverbial belle of the ball at the United Nations General Assembly this week. Carney seemed to be putting points on the board, from dealing with the Chinese Premier to recognizing the State of Palestine, so is Carney able to do abroad what he's been unable to do at home: Be a uniter?
Opposition Research. In the last two weeks, Ontario's two major opposition parties have had leadership reviews with two different results. Bonnie Crombie is out as Ontario Liberal leader and the Grits are now kicking off the third leadership race since 2018, and while Marit Stiles is still the head of the NDP it was only after barely meeting the threshold required to successfully be re-acclaimed as leader. With all this tumult in the ranks, how do the NDP or the Liberals hope to make a stand against the Ontario PC Party?
They Drew the Line. Last weekend, there were over 70 different protests across Canada under the banner "Draw the Line". Essentially, the protest combined concerns about poverty, peace and the environment into one massive community event, and hundreds showed up in Guelph to take part... including the hosts of this show! We will talk about our thoughts on the protest and whether it was a real breakthrough for left-wing activism or if the organizers were just singing to the choir.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're making friends. This may be harder that it looks, or at least it seems like it is with this week's movie, which is called Friendship. You can watch that on video-on-demand or by streaming it on Paramount+, and while you're making a watchlist we will talk about other movies featuring a legendary movie star who has sadly passed away.
This Wednesday, September 24, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Remembering Robert Redford. There are movie stars and then there's Robert Redford! The multi-talented actor, director and activist passed away last week at the age of 89, and he leaves a tremendous legacy of wonderful movies he made both in front of and behind the camera. But beyond his own films, Redford, as founder of the Sundance Film Festival, has fostered the talents of hundreds more. We will talk about Redford's multifaceted legacy.
REVIEW: Friendship (2025). What if Fatal Attraction was about a suburban dad who becomes obsessed with his neighbour, the cool TV weatherman who has a band? That's essentially the logline for Friendship, a new dark comedy starring Tim Robinson as the dad and Paul Rudd as the weatherman, and it promises to make you cringe as hard as it makes you laugh. Friendship comes at an interesting time as we talk about the loss of male friendships in real life, so is the perfect movie for our time, or is it daring you to stay in front of your screens?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
StrategyCorp puts out a report every year called the Ontario Municipal Chief Administrative Officer Survey. The CAOs profiled have some strong feelings about Strong Mayor Powers, intergovernmental relations, housing, growth, financing, and and more, but what’s interesting is not what the CAOs had to say, it's the fact that they said it. What are CAOs thinking when they're given the cloak of anonymity?
A retired Brock University professor David Siegel once wrote, “CAOs can make a mayor and council look exceptionally good (or bad). They can be a source of great pride and motivation among the staff of the municipality (or not).” In that context, it’s no wonder that people would want to hear a CAO's unvarnished takes on something like Strong Mayor Powers, which was the one part of this year's CAO Survey that made the most noise.
But municipal life is bigger than Strong Mayors, and it’s just one of 14 chapters in the 2025 survey. When you read the report, which features contributions from 32 unnamed CAOs from around Ontario on issues like housing, finances, community safety and wellbeing, the impacts of climate change, and the impacts of the Trump administration's trade war. Stacy Hushion is one of the people responsible for putting this together every year, and today she will share some of the things that surprised her.
On this week’s podcast, Hushion will tell us how this report comes together, and how honest the CAOs get when they’re providing their input to the survey. She will also talk about the ways Strong Mayor Powers put CAOs in a jam, why CAOs are mixed about how proactive the Ontario government has been, the issues keeping CAOs up at night, their concerns about who might get elected next year, and the ways they’re trying to break the political and jurisdictional logjams.
So let's get into the mind of a CAO on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can read more about the work of StrategyCorp on their website. Obviously, that includes all 109 pages of this year’s Ontario Municipal Chief Administrative Officer Survey, or you can follow this direct link. Guelph City Council will be back in session for Committee of the Whole on Tuesday October 7 at 2 pm.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got news overload. It was a tough call determining what to talk about on the show today, but first and foremost we have to separate the wheat from the chaff on the killing of an American pundit. After that, we're going to dig into more local drama by asking what the recent push against school boards is about and then we're going to talk to the MPP from a neighbouring riding.
This Thursday, September 18, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Aftermath. Last Wednesday, conservative organizer and provocateur Charlie Kirk was killed on the campus of a Utah college, and what followed was recriminations on political violence, calls to sanction certain left-wing groups on a whim, the cancellation of people who dared to quote Kirk's rhetoric, and the search for a connection to someone in the trans community so that they can take the blame. Can this get any worse?
Board to Death. In the last few months, the Ontario government and Minister of Education Paul Calandra have sought to undermine public trust in the school board system. The Magic 8-Ball says to expect some big changes to the administration of Ontario's schools when the legislature returns next month, but while we can all agree that trustee trips to Italy are an extravagance, is the government thinking about efficiency or are they thinking about politics?
Shades of Rae. Speaking of the Ontario government, they've got a lot on their plate these days; from the ongoing economic impacts from the Trump Trade War that continues to affect Ontario workers, to the needs of all sectors for more support from the arts to healthcare. From the government benches this week, we will be joined by Perth-Wellington MP Matthew Rae to talk about those issues, and working across party line to move progress forward on Guelph's new hospital.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, things get creepy. Again. In the last four weeks, we've reviewed three horror movies and the latest is The Long Walk, the last adaptation from the King of horror. That's a dystopia, so we're going to talk about that, and as we're creeping up on October, and our latest Halloween movie draft, we will talk about other movie challenges!
This Wednesday, September 17, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The Halloween Challenge. Halloween Month is nearly upon us, but for some people it starts in August. Like Candice. To open this week's show, we will talk about Candice's 100 movies in 92 days challenge, how she chooses the ones she watches, and how you can get started if you're interested in taking up your own movie challenge.
Dystopia! Before we dive into this week's movie, we will pause to recognize all the crappy futures we've dwelled in during our movie lives. From living among monsters both literal and figurative, to authoritarian governments and tech gone wild, we will talk about what brings us back to bleakness.
REVIEW: The Long Walk (2025). One of Stephen King's earliest works finally makes its way to the big screen at what may be the worst (or best) possible time. The story takes place in a dystopia America where 50 young men compete to win riches and a chance to have their wish granted. The game? Walk for as long as you can until you're the last man left. Everyone else is killed when they can't walk anymore. Much has been made about the implicit messages of the film, but can we keep pace with this latest glimpse at our pessimistic future?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
School kids and teachers aren't the only ones that get a summer vacation. City council, and those that cover them, also get a summer break, at least when it comes to the monthly meeting schedule. We now have a couple of weeks of meetings under our belt since August ended, but for this week's podcast we're going back in time to business at council before summer vacation.
We will start in May when council said goodbye to a colleague who got a new job, and then they got into the issue of placing a daytime shelter, and whether or not that should go downtown. Downtown was a pretty big area of interest in the middle three months of meetings this year, from the upcoming big dig on Upper Wyndham and St. George's Square to the possibility of holding the Memorial Cup at the Sleeman Centre in 2027.
The biggest story though might have been that council vacancy. There were times that the even number of council representatives caused some difficulties on close votes, including on the vote to appoint a replacement for Dominique O'Rourke. The appointment process was a tremendous source of drama but so was, surprisingly, the pace of new heritage designations that have been brought to council for approval over the last several months.
This is just a taste of some of the council business that took place between May and July of this year. Some issues were more complicated than others, some issues turned out to be not issues at all. Council sat as a shareholder, and as a tribunal. They met for some special orientation meetings, and they had a planning matter come to a regular meeting through Strong Mayor Powers. It's a lot to cover in a little over 30 minutes, but this week we will give it a try.
So let's get into the middle part of this year at city council on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can see all the council meeting agenda and find videos of all the council meetings on the City of Guelph website. Or you can get all those details with the council previews, recaps and post-views on Guelph Politico. Also, subscribe to the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet on Substack and get your council recap on Thursday morning, directly in your inbox.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we celebrate old times, and new times. From the past, there's someone we kind of forgot about but who wants to be remembered again, which could also apply to Parliament Hill where the leader of the opposition is back in the House and ready to deliver stinging rebukes to a PM under pressure. More locally, we will talk to one of Guelph city's councillors about some recent big decisions.
This Thursday, September 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Fall Back. Next week, MPs from across Canada will return to Ottawa for the fall sitting of the House of Commons. This time, Pierre Poilievre will be able to lead Question Period and look Prime Minister Mark Carney in the eye. But while the new PM might be feeling the heat, he's still on that proverbial honeymoon even as he looks down the barrel of mixed expectations, budget austerity and a tricky economic picture. What can we expect from the feds this fall ?
What's the Story, Morning Tory? Just when you thought it was safe to get into Toronto politics, John Tory is back! Though he left office in disgrace nearly three years ago, the former mayor is thinking about re-writing the end of his political career by throwing his hat in the ring again. But more than beating his own bad press, Tory's got to beat the current mayor, Olivia Chow, who has some pretty steady support. Will 2026 be a mayoral rematch in the 6ix?
Dan The Builder. It's been a busy week at city council, even more than usual. There were two different meetings and they each dealt with massive construction projects featuring hundreds of new housing units and other mixed-use buildings. One of those projects is in Ward 1, and by sheer coincidence we will be joined by Ward 1 City Councillor Dan Gibson who will talk about the pressures on him and and his colleagues while making these big decisions and what to expect at council throughout the fall.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're here to make you think about death and stuff. We will perform last rights over the final chapter of a favourite horror franchise with The Conjuring: Last Rites, and we will leap off that ending to talk about some of our favourite final entries in long-running movie franchises, even if those movies were not the last word.
This Wednesday, September 10, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The End? The Conjuring is the second most successful film franchise in Hollywood history spanning about 10 different movies over the last 12 years, and Last Rites is supposed to be the final chapter. Over the years, there have been a lot of endings to a lot of movie series, and not all of them have been permanent endings. In any event, that is where we will start this week's show, at the end!
REVIEW: The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025). Horror is not dead, even if this franchise now might be. The number one movie at the box office last weekend is supposed to be the final entry in a series of movies based on the ghost hunting investigations of Ed and Lorraine Warren, and it promises to be their biggest, most consequential hunt (haunt?) yet. Ed and Lorraine's past literally catches up with them at a haunting in a small Pennsylvania town in 1986, but are we ready to say goodbye to our favourite (straight-faced) ghost busters?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Out of 27 perspective candidates for Ward 6 city councillor it came down between Katherine Hauser and Rebecca Adam, and after a show of hands vote ended in a tie, Hauser got the gig in a literal luck of the draw. It was her name that came out of that big orange box, and it’s now up to Hauser to make as big an impact she can before council rises one year from now for the next municipal election. What does she do now?
Now normally we interrogate city councillors on Open Sources Guelph, but we thought that with the tremendous pressures for Councillor Hauser to get the job and then hit the ground running, we would ease her into the world of Guelph politics with a more relaxing Politicast segment than the 22-minute egg-timer on OSG. True, there was the August recess that allowed her to get acclimated, but city council business is a fast moving object.
Hauser is, of course, not unfamiliar with the job of representing Ward 6. Her last gig in politics was serving on the Upper Grand District School Board as the trustee representing Guelph’s Ward 6 and Puslinch. In her statement of qualifications, she said she wants to “advocate for Ward 6 with empathy, insight, and the same integrity” she’s brought to all her roles, and today she will be tested again on this podcast.
Katherine Hauser will join on this week’s edition of the podcast to talk about the reasons why she wanted to make the jump to city council, how she feels about the process that brought her to council, and how she’s been building relationships with the six members of council that didn’t vote for her. She will also talk about the learning curve, what she thinks she can accomplish in the next year, and why she’s already thinking about next year's election.
So let's get to know the newest member of city council on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can reach out to her by email at katherine.hauser [at] guelph.ca and you can follow her on Instagram. You can stay up to date with all the latest agendas and developments with city council at the City of Guelph website under the “city government” tab, or by following meeting previews and recaps 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we catch up on our reading. In this all-news edition of the show, we will learn about the current condo crisis in Canada, and while we're learning about alliteration, we will talk about literature. In Alberta, they're taking more lessons from the MAGA movement by making a list of books they hate and checking it twice, and speaking of MAGA, their figurehead may or may not be dead depending on the day.
This Thursday, September 4, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Long Condo. The condo market in Toronto and Vancouver is crashing, new units built are empty, and units waiting to be built have no buyers. In the midst of a housing crisis, this may be the worst development of all because for years now condos in our biggest cities have been a good place to park investment money for Canadian and foreign interests, but what happens to the market when there are more condos than people who want to buy them, and what do we do now?
Book 'Em, Danielle! For the last few months, the Alberta government has been dabbling in the library sciences, or to be more precise, what books should or shouldn't be in school libraries. As usual though, the process has been confusing, haphazard, and driven by the same far-right, homophobic ideology of MAGA and groups like of Moms For Liberty, and this week Premier Danielle Smith was forced to call a time out. Why is Alberta, land of the free, embracing censorship?
The President's Health is Missing. Last weekend, Donald Trump decided to take some downtime for the Labour Day weekend, and that's where the trouble started. The U.S. President's startling silence for days led to a lot of internet speculation, which was fed by weeks of apparent health issues from cankles to bruised hands to being more misunderstood than usual. Even if he's still alive, what are we meant to do with all these unanswered questions about Trump's health?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it's crime time! We will get caught in the movie theatre to see Caught Stealing, but be assured that we have paid for our tickets. It's the last official summer movie we'll review this year though because the next thing on our to do list is to check out the fall movies and on this episode we will preview some of our top picks!
This Wednesday, September 3, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillip will discuss:
Fall Movie Preview. Although it's technically still summer, in movie terms fall is here! Film festivals in Telluride, Venice and Toronto are rolling out all the flicks that are the basis for our great expectations for cinema in the months ahead, and to begin this week's show we're going to talk about some of our favourites. From the return of PTA and Shakespeare, to the greatness of Eleanor and The Boss, we will look at what's next!
REVIEW: Caught Stealing (2025). The year is 1998. Hank is a New York bartender and washed up professional baseball prospect, but when his neighbour asks him to look after his cat for a few days, his whole life comes apart as he's chased by mobsters, corrupt cops, and his own guilty conscience. It's a crime thriller, and a dark comedy, and it comes to us from the man who gave us Requiem For a Dream, The Wrestler and mother! so can Darren Aronofsky be a populist for once and make a real crowd pleaser by taking a bite out of crime?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
We’ve been told that Artificial Intelligence is coming for all our jobs, that it will create fake news so real looking there will be no room for doubt, and in the worst case scenarios it will supplant human beings as the dominant lifeform on planet Earth. It’s scary stuff, and yet our fate depends on the same tech bros that have turned social media and the internet into a few concentrated monopolies. Is there still time to rein in A.I.?
In the movies, artificial intelligence is almost always bad, but here in real life, we’ve seen the best and worst of A.I. development. On the one hand, you have Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health is using A.I. to collate and organize huge data sets, and on the other you have criminals using A.I. videos of real people to rip off victims with elaborate crypto scams involving cryptocurrency, and none of this deals with any of those existential concerns we see in the movies.
But there’s at least one person who’s thinking about that future and he’s from Guelph. Christopher DiCarlo is the author of the new book Building a God: The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and the Race to Control It, which outlines a short history of A.I., the current concerns about its development, the extreme concerns about the people doing the developing, and the ways we still have time to properly regulate A.I, and use it to make the world a better place for all people and not just tech billionaires.
DiCarlo will be taking part in this weekend’s Eden Mills Writers’ Festival to talk about some of those ideas, but he’s going to make one stop before that... this podcast! He will talk about why he’s so concerned about A.I., his long quest to raise the alarm about its development, and the ways we misunderstand the dangers and opportunities of the technology. He will also talk about the difficulties trying to regulate A.I., how we overcome big tech’s resistance to regulation, and if it’s all bad news when it comes to this technology.
So let's talk about building a God on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can buy his book, Building a God: The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and the Race to Control It, wherever you buy fine books, and you can see him discuss his book and the issues around A.I. this Sunday at the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival. You can find information about the festival or buy tickets here. You can also learn more about his advocacy and research into A.I. through Convergence Analysis 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, just in time for the last weekend of summer, we're taking a trip. We join our prime minister as he's taking the world by storm, or at least parts of Europe anyway, and then we're heading to Gaza again where nobody is taking a vacation because the war continues and its costing more lives. The stakes aren't as dire closer to home, but there's controversy up the road in Wasaga Beach that we need to discuss.
This Thursday, August 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Mark Carney Vs. The World. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was touring though Europe this week, and he's been making some news like when he said in Ukraine that troops from Canada could be part of some future peacekeeping force there after the war. Closer to home meanwhile, government reps are trying to get that trade deal with the U.S. even if if means scaling back on retaliatory tariffs. How's the Carney government doing on the world stage?
They Bomb Journalists. Oh yes, there's still a crisis in Gaza and it only ever seems to get worse. This past week there was a two-fer when five journalists were killed along with over a dozen other people in an air strike on a hospital in Gaza; Reuters photographer Hatem Khaled was wounded. Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "tragic mishap" but it's not the first time, and it seems to be further entrenching the international community against Israel. How much worse can it get?
Son of a Beach. Wasaga Beach is one of Ontario's favourite tourist destinations, and home to a wonderful provincial park that takes up much of the beachfront on Lake Huron. And yet, the Ontario government is planning to offload much of that land to the local government for redeveloped, which has many environmental activists concerned about the fate of sensitive flora and fauna. Environmental Defence executive director Tim Gray joins us to talk about the stakes of this project and the Ontario government's overall approach to environmental protection.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're back! Summer vacation is over for us, even though there's still technically one week left, so we will say goodbye to summer by talking about the last great movie from the Summer of 2025, the new horror mystery Weapons. Also on the topic of saying goodbye to summer, we will talk about our summer movie memories.
This Wednesday, August 27, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The Best Summer Movie Moments of 2025. It's been a long summer, at least in movie terms. We've seen a lot of different films, with varying levels of quality, but with fall almost here we have to make our choices for our favourite summer movie moments. From the lessons of Eddington to robots and super men we will mark the memories we'll take with us from the Summer of 2025, or, as it's been known, #PedroSummer!
REVIEW: Weapons (2025). It may be the biggest movie of summer in a very real sense, and it's a story about how a community comes apart when (almost) all the children from one grade 3 class disappears from one public school. The new Zach Cregger movie is part Twilight Zone and part ensemble drama in the tradition of Robert Altman and Paul Thomas Anderson, which is almost the antithesis of what makes a late summer movie a success, so what is it about Weapons that has hit so hard, and did it hit us too?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
We return to work at the Politicast just in time to mark Labour Day next Monday, the unofficial end of summer, and the official day to mark the sacrifices and accomplishments of workers and labour leaders. We talk a lot about how work is changing with the impact of technological change and the rising cost of living, but policy has to change too, and that’s where activism comes in.
This year’s commemoration of Labour Day is especially well-timed just a few weeks after a major labour victory: Air Canada flight attendants went on strike and won despite the federal government trying to force them back to work and the efforts of management to turn the public against them. A happy ending? Maybe, but it should not come as a surprise that in the year 2025 that people are siding with the workers and not the managers.
To be clear though, one victory does not a movement make. As the trade war and other economic pressures persist, our governments are going to be tempted to start cutting back on bureaucracy, and sometimes those pressures are coming from within their own house like with Prime Minister Mark Carnery looking for a seven per cent cut to the public service. So this Labour Day, we're going to focus on labour activism, and the brand name for that work in Guelph is Justice For Workers.
Lou Thompson and Waida Mirzada will represent Justice For Workers on this week’s podcast to talk about the group’s mission, their thoughts on the flight attendants’ strike, and what lessons they took from the union’s success that can be applied to labour organizing. We also talk about why you can’t separate social justice issues from labour issues, why we need to use political power to humanize people, and what’s driving the difficult job search in Guelph. Plus, what is Justice For Workers planning next?
So let's get into some pre-Labour Day labour chat on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Justice For Workers Guelph at their website, or on social media on Facebook or Instagram. The team from Justice For Workers will also be at the Labour Day Picnic hosted by the Guelph and District Labour Council in the red pavilion of Riverside Park on Monday September 1 from 11 am to 2 pm.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're back! After taking a midsummer break, we come back with some of your favourite characters from this past season including the buffoonish U.S. President, and our oafish Ontario Premier, and in the third topic, just in time for Labour Day, we'll have some genuine labour news to get excited about! We might have taken some time off for the last couple of weeks, but the new sure didn't!!
This Thursday, August 21, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Dark Skies. Flight attendants from Air Canada went on strike last weekend, and they looked to be on strike for the long haul until the two sides reached a deal on Tuesday. Despite pressure from the federal government and the courts, the CUPE represented workers remained defiant after spending years doing, on average, 30 hours of unpaid work every month. Meanwhile, workers and average folk are showing incredible solidarity on this issue, so is this the Labour (Day) revolution we've been waiting for?
"A Little Poke." That's what Premier Doug Ford says he wants to give the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. In Ottawa for AMO this week, Ford looked to secure his bonafides as "Captain Canada", but back at home he's still getting hit hard for school infrastructure funding, benefiting the friends with the Highway 413 route, and new concerns about the finances of Ontario Place anchor tenant Therme. Is Ford the one that needs poked?
Baked Alaska Summit. For the first since he ordered a full-scale invasion into Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin was on U.S. soil and gratefully received by President Donald Trump. Three hours later, the leaders announced that they had not reached a deal to end the war that Russia started, and scuttlebutt says members of Team Trump were shook by what they had seen behind closed doors. Since then, Trump met with European leaders, including Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but did any of this Nobel Peace Prize baiting get tangible results?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, there is no End Credits. Well... there's going to be a show, but it's going to be an episode of End Credits that you've heard before, or probably heard before. Yes, if you've seen the calendar lately then you know it's time for our midsummer break. As usual, we're taking a couple of weeks off for August so that we can enjoy some summer sun!
See You at the Beach! It's been a busy year at the movies; we sinned with Sinners, flew with Superman, and we caught up with at least half of #PedroSummer. So we're pleased and happy to repeat the news that we have, in fact, decided to take a couple of weeks off so that we can enjoy some time away from the screen, big and small. But, as you see, it's a beautiful day, the beaches are open and people are having a wonderful time. End Credits, as you know, means "friendship". See you in a couple of weeks!
Programming Note: End Credits will return with new episodes on August 27.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The CAO position is the highest ranking official in local government that doesn’t have the job title of either mayor or city councillor, and it’s the only staff position at city hall that’s hired by a committee made up of the mayor and councillors. So yes, it’s a pretty important job, and it’s not like there’s any shortage of issues or needs for the new woman in charge as she nears the end of her first year in charge.
In January, we got a chance to sit down with City of Guelph CAO Tara Baker. At the time, she was just coming off a difficult budget confirmation process and prepping for a year that was going to be focused on housing development. Now there have been some hiccups on that second one, despite the fact, as you'll hear, Baker has a daily reminder in her office about its importance, and Baker has the experience to know what's important to Guelph.
Before becoming the CAO, Baker had spent 13 years at Guelph city hall, including the last eight as the City Treasurer and the General Manager of Finance. If the emphasis is to be put on affordability now, as it was with the last budget she worked on as Treasurer, it puts even more pressure on Baker as she’s managing all the spinning plates in her new office. On this edition of the podcast, she told us what comes next.
Back in January, Baker joined us to talk about why she wanted to be the CAO, why she thinks she stood out from the other applicants and the changing role of the CAO position after the introduction of Strong Mayor Powers. She will also talk about the search for a new City Treasurer, and the greater emphasis on affordability when it comes to City business. Also, she will discuss the changes she’s making to the job, and what she wants her legacy to be when it becomes her turn to retire from the role.
So let’s get the 4-1-1 on the current CAO on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can see Baker’s plan for goals and objectives that were presented to city council earlier this year here, and you can just learn more generally about the CAO office here. And speaking of podcasts, you can check out Baker’s latest appearance on Breezy Breakfast from April and you can find that pod on whatever platform you listen to his one on.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, you are here, but we are not. The time has come for our annual summer sabbatical. Unlike certain former prime ministers we still have work to do, so we can only afford to take a quick two-week break before coming back with what will surely be a drama-packed fall schedule of scandals, near-scandals and straight up crises. So let's take a break from the craziness before it catches up to us again.
Be Normal. Welcome to summer vacation! We've made it through a lot in 2025 so far including two month-long elections, and the daily deluge of insanity from the present occupant of White House. There's been the start and stop of the trade war, the nonstop wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and some general anxiety about global crisis coming down the pipe next. Bad news is inevitable, and there will surely be more of it, but for the next two weeks tune in, drop out, and bring on some outdoor activities. See you in a few weeks!
*Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will return with new episodes on Thursday August 21.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, there is no End Credits. Well... there's going to be a show, but it's going to be an episode of End Credits that you've heard before, or probably heard before. Yes, if you've seen the calendar lately then you know it's time for our midsummer break. As usual, we're taking a couple of weeks off for August so that we can enjoy some summer sun!
See You at the Beach! It's been a busy year at the movies; we sinned with Sinners, flew with Superman, and we caught up with at least half of #PedroSummer. So we're pleased and happy to repeat the news that we have, in fact, decided to take a couple of weeks off so that we can enjoy some time away from the screen, big and small. But, as you see, it's a beautiful day, the beaches are open and people are having a wonderful time. End Credits, as you know, means "friendship". See you in a couple of weeks!
Programming Note: End Credits will return with new episodes on August 27.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Guelph loves its cultural heritage! As we count down to the 200th anniversary of the city in 2027, we're seeing more and more of a focus on our local history, but there's something else happening in 2027... the elimination of the heritage registry. Any property listed, but not designated, on January 1, 2027 will be deleted. The stakes, and the workload, have never been this high!
That's the primary reason why it seemed fitting last fall to talk to members of heritage planning staff. Since the passage of Bill 23 in 2022, they've been in a mad scramble to preserve as much heritage as they can, as quickly as they can with a record number of approval already for 2025 and the year is only half over (at least in council terms). Coming up in the fall? Even more approvals and further progress on key files like the three heritage conservation districts.
But since recording this pod things have gotten more complicated. Several designations have faced delay or deferral after objections brought to council based on the additional onus placed on the property owner due to the designation, and what seems to be a misunderstanding about the limitations of those designations. This may change in the fall as heritage planners pass more voluntary designations, but for now, is there a growing sense that they're doing too much, too fast?
Stephen Robinson and Jack Mallon, who are heritage planners at the City of Guelph, joined us last December to talk about what kind of year it’s been for heritage, the status of all the heritage conservation district studies and the special controversy around the recent presentation about the OR Lands HCD. They’ll also talk about public engagement, why development is not a bad word, what’s coming up in 2025, and why we maybe need to start loving architectural brutalism(?).
So let’s dig into the very busy heritage file again on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
The next scheduled meeting of Heritage Guelph is on September 4, and in the meantime you can visit the heritage planning page on the City’s website to get the lowdown on various plans and strategies. For your information, you can see the Municipal Register of Cultural Heritage Properties here, and stay tuned for future engagement opportunities on the OR Lands, Downtown and Ward West Heritage Conservation District studies.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, you are here, but we are not. The time has come for our annual summer sabbatical. Unlike certain former prime ministers we still have work to do, so we can only afford to take a quick two-week break before coming back with what will surely be a drama-packed fall schedule of scandals, near-scandals and straight up crises. So let's take a break from the craziness before it catches up to us again.
Be Normal. Welcome to summer vacation! We've made it through a lot in 2025 so far including two month-long elections, and the daily deluge of insanity from the present occupant of White House. There's been the start and stop of the trade war, the nonstop wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and some general anxiety about global crisis coming down the pipe next. Bad news is inevitable, and there will surely be more of it, but for the next two weeks tune in, drop out, and bring on some outdoor activities. See you in a few weeks!
*Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will return with new episodes on Thursday August 21.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're hitting the links. Well, we're not hitting the links, at least not yet, but we will watch other people hit the links in the sporting sequel comedy Happy Gilmore 2, which you can now stream on Netflix. And since we're back in the realm of Adam "Sandman" Sandler, we will talk about the empire he built!
This Wednesday, August 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Happy Madison Movie Draft. Adam Sandler is a movie-making machine. His production company, which is named after his first two movies, has been cranking out hits for himself and others for decades, and not just comedies either. In honour of the latest Happy Madison entry, we will talk about some of the best and brightest that they've put out over the years, from the regulars to the perhaps even the rare dramatic turn.
REVIEW: Happy Gilmore 2 (2025). Thirty years ago, a would-be hockey player became a golf sensation in the first of many big comedy successes from the House of Sandler. Now Happy is back on the links courtesy of the Sandman's long standing relationship with Netflix, but does he still have it? And by "it" we mean mass appeal and anger management issues. The usual collection of Sandler regulars and family members are all here for the mighty return of Happy, Shooter and all their friends, but will the audience come back for more?
Programming Note: End Credits will be running previously enjoyed episodes on Wednesday August 13 and 20. We will back with new episodes on Wednesday August 27.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The Guelph Fringe Festival unfolds this weekend with 10 companies performing in three different venues over four days in downtown Guelph with 100 per cent of the ticket prices going back to the artists. These shows are experimental, personal, and unlike anything you will ever see anywhere else, and this week’s show is going to highlight three interviews from three different shows to tell you why Guelph Fringe is a can’t miss event for theatre fans and the theatre curious.
First, we will talk to Bridget Cann from Staccayto Staccato, the Toronto-based musical comedy troupe who staged last year’s Guelph Fringe "Big Buzz Award" winner, Make Up! The Musical. It’s a musical comedy show that’s completely made up! Using suggestions from the audience, they come up with a whole one hour musical with improvised characters, plots, places, and, of course, music.
Then, we will talk to Christel Bartelse, a Toronto-based actor/storyteller, comedian, and director and educator. Her show is A Woman of My Age, which Bartelse both wrote and performs, is her seventh solo production after ONEymoon, Chaotica and All KIDding Aside which have toured to fringe festivals all across Canada, and the U.S. and also to Edinburgh, the largest fringe festival in the world.
And finally we will talk to Julie Lyn Barber and Michelle Dvoskin. Turbulent Architect, written and performed by Barber and directed and dramaturged by Dvoskin, offers a candid, heartwarming, and hilarious guided tour of the chaotic inner workings of Barber’s mind. Barber is an actor, singer, director, choreographer, musical director, and the Head of Musical Theatre at Purdue University Fort Wayne while Dvoskin is a director, intimacy choreographer, performer, playwright and an associate professor in the Department of Theatre & Dance at Western Kentucky University.
On this week’s episode the four of them will talk about their shows, their inspirations, and the challenges in staging their production. We will also talk about their backgrounds, what makes a show “fringe”, and what they hope the audience will leave with when the show is over.
So let's talk about some of this year's shows at the Guelph Fringe Festival on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The Guelph Fringe Festival runs from Thursday August 7 to Sunday August 10. You can see the full schedule and buy tickets 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, 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.
Programming Note: Guelph Politicast will be running previously enjoyed episodes on Wednesday August 13 and 20. We will back with new episodes on Wednesday August 27.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're getting ready to go on summer vacation, but before that we've got some serious business, and in the case of one topic we mean really, really serious. We will once again tackle the ongoing tragedy in Gaza before coming back home to Ontario where education is on the menu again, from your local school board to post-secondary education. Also, we'll keep the education conversation going with this week's guest.
This Thursday, July 31, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
"The Worst Case Scenario of Famine..." Just when you think thing couldn't possibly get worse in Gaza, they do. The famine is now undeniable, to the point where even U.S. President Donald Trump couldn't deny it when asked. Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile says there is no famine, and this despite the fact that people on the ground in Gaza note that not only are people starving to death, they're being killed while trying to get what little food that's coming in. Is this finally enough?
33 and We. Before breaking for summer, the Ontario government revealed Bill 33, which will give them more power over school boards, universities and colleges and even children's aid societies. People have noted the shades of the Student Choice Initiative, which an Ontario court said was unconstitutional, but it also undermines local democracy (again) by overriding the authority of elected school boards. Is this the next great Ford government scandal we're not talking about yet?
Fife's Out. We haven't heard about long-term care in a while, but one MPP has been working on one part of that file for almost seven years now. Catherine Fife is trying again to pass a private member's bill to keep senior couple together in long-term care, which sounds simple but has become a year's long project. We will talk to Fife about it, and we will also talk to her about issues around post-secondary education, and how Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles talked about it during her leader's tour stop in the region this week.
Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will be running previously enjoyed episodes on Thursday August 7 and 14. We will back with new episodes on Thursday August 21.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we are faster than a speeding bullet and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Get ready to pump iron, or make that steel, with the cinema's newest superhero in the bright and cheerful Superman. But is it one of the best movies of the year? TBD, in the meantime though we're going to talk about some other contenders!
This Wednesday, July 23, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Best of 2025... So Far! So we're a little late with this given all of our 400th episode festivities earlier this month, but it did buy us an extra month to take stock of the movie year so far. How are we doing? Well, we will dig into that very question by talking about some of our early contenders for the "Best of the Year" so far including something Canadian, something action-packed, something funny, and something sexy!
REVIEW: Superman (2025). It's a bird! It's a plane! It's... a reboot! James Gunn has flown the relative safety of Marvel (where he made the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy) and has taken on the massive task of creating a big, better DC Universe starting with Superman. This Man of Steel is less serious and dour than its predecessor, but Gunn's still injected a surprising amount of real world relevance. Plus, there's a super dog! There's a lot riding on Superman, especially as the comic book movie bubble is bursting, but can we still believe a man can fly?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House promised economic disturbances if not outright challenges, and this is on top of the challenges that already existed like supply chains, wages, turnover, and the high cost of housing and real estate. It’s also worth noting that these are not Guelph-specific challenges, but that's okay because the new president of the Guelph Chamber of Commerce is not from Guelph.
What will be impact when Trump slaps 35 per cent on tariffs on Friday? On the other hand, maybe Trump will initiate another pause on implementing new tariffs. Does it even matter at this point? Businesses big and small depend on stability because if things are stable, you make reasonable predictions for the future in regard to planning, growth, marketing and hiring.
Andy Veilleux arrived in the president’s office at the Guelph Chamber the day after Trump retook the White House, and when we say “arrived” we mean from outside of town. His most recent job was as Director of Policy & Government Relations at the Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, a community similar to Guelph in some ways, but very, very different in others. There’s a lot on Veilleux’s desk, so what does he intend to do about it while also adapting to life as a new Guelphite?
We will dig into all that and more on this week’s edition as Veilleux discusses his background and experience, why he made the move to Guelph, and what he’s learned about life in the city so far. He will also talk about the present business challenges, and why the Chamber of Commerce is about more than just business interests. Plus, he will discussthe importance of the University of Guelph to the city’s overall economic health, and what he wants his tenure at the Chamber to be about.
So let's talk about business on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can follow him on social media @andyveilleux on Twitter and Instagram, and you can check out his poetry at his website. He will also be speaking at the Rotary Club of Guelph in their monthly meeting on Friday September 19 at the Italian Canadian Club, and you can register at the Rotary Guelph website. For more information about the Guelph Chamber of Commerce, you can find them at their website or on social media on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph everybody is fighting! Our national and provincial leaders are gathered to strategize and fight back in a trade war, while the leader of the opposition (in exile) is fighting for his political life so that he can get back into the national debate. Meanwhile, we will talk to an area Indigenous leader who's helping to lead the fight against legislation they got no say in by taking two different levels of government to court. Can't we all just get along?!
This Thursday, July 24, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Fifty Trades of Grey. At a meeting in Huntsville this week, Canada's First Ministers met with Prime Minister Mark Carney to talk about - what else? - the trade war with the United States. Donald Trump has made another one of his famous proclamations, 50 per cent tariffs will be put on Canadian goods starting August 1, but what can Canada do about it? That's a question no one can answer. Is there any way out of this mess, and is inter-provincial trade really the answer?
Battle River Front. As Carney looks at getting one over on Trump, Pierre Poilievre is looking to get back into the House of Commons. His route back to the chamber is through a by-election in Battle River-Crowfoot, a riding the Conservative candidate won in April with 83 per cent, so easy, right? Not so fast, because about 200 people are crowding the ballot for the August 18 vote, and Poilievre can't show weakness before a January leadership review. Can Pierre take his perch back?
Kill Bills. Last week, nine Ontario First Nations launched a constitutional challenge to both Bill 5 in Ontario and Bill C-5 nationally. The two omnibus bills make legislative short cuts for massive infrastructure projects, and they were passed without any consultation with First Nations leaders, who are now forcing the issue. This week, we're joined by one of those leaders, Chief Todd Cornelius from Oneida Nation of the Thames east of London, about the goals of the Constitutional challenge and the state of reconciliation in Canada.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're nostalgic. Not for our own past now 401 episodes in, but for our collective movie past. First we stop in the 80s and talk about everyone's favourite movie about accidentally getting seduced by a parent after travelling back in time, and then we will go to 90s where someone will always know about what someone else did last summer!
This Wednesday, July 23, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Back to Back to the Future... at 40! So for the first episode of our four-hundreds, we're going back to where it all started, the 80s! This month marks four decades since the release of Back to the Future, the time travel adventure comedy directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, and we will start this week's show by doing a deep dive into why the affection for this movie spans generations.
REVIEW: I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025). Speaking going back in time, this week's movie takes us back to the 90s. Sort of. Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. return along with a new generation of hot young people who make a big mistake one summer night and start paying for it one year later... with extreme severity. Before we get the hook, we will head back to legacy town where we will learn again that while we might be through with the past, the past is not through with us. And neither is the guy with a fishhook!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It’s been almost a year since Guelph City Council approved the Public Space Use Bylaw. You may not see as many tents as you once did, especially in the open in places like St. George’s Square, but don’t think that they’re gone. There are still many people in Guelph who are unhoused, unwell, and are still searching for help that’s hard to come by, and this week will talk to one of the helpers.
In the wake of the growing number of encampments downtown council adopted the Public Space Use Bylaw to restricted them to certain areas, and then early this year they restricted them further with an amendment to bar encampments in parks near schools and daycares. Then, the Ontario government passed new laws to allow the swift removal of encampments last month, which is all meant to appear that there's progress on dealing with homelessness.
In reality though, it has just made life for people living in encampments a lot harder. Seeking help could be an invitation to getting yourself, and anyone else in the camp, evicted, and then where will you go? In this situation, there are very few people you can trust, but one of them is Danny Liu, who was a pharmacist in Guelph for years but now spends his days visiting the people in greatest need in all the places they’ve tried to make some kind of home. Today, he’s going to talk about how things are going.
Lui joins us on this edition to talk about the current conditions in encampments around Guelph, the kinds of issues he’s seeing, and the barriers they’re currently experiencing when it comes to getting the help they need. Also, he will talk about the impact of the closure of the safe consumption site, and why self-medication is sometimes the only relief that unhoused people can get. He will also share his insights about the ways that Wellington County social services is falling short.
So let's learn about the current state of encampments on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Both the City of Guelph and the County of Wellington have pages on their websites about how they assist residents who are currently unhoused. If you’re looking at ways you can help out with donations or volunteering your time, you can talk to Stepping Stone, Guelph Community Health Centre, and Stonehenge Therapeutic Community.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going down the rabbit hole. In Canada, and down into the United States, it seems like a lot of people are losing their minds and some of that might be dangerous. We will looking at a quartet arrested in Canada for terrorist activity, and the clash over conspiracies in the MAGAverse, plus, for something a little more normal, we will talk to a city councillor about Guelph stuff (no lie).
This Thursday, July 17, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
G.I. Jerks. Last week, the RCMP arrested four people in Quebec on the pretty serious sounding charges around a plot to commit an act of "ideologically motivated violent extremism," and, as an unexpected bonus, three of them are presently active duty members of the Canadian Forces. It's been a concern for a while that the ranks of our military include members with extremist sympathies, but this is the first time anyone's been taken into custody for them. How concerned should we be?
Working the Jeff. In 2019, financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in federal custody. Or did he? The fate of Epstein, and any damaging information he might have had on other alleged sexual predators, has been the subject of much conversation, speculation, and a traunch of conspiracy theories, including ones submitted by several MAGA luminaries. But now Donald Trump has declared that there's bigger fish to fry, which is tearing MAGA apart with internal fractions. Is this the beginning of the end of the red-hatted cult?
Ward Three's Company. Just because it's July, that doesn't mean that things are not busy inside the council chambers at Guelph city hall. This week there were two meetings, and there are two more next week, including the all-important meeting to choose a new representative for Ward 6 out of 26 potential candidates. What will make a good city councillor is a decision that will be left up to all the other city councillors, and this week will be joined by one. Ward 3's Michele Richardson will join us to talk about her thoughts, plus the tricky balance on heritage designations and the local housing crunch.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we reach another milestone! We've been coming to you every week on CFRU for the better part of a decade, we've have a laughs and we've seen a lot of movies (at least 400), and every now and then we play a game. To mark our fourth centenary, we will put our collective heads together to consider the century, or a least the first quarter of it.
This Wednesday, July 16, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson Tim Phillips, Peter Salmon and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The 21st Century Movie Draft. Leave your stupid comments in your pocket, it's time for the event you've been waiting eight years for, End Credits 400th episode! There have been a great many movie bangers in the last 25 years and this week we will remember approximately 24 of them. From hobbits to serial killers, and from dog shows to Martin Scorsese's Oscar, we will talk about why the movies of the 21st century have been tearing us apart, in draft form!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
As we all now ease into summer vacation mode - even if we’re still working at our many labours - we’re taking stock of this busy year so far. We’ve made it though two elections and some long nights at council with at least a couple of more long nights to come before city council takes August off. (Or will they, given that there’s been a special August meeting the last few years?) So where do we currently stand with the first six months of 2025 behind us?
To help us, we're talking this week with Mike Ashkewe, who wears far too many hats in our community to be listed briefly here. Now Mike doesn’t just comment on the news, he sometimes makes the news. Back in April, Mike was one of several members of the former Accessibility Advisory Committee who walked away in the middle of their last meeting due to the unwillingness of city council and staff to give the AAC members the autonomy they were seeking.
The sudden departure of the AAC has cast a big shadow on the way that the City of Guelph handles accessibility issues, but no one talked about it last week at Committee of the Whole as council talked about putting new temporary ramps around Guelph, especially downtown. Of course, that wasn’t the only topic at that meeting that had to do with Downtown Guelph including future construction and the Memorial Cup bid, and if accessibility and the Storm are in the news then it makes sense to talk to Mike!
So Mike joins us this week to talk about the construction issues coming to downtown, why there needs to be more variety in the core to develop a sense of community, and how hosting the Memorial Cup might generate more of that downtown. He will also address the mass resignation of the previous AAC, and what he thinks the City of Guelph learned from that protest. Also, why is Guelph’s subreddit such an infinitely interesting place for discussion?
So let's talk about summer in this city on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can follow Mike Ashkewe on the socials @BirdmanDodd on Twitter, and Instagram, and follow him at birdmanguelph on Blue Sky. You can listen to Mike and sometimes me every week on the This Week in Geek podcast, which you can find on all major podcast platforms. And if you see Mike out and about and you have a dog, let me pet your dog…
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we're doing a Law & Order riff. With political barbecue season underway, we look to the police beat by talking about potential civil rights violations in a major Ontario prison and the province-wide chain of stores that apparently can sell an illegal product with (near) impunity. Don't worry, we've still got some political chat for you... local politics!
This Thursday, July 10, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Prison Dilemma. A class action lawsuit brought on behalf of prisoners inside Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton has raised questions about the abuse, specifically a December 2023 incident where nearly 200 inmates in an entire unit were stripped, searched and forced to sit with their hands zip tied behind their back in the hallway for hours. With four-out-of-five inmates being people awaiting trail, and not yet convicted of a crime, are we ignoring civil rights violations because of a presumption of guilt?
'Shroom Boom! Have you seen these FunGuyz locations around Ontario? A mysterious entrepreneur is funding a chain of stores selling magic mushrooms, and while the government is more open now to the potential benefits of psilocybin, it's still a highly controlled substance in Canada and very illegal to sell. And yet, why are there storefronts all over the place selling mushrooms for cash, and why are police so wildly inconsistent in shutting them down?
On the Downtown. It's a busy month at Guelph city council as the members and staff count down to summer vacation, but there's a lot of business to get done between now and August and we're already seeing some of that work out. This week, council tackled massive construction coming to downtown and a Memorial Cup bid, and coming in a few weeks they will choose a new Ward 6 city councillor. This week, we go a little north to Ward 5 in order to ask Leanne Caron what she thinks about all these doings in the Royal City.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're off to the races! Get on your mark, get set and get ready to watch a movie about guys driving cars in a circle dozens of times, which is actually much more exciting than it sounds when you're watching the new film F1 in a theatre near you. We will talk about that, and we will also talk about Oscar winners from the last 25 years!
This Wednesday, July 9, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
21st Century Oscars (Not a) Draft. For our last warm up before episode #400, we're going to tackle Oscar winners in the 21st century. As the famous golden statue approaches it's own century mark in a couple of years we've seen a lot of changes and milestones, like the first Black woman to win Best Actress, or the first woman to win Best Director, or all the provocative snubs that still sting. This week we draft (not draft), our favourite Oscar winners.
REVIEW: F1 (2025). Professional car racing has never really yielded a great movie - think about Rocky and boxing, or Field of Dreams and baseball - but has that changed? Joseph Kosinski has followed up Top Gun: Maverick with a tale as old as movies about sports: a seasoned veteran on the cusp of irrelevance (Brad Pitt) takes on a confident but untested protege (Damon Idris) for an underdog effort to become champions despite how the odds are stacked against them. Sounds simple, but has F1 won the summer movie season anyway?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The grocery industry in Canada is the epitome of monopoly; the Competition Bureau in 2023 reported that 75 per cent of all grocery purchases are made at one of the five major chains in Canada. In the wake of high grocery prices, which has been one of the pinchiest of pinch points in the post-COVID economy, people have wanted to see changes in the industry, so does that start with a more level playing field?
There’s been a lot of calls for action when it comes to grocery prices, but the issues actually go deeper. A 2021 report from the federal government found a lack of consistency and formality in the way that retailers were dealing with suppliers in Canada’s grocery chain. Mike Von Massow, a food economist at the University of Guelph told the CBC last year that this is due to the concentration of power in the five major retailers in Canada: Loblaw, Metro, Empire, Walmart and Costco.
That’s why the Grocery Sector Code of Conduct was created. It’s meant as a conflict resolution device that will create more transparency and reliability in the way that the stores deal with their suppliers, and also create a more level playing field for smaller, independent grocery retailers in Canada, but what it’s not meant to do is directly impact grocery prices. It does start to address a long-standing need for some standardized set of rules for doing business, and that’s not nothing.
Karen Proud, the president and adjudicator of the Office of the Grocery Sector Code of Conduct, joins us this week to talk about what the Code will do, and yes, what it won't do. She will also talk about what role members of the public will have in its functioning, the timeline, and how they will report their work once it’s fully implemented in the next year. Also, how might the Code might tangentially create lower prices anyway, and why did Proud leave a good gig as CEO of Fertilizer Canada to do this work?
So let's decode the Code on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Code of Conduct and get updates about implementation 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're hung over. Not from imbibing too much over the Canada Day long weekend, but from all the news we had to process in the first six months of 2025. We survived two elections, the creation and implosion of DOGE, a million different micro-scandals both stupid and corrupt, and, yes, some good news. How are we supposed to make sense of any of this? How about an awards show?
This Thursday, July 3, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Mid-Year Awards Show. A new tradition? Maybe. As many of us relax and recreate this Canada Day week, we will sorta join them with this effort to put the first half of 2025 in some kind of context. If you've listened to the show over these last 10 years, then you know about our annual awards show on or around New Year's Day and it's been very successful. So when something's a success, you spin it off, and this week we will bring our first summer awards segments with new categories, but the same cynicism and wit!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going back to the end of the world. It's been a long time since we tackled a zombie movie, whether the heightened or regular horror variety, but today we're going top shelf with the latest entry in Danny Boyle's series, 28 Years Later. Fitting since the topic this week has to due with the F-word, "franchises."
This Wednesday, July 2, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
21st Century Franchise (Not a) Draft. We will continue our countdown to the 400th episode this week by talking about the movie trend that has affected movie making in the 21st century the most: Franchises. This week we will look at some of the various franchises that proved so popular (and lucrative) in the last 25 years, from action hits to series based on young adult books, animated flicks, and, naturally, superheroes!
REVIEW: 28 Years Later (2025). In 2002, Danny Boyle brought back the zombie subgenre with a story about a man who wakes up from a coma and walks out into the apocalypse. That was 28 Days Later, but now it's 28 Years Later. In this long-awaited sequel, Boyle returns along with screenwriter Alex Garland to explore the world of Great Britain 30 years after the end of their world and the outbreak of the Rage Virus. It's the first of a planned trilogy, so does 28 Years leave us wanting more, or have we finally had enough with the undead?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
There’s no rest for the weary on this Canada Day week, especially if you’re engaged on housing and transit, and there has been some interesting news on those fronts in the last couple of weeks. No matter your holiday status this week, we’re not going to load you down with a policy deep dive, but we’re going to stop with two special guests to re-calibrate ourselves and remember: Progress is slow, but we need to be in this for the long haul!
A couple of weeks ago staff unveiled their plan to proceed with the electrification of transit at a special workshop meeting of council, which was well received but without much interest on the part of council. One of the people that noticed council’s seeming lack of engagement on transit matters is a member of a local transit advocacy group who has some ideas that he wants to share some on the matter.
On the housing file, some good news broke a few weeks ago when Michael Klein, pejoratively referred to as Ontario’s “King of Renovictions”, withdrew the N13s issued to residents of three apartment buildings on Brant Avenue in Guelph. It was a true David Versus Goliath story, and per the legend David ended up winning…. This time. The Brant Avenue residents won the battle, but now they're wondering if they have won the war?
So this week, Steve Petric, head of advocacy for the Transit Action Alliance of Guelph, will join us to talk about the lessons that council has not learned about transit planning from our municipal neighbours and the over-reliance on buying new EV buses. Then, Daniel Kaufman, who is one of the people who organized residents at the three Brant Avenue apartment buildings, will discuss the lessons other tenants in Guelph can take from their example and the current state of things on Brant Avenue.
So let's dig into buses and Brant on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Transit Action Alliance of Guelph at their website, or you can visit them at the Guelph Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning. ACORN is doing a lot of organizing against Michael Klein, and you can check out their 12-page report into the so-called King of Renovictions at their website. If you need help as a tenant, or any legal advice really, you can reach out to the Legal Clinic of Guelph and Wellington County at clinic [at] gw.clcj.ca or 519-821-2100.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, our hats are on our heads, not in our hands! Our glorious premier stuck his foot in his mouth again, just in time for National Indigenous Heritage Month, and speaking of foot in mouth we'll talk about the ongoing and confusing state of developments in our newest Mideast quagmire, and in the interview we will talk to an old guest about her new job!
This Thursday, June 26, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The 12-Day War (Trademark). Last Saturday night, U.S. President Donald Trump moved up his timetable by a week and launched an attack on three Iranian nuclear sites. Now, depending on who you believe, those attacks were either a massive success, or they barely did any damage to the regime's nuclear program, but afterwards Trump was calling for a new era of peace, which, as always with things in the Middle East, is easier said than done. So what comes next?
Five Protests Alive. In the last couple of weeks, both the federal and Ontario governments passed sweeping new omnibus bills that change the rules about massive development projects and circumvents well established laws on the environment, consultations and approval, but the ones who are most disturbed about these changes are Ontario's First Nations people. As we start to shut down this National Indigenous Heritage Month, have we forgotten Truth and Reconciliation?
So Far So Good...? Tying into that second topic, we've got one of the House members who voted in favour of Bill C-5: Guelph MP Dominique O'Rourke. In her first interview with us post-election, O'Rourke will talk about the first six weeks on the job, why you should be less concerned about the potential implications of Bill C-5 and what Prime Minister Mark Carney is going to do next now that the open moves are done. Also, we will answer once and for all: Does Guelph have pick-up trucks?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're once again celebrating #PedroSummer! (Patent pending.) The movie this time is a supposed romantic story that a lot of people are watching and having big discussions about. We're going to check out Materialists, and we're also going to start counting down to an other milestone episode with our favourite gimmick!
This Wednesday, June 25, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
21st Century Horror (Not a) Draft. This week we start the countdown to the 400th episode, which will be our 21st century movie draft, and to kick things off, we're talking about horror movies. (Why not? Candice is here!) So the first in a series of three drafts/not-drafts - meaning similar rules but no stakes - we will talk about some of the great horror movies of the century so far from new and old franchises to elevated horror.
REVIEW: Materialists (2025). Celine Song's first movie, Past Lives, was universally beloved (including by the people on this show), but her follow-up film, Materialists, has generated somewhat more... mixed feelings. The plot follows a high-end matchmaker (Dakota Johnson) who gets caught between a wealthy hedge fund guy (Pedro Pascal) and her poor cater-waiter/actor ex (Chris Evans). It's a classic rom-com set-up, but this is not a rom-com as Song undermines all expectations, so what do we make the most talked about movie of the year?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
There's an interesting process underway in Guelph's south end. One of the two Ward 6 city councillors, Dominique O'Rourke, has moved on to a new job in Ottawa as you might have heard, which leaves her old seat at city council vacant. Nature, and local politics, abhor a vacuum, so next month O'Rourke's former colleagues will choose her successor. At least until next year's municipal election...
Last month council approved the process to appoint a new Ward 6 councillor. It was the best of a lot of different options; a byelection now, one year before a general election and in the same calendar year as two other elections, had a lot of drawbacks, and there was no successor willing to step up among the other candidates from the last election. That left appointment, and that process is presently underway.
For anyone thinking about taking up the role of city councillor, learning what the job entails, and knowing what powers you'll have, a special open house was held last week in the council chambers with staff from the city clerk's office. In the course of 90 minutes, City Clerk Stephen O'Brien taught everyone the ropes, and answered all questions about what it means to be a councillor, what decisions you will face, and what tools you'll have to answer the tough questions.
But if you missed that presentation and are looking at making a run yourself during this unusual appointment process, or perhaps you're just curious about the mechanics of sitting on city council and want to scratch that itch, this still might be worth checking out. You also might want to bookmark this for next year if you're thinking about a council run in your own backyard, or if merely want to impress people at barbeques this summer with your knowledge of municipal processes.
So let's learn about everything you need to know about being a city councillor in this week;s Guelph Politicast!
If you're interested in learning more about the process to appoint a new city councillor in Ward 6, to see the updated list of nominees, or perhaps you're even considering a shot at the post yourself, you can visit the City of Guelph's website here. The city council meeting to select the new councillor will be on Wednesday July 23 at 6 pm. Nominations for the 2026 municipal election will open in May.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're trying to keep all our paper's straight. Once again, it was a busy news week as the world came to Canada, or at least the heads of the biggest and most powerful countries did. Also, we get to talk about a new war, apparently because we've run out of things to say about the old wars while closer to home, we'll go back to the Quatro and talk to a member of city council from the west end of the city.
This Thursday, June 19, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Nothing But a G7 Thing. This week, the leaders of the Group of 7 nations came to town in Kananaskis, Alberta and there were many different topics on the table, but for Prime Minister Mark Carney this was another big test for him as host. So what happened? Well, Donald Trump came and grumbled and then left early, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni got memed and special guests Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Narendra Modi stopped by. Despite all that though is the G7 even a thing anymore?
Back to Bomb Iran. With Gaza still a war zone, international leaders are worried about a seeming race to regime replacement as Israel launched an attack on Iran last week. Benjamin Netanyahu says the goal is to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons, but cynics in Israel and around the world think its Netanyahu's attempt to avoid political comeuppance at home. In the middle is the United States because Donald Trump doesn't want a war in one breath while threatening Iran in the next. So what now?
Back to the Quatro. Earlier this year Ward 4 City Councillor Linda Busuttil took over as the head of the Joint Social Services and Land Ambulance Committee, putting a Guelph face at the head of a government board that oversees Wellington County services. It's a big move, but it's bringing more attention to City/County relations and their role in developing more housing. Busuttil will talk about that relationship, plus working with new Canadians and why doing your taxes is important in the fight against poverty.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we flirt with danger. We've never had to survive a plane crash - or six - but we have survived nearly that many Wes Anderson movies together, and on this episode we will survive another. Probably. Tune in today as we decode The Phoenician Scheme and as we talk about a slightly older, and slightly more controversial movie from the past.
This Wednesday, June 18, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Passion of Dogma. A lot of great movies came out in 1999, and one of them is Kevin Smith's Dogma! The film has been somewhat lost due to the complex tangle of rights issues, and the fact that Harvey Weinstein is a professional @$$hole, but now Dogma is back in theatres for what's essentially its 25th anniversary engagement. So this week we will revisit the near-blasphemous pleasures of what may be Smith's best film!
REVIEW: The Phoenician Scheme (2025). Wes Anderson is back with another tale about a dysfunctional family with a dangerously eccentric patriarch. Benicio del Toro plays Zsa Zsa Korda, a mid-century tycoon whose latest scheme has upset the business world to the point where they're trying to eliminate him. What does Korda do? Recruit his estranged daughter Liesl, a nun, and a Norwegian entomologist to help put together one last business score, The Phoenician Scheme! So has Anderson done it again with another meticulous tale?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The City of Guelph is a system, a system that's built on rules. Or policies, procedures and protocol to be more precise. Some of those systems dictate how city council functions, some of them lay out how local government should engage with the community, and some of them tell you what flags you can fly and when they should be lowered to half-mast. It's time again to play roulette with the policy wheel and get smarter in the process.
First up, we will talk about the Access and Privacy Policy. You've probably heard about Freedom of Information requests? Well this outlines how and why you're able to make them, but more than that it outlines how and why staff are able to access confidential information, how and why the City can collect that information, and the ways that all information at the City of Guelph is managed, stored, and, if necessary, destroyed.
Somewhat less well-known is the City Flag Policy. Mayor Cam Guthrie was inundated with hate for a social media post celebrated the raising of the Eritrean Flag at city hall last month to mark their Independence Day. No rules were broken, not that bigots care about rules, but for anyone wondering why city hall has room for the Eritrean flag, perhaps it's time to introduce you to the concept of the "courtesy pole flag." (Real term.)
So let's dive into policy again on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can check out the Access and Privacy Policy and the City Flag Policy by following the direct hyperlinks. You can also see all the City of Guelph's "frequently requested policies, procedures and protocols" on the City's website under the City Government tab.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got fighting words. People are riled up here in Ontario about some more bad bills, and people in the U.S. are riled up about another week of living in Trumpland including his most dangerous moves against civil liberties yet. If you're a Canadian concerned about these things, you might want to listen to this week's guest because he has some ideas on how to fight back!
This Thursday, June 12, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Six Weeks, 17 Fights. The Ontario Legislature rose last week after only sitting for a total of six weeks. And yet, in that small space of time, Doug Ford and his government managed to upset just about everyone from municipal leaders, to environmentalists, to Indigenous communities thank to the passage of the highly controversial Bills 5 and 17. These measures, which are supposed to create more housing, come at a time when housing starts are at their slowest level since 2009, so what is all this for?
Battle Los Angeles. Last Friday, protest erupted in the Los Angeles area after agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) started arresting undocumented people looking for work outside a Home Depot. The raids seem to be the brain child of Stephen Miller, Donald Trump's most trusted advisor, especially on matters of racial animus. The eruption of protests, and the calling of the National Guard, has people concerned, especially now before Trump's birthday army parade. How worried should we be?
Charlie in Charge. He may not be in Parliament anymore, but Charlie Angus is still making waves. Travelling coast-to-coast-to-coast now, Angus is aiming to rallying ordinary Canadians in the fight against fascism and to promote resiliency and resistance in local communities, and he's bring that message to Guelph in an event on Thursday June 19. Before that though he will join us here on Open Sources to talk about why you can't leave it to the politicians and how you can start to get more politically involved.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're thinking about our elders. This is a multi-generational show today as we mark the special occasion this weekend and then get an early jump on an October holiday with a new movie. What holiday? Why Grandmother's Day, of course! We're reviewing Nonnas on Netflix and talking about movies focused on fatherhood!!
This Wednesday, June 11, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Father's Day Movies. This weekend is the annual celebration of fathers everywhere, and much fishing equipment, car accessories and neck ties will be spread in their name. But what about the movies? Yes, there have been many movies that celebrate fathers and fatherhood, and so we will use the occasion of Father's Day to celebrate those movies whether that's an adoptive father to a demon or the World's Greatest Dad!
REVIEW: Nonnas (2025). We've talked about fathers, now let's talk about grandmothers! Or rather, Nonnas. It's based on the true story of a Staten Island restaurateur who used his inheritance to create an eatery dedicated to the fine, home Italian cooking of his mother, his grandmother and nonnas everywhere using real nonnas as the kitchen staff. Vince Vaughn leads an all-star cast of nonnas including Lorraine Bracco, Susan Sarandon and Talia Shire, but can they cook up something delightful and delicious movie-wise speaking?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
When Doug Ford and the Ontario government announced that they were expanding alcohol sales to grocery and convenience stores it was seen as a positive move to break up a government monopoly, but The Beer Store still has one important piece of that monopoly: returns. It was an effective example of what we now call the circular economy, but in making alcohol more available, has it cost us the most successful recycling program we’ve ever had?
Next time you buy beer or wine at the grocery store or the quick stop, look at your receipt: You’re still paying the 10 or 20 cent deposit on every can and bottle. If you take your empties back to The Beer Store, you can get that money back, but it’s becoming more convenient to get rid of your empties by dumping them out in the recycling. That undermines what’s been an incredibly successful recycling program through The Beer Store, which, at its peak saw an 80 per cent return rate.
Large grocery stores that sell alcohol and are more than five kilometres from a Beer Store are supposed to be accepting returns but the words “supposed to” are doing a lot of work because, as you’ll hear, this is being treated as more of a suggestion than a rule. In their own investigation, Environmental Defence only found one grocery store in Ontario meeting this criteria that is actively accepting empties, and this is only going to get worse as more Beer Store locations close.
One the people raising the alarm on this is Karen Wirsig, who is the plastics program manager of Environmental Defence. She joins us this week to talk about why The Beer Store’s recycling program has been so successful, and why maintaining it has been such an afterthought for the government. We will also talk about why grocery retailers are fighting the effort to expand the return program to their stores, the coming danger in 2026 with Beer Store closures, and what you can do to keep getting your deposit back.
So let's talk about your empties on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Environmental Defense at their website, or follow them on Instagram. You can follow Karen Wirsig on Twitter @ Karen_Wirsig where she posts about her advocacy efforts on reducing waste and plastic pollution. And if you want to support The Beer Store’s recycling program, take your empties back no matter where you bought them. You’re paying the deposit anyway.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going dull. You can't make friends with salad? We disagree! And to help prove that we're going to get out the scorecards for the first two weeks of business with the new Canadian government and the first year of business for the U.K.'s government. In other news, we'll go super local looking at one neighbourhood with that area's council representative!
This Thursday, June 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Carney's Version. It's week two for the new Canadian government under Prime Minister Mark Carney and while he's definitely made the case to the electorate that he's not Trump, he still seems kind of concerned as Bill C-2 enters the picture. The second major piece of legislation from Carney seems to accept some of Trump's bonafides that Canada is an epicentre for fentanyl and our border security needs reform, and civil liberty groups have notes. Has Carney already gone too far just over a month since Election Day?
Going Kier. It's been almost a year since Kier Starmer and the Labour Party were elected to lead the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, and now there's some considerable regret in the electorate. Not exactly a surprise, but nipping at Starmer's heals are Nigel Farage and his alt-right Reform Party who are waiting to seize on any doubt in the electorate that the government just doesn't work. Should we be concerned about a populist revolt in the U.K., and is there a lesson for Carney and Canada's Liberals?
The Goller. There is a lot going on in downtown Guelph. Some serious construction projects are getting going and it's just a taste of what's to come, poverty support groups are getting traffic tickets from bylaw, and there was more than a little controversy about where exactly a daytime shelter should go. Here to help us out with all of that thinking is one of the people who represents Ward 2, which includes downtown. Rodrigo Goller will join us to talk about balancing all the needs facing downtown Guelph and what his own political future looks like.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we fear the reaper. Well, sort of. You don't go into a movie where the literal personification of Death is the main character if you're afraid of the reaper. So we will show no fear and dive into Final Destination Bloodlines, and assuming we survive we will also talk about the sixth entries in long-running series, the good ones!
This Wednesday, June 4, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The 6ixes. This week's movie is the sixth entry in its series, and this week's new release, Karate Kid: Legends, is also a sixth entry. Not many movie franchises make it to the sixth picture, and many of the ones that make it that far aren't exactly exemplars of film excellence. Still, in honour of these movies, and all the other sixes in cinema history, we will pay tribute to our favourite hexalogies, which is a real world. (Look it up.)
REVIEW: Final Destination Bloodlines (2025). Twenty-five years ago, a new horror franchise made audiences afraid of Death. As an entity. After taking several years off, Death is back and he's out to get three generations of a family that never should have been born because the family matriarch avoided disaster 50 years earlier. The surprise hit of the summer so far, Final Destination Bloodlines has seen theatres packed with new and old fans who've all welcomed back Death while saying goodbye to the late, great Tony Todd (RIP), and this week we'll have our say.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Data is key to guiding health policy, and health units collect a lot of it, but formatting it, organizing it, and looking for patterns in it can be time consuming, meaning that you’re doing a lot of labour that has nothing to do with creating the actual health policy or solving a public health issue. If you’re thinking to yourself that this sounds like an ideal solution for artificial intelligence, you’re right!
At May’s Board of Health meeting, staff members discussed “Innovative Public Health with AI and Automation”, meaning the ways that Public Health is using artificial intelligence to enhance their work. The report offered examples of success like using A.I. to process vaccine records, generate immunization notices, and process lab results. You might have interacted with A.I. yourself if you’ve clicked on the “need help” icon on the Public Health website.
The staff at Public Health are very bullish about the possibilities of artificial intelligence, but for a lot of people there are no two scarier initials right now than "A" and "I". In the realm of public health, there are even more pronounced concerns around privacy and the sharing of information, and there’s also an important need to share accurate information as well. So how are Public Health staff managing these big considerations?
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health’s Manager of Data & Analytics Michael Whyte and Data Scientist Justin Angevaare will tell you all about those considerations on this week's pod. They will talk about the work that public health is using A.I. to achieve, and how they've decided the best ways to use it. They also talk about the ways that public health is governing the use of A.I. with policy, how they determine which programs they want to use and why, and what they’re working on right now.
So let's get some good A.I. news on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about what Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health is up to in the realm of artificial intelligence by reading the staff report from last month’s Board of Health meeting, or Guelph Politico’s coverage of that meeting. You can stay up-to-date on everything to do with public health at their website, or on social media at @wdgpublchealth on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
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, 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.
Photo courtesy of Disney/Lucasfilm.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we're talking war and price. No, you read that right. On the war front we're going back to Gaza where the prospects for peace have not improved, and along with that it's going to get tougher to express your thoughts on war if you're protesting in Toronto. As for price, that's what we've got our guest here to talk about as we dig into money matters with an expert.
This Thursday, May 29, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Now It's a Genocide? Wednesday was the 600th day of the War in Gaza. What started with a terrorist attack led by Hamas on October 6, 2023 has gone on for nearly two years and has nearly decimated Gaza killing 53,000 mostly civilians in the process. But in recent days a tide has been turning. More and more people are saying outloud that Israel's actions in the last 600 days have not been about security, but about wiping Gaza of all Palestinian presence. Is the taboo finally off calling this a genocide?
On the Bubble. Last week, the City of Toronto passed a new bylaw saying that you cannot protest within 50 metres of a school, childcare or place of worship. The 16 councillors who voted in favour say it was a necessary move to guarantee security, while the nine who voted against it consider it an erosion of free expression and freedom of assembly, and on top of that, the city solicitor's apparently unsure of it's constitutionality. Has Toronto bitten off more than it can chew here?
Inflation Agent. The rate of inflation is trending down, which is supposed to be good news, right? The Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada is not so sure. According to their analysis, any loss of inflationary pressures is short-term, and then there's the rampant unpredictability in the market right now thanks to the tariffs. David-Alexandre Brassard, Chief Economist of CPAC will join us talk about his perspective on the current economic picture and why we're not out of the woods yet!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, you're going to join us on an adventure. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to go with us on another globetrotting, death-defying sojourn with Tom Cruise and the gang in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, and we will also rewind to the very first movie in the series and talk about our lifetime of impossible missions!
This Wednesday, May 28, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
In the Beginning... Before getting into the latest Mission, the eighth, it seems fitting to go back and look at episode one. The year was 1996, Mission: Impossible was Tom Cruise's first effort as a producer, and Brian De Palma was hired to bring it to the screen as director. It's hard to look back at that first Mission and see what the franchise ended up being 30 years later, but that's what we'll do before launching into the new one!
MOVIE REVIEW: Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025). It's all be leading to this... Quite literally. The eighth Mission: Impossiblemovie aims to not only pay off all the plot laid out in the previous movie, Dead Reckoning (Part One), but to also be the capstone to 30 years of Mission: Impossible movies. Tom Cruise returns - "one last time", we're told - to kick ass and save the world from a fiendish A.I. and the Machiavelli forces that want to control it. But with so much at sake, can this Mission possibly get accomplished?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Last week, Future of Good released their first ever Changemaker Wellbeing Index, which highlights the pressures facing the workers in the non-profit sector and the results paint an increasingly bleak picture. They also paint a coherent picture, putting together the various pieces that we’ve been hearing about these last few years: Organizations are struggling for money, staff and volunteers, and now we have the data!
The Changemaker Wellbeing Index surveyed 1,100 Canadian non-profit workers, from frontline staff to senior leaders. Future of Good worked with GreenShield, ATB Financial, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, WES Mariam Assefa Fund, Definity Insurance Foundation and United Way Centraide Canada, while Environics Research did the heavy lifting with the surveying. What they learned was kind of shocking.
Of the 1,100 people surveyed, 36 per cent said that they "often or always" feel burned out or exhausted, 31 per cent said that they experience food insecurity, and that rises to 48 per cent for frontline staff, and one-in-three non-profit workers said that they’re ready to quit. At issue is low wages, and half of entry-level workers say they're struggling because of it, so what lessons can we take from this survey and what solutions can be put in action?
Anouk Bertner, who is the executive director of Future of Good, will join us to talk about those lessons and more on this edition of the podcast. She will talk about how they put together the Index, and the methodology they used to get the most accurate picture possible. She will also talk about the perceptions of non-profit work, why arts and culture workers are being hit the hardest, why compensation is not the end of the story here, and why more money may not be the answer.
So let's talk about the state of Canada's non-profits in this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Future of Good at their website, which is where you can find a direct link to their Changemaker Wellbeing Index and get all the information and statistics that we talked about on this pod. If you’re interested in helping out local non-profits here in Guelph and Wellington, you can can see the list of various community services at 211 Ontario, and you can see a list of volunteer opportunities through the United Way 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we get back to basics, and by "basics" we mean our two favourite agitators. Yes, it's time again to talk about the two Ds, Donald and Doug. One is turning American democracy inside out and the other is turn provincial environmental policy upside down. And for the interview? We will get an education with our special guest, a teacher!
This Thursday, May 22, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
American Idiots. So much of Canadian news lately has been about going on in the U.S., but how are things going down in the White House with the Trump sequel? In a word: Badly. From cabinet ministers tripping over their own tongues in Congress to accepting a $40 million bribe from the Royal Family of Qatar, the Donald Trump administration is not covering itself in glory, and then, for the coup de grâce former President Joe Biden announced that he's got cancer. We'll catch up with the southern circus.
Endangered Specious. Bill 5 is currently before the Ontario Legislature, and it's the latest in a long line of bills brought by the Ford government that unites almost everyone against it. In this case, the bill uses the tariff war as justification to overrule environmental oversight and other planning measures in order to get mining and construction projects going. Does it sound like the Ontario government is trying to chop up the rules to help out their friends again? We will dig into that very question.
Teacher's Fret. Another issue on the provincial file is education, and things are getting so bad that that teachers' unions have started organizing. On Thursday night, there will be an education forum at Centre Wellington High School in Fergus to talk about the tremendous issues facing Ontario's schools, but before that we will be joined by one of the organizers. Andrew Aloe, Occasional Teacher President at Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, will set the table for the forum and talk about the state of our schools.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're having vacation thoughts already! How about an adventure on an island somewhere? We have a couple of options to consider today. One is a new film called The Ballad of Wallis Island where feelings might be hurt, plus we're going to talk about a well-know movie that's turning 50 this year where the danger is a little more physical.
This Wednesday, May 21, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Jaws at 50! Exactly half-a-century ago, a movie was released about a small island tourist town that was plagued by killer shark that stalked its beaches. No one knew that Jaws was going to be a hit that big, in fact there was every indication that it was going to be a disaster, but it turn out being one of the biggest movies ever, and one that we still talk about and enjoy today. So why does Jaws still have bite 50 years later?
REVIEW: The Ballad of Wallis Island (2025). It's a fairly well-known story: former bandmates separated by creative and personal differences are thrown back together again by fate and circumstances. The Ballad of Wallis Island is also itself a kind of reunion. Writers and co-stars Tom Basden and Tim Key, now joined by Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan, stage a feature length version of their short film from 2007 about a former folk duo who are thrown back together again by a millionaire on a small island, but does this movie sing?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This week Guelph city council is taking a holiday break, and perhaps understandably, because it has been a very busy year in the chambers so far. The first four months of the year brought a lot of change, a lot of drama, and some pretty big decisions that tested the fiscal and political capacity of a rapidly growing Ontario city. Now, we will pause and take stock of just how far we've come so far...
January began with some unfinished business from last year, quite literally. Council heard the budget of the local boards and shared services, which accounts for one-third of the total annual city budget. That seemed to go pretty smoothly, but it was a reminder that Guelph's fiscal picture, while stable, is facing tremendous pressures, which was a recurring theme through talk of debentures and risk management later.
Housing continued to be a big theme in the first trimester of 2025. There weren't a lot of new housing development proposals, but there were a few big ones, and there was a few discussions about how hey can use the tools to make more affordability housing options happen, and make them happen faster, but the options are still fairly limited. Plus, council revisited the Public Space Use Bylaw in the process.
Although it doesn't make the headlines, council also shook up itself. One councillor went on maternity leave and another took a leave of absence to run for higher office. There were also changes approved to council governance and a re-launch of the advisory committees of council, and at least one of them caused some blowback on city council before April was over. All this just constitutes the tip of a very big iceberg, can we cover it all in one pod?!
So let's get into the event of city council in 2025 so far in this week' Guelph Politicast!
Council is taking this week off, but will meet again on Tuesday May 27 at 6 pm. You can get all the previews, recaps and follow-ups on this website, 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're making a sad face. Not just about the condition of our New Democratic Party, but also because there's another flashpoint in the world that's using violent means to reach violent ends. At least everything local is cool, right? Well, not so fast, because we have another guest from city council who will be stopping by to set us straight.
This Thursday, May 15, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Kashmir. In a violent world, the disputed region between India and Pakistan might be among the most violent and it certainly looked that way again when the two countries started attacking each other last week following a terrorist attack in the India-controlled portion. Keep in mind, these are two nuclear powers, and they've been fighting each other for almost 80 years, so why is this latest provocation so dangerous and what do both sides in this conflict hope to get out of it?
The Dip. The federal NDP was routed in the election a few weeks, and are now leaderless with seven seats in the House. And yes, while many people strategically voted Liberal, many more formally NDP seats in working class ridings in Ontario and B.C. went to the Conservatives. So what the heck happened, and how does the NDP climb back to official party? We will discuss what the New Democrats have to do to appeal to their base again, and why what they have been doing, isn't working.
System of a Downer. It's been a busy few weeks at city council. More discussion about the state of housing, a new plan to tackle climate change, new legislation from the provincial government, a potential issue with fees around a student residence, and a new vacancy in Ward 6. That's a lot to figure out so we've recruited a very experienced and well-spoken guest to help us make sense of it all. Ward 5 City Councillor Cathy Downer will join us to lend some insight from the council chambers!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits things get freaky... er. Not really. Things are plenty freaky without this week's new movie, which just so happens to be called Freaky Tales. This one features an actor so big that he now has a whole summer of movies dedicated to him, but like many actors he had humble beginnings on a massive HBO show about dragons. Let's dig in!
This Wednesday, May 14, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Game of Roles. This week's movie stars Pedro Pascal, and it officially kicks off what we're called "Pedro Summer"! Pascal's been a working actor for years, but he got his big break o Game of Thrones, and like a lot of members of that massive cast he was able to parlay that success into bigger roles in bigger projects. To kick off this week's show, we will talk about some of the actors that won the Game for Hollywood success!
REVIEW: Freaky Tales (2025). May 10, 1987. The Golden State Warriors are in a playoff game against the L.A. Lakers, and all-star "Sleepy" Floyd has the best game any NBA player has ever had. These are things that actually happened, and they are among the many events that unfold in Freaky Tales, an action comedy anthology set in Oakland, from Oakland-born filmmakers Anne Boden and Ryan Fleck. The movie blends fact and fiction, fantasy and reality, but this week we'll answer the question: Is Freaky Tales good or is it bad?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
We have a weird situation: We’ve elected two new governments at both upper levels in the last four months and the hope is that they can turn things around, and yet, these are also, essentially, the old governments. How can we possibly expect better results from the new old people in charge, and are we even more alone than ever here on the local level? We’ll put this to one of the people whose job it is to advocate.
This week, the Ontario government announced something novel: changing municipal planning rules and fees to make the construction of housing faster. Despite the numerous regulations rolled back and the growing amount of money deferred from municipal coffers, Ontario is at the bottom in Canada in terms of housing starts. As for the federal government, well, it remains to be seen what exactly Mark Carney can deliver over and above his predecessor.
One of the groups designed to help co-ordinate the needs of fighting poverty locally is the Guelph & Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination, whose goal is to work collaboratively, and informed by diverse voices of experience, to take local action and advocate for system and policy change to address the root causes of poverty. It’s a worthy mission, but one that’s getting harder to accomplish as community frustrations about higher costs and limited options. So, can we still fulfill the project of eliminating poverty?
Dominica McPherson, who is the director of the Task Force for will talk about the current state of advocacy with all three levels of government and whether or not things have gotten better or worse on the poverty file in the last few years. She will also talk about why the focus needs to be on permanent housing solutions, how Guelph and Wellington have actually done well on developing those options and how we can keep that momentum going forward. Also, what are the efforts the task force is undertaking right now?
So let's stay on mission with this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Guelph & Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination and get involved at their website. After recording this interview I did get an update that the Wellington-Guelph Health and Housing Community Planning Table will be releasing a report about the work that’s been done since the Health and Housing Symposium next month, so stay tuned for more information sometime mid-June
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're throwing shade. What do you do when you're in the White House and forced to do a media availability with a crazy person? Make faces at the camera, of course. We'll talk about Carney's new place as everyone's favourite anti-Trump figure, some complicated feelings post-election in Alberta, and then we'll talk to the man who now formally represented Guelph in the House of Commons.
This Thursday, May 8, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Separation Anxiety. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced on Monday that if enough people in the province agree, the rest of Canada won't have Alberta to kick around anymore! Smith says that if enough people sign a petition, she will hold a referendum on separation. There's quite a vocal constituency in the Wildrose Province who want to put Confederation in the past, but are there enough of them to make a formal go of it? And do they even understand the logistics of leaving Canada?
Pundit? Just Leave It. Prime Minister Mark Carney's visit to the White House this week was considered a success because he managed not to get yelled at by Donald Trump. Carney's Trump handling abilities scored him points from many American pundits who have all hailed the PM as the leader of the resistance they've all been waiting for, but what about us Canadians? Why isn't anyone talking about the issues we want fixed? Do Canadians even matter when it comes to our own politics anymore?
So Longfield. For the last 10 years, Guelph has been represented in Parliament by Lloyd Longfield. The former President of the Guelph Chamber of Commerce was elected along with the rest of Justin Trudeau's first class in 2015, and unlike many of his colleagues, Longfield happily went about the regular, everyday work of doing Member of Parliament stuff and avoided cabinet ambitions and political power plays. In his last professional appearance on Open Sources, Longfield will tell us how he did it, and what comes next.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we finally embrace summer!.. movie season. We're struggling to get summer-like weather outdoors, but conditions are hot in the movie theatre now that Summer Movie Season is officially here and it starts with the movie we're reviewing this week, Thunderbolts.* What else is coming? We're going to talk about that too!
This Wednesday, May 7, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Summer Movie Preview Part 2. Obviously, we did a sequel. There were so many unanswered questions from last week's first part of the Summer Movie Preview like what's coming out in July and August? So this week, we will pick up where we left off by talking about the rest of the summer movie slate including more superheroes, some romance, some dinosaurs, and at least one instance where a serious actor tries slapstick!
REVIEW: Thunderbolts (2025). The Marvel Cinematic Universe. Have you heard of it? It's seen better days, and you can call it over saturation or call it a creative lull, but what the MCU really needs right now is a winner. So here come the losers! Thunderbolts follows a group of black ops agents - the ones who exist between heroism and villainy - and asks the question, why not us? Led by indie darlings Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan, can the Thunderbolts stage the superhero comeback the industry needs right now? We'll see.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The recent federal election was the formal turning of the page from the premiership of Justin Trudeau to the one led by Mark Carney. For long-time political observers, the difference between the two men in both style and substance is stark, but there’s no doubt that the change in leadership in March is at least half the reason the Liberals got a near majority last week. And yet, the question remains: What happened to Trudeau-mania?
The date was February 7, 2013. The location was the Brass Taps, the pub on the second floor of the University Centre at the University of Guelph. Packing them in that day was Justin Trudeau, then a candidate for federal Liberal leadership. At this point, the Liberals were in the political wilderness, but there was a new kid on the block who had different ideas. The pundits didn’t really take Justin Trudeau seriously, but the young people in the Brass Taps that day did. They really, really did.
How did the excitement about Justin Trudeau and his “Sunny Ways” sour so completely that his mere removal from the ballot made the party he revived competitive again? Was it the right-wing smear job? Was it the rise of Trumpism and anti-woke sentiment? Was it the lingering social and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic? It could be all three and it could be none of it, but it's one of the great questions of this political era, and this episode of the podcast.
To answer it, we're joined by Mustafa Zuberi, who was, for a time, the president of the Young Liberals at the U of G and served as the Liberal candidate for Guelph in the recent provincial election. Zuberi was one of the thousands of young people drawn to politics by Trudeau and his idealism, so he will help us understand how he inspired so many young people, why that youthful energy started to move to the right in recent years, and how Trudeau might have been more of a victim of circumstance than ability.
So let's talk about the rise and fall of Justin Trudeau on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can follow Mustafa Zuberi on Instagram. You can check out the coverage from Justin Trudeau’s stop at the Brass Taps in 2013 on the original Guelph Politico Blogspot. And obviously, we will be keeping up with the latest developments from the new Canadian Prime Minister every Thursday at 5 pm on Open Sources Guelph on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we get back to normal. No more election talk for at least a year now. Well, maybe a bit more election talk. We will talk about everything we didn't know on election night and what it means, and then we will get back into the normal work of proctoring developments at the Ontario government and Guelph city council, and on the subject of the latter, we have a guest for that.
This Thursday, May 1, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Carney Me Home (aka: It's Poili-over!). The magic number is 169. That is the number of seats that the Liberals have as they form a new minority government under Mark Carney, seen above celebrating (?) with Down With Webster. There was considerable less celebration at Conservative HQ where leader Pierre Poilievre isn't out yet, even though he's out of his seat, unlike Jagmeet Singh who's definitely out. We will wrap up the 2025 Canadian election and start looking ahead to what comes next.
Drama Queen's. While we've been focused on the federal election, the Ontario government finally got back to legislating for the first time since early-December. So how's it been going? Well, they've announced that they're going to be forcing financial oversight on some school boards, they're tearing up environmental regulations in the name of resource extraction, and they've announced more tough on crime measures. We'll catch up on everything you didn't get a chance to know about at Queen's Park.
Allt-ernative Media. We're also going to play catch up with Guelph city council, where there is now a vacancy after Dominique O'Rourke won the Guelph seat in the House of Commons. Her colleagues at city hall meanwhile are dealing with a whole slate of issues from housing, to water supply, to relations with Guelph's disabled community. There's a lot of ground to cover after our month-long break from council business, and to help us get caught up we will lean on old friend and Ward 3 City Councillor Phil Allt.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, things get spooky! That's a weird thing to say when summer is almost here, but in today's episode we'll confirm that Summer Movie Season is definitely here, and we will talk about what you can expect in some of the weeks to come. After that, we get into the spooky stuff with a ghost story from someone we recently talked about on this show.
This Wednesday, April 30, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Summer Movie Preview Part 1. This is the last show for April, on the last day of April, and you know what that means... It's Summer Movie Season! This requires a preview, and in our endless quest for completism, we will keep doing this until we get through all the movies that are coming out this summer starting with what's being released between now and the first week of June including good guys, bad guys and something weird.
Presence (2025). We've already done one Steven Soderbergh movie this year, Black Bag, but did you know that two Soderbergh movies have been released - so far - this year? The other one is now available on VOD, and it's called Presence. It's a ghost story, but it's from the ghost's point of view, watching the strange dynamics of this family that moved into a new house and struggle with all their internal drama including Chloe, the one member who senses... The Presence. We will talk about why you shouldn't ghost on Presence.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
By the time you're listening to this you know how it all turned out: Carney's the PM, a plurality of voters went Conservative though not enough in Carleton to send the leader back to the House. The NDP are decimated, the Greens are down to one seat again, and the Bloc have called a truce in the name of "national unity"(?). What an election! Let's live through it all again!!
From 8 pm to midnight on Election Night, the tag team of me and Scotty Hertz, plus CFRU programming director (and renowned Wikipedia editor) Christopher Currie, were live to air covering the results as they came into the CFRU newsroom... through the CBC's live vote tracker page. The focus was local, with coverage of the two Guelph ridings, but our view was nation-wide from coast to coast to coast.
And there were some special guests as well! Over the course of the night we heard from Emily Blake, the associate editor of Cabin Radio, a Local Journalism Initiative reporting on the Dehcho region and the Northwest Territories' housing crisis that's funded in part by the Government of Canada. We also heard from Kim Siever from The Alberta Worker, an independent media outlet that focuses on labour and politics founded in April 2020.
So let's relive the 2025 Canadian Election on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Keep tuning in to Open Sources Guelph Thursdays at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca!
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we get to the end... of this election. (Sorry, we always make that joke.) It's been a long, hard election covering two ridings, and in this final pre-election episode we will cover one person from a new party, one person from a still newish party, and one person that's been involved in politics for about 20 years. For the last time in 2025, let's hear from the candidates in this super-sized episode!
This Thursday, April 24, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Michael Drop. If there's a lock this election, it just might be the return of Michael Chong to the House of Commons. His riding's boundaries might have changed, but there's no doubt that Chong is still a force to be reckoned with in Wellington County, so the question is whether he will be now be a force in South Guelph. Chong will join us to talk about why the country should take a chance on a Conservative government and why Wellington-Halton Hills North should stay the course with him as MP.
The Future Party is Now. A lot of emerging parties have been taken for a test drive in Guelph, and in this election it's the Canadian Future Party that is dipping their toes in the waters of Guelph. Yurii Yavorskyi is Guelph's CFP candidate, one of 19 across the country trying to make the case for a non-partisan, evidence-based approach to governance. In fact, right on their party platform is a message to the major parties to steal their ideas. Yavorskyi will join us to talk about why the CFP's ideas are worth stealing.
Three Times the People. Syl Carle is a successful businessman and former RCMP officer, and for the third time he's trying to become the People's Party MP for Wellington-Halton Hills (North now). So he must be pretty dedicated, right? Why don't we let Carle speak for himself. To wrap up our extensive election coverage, we will talk to Carle about what keeps him coming back to the PPC, how he intends to finally get past Michael Chong and why he wants to sit in the House of Commons for this riding.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, in keeping with the theme immediately following the Easter weekend, we will talk about people coming back from the dead. Creatures of the night aren't the only ones making beautiful music in Sinners, which features a potent combination of leading man and filmmaker, and that's making us think of other great movie duets, so to speak.
This Wednesday, April 23, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Teams. This week's movie features once of the most potent modern film teams of a great actor and a great director: Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler. In film history, there have been all kinds of actor and director teams who did great things together not just once, not just twice, but three times or more. To begin this week, we will talk about some of the greatest who ever did it, and how they did it together!
REVIEW: Sinners (2025). Ryan Coogler's fifth movie is his first wholly original work, the story of two bootlegging brothers who come home to Mississippi to go into business for themselves only to find a bigger monster than the KKK. To play his hero, Coogler has relied on the man who's been featured in each of his movies so far, Michael B. Jordon, and he has to bring his considerable charm to this genre bending movie that's equal part horror, musical, thriller, crime drama and racial reckoning. Can a movie this bold possibly live up the hype?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
If you listen to this show promptly on Wednesday then it’s just five more sleeps till Election Day! About a quarter of us have been so excited that we just couldn’t wait to vote; 7.3 million Canadians made voting part of their Easter weekend festivities, a new record. What’s been driving all this excitement? What about the party platforms? The manoeuvres of the national party leaders? And what the hell happened at those post-debate scrums?
Once you might have been right saying that the electorate was eager to replace an old and tired regime under Justin Trudeau for the slick sloganeering of Pierre Poilievre, but as he usually does, Trump changed everything. Not content to make himself the main character of American politics, the U.S. President’s large shadow has been cast over the 45th Canadian general election, and that means it could be Mark Carney’s game even more than Poilievre.
But this is the Guelph Politicast, so let’s talk about Guelph, which is a riding, but not the only riding with Guelph in it. Guelph is now carried over two ridings: Guelph and Wellington-Halton Hills North. That means when the election is over, about 20,000 Guelphites will have an entirely different MP from the rest of the city, and if the polls are to be believed, they will each be represented by two different parties. Perhaps the post-election period is going to be even more interesting than this whole election...
But that’s a conversation for a later day. This conversation is with Open Sources Guelph co-host Scotty Hertz, back by popular demand, to talk all about the election. We'll discuss the added level of difficulty of covering two local races, the impact of splitting Guelph between two ridings, and the considerations being made by local voters. We will also talk about how people seem to be embracing stability, the politics of independent media, and why you shouldn’t move your stuff using a Cyber Truck(?).
So let's talk about the Canadian election campaign in 45 minutes or less on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can tune into election night coverage on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca on Monday starting at 8 pm, and if you’re interested in hearing interviews with the candidates running in Guelph and Wellington-Halton Hills North, tune in on Thursdays on CFRU or download OSG on Monday on this feed. You can also watch the interviews on Open Sources new YouTube channel. I will also be appearing at this week’s Breezy Breakfast at DeBar to talk more about the election, assuming that you haven’t had enough already
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got two hours! If you thought the show was over at 6 o'clock today, you're wrong because we have so much election coverage we've got to double the size of the this week's entry. Completing our all-Guelph, all-female set this week we will welcome back to the show one long-time labour activist and one-long time doctor and medical professional. Their goal: Convince you to vote for one of them!
This Thursday, April 17, at 6 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Notorious JFD. Janice Folk-Dawson has been a labour activist in Guelph for years, you've seen her face just about anywhere you've seen organised labour locally, but for the first time she's put her face on a campaign sign. Running for the NDP is not easy these days, but Folk-Dawson has been calling them the "conscience of Parliament", which is the reason why she hopes Guelphites might send her there. Folk-Dawson will joins us to talk about why she's ready to make trouble in Ottawa, and why you should want to send her there.
Doctor Change. Do we need a doctor? Anne-Marie Zajdlik thinks we do. Well known in the Guelph community for both her medical practice and her leadership on fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Zajdlik is now getting political with the Green Party. Hoping to make history in the mold of Mike Schreiner and Mike Morrice, Zajdlik thinks that the region can be a Green powerhouse, and now she just has to convince you and several thousand Guelphites. Zajdlik will talk about why Guelph's colour is still Green this election!
Programming Note: This is the second of back-to-back episodes of Open Sources Guelph this week and airs at the special time of 6 pm!
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we get really super-sized! Come for one regular hour of the show and you will get a second bonus hour of the show for no extra charge. What are we doing? We're put together a slate of interviews with candidates running in the riding of Guelph, and to kick things off we've got a well-known character from the show, and a brand new friend making her first appearance!
This Thursday, April 17, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Crimson Dominique. You probably already know Dominique O'Rourke pretty well, especially if you live in Ward 6 where she's still one of your city councillors. Now she's seeking higher office. O'Rourke is looking to make a move to Ottawa as Guelph's next MP, the fourth Liberal representative that Guelph has had in the last 30 years plus, and a few months ago that might have seemed dicy but now...? O'Rourke will join us to talk about why she wants to go back to the House of Commons (you'll see) and why she thinks Mark Carney is the man for the moment.
Dual of the Baetz. Guelph is not unfamiliar with the Communist Party of Canada, it started right here in town on Metcalfe Street, but the socialist flag this election is being waved by the Marxist-Leninist Party and Elaine Baetz. Who are the Marxist-Leninist Party and why should you throw your vote behind one of the 35 people they've got running across Canada this election? Baetz will tell you, and she will also explain why there's an opportunity this election to build a more consensus-driven governance, and why she thinks Guelph is ready for a real change.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
Programming Note: Another episode of Open Sources Guelph will immediately follow this one on CFRU!
This week on End Credits, we're on our phones. No, we're not being rude and using our phones in the movie theatre - we're not savages! - but this week's movie is about what happens when bad guys spend too much time on your phone. Don't meme yourself because we're checking out Drop and in that spirit, we're going to talk about other times tech has gone wrong!
This Wednesday, April 9, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Tech Gone Bad. This week's movie features a premise where a smart phone is used to taunt a woman into doing something sinister. Technology can be used to do great things, but it can also be used to do some very bad things and in honour of the release of Drop we will drop other titles where technology leads to some very bad outcomes for both people and the world at large, and we're not just talking about horror movies or Terminators!
REVIEW: Drop (2025). First dates are hard enough, but imagine being a widow on your first date after your husband's untimely (and unnatural) death and your phone starts going off with threats from an anonymous person: Kill your date or your little boy and your sister die! Christopher Landon, the filmmaker behind Happy Death Day and Freaky, puts White Lotus season two star Meghann Fahy through her paces in modern take on a classically Hitchcock affair, but can Drop get the drop on two cynical movie reviewers?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
We’re at the end of another school year, and while some students are looking forward to summer, they’re also looking forward to next fall. Or perhaps even stressing over it. Housing is a big issue in Guelph, and it’s somehow even bigger when it comes to student housing. Last summer, the largest first-year student enrolment ever weighed on students and the greater Guelph community, but relief may be coming if city council doesn’t get in the way(?).
So what, city council doesn’t want student housing in Guelph? Let’s just say it’s complicated. This is about phase two of the Alma, which is on the site of the former Holiday Inn at Stone and Scottsdale. The renovation of the old hotel was phase one, and phase two will add another nearly 600 beds, but there's a snag and it's whether or not Forum Asset Management has to pay over $15 million in development fees.
The Ontario government has made student residences exempt from DCs, but there’s some question about how you define “student residences”; does that apply only to student residences owned and operated by a post-secondary institution itself, or can it also apply to a private for-profit development like The Alma that just so happens to be on land owned by a university? This will be a question that council will have to answer on April 29, and this week, we will hear about the stakes.
Owen Ellis, who is the president of the Real Estate Students Association at the University of Guelph, is the guest this week to talk about the current state of student housing in the city, and what options that students would like to see when they're looking for a place to live in the Guelph. We also talk about the expectations and responsibilities for the University of Guelph, private developers, and why we all need to organize to do better for student renters.
So let's dig into another great housing debate on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can check out the website for the app he’s working on here. City council will look at the appeal of the development charges for phase two of the Alma on Tuesday April 29, and that agenda will be published on the City’s website this Thursday. Remember: If you’re interested in hearing interviews with the candidates running in Guelph and Wellington-Halton Hills North (which includes parts of Guelph), tune in to Open Sources Guelph on Thursdays on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca, or download OSG on Monday on this feed.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got bonusing! In our grand effort to cover all the candidates in Guelph and Wellington-Halton Hills North this election, we will be hitting your ears at the above average length of 90 minutes so you can hear from three of the dozen or so candidates running for the two local federal offices, our first interview with a Guelph candidate and two more for Wellington-Halton Hills North!
This Thursday, April 10, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Swack and Field. In their first election, the People's Party secured over a thousand votes in Guelph. In their second election, it was over 3,000 votes, which was nearly 2,100 votes less than the fourth place Green Party. So what about 2025? This time, the PPC flag is being hoisted by Jeffrey Swackhammer, a 23-year-old Guelph resident who, like a lot of young people, has a lot of concerns about housing and affordability, so does he have what it takes to make it rain purple in this election?
Stiles and Substance. It's not easy being Green these days. The Green Party of Canada is struggling to hold on to two seats and fending off a serious challenge to stay relevant in what looks more and more like a two-party race. In Wellington-Halton Hills North, a first time candidate will try to make a case that there's still room in the discourse for an optimistic take on a more environmentally-friendly future, and Liam Stiles will tells us why you should take a closer look at him and the Greens.
Get to the Chopper Pilot! Sean Carscadden has a hard job, and we don't just mean his day job as a Ornge air ambulance pilot. He's asking voters in Wellington-Halton Hills North to send him to Ottawa, to join a Liberal government already in progress, and to fire a well-known, well-liked, and popular Conservative MP to do it. Carscadden believes that a case can be made, and he will tell us why he's just the sort of fresh face and voice that help make voters think that the Liberals are ready for more.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're on stakeout. We're going to go back in time and ride shotgun with FBI agent Jude Law as he takes down the bad guys in the new movie The Order, which might be classified as a political thriller. Say... That would be an interesting topic to tackle at the beginning of this show, so let's do that!
This Wednesday, April 9, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Things Get Political. What makes a political thriller? Well, it's got to have, at least, some action, there has to be some mystery component, and it was to have a politically-motivated plot or characters. Sometimes there based on actual events, sometimes they're just inspired or are else completely made-up, but they otherwise forego the usual boring lawmaking of politics for something more deadly. We'll talk about some prime examples.
REVIEW: The Order (2025). You may have heard about David Koresh or Timothy McVeigh, but what about Bob Matthews? In the 1980s, he started a terrorist group of White Supremacists who had a specific mission in mind: Bring the racist dystopia novel The Turner Diaries to life! The story of Matthews, and the FBI-led effort to stop him, are now dramatised in The Order featuring two British guys - Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult - in a deadly face-off that still has political resonance, but how does the movie itself resonate?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
These are busy days at Politico HQ. There's a federal election on right now, and Guelph has become so big that it's spread over two ridings with so far a dozen candidates vying to be the next Members of Parliament. If one candidate in particular is successful then that means there will be a vacancy on Guelph city council. What happens then?
In the rare event that the City of Guelph has to fill a vacant council seat in the middle of a council term, for whatever the reason, the City Council Vacancy Policy goes into effect. It sets out the options for what the mayor and council should do if the there's an empty seat at the council table, or what a council should do if they suddenly find themselves without a mayor.
This week's episode of the podcast is dedicated to a reading of the City Council Vacancy Policy. Consider it an educational experience, and what can be more essential as we battle misinformation and look to resolve long-running blind spots in our civic awareness because while we love to complain about government many of us don't really know how it works. With this entry of the pod, we will start to aim to change that.
So let's dig into policy (for a change) on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can read the City Council Vacancy Policy here, and you can check out the list of other City of Guelph policies here. Remember: If you’re interested in hearing interviews with the candidates running in Guelph and Wellington-Halton Hills North (which includes parts of Guelph), tune in on Thursdays on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca, or download OSG on Monday on this feed.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we begin the difficult juggling act of covering two federal ridings at the same time! This week, we'll start by heading not to Guelph, but the new riding of Wellington-Halton Hills North, which includes South Guelph, where we will hear from two of the candidates hoping that a new riding means new opportunities for any candidate not named "Chong".
This Thursday, April, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Stuck in the Centre With You. Tired of partisan politics? Wishing people could come together and build consensus more? Then you might be interested in what Ian Smith has to say. The Erin-based businessman is one of several people across Canada running for the new Centrist Party of Canada in the hope that people want more than in-fighting and three-word slogans, and this week he will lean on his experience in housing management to talk about why the missing middle in politics might be the Centrists.
A Man of Acton. The last time Andrew Bascombe ran for federal office he was a new transplant to Acton. That was 2019, and six years later he's ready to do what might seem like the impossible on two fronts: Win one for the NDP and beat the long-standing incumbent Michael Chong. Bascombe will join us this week to talk about why this time it's different for both him and Chong, why the NDP have proved their ready to lead, and why no voter should sleep on an Orange Wave at the end of this month.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're hitting the high notes! We know that this show is not necessarily high brow, but this week we're going to the opera with the new Atom Egoyan film Seven Veils. Along with that, we're going to look at the film's star, who's enjoyed a successful and varied career, and talk about all the times she's made an impression.
This Wednesday, April 2, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Mandy! This week's movie stars Amanda Seyfried, who is an actress that's been around for nearly 20 years now after her first big screen appearance as one of the titular Mean Girls. Since then she's done drama, she's done action, she's done scary, and she even got an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, but before digging into her new role in Seven Veils, we're going to talk the best of Amanda Seyfried.
Seven Veils (2025). In Atom Egoyan's latest movie, a theatre director is called back to the opera company where she go her start at the request of her former mentor and lover, it was his final wish that she stage a revival of the opera Salome. Egoyan revisits some of his old themes about unhappy families and sexual power, but it's also done through a #MeToo lens and against the background of Egoyan's own production of Salome at the Canadian Opera Company. So there's a lot going on, and we will try and sort it all out!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
These are some heady political times. We’ve already made it through one election this year, and we’re now in the midst of another. As we’re going to air, the consumer carbon tax is gone, the major parties are duelling to see who can be the most moderate, and it appears that things like environmental stewardship and compassion are just not affordable. Maybe it’s time to re-calibrate.
Let’s talk about the last few weeks at city council for a moment. This week’s Committee of the Whole meeting tackled the new Private Tree Bylaw and the potential use of the Drill Hall as an art and cultural centre, which the staff report made it clear that these are things we can’t fully afford now. And last week, the Public Space Use Bylaw was amended so there’s definitely message emanating from inside the halls of city hall: We’re now in a time of austerity.
It’s a dirty word that activists don’t like hearing, especially if they’re on the progressive side. Not wanting to get lost in the mishegoss of the federal election happening right now, we're going to re-calibrate and focus on city hall stuff, and regular council observer and a semi-regular council delegate Morgan Dandie is going to help us with that. She’s often been a fly in the ointment at city council on all kinds of issues, so how is she feeling about the current political moment as a council observer?
Morgan Dandie will answer that and other questions as she talks about the state of city council, the state of Mayor Guthrie’s perceived relationship with the other members of council, and how “Gotcha moments” are in the eye of the beholder. She will also talk about whether or not she thinks her delegations have an impact, being open to learning new things, her own successful efforts to improve herself as a speaker and a politician, and what keeps her hopeful as an activist.
So let's get into some Guelph Politi-Chat on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can follow Morgan Dandie on Instagram. You can see what she said at Committee of the Whole yesterday and get other information about what’s coming up at city council meetings on the City of Guelph’s website. And a programming note: If you’re interested in hearing interviews with the candidates running in Guelph and Wellington-Halton Hills North (which includes parts of Guelph), tune in on Thursdays on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca, or download OSG on Monday on this feed.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we are so back! Back on the campaign trail that is!! Yes, there's now a full-blown federal election across Canada and to kick things off on this show, we're going to talk about the opening moves by party leaders, the opening faux pas by a provincial leader, and how this election is going to look very different for all the voters in the Royal City no matter what riding they're in (?).
This Thursday, March 27, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
April Election Showers. Wrapping up his first couple of weeks as Prime Minister, Mark Carney decided that he's done everything he needed to do get the party election ready and visited the Governor General to start one. The date is April 28, and the first five days of the campaign have already been action-packed; from questions about conflicts of interest and potential election interference, plus the efficacy of Canada's third-tier political parties. What should we make of Campaign 2025: Week #1?
Ms. Smith Goes to Florida. As we're going to air, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is going to the Sunshine State. Again. Florida is ground zero for the MAGA movement, and Smith has been spending a lot of time there, but it's her recent appearance on a Breitbart podcast that not only has people calling her out for siding so blatantly with Donald Trump, but wounding the Conservative Party's first few days on the campaign trail in the process. So is Smith helping or hindering the Team Canada effort?
Now Twice the Guelph. It may surprise you to learn that depending on where you live in Guelph, you may not actually be in the federal riding of Guelph. Yes, the City of Guelph is now spread between the ridings of Guelph and Wellington-Halton Hills North, so that means you may have an entirely different set of candidates to vote for than your friends and neighbours. To wrap up, we're going to talk about the two Guelph ridings, their candidates, and the political considerations for the voters there.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we get bad. Cue the Inner Circle music because we're heading back to the Halcyon days of the mid-90s to revisit a couple of bad boys. And then, in the here and now, we're going to talk about people behaving badly in the name of patriotic service with the new spy thriller Black Bag. God save the King and the movie-going audience!
This Wednesday, March 26, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Bad Boys at 30! Could you have imagined that when Bad Boys came out three decade ago that we'd still be cranking out Bad Boys movies in the 2020s? Probably not. Bad Boys didn't look like a movie that would stand the test of time, another dumb buddy cop action movie, but it launched Will Smith to superstardom, Michael Bay to blank cheque status, and it became a franchise of surprising longevity. Today, we go back to the beginning.
REVIEW: Black Bag (2025). What if Steven Soderbergh took Mr. and Mrs. Smith seriously, but not, like, too seriously...? That kind of seems like the pitch for Black Bag, a spy thriller about married spies played by Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett where a man must determine whether his beloved wife is traitor, or whether it's one of their frenemies in the agency. It's high stakes, but done with the same Soderbergh light touch as his Ocean's 11 movies, so do we black bag Black Bag, or should all of you open the bag and dive in!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
In six days, the doors of Guelph’s Consumption and Treatment site will close for the last time. Unless a Charter challenge in an Ontario court succeeds, the Ontario government’s mandate to close a dozen different CTSes and replacement them with new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment, or HART, Hubs. Or at least that was the plan. Either way, what happens on April 1?
It was kind of a surprise last summer when the Ontario government announced that they were closing several consumption and treatment sites. The justification? Safety. Any CTS within 200 metres of a school or daycare has to close down and in their place is a HART Hub, which will provide primary care, mental health services, shelter and transition beds, supportive housing and more.
Looking at the numbers, the success of the Guelph CTS is clear; 41,000 visits, 1,000 referrals to primary care, 44 people per month referred to treatment, 311 drug poisonings reversed - only 12 requiring a follow trip to the hospital - and zero fatalities. While activists and advocates welcome the nearly $400 million in new funding, especially for the housing, but there’s still a lot of concern about what’s going to happen April 1.
To learn more, we're joined this week by Guelph Community Health Centre executive director Melissa Kwiatkowski and Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy manager Jean Hopkins. They will discuss the anxieties and concerns about the pending closure of the CTS, the impact on the services Community Health can offer, and what exactly will change on April 1. They will also discuss what the Guelph HART Hub will offer, how it’s not a replacement for safe consumption services, and how they’re planning on filling the gaps between the two.
Let's talk about these last days for the CTS on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the CTS at the Community Health website and you can find the Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy website here. There will be another drug poisoning and overdose response skills training on Tuesday April 29 at 6:30 pm at Art Not Shame downtown, and you can find direct links to more information about the transition from the CTS to the HART Hub 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got Canadian Tire money to burn. Like Justin Trudeau! Who spent the first day of the first week of the rest of his life pretending he's a normal guy. As for his successor, he was going stuff this week, while south of the border there's this guy that keeps talking smack about Canada, and now he's rounding up people who are using their voices to be critical of foreign powers.
This Thursday, March 20, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Arctic Blast. Nearly wrapping up his first week as the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney did a whirlwind tour of France, the U.K. and Iqaluit where he announced a deal to buy a new radar system from the Australians to insure northern security. Meanwhile in Ottawa, the Conservatives are trying any and every strategy to get something on the new PM as his numbers keep going up and theirs keeps going down. So how is Carney doing after six days?
51st State of Play. Since U.S. President Donald Trump started talk about all this 51st state nonsense, there's been a persistent nagging question: How seriously are we supposed to take all this? While there are some serious implications from things like the tariffs and the trade disputes, what's the endgame here? Does Trump seriously want Canada to be a part of the United States, or is this just more of his patented trolling?
Khalil's Speech. You may not know the name Mahmoud Khalil, but he was one of the organisers of the campus protest at Columbia University last year demonstrating against the War in Gaza. Now he's the canary in the coal mine. Despite his status as a legal immigrant, and his marriage to an American citizen with whom he's expecting a child, he was arrested by government agents and is presently being held in detention with the administration promising more to come. Has the American nightmare arrived?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going out to the farm. Everyone yearns at some point for a more simple life on the land, and it looks like one of them is Tom Green... so he made a film about it. On this episode we're reviewing This is The Tom Green Documentary, and we will also take the unusual step of critiquing the critics and the rare times they've got it wrong.
This Wednesday, March 19, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Wrong Turns. The subject of this week's film is Tom Green, who once made Freddy Got Fingered, which was declared by one critic as "quite simply the worst movie ever released by a major studio in Hollywood history". Hyperbolic? Probably, which reminds us that sometimes critics are wrong, or at the very least over-the-top in their negative assessment of a movie, so to begin this week, we will talk about some critical misses.
REVIEW: This is The Tom Green Documentary (2025). At the turn of the century a simple man made a splash on Ottawa cable access TV with his out-there sense of comedy. Tom Green took his eponymous show to Hollywood and then they started putting him movies. The world was his oyster, but then he got cancer and his career never fully recovered. In his new documentary about himself, Green looks at his wild ride and his latest turn as a proud farmer in Eastern Ontario, but is the life of Tom worth celebrating on film?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Maybe you don’t remember, or want to remember, but it was this time five years ago that the world closed down as COVID-19 became so virulent that it required us to be sequestered for months or else keep six feet apart while wearing a mask or other PPE. Many of us have memory-holed those events, some have re-written it as an overreaction or, even worse than that, a conspiracy, but perhaps the time has come to face our trauma about the pandemic.
Here are some of the headlines from the March 20, 2020 edition of the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet newsletter: “All City of Guelph facilities are now closed to the public including City Hall", “The two remaining city council meetings for March have been cancelled”, and “The Guelph General Hospital, as well as other area hospitals, have initiated more stringent measures on who can visit the hospital and when”. There was a lot going on, and no one knew how it was all going to shake out in the end.
It may not seem like it, but on this fifth anniversary of the pandemic, COVID-19 is still around. Even once diligent maskers don’t mask anymore, even when they’re sick, fewer people are getting their booster shots, and when you talk to people about their pandemic memories it’s about how we took it too seriously and spent too much in response. Is that how you remember it? What should we be thinking about following our COVID experience now half-a-decade later?
The perfect guest to answer these and similar questions is Dr. Nicola Mercer, who is the Medical Officer of Health for Wellington, Dufferin, and Guelph. She's going to talk about the warning signs she saw in advance, what she and Public Health got right about the pandemic response, and what she thinks they might have done better in hindsight. We will also talk about the lessons learned, the current state of COVID-19, and how our experiences might inform the response to the next pandemic.
So let's rewind to 2020 on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health at their website, where you can find links to information about immunizations, health alerts, data dashboards, and agendas for the Board of Health meetings. You can also follow them on social media @WDGPublicHealth on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we order a side-helping of change and economic concern. The new prime minister and the new-old premier met this week to talk about their common enemy: the crazy person currently occupying the White House. For the other half of the show, we will look to more local concerns with one of the members of city council from the first (in numerical order) ward!
This Thursday, March 13, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Carney in Charge. It wasn't exactly a horse race and in the end it seemed like a rocket ship, but Mark Carney is now set to be the next Prime Minister of Canada... but for how long? The once long odds for the Federal Liberals now look better with many polls showing a statistical tie between them and the Conservatives, and Carney already looks like a man of action even without yet being sworn into the role. Can Carney complete the greatest political comeback in Canadian history?
Ford Tough? Two weeks after winning his snap election call, Doug Ford has thrown himself into the tariff fight with the Trump White House, which resulted in a 25 per cent surcharge on electricity exports to the United States that were then paused when Ford secured a meeting with the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. What comes from that meeting is still to be determined, but Ford's role as Captain Canada seems minted even as we're asking: Does Ford know what he's doing?
Caton Expectations. Last week at Committee of the Whole, Guelph city council looked at an update to the Code of Conduct that will govern social media use, and there was a lot of confusion about what it was supposed to do. Also, there were some questions about the Accessibility Advisory Committee's desire for more autonomy and self-governance. We have the perfect person in mind for further discussion on these matters, and it's natural techspert, accessibility advocate and Ward 1 City Councillor Erin Caton!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're still having February thoughts. Although it's March now, we're going to revisit Valentine's Day with the rom-com/horror mash-up Heart Eyes, and because we can't escape the ramifications of what's going on everyday in the White House, we will talk about how Canadian cinephiles can do their part in the trade wars.
This Wednesday, March 12, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Trade War Movies. You may have heard that there's a trade war happening. Anger at the U.S. President has extended to all things American, including streaming sites like Netflix and Prime Video, which people are cancelling in frustration. So in that spirit, we will start this week with some trade war programming. We will talk about where you can find some great Canadian movies on some great Canadian streaming sites.
REVIEW: Heart Eyes (2025). Two genres that play by their own well-established rules: rom-coms and slashers. Two great tastes that taste great together? That's the question at the heart of Heart Eyes, which essentially asks "What would happen if there's a Hallmark movie and suddenly there was a masked killer farting around?" The makers of Happy Death Day, Werewolves Within, and It's a Wonderful Knife answer that question, but whether or not that answer is satisfying for two well-known horror heads is a bigger question.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
When we talk about the affordability crisis, you sometimes hear the term “legislated poverty”, meaning the state of social assistance rates like Ontario Works and ODSP that assure people can never get ahead because the amounts paid never cover all the real costs of daily life. That’s why Mike Morrice decided to act when he was elected to the House of Commons in 2021, but like all great quests, it hasn’t ended up the way he envisioned.
Can one person make a difference? This is the question when you elect anyone, but without a party whip or a legislative agenda, an MP pretty much has to follow their own north star and Kitchener MP Morrice followed his star to a private member’s bill called the Canada Disability Benefit Act. The goal was to offer low-barrier, additional assistance to people with disabilities to help get them out of legislated poverty, but as always happens, reality couldn’t live up to aspirations.
When finished, the act proposed that people with disabilities in Canada will receive up to $200 per month once they’ve been approved for the Disability Tax Credit and all the requisite forms have been filled. On top of that, there was even doubt for a while that disabled people would even start getting their $200 this summer because the Treasury Board hadn’t approved the regulations until last week, which wouldn't have happened at all in the event of a snap election.
So how does the man who sponsored the Canada Disability Benefit Act feel now that he’s on the other side? Morrice will talk about that, why he fought so hard for the act, and why, even though it’s watered down, it’s still going to be a game changer for people with disabilities in Canada. He will also talk about the ins and outs working with the government to get the bill done, fighting for key provisions to make the bill better, and the marathon the last few weeks to get the regulations finished before any potential election.
So let's talk about how the proverbial sausage gets made on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Canada Disability Benefit Act on the Government of Canada’s website. You can also check out Mike Morrice’s ongoing advocacy on this and other issues at his 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're coming down from election fever, and maybe get ready to catch it once again...(?) Yes, the time has come for a new Liberal leader to be selected, which is its own drama, but nothing compared to the drama in the White House, which is exactly how its main occupant likes it (and the rest of us hate). For the interview this week, we've got a two-for-one special!
This Thursday, March 6, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Garbage Disp-Oval. There's been no doubt that U.S. President Donald Trump is hostile to continued support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, but even by those standards what happened in the Oval Office last Friday was a disaster. A gathering in the U.K. on the weekend sought to buttress the rest of NATO in supporting Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but the bigger question is whether we can any longer be called the "Leader of the Free World".
Carney of Won? At the end of this weekend, we will know who the new Liberal leader and Prime Minister of Canada will be. The safe money now is on Mark Carney, the former head of the Bank of Canada, and it certainly seems like the Conservative Party sees him as the prime minister in waiting, but what are Carney's chances really, and is Canada's favourite banker primed for an upset this Sunday?
The Green Book. The Green Party of Ontario had one goal in last week's provincial election: Win more seats. That didn't work out, but party members and supporters can't say it was a total loss. For the first time in Open Sources history, we are hosting an entire party caucus from the Ontario legislature - Mike Schreiner and Aislinn Clancy - who will join us to talk about the election results, the lessons learned and what comes next.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we can't stop doing the monkey! Not the dance, but the movie of the same name that has been winning fans at cinemas all around the country these last couple of weeks. So yes, we're talking about The Monkey, and we're also going to be talking about the life and movies of another Hollywood icon!
This Wednesday, March 5, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
For Gene. While the circumstances of his passing still has many unanswered questions, there's no doubt that Gene Hackman is one of the greatest actors ever to grace the silver screen. From The French Connection to Unforgiven to The Royal Tenenbaums, Hackman's legacy has been secured, and that's not bad for the guy his classmates at the Pasadena Playhouse called "least likely to succeed". To start this week, we honour Gene.
REVIEW: The Monkey (2025). The Monkey represents a horror trifecta: It's based on a story by Stephen King, produced by James Wan, and directed by Longlegs filmmaker Osgood Perkins. Perkins' success last year with Longlegs established himself as cinematic stylist and he brings all his skills to bear on this story about a cursed toy monkey that brings a swift and terrible death to the people around it. But The Monkey is actually a comedy too, which is not always an easy needle to thread, so has Perkins delivered the blood and gut(buster)s?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Although housing and homelessness has been THE issue for the last few years, it feels like they didn’t make a dent in the recently completed provincial election. As the news obsessively tracks the tariff war and Doug Ford’s response to Donald Trump’s latest drama, the struggles of growing unaffordability and homelessness seems to have taken a back seat., So now that the election is over, does anyone in authority still care about these issues?
Back in December, Premier Ford held a media event at Queen’s Park. In the company of several mayors he announced the Ontario Restoring Safety to Parks and Public Spaces Act, a bill that expanded police powers in dealing with encampments and offered stiffer penalties for people who repeatedly break trespass laws and use illegal drugs in public. But just before the election call there was a turnaround, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing said that maybe it wasn't needed after all.
Not wanting to take chances, the Ontario Coalition for the Rights of Homeless People’s tried to rally the political parties to all make the same campaign promise: A clear public commitments against criminalizing homelessness. Three of the four major parties signed up in common cause, but guess which one did not. With a new four-year majority for the Ford government secured there are now a lot of questions about what will happen next on the homelessness file.
There many questions to ask, and this week we're asking Diana Chan McNally, who is a community and crisis worker in Toronto and co-ordinator of the Ontario Coalition for the Rights of Homeless People. She will talk about her expectations before the election, how issues of poverty got overshadowed by tariffs, and her concerns about another attempt at criminalizing homelessness. She will also discuss what the action plan is now, and why the next fight with the provincial government will be through municipalities.
So let's talk about where we go no on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about The Ontario Coalition for the Rights of Homeless People at their website. You can follow her on social media on Twitter and Blue Sky and you find links to her activism, op-eds and other work at Link Tree. At present there’s no word on when the legislature will return or when and if the government will table the Ontario Restoring Safety to Parks and Public Spaces Act again.
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, 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.
It's four weeks of snow, promises, confusion, and apathy and after the longest shortest month of the calendar, we have finally come to this: Election Day! Now typically on Thursday there's a new episode of Open Sources Guelph, but because Election Day falls on Thursday, we're going to do it later, and we're going to do it live!
Thursday February 27 at 8 pm, the Open Sources and CFRU News teams will go live to talk about the incoming results and immediate analysis as Ontarian choose their government for the next four years. Has Ford fumbled? Did Stiles slip? Will Crombie crush it? Will Schreiner turn his dynamic duo into the fantastic four? All questions will be answered including, why are we doing this again?
For the Open Sources interviews with the Guelph candidates, click on the links below:
Robert Coole, PC Party
Carina Fraser, New Blue
Mike Schreiner, Greens
Cameron Spence, NDP
Mustafa Zuberi, Liberals
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're heading back into the wild! Things always get pretty wild when it comes to Oscar-season as one team of PR flacks tries to 86 the other, but things also get wild on an uninhabited island where even robots can enjoy a world without rules! On this show, we're reviewing The Wild Robot and we will talk about the Oscars!
This Wednesday, February 26, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Not An Oscars Ballot. The 97th annual Academy Awards will be given out this Sunday live from Hollywood. Who will win? We'll get to that. Emilia Pérez has the most nominations, but not many fans among cinephiles who would much rather see honours go to Brady Corbet and The Brutalist or Sean Baker and Anora. To start this pre-Oscars show, we will lay out the ones we think will win the show, and the one's that should win.
REVIEW: The Wild Robot (2024). Speaking of the Oscars, the movie we're reviewing this week is nominated for one. The Wild Robot debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, and then it had long legs in theatres even long after it was released on premium VOD. Why? That's what we wanted to find out so this week we check out The Wild Robot, which you can now stream on Prime Video, to see how this Oscar-nominated film hit a nerve and maybe if it will hit our nerves too.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It’s been four weeks since Doug Ford asked the Lieutenant-Governor to dissolve the legislature and it really hasn’t felt like anything has changed. Now, we will go to the polls on Thursday to decide who will form the provincial government for the next four years and despite all the issues, it feels like it’s still going to be the people who’ve run it for the last seven years. So what have we missed this election?
Early voting last weekend registered a six per cent voter turnout across Ontario. Not great. Accessibility activists have noted that this winter campaign generally, and the last week of wicked weather specifically, have thrown up big barriers to participation for anyone that’s not able bodied, and wasn’t that the point? It sure seems like it was and the impact has been pretty visibly felt: How many election events have you been to?
Out of the campaign trail it’s been rough going. The two likely successors to Doug Ford - Marit Stiles and Bonnie Crombie - have been straining to get attention. The Greens, led by Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner, have been pragmatic: They will not form a government, but they might be able to secure a few extra seats. And as for the big man himself he’s been playing fast and loose with election rules, and going back and forth as candidate and premier. Now, there's 24 hours left till Election Day. What will happen?
Scotty Hertz, co-host every week on Open Sources Guelph, appears today for a pre-game show. We will talk about what six per cent early voter turnout means, the ins and outs of winter campaigning, and why this didn’t end up being a change election. We will also talk about the leaders’ campaign, the various party strategies, and why Ford’s been allowed to slide on all the domestic failures while failing in Washington on trade. Also what questions do we have going into our election night coverage?
So let's get into this election that almost was on this week's Guelph Politicast!
This Thursday, February 27, we will be going live to air for results and analysis starting at 8 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca. For the interviews with the candidates running in the ridings of Guelph and Welligton-Halton Hills, you can check out previous episodes on this feed. To find where and how to vote this Thursday, go to elections.on.ca to find the polling location nearest you.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we go mega! On this super-sized edition of the show, the last one before Election Day and the episode that opens three days of advanced polling, we will profile the three candidates we haven't covered yet. From the long-time campaigner running for the governing party, to an upstart trying to rebuild a Liberal stronghold, and a new face for a new party!
This Thursday, February 20, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Be Coole. You may not know Robert Coole, but he's been doing politics in Guelph for a long-time as a reliable and seasoned campaigner for local Conservatives, but now, he's in the spotlight as the PC Party candidate in this provincial election. Coole will join us to talk about why Guelph needs a voice in the next PC government, and why he's taking the spotlight after years of playing in politics behind the scenes.
Mustafa: The Liberal Candidate. There are a lot of young people running for the Ontario Liberals, and Mustafa Zuberi is one of them. Pretty well established in local politics thanks to his years running the Young Liberals at the University of Guelph, Zuberi now aims to be the next MPP from this riding and part of a Bonnie Crombie government. He will tell us why the Liberals are ready to run Ontario again.
If the Blue Fits... Just when it looked like there would be no emerging party candidates running in Guelph this election, we get the arrival of Carina Fraser. The author and single mother is running for New Blue, which, as the name implies, is an alternative to the PCs aiming to collect the ones turned off by Doug Ford and not willing to bank on one of the other major parties. Fraser will tells us why you shouldn't sleep on the New Blue.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
According to the latest polls, the governing PCs might be in minority government territory, and the spoiler might be a revitalized Liberal Party. In Wellington-Halton Hills it will be a big climb because while this seat is open, the Liberals finished fourth in a close race for second in 2022. Is there the possibility that without Ted Arnott on the ballot that voters might be willing to take a closer look at the man from Acton?
When he was last elected in 2022, Arnott won more votes than the NDP, Greens, Liberals, and New Blue combined. Incumbency has its advantages, but so does longevity. How many people in Wellington-Halton Hills were voting for Arnott out of sheer habit? For 34 years at the Ontario legislature, Ted Arnott was always there. In fact, for some people living in Halton Hills and some parts of Wellington, Ted Arnott is the only MPP they’ve ever known
Alex Hilson is one of those people. It’s interesting to note that two of the people running to replace Arnott are Halton Hills councillors. Hilson represents Ward 1 in Acton, and has been running a pretty solid social media campaign during this election. He's a people person, as his background working with youth and the Acton BIA might imply, but will the people be willing to take a chance on him as part of a new Liberal dynasty?
Hilson join us to answer that question and more. He will talk about his background, why youth matters right now in Halton Hills politics, and how his experience as a city councillor informed his desire to run for provincial office. We will also talk about the Liberal comeback under Bonnie Crombie, and what the Liberals need to do in order to earn the trust of the electorate again. Plus what issues is Hilson personally concerned about?
So let's talk about a Liberal comeback on this episode of the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast!
You can learn more about Alex Hilson and his campaign at this website. For the interviews with the candidates running in the riding of Guelph this provincial election, you can check out Open Sources Guelph. Election Days is this Thursday, February 27, and we will be going live to air with the CFRU News Team that night with election results and analysis starting at 8 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca.
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, 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.
This week on End Credits, we find an America we're glad to call "Captain". Hey, we know that the United States is having its issues right now (and if you don't there's a show for that), but one them isn't finding a new Captain America! This week, we will enter a Brave New World, and we also talk about the fine art of starting over.
This Wednesday, February 19, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Mike Ashkewe will discuss:
Remake, Reboot and Requel. Although it's not technically a reboot, it's pretty safe to look at Captain America: Brave New World as chance to restart a long-running franchise that's been struggling in recent years. This is not a new trend because Hollywood studios love their franchises, and when the audiences don't respond, that's when they pull out all the stops to get the series back on track. To start, we'll talk about our favourite do-overs!
Captain America: Brave New World (2025). When we last left the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Deadpool and Wolverine met and fought (and fought). But don't expect a lot of in-jokes and jocularity with Captain America: Brave New World, the first featuring Anthony Mackie as the title character, and the first of three new Marvel efforts this year. But this new Cap isn't getting an easy start with threats of war, a conspiracy, and a president with a secret, but can Captain America beat his worst adversary of all: The Critics?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
In 2022, the three major Ontario opposition parties finished very closely together in Wellington-Halton Hills with the Liberals finishing 804 votes short of the second place NDP, and 82 votes short of the third place Greens. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise then that the Green Party of Ontario sees Wellington-Halton Hills as prime target for an upset this election, but can the party be that upsetting with so much on the line?
If you follow Mike Schreiner’s campaign schedule, you will note that he’s oscillating between four different ridings: Guelph (obviously), Kitchener-Centre, Parry Sound-Muskoka, and, as you might have guessed, Wellington-Halton Hills. Whether the Green Party can win this riding will largely depend on their candidate, and in this case it’s a councillor from the literal and figurative centre of Wellington-Halton Hills.
Wilton was first elected to Centre Wellington council in 2022 after growing up in the area, going to the University of Guelph and starting her own business in Fergus. She’s one of three municipal councillors in this race, which might speak to an inherent frustration with our political system. So what happens if the Green Party makes a breakthrough here? What does it mean if the voters there reject over three decades of PC control?
Those are just a couple of the questions that Wilton will answer on this week’s podcast. She will also talk about why she wanted to run for provincial office, why she’s running for the Green Party, and why Schreiner is so confident that the odds are in her favour. She will also talk about why the environment needs to be a bigger issue, what the Ford government’s impact on rural Ontarians has been, and whether she agrees with Schreiner's assertion that Doug Ford has not made rural Ontario a priority.
So let's talk about going Green on this episode of the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast!
You can learn more about Bronwynne Wilton and her campaign at her campaign website or the Green Party website. We will be cranking out another episode of the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast this weekend, and, as you’re waiting, keep in mind that advanced voting is on February 20 through 22 and you can find out where to go at elections.on.ca.
NOTE: You will be able to hear interviews with all of the Provincial election candidates running in Guelph every Monday on the podcast version of Open Sources Guelph, and every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca!
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're not feeling the love. One day before Valentine's Day, we will dive into some of the biggest news of the day including a crazy person's plans for one of the most volatile regions on the planet. Back here at home, there's some concern about post-secondary spending, which is a provincial jurisdiction and that reminds us: We have an other election candidate to talk to!
This Thursday, February 13, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
"We'll Own It." All quiet on the western front? Hardly. While the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is holding, it hasn't been easy and there have been some new wrinkles. Specifically, it's Donald Trump's threat to seize Gaza and turn it into the "Riviera of the Middle East", which he reiterated this week in front of the King of Jordan (who couldn't get out of the White House fast enough). So should we be worried about Trump's threats, or is it just another distraction?
College-Level Economics. The new cap on international students is having an impact on Ontario's colleges with several now actively talking about deficits, job cuts and the elimination of programs. Some may blame these institutions for relying too much on the unrestricted tuition fees from students outside Canada, but this is also the result of the Ontario government's systemic underfunding over the last several years. With the election now halfway done, is it time to really talk about post-secondary finances?
Spence For Hire. The NDP are Ontario's official opposition, or, to put it another way, the government in waiting. Cameron Spence has also been waiting. He's one of millions of Ontarians who have been struggling in the current economy and have dealt with the housing crisis first hand, and now he wants to do something about it as Guelph's next MPP. We will talk to Spence about his non-political path to this election, and why Guelph should reject its current representative and take a flyer on an NDP-led legislature.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
There are seven people running in Wellington-Halton Hills, but only one of them is a party leader. If you’re looking at this election and are thinking to yourself that it’s pretty messed up that the premier can just call an election 16 months early and in the midst of several intermingling crisis, and that there should be a better way, then you might be the type of voter that Ron Patava and Consensus Party is looking for.
Patava has previously been a guest on this podcast. He ran in Wellington-Halton Hills as one of a dozen Consensus candidates around Ontario, but in between then and now he has risen through the ranks to the leadership of Consensus. Not that Consensus is really focused on leadership, or course. It's meant to be a stirring call to have " a decision-making structure that involves and takes into account as broad a range of opinions as possible."
Patava learned from this 2022 campaign: It’s not enough to be about building a new system, it’s about trying to do more to promote the types of change people are looking for everyday. As you will hear in this interview, he’s got three policy ideas in addition to creating a new consensus-based government. It’s compelling and slightly outside the box thinking, but even in an open riding like Wellington-Halton Hills, can a candidate like Patava get ahead?
He’s going to talk about that, how he was elevated to the role of leader, and whether or not the last few years at Queen’s Park have proved him right when it comes to needing a new way of doing government business. He will also tells us again about how a consensus government model would work, what he can do for the riding as a one man band, and why voters should take a flyer on him in this moment where a 34-year incumbent has left the field.
So let's build consensus on this edition of the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast!
You can learn more about the Consensus Party and his candidacy at their website. We will be cranking out another episode of the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast this weekend, and, as you’re waiting, keep in mind that advanced voting is on February 20 through 22 and you can find out where to go at elections.on.ca.
NOTE: You will be able to hear interviews with all of the Provincial election candidates running in Guelph every Monday on the podcast version of Open Sources Guelph, and every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca!
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.
This week on End Credits, we celebrate this holiday of love with a movie about fights! If you're looking for something to watch with a sweetheart, and you don't want some soapy rom-com, you can always check out Love Hurts, and we'll talk about why (not?). Our topic will accompany the star of that film who once appeared in another more famous movie!
This Wednesday, February 12, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Goonies Never Stay 'Unemployed'! The movie we're reviewing this week features Ke Huy Quan, who was one of the young cast members of a movie called The Goonies, which turns 40 years old this year. Many of the cast members are still working in the business, and they've all starred in some very interesting and distinctive projects. To begin this week's show, we will talk about some of those other efforts since Goonies are still employable!
REVIEW: Love Hurts (2025). Ke Huy Quan was a successful actor when he was a kid, but as an adult he made a living in the industry as a fight choreographer before making a big comeback with Everything Everywhere All at Once. Quan combines both worlds in Love Hurts, a new film from 87North, makers of the John Wick films, which follows a former hit man who gets sucked back into his old life on Valentine's Day when his unrequited love (played by Ariana DeBose) returns. So Love Hurts, but does watching the movie hurt?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
In some respects, Wellington-Halton Hills is the riding to watch this year because, for the first time in three decades. it’s competitive. Ted Arnott announced that he would not be seeking re-election at the end of the last term, and while the PC Party would like to hold on to this one, opportunity is knocking for the other major parties. Today, Ontario's official opposition will make their case for the riding next door!
Of the four major party candidates in Wellington-Halton Hills, only one of them is not presently a politician with a municipal council. Between those four, there’s also an even split between candidates representing the urban side of the riding, and the more rural parts. Simone Kent is the from the rural side, and she's the one major party candidate who's not presently in a political office, but that's not to say that she doesn't keep busy.
Kent has a unique resume being both a dairy farmer and an education worker. She’s stayed active in organizations like Centre Wellington’s environmental committee and Jersey Ontario, a non-profit association for Jersey cow owners and breeders. Farming, education, the environment, grassroots organizing: that’s about as good as it gets for a resume for an NDP candidate, but what does Kent think of the issues, and what does she want to do as the first MPP in nearly 35 years whose not Ted Arnott?
We will get an answer to that and other questions on this week’s edition of the podcast as Kent talks about why she’s running and being the only major party candidate not already in politics. She will also talk about what an NDP-led Ontario government will do for Ontarians, and what kind of premier Marit Stiles would be. Also, she will discuss, whether Doug Ford has been ignoring Ontario’s farmers, and the issues she wants to put front and centre in these last two weeks of this very truncated campaign.
So let's dig into the NDP case on this edition of the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast!
You can learn more about the Ontario NDP, their candidates, and their platform at the party's website. We will be cranking out another episode of the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast this weekend, and, as you’re waiting, keep in mind that advanced voting is on February 20 through 22 and you can find out where to go at elections.on.ca.
NOTE: You will be able to hear interviews with all of the Provincial election candidates running in Guelph every Monday on the podcast version of Open Sources Guelph, and every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca!
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're trying to project calm. It was a long weekend as we waited for a certain Florida Man who was inexplicably re-elected as President of the United States to blow up our economy, and we can't even avail ourselves of healthcare because that's in a terrible position in Ontario. So, what can we do to fix this? Our guest this week has some ideas and he wants you to elect him again to put them in action!
This Thursday, February 6, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Trade in Full. It was, as Shakespeare said, a tale of sound and fury signifying nothing. After announcing on Saturday that he would impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, U.S. President Donald Trump relented on Monday afternoon after both countries, essentially, promised to do things that they were already doing. Now, we're under a 30-day reprieve and who knows what happens then, even Donald Trump. So what happens when February ends?
Sick? Oh. So there's an election right now, maybe you heard about it. There's a lot of back-and-forth on the campaign trail about what political parties want to do about healthcare, about we don't want to talk about policy, we want to talk about the extent of the problem. With hospitals under financial pressure, suffering a desperate need for more people and more facilities, and the growing spread of privatisation, we will talk about what healthcare in Ontario looks like and what it needs beyond platitudes.
Still Like Mike? Getting back to the candidates, we will start our interviews with Guelph candidates this week with a familiar face. Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner is the incumbent in Guelph having won the last elections, and it seems to be a foregone conclusion that he will win again. Still, Schreiner says he wants to fight for it, and make sure that Guelphites really want to send him back to Queen's Park, and maybe with some more Green peeps by his side(?). Schreiner will tell us how he intends to make all that happen.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we head east, young man. As we continue our cinematic trip through this year's Oscar nominees, we stop in Poland for A Real Pain, which is now easy to stream on Disney+. Before that though, we will stop and consider the calendar. What month is this? Why it's Black History Month, and we will look at some examples of great Black film talent!
This Wednesday, February 5, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Black History Month Movies. This is our first show for February, so it seems right to spend a portion of it doing the obvious thing and that's pay tribute to Black History Month. So to begin this episode, we're going to choose two films made by two great Black filmmakers and talk about what makes them great and why you should seek them out on streaming. (Both are kind of romantic tales too for there's your Valentine's synergy too!)
REVIEW: A Real Pain (2024). Cousins David and Benji go to Poland to see the country their now-dead grandmother was born, which is the simple plot description of the new film from Jesse Eisenberg. Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin play the cousins, and now they're both nominated for Oscars for their work in this movie.- writing and acting respectively - but what about this movie they're being applauded for? This week, we will travel through Poland with the Pain boys as they get to know their grandma, and each other.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
ACORN is on the frontline of fighting the housing and affordability crises for low and moderate income people and in Ontario they’ve invested a lot of attention lately on one bad guy, Michael Klein. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because he's the so-called "King of Renovictions". Last week the two sides came face-to-face, sort of, at the Landlord Tenant Board, but don't think this is the end of the fight!
On January 21st, Hamilton tenants living at 221 Melvin Avenue went to the LTB for the first of 20 such board hearings around a single respondent who’s bought apartment buildings around the Golden Horseshoe, Michael Klein. Klein’s pattern is clear: He buys a building, issues N13s, people move out of their rent controlled units, and jacks up the rent after some cosmetic change. He's even doing it here in Guelph with three buildings on Brant Avenue.
At the heart of Klein’s scheme is a misunderstanding on the part of tenants about their rights. An N13 is meant to be used when you need to demolish the rental unit, do extensive repairs or renovations, or convert it into a non-residential use. ACORN argues that this is purposeful, it’s a strategy to take affordable housing and squeeze more profit out of it, which is why they want the LBT to consider all 20 cases as one. It's one way ACORN is taking on what might be its biggest and boldest protest yet!
Jacquie Wells, who is one of the organizers of Waterloo Region ACORN, will join us this week to talk about who Michael Klein is, how deep the issue with renovictions in Ontario goes, and how many Michael Klein types are out there. She will also talk about the strategies Klein uses to lean on tenants to get them to leave, and the difficulties that ACORN and other activists have experienced trying to organize against him. And finally, she will discuss what comes next in the fight against renovictions.
So let's talk about taking down The King on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about ACORN at their website, where you can find their 2024 Michael Kein report. You can also follow ACORN Waterloo Region on Facebook and Instagram. There’s also an article that was published on Guelph Today over the holidays that’s worth reading because it features rare commentary from Klein himself
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we have to shake off the winter blahs and get into election mode! Doug Ford has called a snap election in Ontario for incredibly specious reasons, and we will get into that, and we will also get into an election issue that we should be talking about with a special guest expert on the subject. In other news, the federal Liberals are still trying to find a new leader.
This Thursday, January 30, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Winter Soldier On. He needs a mandate. That's what Doug Ford has been saying all week and on Tuesday he visited the Lieutenant-Governor to dissolve the legislature 16 months early to hold a snap election in February. Now, instead of legislating the myriad of crises that already exists and are under his control, Ford is running to get a mandate to stand up against Donald Trump, which is a federal area of responsibility. At least the opposition parties have their sh*t together, right...? Are we doomed?
The Magnificent Seven Six. The slate of leadership candidates for the federal Liberal leadership is now set, and there are six people vying for the role of Justin Trudeau's successor. As it stands today, it looks like former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has the inside track, but you can't discount Chrystia Freehand yet. Also, there may be deeper controversies afoot as Chandra Arya was left out of the race for damning and mysterious reason. We'll catch up with the Grit rehabilitation efforts.
Great Barrier Beef. Would it surprise you to learn that January 1, 2025 was the deadline to make Ontario barrier-free? It didn't surprise David Lepofsky, or anyone that works with his group, the AODA Alliance. It was the Alliance who pushed the Ontario government in 2005 to pass a bill to make Ontario a fully accessible place by now, and it's the Alliance who wants you to be aware that they failed. This week, Lepofsjy joins us to talk about why accessibility needs to be an election issue and how you can help make it one.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we get wild! We will shine a light on a movie that seems to have missed most people's radar and it's all about embracing your inner animal, and other stuff. We're going to talk about Nightbitch, which you can stream now on Disney+ of all places, and we're also going to hit the metaphorical slopes out west and chat about a famous film festival.
This Wednesday, January 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Sundance Hall of Fame. It's the biggest independent film festival in the world, which may be an oxymoron, but there's now doubt that for nearly 50 years, the Sundance Film Festival in Party City, Utah has been very important in finding and promoting major new films and filmmakers. With the 2025 festival now underway, we will talk about some of the all-time Sundance films across three different categories, and why they're so synonymous with the festival.
REVIEW: Nightbitch (2024). What if a stay-at-home mother became so frustrated with her domesticity that she turned into a dog at night? This is the ludicrous premise of Nightbitch, the novel-turned-film that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last fall and yada, yada, yada, now you can stream it on Disney+. The film does have a silly premise, but it's trying to get at something real with Amy Adams playing a harried Mother trying to reckon with her life as a mom and her life as woman. We'll talk about why you shouldn't sleep on Nightbitch.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It’s hard to think of any aid agency busier these days than the Guelph Food Bank these days, and to prove it, they went to city council last November during budget delegation night to ask for help. It might come as a surprise to learn that the Food Bank has never received any government funding, but it's proof that food insecurity is now outside their control, and it’s the reason for changes that they’ve started to undertake.
According to Feed Ontario, over one million people accessed a food bank in Ontario between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024, which is an increase of 25 per cent over the year before and an 86 per cent increase since 2019-2020, the last year before the pandemic. To put that in context, one out of every 16 people in Ontario have been to a food bank lately, and if you think Guelph has escaped this deluge you would be wrong.
That’s why the Guelph Food Bank went to city council last fall. With 4,000 individuals using the Food Bank each month, which is more than double since before the pandemic, the Food Bank needs government help for the first time. Its main location at 100 Crimea Street will now serve as a kind of distribution centre from where the food will flow to 10 satellite locations around the city. The Food Bank is adapting, and while they can’t do it alone, they do have a plan
Carolyn McLeod-McCarthy, Managing Director of the Guelph Food Bank, will join us this week to talk about that plan, and the pressures that they’ve been dealing with over the last few years that are unique to them. She will also talk about working with food pantries, co-ordinating with all local groups to fight food insecurity and going to city council to ask for financial help for the first time. And finally, she will talk about what the fight against food insecurity might look like in a few years.
So let's dig into the changes at the Food Bank on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about the Guelph Food Bank, what services they provide, how you can volunteer, or how you can donate, you can visit the Food Bank website. You can also call the Food Bank at 519-767-1380 during their office hours, which is Monday through Friday 9 am to 5 pm. You can also follow them on the socials @guelphfoodback on Facebook and Instagram.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we're trying to avoid talking about You-Know-Who, but it's so very hard! Instead, we will talk around him by looking at at the Liberals who want to match wits with the new regime in Washington and their first major geopolitical challenge in the Middle East. In the interview, we're going to talk to one of the people that wants to be a part of the next government no matter who leads it!
This Thursday, January 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Libs of This Rock. It looks like the line-up of candidates for the Liberal leadership race is set, and while former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney seems to be the proverbial frontrunner, there's a fairly diverse line-up in the offing including Chrystia Freehand, Karina Gould, Jaime Battiste, and Chandra Arya. Still, do any of these contenders have what it takes to not only lead the Liberals, but lead them to something that isn't a complete decimation in the next federal election?
Ceasefire. After nearly 500 days, the guns have finally stopped in Gaza. A ceasefire is now in effect in the region and a plan is in place for Hamas to release all the remaining hostages that have been in their custody since October 7, 2023. Still, it's not clear sailing from here as there's some doubt about the Israeli government's commitment to long-term peace and now all eyes are on the West Bank where violence is still a daily occurrence. Is there any real reason for hope that we're at the end of the war?
The Doctor Is In! It seems like the 2025 federal election is on pause until the Liberal Party sorts out its issues, but that doesn't mean the other parties are taking it easy. This week, we will be joined by Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik, a local physician who is now making the jump to politics as the Federal Green candidate for Guelph. Zajdlik will tell us why she wants to be MP, why she wants to fight for better environmental stewardship and why she thinks the Greens can overcome the long odds this election!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits there's a blast from the past and a sign of the times. Our movie today is a timeless story about someone who feels like the world has passed them by, and it features someone you might have forgotten. We will be checking out Pamela Anderson's return in The Last Showgirl and we will be saying goodbye to a real cinematic original!
This Wednesday, January 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
David Lynch. Last week came the bad news that David Lynch passed away, a director so iconoclastic that an entire enigmatic style was named after him. You can't describe what makes a film "Lynchian" but you know it when you see it, and you've definitely seen it whether you know it or not. So to begin this week, we will say a very fond farewell to Lynch by talking about some of his finest works, at least of the feature film variety.
REVIEW: The Last Showgirl (2024). Oscar hopeful Pamela Anderson?! This is the movie that may actually make it happen. Anderson was an icon of the 90s thanks to her starring role in Baywatch and her status as a sex symbol, but you haven't heard from her lately. That all has changed with The Last Showgirl, a movie by a Coppola no less (Francis Ford's granddaughter Gia), which follows the last days of an old fashioned nude revue in Las Vegas and the lost souls who perform it every night. Might The Last Showgirl usher in Anderson, the Oscar nominee?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The CAO position is the highest ranking official in local government that doesn’t have the job title of either mayor or city councillor, and it’s the only staff position at city hall that’s hired by a committee made up of the mayor and councillors. So yes, it’s a pretty important job, and it’s not like there’s any shortage of issues or needs for the new woman in charge as she enters her first full year in charge.
It was about this time last year that Scott Stewart announced that he would be retiring by the summer. Stewart had been the CAO for five years, and they were probably the most challenging five years any CAO has experienced in the history of Guelph. (Well, so far.) He got a lot done, but there also ended up being a lot of work for Tara Baker to do once she picked up the baton in mid-September. Fortunately, she had something of a head start.
Before becoming the CAO, Baker had spent 13 years at Guelph city hall, including the last eight as the City Treasurer and the General Manager of Finance. If the emphasis is to be put on affordability now, as it was with the last budget she worked on as Treasurer, it puts even more pressure on Baker as she's managing all the spinning plates in her new office. On this edition of the podcast, she will tell us what comes next.
Yes, Baker joins us this week to talk about why she wanted to be the CAO, why she thinks she stood out from the other applicants and the changing role of the CAO position after the introduction of Strong Mayor Powers. She will also talk about the search for a new City Treasurer, and the greater emphasis on affordability when it comes to City business. Also, she will discuss the changes she’s making to the job, and what she wants her legacy to be when it becomes her turn to retire from the role.
So let's get the 4-1-1 on the new CAO on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can see Baker's plan for goals and objectives for the coming year as part of the council agenda package for the January 28 meeting here, and you can just learn more generally about the CAO office here. And speaking of podcasts, you can check out Baker’s appearance on Breezy Breakfast from last October and you can find that pod on whatever platform you listen to his one on.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we're going to party with our friends. While the party doesn't stop at Mar-a-Lago, it's a very different story here in Canada and everywhere else as people await the return of You-Know-Who with something resembling dread, and all while online folks are feigning surprise again that tech billionaires are putting themselves first. Back here at home, we've got south end business to discuss with a city councillor!
This Thursday, January 16, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
It: Part Two. There's still a couple of days before Donald Trump assumes the Office of the U.S. President, and he's already become everyone's obsession. Here in Canada, premiers have been trying different tactics to get Trump to take back tariff threats and they don't seem to be working, and no one is 100 per cent sure how seriously to take all those "51st state" threats. Meanwhile, Trump's murderer's row of clowns and sycophants have begun their confirmation hearings, so are we ready for Trump 2.0?
Mark His Words. Last week, Facebook creator and boss Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was taking away content moderation on the forum because it was "too political". But everyone saw through Zuckerberg's talking points: He was capitulating to the popular right-wing theory that facts have a left-wing bias. And yet, Zuck's decision comes at the exact wrong moment as conspiracies and lies and feeding the misinformation flames around those devastating California wild fires. Can we fight back against the tech bros?
Something to Chew On. Guelph City Council was back to work this week, and they heard a report about advocacy to upper levels of government, both of which might be having an election this year sometime. It's going to be difficult to get help that cities need when political parties are jockying for power, but that's just one of the things on Ken Yee Chew's plate in 2025. The Ward 6 city councillor will join us to talk about what he's working in '25, dealing with all the politics and all the stuff going on in the city's south end.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're getting excited about awards season! For the movie this week we've got a sure to be Oscar contender in the form of a musical bio-pic about one of the titans of popular music. Will it win? We don't know, obviously, but we're going to talk about the odds as the movie industry gets ready for its fanciest night of the year!
This Wednesday, January 15, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
On Golden Idols. This weekend, the nominations for the 97th Academy Awards will be announced it what might be one of the wildest and surprising Oscar races in years. To get a sense of who might be in and who might be out, we will analyse the winners and losers of the Golden Globes last week. Is The Brutalist the greatest movie you haven't see yet? Is Adrian the new Timmy, or is Timmy the new Adrian? We'll cover all that and more!
REVIEW: A Complete Unknown (2024). Bob Dylan. Have you heard of him? It's nearly impossible to think of someone from popular music in the last 60 years that's had a longer and more varied influence than Dylan, and in the new film A Complete Unknown, one of the most consequential portions of his life is chronicled. Timothée Chalamet meets the toughest challenge of his career as Dylan and the film comes from Walk the Line filmmaker James Mangold, so there are a lot of expectations for his one, but can the Unknown be known, or even enjoyed?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The 2025 State of the City is coming up soon - Thursday February 6 to be precise - and as we always do at this time of year, we’re going to roll the audio from the previous year’s State of the City as a refresher course. The goal is to remember where we were at the time, where the mayor wanted to take us, and where we ended up now before Mayor Cam Guthrie starts looking to the future again!
Do you really need to listen to this to be reminded of the most salient point of last year’s State of the City address? Here’s the most relevant quote: “When cities are faced with strong issues, it requires a strong team to tackle them. However, to set the tone and the pace, you need a strong mayor. Therefore, effective today, I am announcing that I will use the Strong Mayor powers throughout the rest of this term.”
That was the moment Guthrie changed the game, and it came as a really big surprise to his council colleagues, many of whom were sitting front row or centre at the speech. Beforehand, the mayor gave away no hints that he was going to drop this bomb despite years of reticence, if not opposition, to the existence of such powers, but that was the headline coming out of the State of the City in 2024. Was that the end of the story though?
Of course it’s not, and on this week’s edition of the podcast you will hear the whole speech, including a Q&A afterwards, where Guthrie saluted outgoing CAO Scott Stewart, talked about the success securing Housing Accelerator Funding, and promoted the then-theoretical Public Spaces Use Bylaw. He also announced the formation of the Joint Social Services and Land Ambulance Committee, and gave out the annual volunteer awards.
So let's flashback to last year's State of the City on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The 2025 State of the City will take place on Thursday February 6 at 7 am at the Delta Hotel and Conference Centre hosted by the Guelph Chamber of Commerce. Learn more by clicking here. There will, of course, be full coverage on Guelph Politico when it happens.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we violate our New Year's Resolution to have less drama! Canada's prime minister apparently had other ideas though by kicking off the week, and the year, with a big announcement that we have to cover. In other news, Pickering city council is making news in all the ways you never do, and for our interview this week, we'll return focus to Ottawa by talking to someone who works there.
This Thursday, January 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Tru-Done. It wasn't surprising, but it was still kind of a shock. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came back from Christmas vacation and announced that he's finally read the writing on the wall. He's done. He won't be Liberal leader or PM once the party holds a leadership race. Parliament is prorogued until March 24. Critics were less than magnanimous in the aftermath, but it seems like everyone's got what they've wanted: Trudeau is gone! So what happens next?
Nit-Pickering. Unless you're super keyed into local Pickering politics, you probably don't know who Lisa Robinson is. She's a city councillor there and has made herself a darling of alt-right figures like Kevin J. Johnson, so much so that she's been sanctioned four times for 15 different breaches of the municipal code of conduct. Now, other members of council and City staff are receiving death threats which is forcing all council meetings to be held online. What's happening in Pickering, and how can we make sure it doesn't happen here in Guelph?
Longfield Distance. By now you're thinking: What does Lloyd Longfield have to say about what's going on? Great question, and that's what we're gong to talk to him about in his latest appearance on Open Sources. Longfield has already said that this term will be his last in the House of Commons, but is he packed up and ready to go, or is he still holding out hope that he can finish some more work before election time? Also, what is he looking for in a new Liberal leader, and what are the stakes now for his successor looking to keep Guelph's 32-year Liberal streak alive?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're back! Technically, we didn't go anywhere because we kept cranking out new episodes over the Christmas break, but now we're really back, and we're ready to tackle the latest movies of 2025... with one of the leftovers from last year. Get ready to be afraid of the dark with Nosferatu, and we will also tackle other films with bite!
This Wednesday, January 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Films that Suck! Vampires: you know them, you love them! Vampires have a long cinematic history, and the granddaddy of all vampires, Count Dracula, has been one of the most adapted characters in the history of cinema and literature. So before diving into the latest vampire flick to grace the silver screen (not to mention Dracula rip-off), we will talk about some of our favourite vampire movies that suck... your blood.
REVIEW: Nosferatu (2024). In 1922, a German director ripped off a popular English novel by the author Bram Stoker and made one of the most influential movies ever. Now, 102 years later, director Robert Eggers has remade Nosferatu for the third time in a lavish adaptation that hits all of the filmmaker's famous notes from his hits like The Witch and The Lighthouse. Also, Nosferatu as been a surprising Christmas hit, and one with a lot of potential for Oscar buzz too, so we will head into the dark to see if this new vampire movie has bite!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Last year was very busy for Guelph City Council, and the last four months of the year were perhaps the busiest. In fact, the business of council has gotten so busy to properly cover it all this "Year in Review" podcast now has to be done in three parts, splitting the year into three near equal sections for over two hours of combined content. So now, at the end, the final part of this trilogy.
The big thing from the back third of 2024 was the confirmation vote for the 2025 budget. Earlier in the year, Mayor Cam Guthrie used Strong Mayor Powers to direct staff to get the budget down to an overall four per cent increase, and there was a great deal of consternation about what that would mean. Council didn't get all the way to that four per cent mark, but it was a heck of a ride getting there!
And speaking of rides, there was a lot of drama over, of all things, fireworks. Guelph tried to rework its fireworks bylaw only to get burned when many people felt that it went too far. There were also metaphorical fireworks in the form of Mayor Guthrie's advocacy outside the council chambers, the eventual fate of the OR Lands, and a certain greenhouse on the campus of the University of Guelph which still may or may not be demolished.
That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this recap covering all the council action from September through to December. That's 17 different meeting (well, 16 when you consider that one meeting took place over two nights) and countless hours of back and forth over motions, counter-motions, concessions and compromises. Culled from the files of Guelph Politico, and a couple of thousand tweets, let's remember where we're going before we decide where to go next.
So for one more time, let's recap what happened at city council in 2024 on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Everyone will be back around the horseshoe again on January 14 for the first Committee of the Whole meeting of the year, and you can keep following all those developments at Guelph Politico and through the Tip Sheet newsletter.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph there's cause for celebration! Not only is this our annual year-end (or year-beginning in this case) awards show, but it's also our 500th episode and the start of year 11 for OSG! It's a good thing we have all that to look forward to because this revisiting of 2024 had us bummed in a major way. Enjoy the fun gang, because it might be the last we'll have for a while!
This Thursday, January 2, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Worst Politician of 2024. Well this one's going to be a lay up, right? In a year this bad though, the real competition is going to be which of the worst is really the worst? And in a year where it seemed like everyone had an incentive to embrace their worst selves, we will look to the halls of our provincial and federal legislatures to find the people who ended up on the proverbial naughty list in 2024!
Good News Story of the Year. Yes, there was some good news this year. Difficult as it was to find under mountains of black tar and festering disappointment, there were some small morsels of optimism for those willing to looking for it in 2024. From some much needed solidarity among left-leaning politicians in one European country to people on the young side ready to put up a fight, we'll bring you the good news of 2024!
Dumpster Fire of the Year. Forget about one dumpster, the whole dump seemed like it was on fire by the end of December! Similarly to the "Worst Politician" category there was a variable feast for the "Dumpster Fire" designation, and boy did we feast good all things considered. Still, there must be a winner, and for this one we've got at least one horrible trend, and at least one negligent government!
Best Politician of 2024. Did we have go to the ends of the Earth to find people to fill this category? Almost definitely in one case, but not necessarily. Even in 2024, there were still some people in government who were trying to do good, trying to make a difference, as hard as that may be to believe. For the last award of 2024, we've got two prime examples of the parliamentary system to share from both here and New Zealand!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it's the first day of a new year! Let us celebrate in the time honoured tradition (of the last seven years) of marking the best movies of previous year! Yes, it is time again to take a year-full of cinema and whittle it down to the five best films from the last 12 month. You know it, you love it, and now we talk about the Best of 2024!
This Wednesday, January 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Peter Salmon, and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The Best of 2024! It was looking a little rough there at the beginning of the year... There was a movie about a killer swimming pool, and wasn't there a movie about a psychic leading a group of Spider-Women? So it's safe to say that neither of those movies will make our Top 5 of 2024 lists, but that doesn't mean that there won't be any shortage of surprises as we count down the best movies of the year. On this first day of 2025, we will send off 2024 by talking about it's greatest hits with red rooms, old asses, sand, self-reliance and more!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
If you’re listening to this on New Year’s Day then you might be welcoming 2025 with relief, or maybe even trepidation. If you thought last year was a rough ride it may be an hors d'oeuvres compared to what comes next, but before we get into all that, we’re going to formally say goodbye to 2024 by talking about the year that was, and the year we wanted it to be!
There was a lot going on in Guelph in 2024, did you hear that we’re having a housing crisis? There was the use of Strong Mayor Powers, the push to make the OR Lands a national urban park, and the closure of the old Nestle bottling plant in Aberfoyle. There was also almost a transit strike, not to mention a weeks-long strike out on Dunlop Road at the Cargill Plant. A lot can happen in 12 months, and it did.
But what was 2024 really about? That is a difficult question, but Mike Ashkewe was a pretty good person to ask. He’s a member of the Accessibility Advisory Committee and an Indigenous activist, and he’s a regular at the weekly Breezy Breakfast gatherings downtown, which makes a triple threat when it comes to local politics. Perhaps he can help us make sense of this tumultuous year...
Ashkewe will join us talk broadly about what we learned in the year 2024, what we will take with us on into 2025, and why he’s decided to get more active in local politics. He will also talk about finding community, and what it takes to make the hard choices even if they’re not the most popular. Also, we will make some pop culture references to our current predicament, and talk about why where you live matters.
So let's talk about the year that was yesterday on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Mike Ashkewe, who has his fingers in many pies and you can find links to all those pies at his personal website. You can find his podcast This Week in Geek on all the major podcast platforms, and you can follow the Guelph Storm Trackers "@guelph_storm_trackers" on Instagram.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we box! It is Boxing Day, isn't it? So we're going to be boxing up all kinds of things, but the one thing we will be unboxing is our annual political movies show! For the tenth annual edition, we will look at four important films that cover a lot of political ground, from a documentary about a famous writer to the nightlife of Berlin just as things started getting Nazi, and from the end of the world in 2027 to a David Vs. Goliath courtroom fight!
This Thursday, December 26, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Scotty's Pick #1: I Am Not Your Negro (2016). "In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, Remember This House. The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and assassinations of three of his close friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time of Baldwin's death in 1987, he left behind only 30 completed pages of this manuscript. Filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished."
Adam's Pick #2: Children of Men (2006). "The world's youngest citizen has just died at age 18, and humankind is facing the likelihood of its own extinction. Set in and around a dystopian London fractious with violence and warring nationalistic sects, this movie follows the unexpected discovery of a lone pregnant woman and the desperate journey to deliver her to safety and restore faith for a future beyond those presently on Earth."
Scotty's Pick #2: The Rainmaker (1997). "Rudy Baylor is a young attorney out to make a difference in the justice system. He is also the only hope of an elderly couple after their corrupt insurance company refuses to pay out a claim that could save their child's life. In this judicial drama, Baylor rails against corporate lawyers, corrupt judges, and abusive husbands, all with the help of a fellow lawyer who hasn't even passed his bar exam. He is facing long odds in the courtroom - and this is only his first case."
Adam's Pick #2: Cabaret (1972). "In Berlin in 1931, American cabaret singer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) meets British academic Brian Roberts (Michael York), who is finishing his university studies. Despite Brian's confusion over his sexuality, the pair become lovers, but the arrival of the wealthy and decadent playboy Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem) complicates matters for them both. This love triangle plays out against the rise of the Nazi party and the collapse of the Weimar Republic."
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we wish you a Merry Christmas! To celebrate this annual occasion, we will do things Jigsaw-style by playing a little game. No one's going to die - hopefully - but there will be lots of bragging rights up for grabs as your four favourite cinephiles, and a special guest, hang their holiday favourites with care as we undertake another movie draft.
This Wednesday, December 25, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Peter Salmon, Candice Lepage, and special guest Jen Barson will discuss:
The Christmas Movie Draft! What day is it? Why it's Christmas Day! And we decided to wrap up something special for that difficult time between opening presents and waiting for the turkey to be served: The original End Credits Christmas Movie Draft! The entire gang is here, plus Jen Barson from Guelph Fringe Festival, to discuss their favourite holiday movies from six carefully selected categories. From the classics you love to some surprising revelations from the bowels of Tubi, we will stuff your stocking with some cool flicks, and maybe some Hot Frosties...
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It makes sense spending Christmas with a Kevin. The Kevin we're talking to this Christmas though sits at the intersection of fighting poverty practically and fighting a growing spiritual malaise. In fact, he was the first and most obvious choice for this year’s holiday chat by the fireside, and he joins us this week to not only talk about the crisis around homelessness, but also the accompanying crisis of compassion.
Yes, the special Christmas guest this year is executive director and pastor of Royal City Mission, Kevin Coghill. Homelessness is a city-wide issue, but the focus was downtown this year. Not even 50 yards from St. George’s Square are the front doors of the Royal City Mission, which offers services to people who are homeless and living in poverty, which also made it a source of contention for downtown business owners and residents.
The RCM was often cited as doing good work for the community while being tagged as the cause for the growing encampments in the square due to its proximity. It’s the epitome of damned if you do, damned if you don’t, so Coghill and his team decided to do everything could. But Royal City Mission doesn't just deal with corporal needs, they also deal with spiritual ones, which is why Coghill is going to help us reflect on a difficult and dispiriting year.
Coghill will join us to talk about how he ended up at Royal City Mission, how the mission has changed over the years, and why change is not always a bad thing for the volunteers and staff at Royal City. He will also talk about the crisis in compassion, the difference between gathering and service, how he deals with disappointment, and the ways he tries to stay optimistic. Coghill will also explain why his doors will remain open to everyone in the community.
So let's spend Christmas with Kevin on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about Royal City Mission, it’s programs and services, and how you can help them out by visiting their website. You can also follow them on social media at rcmguelph on Facebook and Instagram. If you’re interested in learning more about the people helped by Royal City Mission, you can get a copy of the book, Stories From the Mission, for a suggested $25 donation. The proceeds go to help fund the Royal City Mission.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we were all but ready to take off for the holidays but they had to squeeze just a little bit more breaking new out of us. From Ottawa, there may be a change in government, or a change in prime minister, or a change in something, we don't know! We also don't know what happened with the Canada Post strike that was suddenly over this week, but we're going to find out about that too!!
This Thursday, December 19, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Chrystia-Mas Comes Early. Just a normal Monday on Parliament Hill, it was the second last day of the fall sitting and the release of the Fall Economic Statement was all that was on the agenda. And then Chystia Freeland quit as finance minister and all hell broke loose! Almost everything else Monday, including a First Ministers' Meeting in Toronto, was blown off the front-page with the possibility that this was the end for Justin Trudeau, and as we go to air we can only imagine what's going down next. Is Trudeau getting canned before the holidays?
Strike a Post! After over a month, workers for Canada Post went back to their jobs this week and not altogether willingly after the national labour board said that both sides were too far apart to make a deal in the short-term possible. What's been lost in the concern for the on-time arrival of parcels, government documents and holiday treats are the stakes of this strike, which is really nothing less than the future of Canada Post. This week, Remegius Cheeke, the president Guelph-based Canadian Union of Postal Workers Local 546, will remind us.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're hunting for content. In this last regular edition of the show for 2024, we're going to put on our favourite animal skins and run wild on what might be the biggest bomb of the year, and that's really saying something. We're reviewing Kraven The Hunter, and we're also going to look ahead to greener cinematic pastures in 2025!
This Wednesday, December 18, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Best of 2025? So 2024 isn't even over yet, and we're already talking about the Best of 2025?! Not quite. There will be a whole year of movies in the next 12 months, and we probably won't be able to see them all, so we're going to get some of the organising done early by talking about some of the movies we're looking forward to seeing in the next 12 months. From a return to a zombie apocalypse, to what may be the last Mission, we'll check in with 2025!
REVIEW: Kraven The Hunter (2024). It's been a dry year for superhero movies, but there's one last stop at the oasis before we get to a veritable super-buffet in 2025. Have you heard of Kraven? He's a Spider-Man villain who's perhaps most famous for a storyline literally called "Kraven's Last Hunt", but someone at Sony Pictures thought he sounded like a pretty cool guy worthy of his own movie. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who's already gotten a taste of superhero life, got his body in fighting shape, but is this movie worth hunting for at the holiday box office season?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
What do you think this year will be remembered for in the annals of Guelph history? Will it be the debate over the Public Space Use Bylaw? Was it the announced closure of the consumption and treatment site downtown? Was it when the mayor re-opened the 2025 budget to try and shave off two-thirds of the proposed levy increase? In any event, all roads lead back to one place, or rather, one person.
In a sense, the first day of the political year was February 8. That was the date of the State of the City speech at the Delta Hotel and Conference Centre where Mayor Cam Guthrie said that he was going to use Strong Mayor Powers in three specific ways: To find a place for a tiny home encampment, leverage City-owner property for affordable housing and to cut the Guelph 2025 budget down to something more affordable. It was a surprise move by Guthrie, but it would not be his last this year.
The Strong Mayor Powers were the first of a couple of different pivots: He joined the Government of Ontario demanding that CTSes no longer operate within 200 metres of schools or daycares, he joined other mayors demanding that the Province use the notwithstanding clause, and he joined Mike Schreiner and Lloyd Longfield in dumping cold water on the community effort to declare the OR Lands a national urban park. So to help close the year, we're going to go inside the mind of...
...Mayor Cam Guthrie! He joins us this week on the podcast to hear about why he might have some regret about the way he announced his use of Strong Mayor Powers, how he might use them again, and how he’s tried to rebuild trust with the members of council. He will also discuss why he’s not totally against CTSes, why he’s hedging on support for a national urban park, and balancing criticism and collaboration with upper levels of government. Also, what is he thinking about for the 2025 State of the City?
So let's dig into this Strong Mayor Year on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can follow the mayor at CamGuthrie on Twitter and at MayorCamGuthrie on Facebook and Instagram. You can also check out his website for news and updates, or send him an email at mayor [at] guelph.ca. Council will not be back in session until Tuesday January 14 for the first Committee of the Whole of the Year, and that agenda will be published on Thursday January 2.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're not done with 2024 yet, and it seems like the year is not done with us! Out of the Middle East this week some good news for a change, or at least some less bad news depending on what's next. We will also talk about the reaction to a very specific crime on the streets of Manhattan, and closer to home, we'll have a city councillor do a little year-end recap with us!
This Thursday, December 12, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Bashir Bashed. If 2024 hadn't run out of surprises yet, there was one more and it came from a part of the world that has been longing for some good news. After decades of brutal dictatorship, the regime of Bashir al-Assad fell after an 11 day uprising that saw Assad flee to Russia for sanctuary while rebels released long-time political prisoners and looted the presidential palace. But in the midst of all the celebrating there's still a fundamental question that needs answered: What's next for Syria?
Begun this Class War Has? The cold blooded murder of United Healthcare CEO on the streets of New York last week had a surprising reaction online: A bipartisan consortium was dancing on Brian Thompson's grave. Politicians and pundits have struggled with this out and out celebration for what be an act of vigilantism if the suspected shooters suspected motives are to be believed, so now we must reckon with the possibility that people are now openly embracing violence as a solution to inequality. How concerned should we be?
Dan of the Year. It's been a long and busy year at Guelph City Council between managing issues of homelessness and addictions, debate about the use of public spaces, Strong Mayor Powers, heritage issues, a massive budget crunch and so much more. Helping us make sense of everything that went down at City Hall this year is Ward 1 Councillor Dan Gibson who is going to join us to talk about the struggles to take action, the limits of council power, and some of the good news stories from his own backyard in the city's east end.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're getting in shape! As we approach the end of the year, and the usual discussion about what movies are best, we're going to take a deep dive on one of the films that may end up making the cut! We're going to inject ourselves with The Substance, and we're going to look at lessons learned by the movie business itself this year.
This Wednesday, December 11, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Trends of 2024! It's been another interesting year in the movie business, some big hits and sometimes some bigger misses. Coming off of massive upheavals caused by pandemic viewing habits and two major labour disruptions, this year was always going to be a rough one for Hollywood as they strived to survive till 2025. So to start this week's show, in advance of the Best Movies of the Year, we will talk about the movie trends of '24.
REVIEW: The Substance (2024). It's one of the most talked about films of the year, praised as a prime example of body horror from the female point of view. The Substance, from French director Coraline Fargeat, casts Demi Moore as an ageing star facing a forced retirement due to her age, but then she's introduced to a means to get her youth and vitality back, but it doesn't come without risk, or a price. The Substance may be one of the year's best, and now a Golden Globe nominee for Best Picture, but what do two men think about it?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
There has been a lot of heritage news this year, and especially in the last couple of weeks. This should not be surprising because heritage staff in all municipalities have been in a mad scramble these last few years to designate as much heritage as possible before the end of this year due to Bill 23. That changed back in the spring, so it's probably a good time now to catch our breathe and look at the work done so far, and all the work that is to come.
You may recall that November’s planning meeting was super-sized over two different days, and that was largely due to two heritage matters: The proposed designation for the old conservatory on the University of Guelph campus, and the draft policy for the Heritage Conservation District at the Ontario Reformatory lands. That’s a lot of pressure to put on the heritage planning staff, but the pressure was being felt before last month’s meetings.
Back in 2022, the Ontario government passed Bill 23, which made a great many changes to municipal planning policies, including the direction to delist any properties on the heritage registry not already designated by the end of this year. Now, thankfully, our undesignated heritage assets have a reprieve until the end of 2026, but that doesn’t mean the workload is any less lighter.
Stephen Robinson and Jack Mallon, who are heritage planners at the City of Guelph, join us this week to talk about what kind of year it’s been for heritage, the status of all the heritage conservation district studies and the special controversy around the recent presentation about the OR Lands HCD. They'll also talk about public engagement, why development is not a bad word, what’s coming up in 2025, and why we maybe need to start loving architectural brutalism(?).
So let's dig into the very busy heritage file on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
The next scheduled meeting of Heritage Guelph is on January 13, and in the meantime you can visit the heritage planning page on the City’s website to get the lowdown on various plans and strategies. For your information, you can see the Municipal Register of Cultural Heritage Properties here, and stay tuned for future engagement opportunities on the OR Lands, Downtown and Ward West Heritage Conservation District studies.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're reminded that the history of this show is haunted by an orange-coloured goon in a Florida beach club. Yes, we're heading back to Mar-a-Lago this week, and we're also heading back to Queen's Park to talk about accountability, our favourite topic! For the interview, we're talking to a friend of the show about how we can help people not go hungry this Christmas and beyond.
This Thursday, December 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Mar-a-Largesse. Last week, President-elect Donald Trump announced his intention to apply 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico as a means of stopping the flow of unauthorized border crossings and the trafficking of fentanyl, an early sign that we're going back to the unfettered chaos of 2017-2021. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a surprise visit to Mar-a-Logo to try and nip this in the bud, but apparently Trump joked about making Canada the 51st state. Do we really have to deal with this again?
Shelley Shocked. Ontario Auditor General Shelley Spence delivered her first report as AG and boy was it a banger. Essentially, her report said that the Ontario government did bad on Ontario Place redevelopment, MZOs, the addictions crisis, and unprecedented government spending. As the Ontario Legislature starts to shut down for the holiday break, and as the possibility of election still hangs in the air, we will dig into all this controversy at Queen's Park, which seems to be it's most reliable renewable resource.
The Hunger. There was another report released this week, Feed Ontario's Hunger Report. In its some 57 pages you will see a story about the incredible food insecurity crisis in Ontario as more and more people are using food banks to feed themselves. To help us talk about the highlights of the report and how we can address the increasing need being faced by food banks, we're joined by Feed Ontario's Carolyn Stewart who will tell us how we can give the gift of eating well for everyone this holiday season.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're not defying gravity, we're leaning into it! It's one of the biggest movies of the year, based on a stage musical and secretly the first of two parts. Oh yes, we're getting to Wicked, and speaking of things that people are looking forward to, we're going to each count off three of our most anticipated movies for the last four weeks of the year.
This Wednesday, December 4, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Great Expectations (2024 Edition). Now that we're in December, the end of the year is inevitable, and that means our Top 5 of the Year episode is coming up very fast. So to start this week, we will look at out lists and see where the gaps are; what movies do we have to see by the end of the year? What movies are we looking forward to before the end of year? With so much to see and so little time, what are we watching in our spare time?
REVIEW: Wicked (2024). It's starting to look like the biggest movie of the year! We knew that Wicked was going to be one of the most anticipated movies of the year, but now it looks like a box office juggernaut and firmly part of the awards season discussion. The plot? The politics of Oz before Dorothy arrived and how the Wicked Witch of the West's story is more complicated than you may think. Starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, Wicked is winning over old fans and making some brand new ones, but are we among them?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
As you may have heard, there are changes coming to your blue bin starting in January, and if you’re confused about what that means when you put the bin out on the curb in 2025, you’re not alone. You probably want to know what's going on, and how you should react, so due to popular demand, this podcast will ask all the questions about blue box changes you wanted to know, and some of the ones you didn’t.
Guelph has a history of making history when it comes to the blue box: We were one of the first cities to get one, and we were one of the first cities to make the transition to three streams of waste, and we were one of the first to make the transition to the new bin system. What's next is the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, which is moving the responsibility of collecting recyclables to the producers of those materials.
Starting on January 1, 2025, Waste Management Corporation of Canada (WM) will be collecting residential recycling and providing related customer service in Guelph. As you will hear today, you probably won't notice a lot of change to start, but 2025 will be a transition year for not only who collects your blue bin, but what you will be able to put inside it and who else might now get service as WM takes over for the City of Guelph.
To understand all this, we're joined by Cameron Walsh, the Division Manager of Solid Waste at the City of Guelph, who will tell you what happens on January 2 when you put your recyclables out on the curb. He will also talk about the process the City has been undertaking to facilitate these changes, what will happen over the course of 2025, the ongoing review of collection downtown, and the impacts on the City’s fiscal bottom line. Also, what will the future of waste collection in Guelph look like after 2025?
So let's dig into the blue box on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the changes coming to the collection of recyclables next year at guelph.ca/waste, where you can also find links to the Solid Waste Master Plan, and other info. Also, if you have any questions, send emails directly to waste [at] guelph.ca. You can also download the Guelph Waste app from the App Store and Google Play, it not only sends you reminders about garbage day, but it can help you sort your waste.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we wish we could shake it off. It would be our wildest dream to come on the radio one week and have something normal to talk about, but we knew this was trouble when we saw it cross our newsfeeds this week. We're going to discuss what happened in Montreal last weekend, an arrest warrant for a controversial world leader, and final thoughts about the 2025 Guelph budget with one of our councillors. Hopefully, no bad blood there.
This Thursday, November 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Gone in Swiftie Seconds. While Justin Trudeau was dancing to Taylor Swift in Toronto, Montreal was burning down... That was the message on social media Friday night, painting the PM as out of touch, hanging out a concert as a Canadian city was under siege. Except that's not what happened. We will talk about what really happened on the streets of Montreal on Friday, how it got so overblown so fast, how Trudeau has become a useful boogeyman on the right, and how we need to start understanding why.
The Warrant Trap. The International Criminal Court last week announced that they had issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in Gaza. Many western governments have said that they won't be enforcing that warrant, but Canada is not one of them. Still, it seems pretty unlikely that Netanyahu will stand before The Hague any time soon, so what do these warrants do and can they inflict any leverage on Israel even as a ceasefire with Lebanon's been secured?
The Six Per Cent. Guelph City Council added amendments to the 2025 budget on Wednesday and thus closed the annual process. The increase for next year is just over six per cent, which isn't the four per cent Mayor Cam Guthrie wanted, but it isn't the 10 per cent he didn't want either. We talked to Ward 3 Councillor Michele Richardson just before the budget vote to get insights into the 2025 numbers, and what she thought about this complicated process going into the last meeting.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we go on a Roman Holiday! Not the movie, but a trip backwards in time to the original Rome, the imperial one with insane emperors doing dirt and the only honour you can find is killing for sport. It's time for Gladiator II, and to bring this episode full circle, we're going to talk about the movie that inspired the other big release this week.
This Wednesday, November 27, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Wizard of Oz at 85! Last weekend's release of Wicked is perfectly timed consider this year marks the 85th birthday of Victor Fleming's iconic musical based on the L. Frank Baum book. A Hollywood classic by any objective measurement, Oz has been the source of many hours of enjoyment, plus many sources for urban legends and stories about a cursed production. So looking back nearly 100 years later, does The Wizard still have the magic?
REVIEW: Gladiator II (2024). "What we do in life, echoes in eternity." And if it helps, make a sequel! Nearly 25 years after the release of the original Gladiator, Ridley Scott returns to Rome where another warrior is beaten, enslaved, and turned into a Colosseum warrior looking to seize his perch for a chance at revenge. This time, your titular Gladiator is Paul Mescal, and caught between the conflicted Pedro Pascal and the duplicitous Denzel Washington we only have one question going into today's show: Are we not entertained?!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Community Living Guelph Wellington has been around since 1955 providing support and services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and their families in the communities in which they live, and for the last few years they’ve faced some serious financial issues. 2024 is no exception, but might the important services of Community Living get lost in the shuffle of all the crushing need out there.
This is from an article in the Wellington Advertiser last week: “Community Living Guelph Wellington is facing a $3 million deficit in 2025 and will be closing two of its residential sites to rein in expenses.” That sounds pretty bad, but it sounds even worse when you realize that this is a dance that’s happened every fall for the last few years, and that doesn’t do a lot for the long-term sustainability of the organization.
Another detail from the Advertiser article is that Community Living’s funding has only increased four per cent in the last 30 years. If you think about issues around Ontario funding for autism programs, or the severe underfunding of payouts for everyone receiving money under the Ontario Disability Support Program, or ODSP, it’s pretty clear that there’s a crisis when it comes to supporting people with special needs in this province.
This week, we’re going to shed some light on what might be the most overlooked demographic in the area of people in need, and how we can all do better on their behalf. So we're joined by Cindy Kinnon, the executive director of Community Living Guelph Wellington, who will talk about how long they’ve been managing with a budget shortfall, and how they’ve managed to get across the fiscal finish line in the last few years, and how every one in Guelph can help them out.
So let's go inside Community Living on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Community Living Guelph Wellington at their website, you can follow them @clguelphwell on Facebook and Instagram, or you can get in touch with them the old fashioned way on the phone at 519-824-2480. If you’re interested in signing the petition to help support Community Living, send an email to Pam Howard at howard.march [at] outlook.com.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're stuck in the middle with you. If you're feeling stuck, you're not alone and it's safe to say that the entire government apparatus at all levels seem stuck these days. This edition of a show will be a recital of being stuck, from gridlock in Ottawa to impasses at the annual international climate change summit. Our provincial government seems stuck on bail reform, while our greatest Christmas parade is just strapped... for cash.
This Thursday, November 21, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Gridlock, Stalk and Barrel. Have you heard the news from Parliament Hill. You probably haven't because the place has been in a procedural gridlock for almost two months now. In the midst of a postal workers strike and a will they/won't they confidence condition in the House, it's the latest example of widespread disfunction at the federal level, and it's not like there are any serious issues that need solutions. This week, we will take a break from American political dysfunction to talk about some of our own.
Much Baku About Nothing. COP29 is being held in Baku, Azerbaijan right now, and as always there's great hope that the world's richest countries, the ones who are the source of so much carbon, might decide to take bold action to avert climate disaster. It's hard to hold out much hope with the world's biggest, loudest climate denier about to return to the White House, but it might not be as homeless as you might think. We'll look at the news coming out of COP and decide if the world might still be saved.
Bail House Rock. The Ontario government has been turning up the pressure on the federal Attorney General to reform bail and make it harder for repeat and dangerous offenders to get release until their trial. Sounds reasonable, right? Hold that phone because legal activists are saying that the issue is a system that has so many people in jail right now, they're over-populated, and a court system not well-staffed enough to process people in a Constitutionally speedy manner. So is the real problem bail after all?
The Santa Clause. This week, the organisers of the Toronto Santa Claus Parade said that without some financial help the parade won't make it to its 120th birthday next year. The Original Santa Claus Parade is the latest Canadian cultural institution to face issues with funding in this post-pandemic period, and that includes Hot Docs, Just For Laughs and the Vancouver Folk Festival, which have all been on the brink of closure in the last year. Are we doing enough to protect Canadian culture?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we learn to love. No, we're not reviewing Netflix's Hot Frosty, though that might be a hoot-and-a-half, we're doing something much more down to Earth by focusing on a candidate for "Best Film of the Year." Yes, we're reviewing Anora, and in that spirit, we're going to talk about movies featuring couples of the less-than-fairy tale variety.
This Wednesday, November 20, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Bad Romance. There are a lot of Hollywood movies where couples live happily ever after, but not all of them. In fact, we'll put odds that one out of every two romantic movies feature couples who never should have even thought about getting together in the first place. There's a reason why "toxic" has become a watch word in the culture. To kick things off this week, we're going to talk some of movies' baddest bad romances, so cue up the Lady Gaga!
REVIEW: Anora (2024). Sean Baker's films chronicle the ways in which working class people struggle on the margins in modern America, and he usual lands on a very specific industry: sex work. In Anora, Ani meets Vanya as she's the only performer at her strip club that speaks Russian, and thus begins a whirlwind romance that ends with the two married in a typically tacky Vegas wedding. But that's just the beginning of the story. With a star-making lead performance by Mikey Madison, we'll discuss why Anora is a strong candidate for the best film of the year.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Last week, the reality of the Public Space Use Bylaw came into effect with the formal eviction of everyone in tents from St. George’s Square. The square is clear now of tents, but the people who lived in those tents have not disappeared or found permanent homes. In fact, they’re more vulnerable than ever, and even before the eviction last week, they were hurting. This is a story about the human toll of the Public Space Use Bylaw.
The weekend before the eviction, two young people died in tents in the square, two of the increasing number of people in this community who have died from drug poisoning, or what we’ve typically in the past called an overdose. A vigil was planned for Monday night to offer a space to grieve for the friends and family of Jen, Miles and four others who have passed away in the last few weeks. Over 100 people showed up to remember.
In the midst of this expression of grief was a powerful reminder that the people who lived in a tent in St. George’s Square were not some problem to solve. They were human beings, and they had their struggles, but that doesn’t mean that they weren’t loved and that they won’t be missed. It was extremely powerful and emotional for everyone there and hopefully a reminder that these are people in need of help and support, and now, some of them are gone forever.
So on this week’s pod, you’re going to hear from some of the people who were there on Monday night, like Jacky, who’s struggled with homelessness and has since found a home in the new Shelldale project, and she will talk about her thoughts on the eviction from St. George’s Square. You will also hear from Bear and Marnie who were friends with the young people who died two weeks ago and will talk about what they left behind. And then you will hear sound from the vigil itself.
So let's hear some of the voices from downtown on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Thanks to Your Downtown Guelph Friends for facilitating the arrangement of the vigil, and thanks Jacky, Bear and Marnie. If you’d like to help folks in need Your Downtown Guelph Friends, the Royal City Mission and the Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition are good places to start, whether you have extra money or supplies, or simply want to offer you time. The Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy is also fundraising to create a permanent memorial to all those who’ve died from drug poisoning, and you can learn more 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're doing some real analysis. Look at that picture above, are you scared? Sick? Shocked? Disappointed? All of the above? Then this week's show might be of some interest as we try to dissect the most recent American election for something usable going forward. Closer to home, we're talking to a member of city council about this year's unusual budget process.
This Thursday, November 14, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Autopsy. Still recovering from last week's surprise election of Donald Trump as the next President of the United States, he started this week appointing the MAGA goon squad version of the '27 Yankees to key cabinet posts. So in the midst of our shock, we will take a break from breaking news to learn some key lessons from this U.S. election and how they might be applied to future elections, including ones here in Canada. Get your scalpels out because it's time to talk about how it all went wrong.
Cash Back. It's budget time at city hall and there's a lot to dig into because it was only supposed to be a budget confirmation year. Mayor Cam Guthrie and Strong Mayor Powers changed all that though, and Guelph staff were pushed to get the total levy increase under four per cent for 2025. Ward 2 Councillor Rodrigo Goller will join us this week to talk about his thoughts when it comes to this budget, and budget process, as well as his own disappointment about the fireworks bylaw he was pushing to overhaul.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're praying, and we think our prayers were answer (?) What we wanted in these difficult times was an election where maybe the good guys win, and perhaps we got that with the movie Conclave, which is about the surprising politics of choosing a new pope. And speaking of popes, we will talk about other men and women of God... in the movies.
This Wednesday, November 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
God Bless the Movies. Faith is an interesting topic for the movies, and it can be interpreted through just about any genre. There are deeply serious dramas about people of faith, there's an entire comedy franchises built around the idea that God is a funny old man, and you can't really talk about religious movies without reference the entire exorcism subgenre. So before getting to this week's religiously-themed movie, we will talk about some of the others.
REVIEW: Conclave (2024). This week's movie is about a bunch of men who are each trying to undermine and outmanoeuvre each other as they vie to become one of the most powerful leaders of the world: The new pope. Edward Berger follows up his Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front with a different kind of warfare: Can a good man be the head of the world's one billion Catholics. Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci lead a talented cast through the most important election of their lifetimes. But how do we like going along for the ride?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
If you feel like active transportation options are under siege at the moment, you’re not alone. The Ontario government is coming for municipal bike lanes while cities like Guelph, facing unprecedented financial barriers, are seeing robust active transportation networks as a “nice to have”. We've spent the last few years trying to undo decades of building our cities around the personal automobile, but is the war on bike lanes finally here?
In September, the Guelph Coalition for Active Transportation held an unusual event, a ghost ride in honour of Susan Bard who was struck by a car and died from her injuries while riding her bike on Victoria Road North. Before the ride, Mike Darmon told everyone gathered at city hall that he hoped that this would not be a regular occurrence, but the death of Bard was as a sign that these are not safe times on Guelph roads.
At around the same time, there started to be rumblings about new legislation at Queen’s Park, a law that would stop municipalities from installing new bike lanes on major arterial roads, and then removing some of the ones already there. It seems that in some quarters, the blame for congestion on Ontario roads is all this quote-unquote useless space for bike lanes, so they have to go. Also, here in Guelph were scaling back on some investments in active transportation, at least the off-road variety in trails and parks.
To look at all this, we're joined by the two public faces for GCAT, Mike Darmon and Adrian Salvatore. They will talk about increasing concerns about safety on Guelph’s roads, and the way we think differently depending on our mode of transportation. They will also talk about how to understand bike lane use, why the statistics the Ontario government cites are flawed, and whether bike lane use should be viewed through a road safety lens as well as an infrastructure one. And finally, what's next for GCAT?
Let's dig into this War on Bike Lanes on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can stay connected to the Guelph Coalition for Active Transportation at their website, or on the socials @activeguelph. If you’re concerned about active transportation infrastructure, budget delegation night is Tuesday November 19 at 6 pm, and you have until this Friday at 10 am to sign up as a delegate on the City’s website. Bill 212 - Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act is currently before the standing committee at Queen’s Park, and the public comment period closes on Wednesday November 20.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we're in a recovery phase. On Tuesday, we saw the end of an epically long election that had more ups and downs than the scariest roller coaster, and hopefully there will be some solid results to discuss. Closer to home, we will look at the latest non-solution to Ontario's homeless crisis and the latest unfounded attack on Canada's trans community from the likeliest source.
This Thursday, October 31, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Is it Over? By the time you're reading this you might know who the 47th President of the United States is going to be. Perhaps you might even know the which party will form the majority in the House of Representatives and/or the Senate. So is there reason for optimism? The ultimate showdown between the current Vice-President and the disgraced former President has been a slugfest and no matter how it turned out, it's only the beginning of the story, not the end. So what happens next?
Clause of Defeat. Cities and towns all over Ontario have to deal with a growing number of encampments, unhoused people who are either weary of the shelter system or cannot find shelter accommodations to suit their needs. It's been tough trying to find accommodation for these people, but some mayors and the Premier of Ontario have a radical idea: Use the notwithstanding clause of the Constitution to stop courts from stopping the forced eviction of encampments. Is this really all we can do for the vulnerable?
Silence of the Trans. Last week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced three new pieces of legislation: one to restrict gender-affirming treatments for youth, one to require parental consent for pronoun or name changes in schools, and one to limit participation in competitive female sports to athletes who were female at birth. This in spite of the fact that voters in New Brunswick just rejected their anti-trans government and the government in Saskatchewan took a hit for their similar stance. So why is Smith going back to the anti-trans well?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits even we can't escape election fever. As we recover from what was (likely) a very busy night of returns from the U.S., we will focus on the movies about American presidents, the real ones. And if you need a break from the ordinary, there's always the tale of a man and his space alien as we dig into the latest adventures of Venom in The Last Dance.
This Wednesday, November 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Ballot Box Office. This week, American voters went to the polls to choose their next president, which, by the time you're reading this, has been revealed to be Vice-President Kamala Harris or the other guy. But there have been 46 men who've previously been President of the United States, and they've all appeared in movies as characters at one point or another. Before the main review, we're going to make some political endorsements of our own.
REVIEW: Venom: The Last Dance (2024). Tom Hardy is back with Tom Hardy, for the third adventure of a washed up journalist named Eddie and his best friend who is a pile of black space goo that eats brains when unleashed. In this adventure, Eddie and Venom are on the run through the backroads of America, but an unseen power from outer space wants something they have and they're ready to burn down the Earth to get it. But who cares? Don't we really just want to see Tom Hardy talk to himself for two hours?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Watching the Accessibility Advisory Committee meetings over the last several months there’s a particular undercurrent that some members of the committee feel like they’re not being listened to, and that there was a disconnect between their expectations and what City of Guelph staff wanted them to do. And then came the Public Space Use Bylaw and the waters got even choppier.
At their February meeting, the AAC passed a motion asking for some dedicated engagement of their own on the topic of the Public Space Use Bylaw. Part of the AAC’s role is to advise council on policy and how it might impact the disabled community in Guelph, and there are a lot of people among the unhoused population who have some kind of disability.
But as you know, the Public Space Use Bylaw never came back for engagement with anyone, it was dropped on an unplanned meeting of council in late August where it was approved by council and then put into effect at the beginning of last month. The October meeting opened with an uncomfortable rake out over the AAC’s disappointment, and the belief that once again that they were not listened to about a vital matter of accessibility and the protection of the rights of the disabled.
So following up on all of this, we're catching up this week with Lorelei Root, who is the chair of the Accessibility Advisory Committee. She will talk about what happened around the scheduling of October’s meeting, staff’s discomfort talking about process in open session and why she and the vice-chair thought it was important to air all this in the public. She will also talk about the feedback the AAC wanted to give around the Public Space Use Bylaw, and whether the committee has now won its hard fought autonomy.
So let's talk again about fighting for accessibility on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The Accessible Advisory Committee will meet again on Tuesday December 17, and you can catch up on the coverage of all of this year’s meetings so far on Guelph Politico. According to reports, eviction notices have been handed out to people encamped in St. George’s Square and they have until next Wednesday November 13 to move. Stay tuned for updates as they develop.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're dealing with our Trump Derangement Syndrome. One more week till the vote's over in the United States, and there's a lot to catch up on. The vote is already over in Saskatchewan, but there's a new one brewing in Nova Scotia to talk about. More locally, international students are getting a lot of blame, but we're talking to someone who says that they really need our assistance.
This Thursday, October 31, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
We've Got Five Days On It. It's been a while since we talked about the U.S. Presidential Election, so has anything weird been going on? Of course there has! Donald Trump staged a sequel to the 1939 pro-fascist rally at Madison Square Garden, while Vice-President Kamala Harris returned to the scene of the crime on January 6 to make her closing case. And yet, the polls are obnoxiously too close to call, and there are all those down ballot races to worry about too. So DEFCON-1 time, right?
Houston, We Have an Election! More election fun across Canada with a stop in the prairies and a surprising trip back to the east coast. In Saskatchewan Scott Moe managed to keep his majority, but it is a smaller majority with the NDP under Carla Beck getting 13 seats strong. Meanwhile, Premier Tim Houston dissolved the Nova Scotia legislature, initiating a snap election one whole year early and in violation of the fixed election law he put in place in 2021. We'll talk about more non-Ontario provincial elections.
Save Our Students. A media conference in Brampton last week pushed action from the federal and provincial governments on a serious problem: International students being sexually exploited or used for human trafficking. We know that trafficking is a serious issue, and we know that international students are especially vulnerable so this week we're joined by Brampton City Councillor Rowena Santos. She is spearheading the efforts to protect students from being prayed on by unscrupulous landlords and she will tell us how we can help.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we mark Devil's Night. Our new favourite holiday! In honour of this year's end-of-October commemorations, and perhaps to offer some relief from the sturm und drang of modern living, we present a festival of fear! A celebration of screams, if you will! So settle in as we summon the scares because this is Halloween!
This Wednesday, October 30, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Peter Salmon, Candice Lepage, and special guest Mike Ashkewe will discuss:
Halloween/Horror Movie Draft. It's the most wonderful time of the year... For some. So it's to those people that we dedicate this special episode of the show, the Halloween/Horror Movie Draft. The entire gang is here, plus a special guest ringer, to put the season in proper perspective by talking about our favourite horror movies in a set of six carefully selected categories. Join us as we talk about all the monsters, mayhem, killers and cadavers that make this time of the year so special, right up to the granddaddy of the them all...
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Photo courtesy of Trancas International.
If you think traffic and travel are bad now, it might not compare to what awaits if Guelph Transit workers go on strike, or are locked out by the City. It could be worse. In so much as these things never happen at the best possible time, it might be even worse for Guelph Transit now as they hit new ridership records and try to justify increased expenses as City Hall is looking to save pennies. So is transit job action a foregone conclusion?
You may remember the last time there was job action around Transit. It was late summer 2014 and Guelph ended up going more than two weeks without a transit system. Ten years ago, the city was different. This was before the 99 Mainline, before Conestoga was more of a draw, and before Guelph Transit broke two different ridership records in the same year. A shutdown stemming from job action will throw all that progress away.
So what’s at stake? Basically, the workers are looking for a cost of living increase and a pathway to a better work-life balance. Driving around town is hard enough, but trying to put a happy face on City policy, maintaining customer service, proctoring fares and helping people find their way using an app that Transit has no investment in? Is it so surprising that workers are looking for a raise?
Scott Bate, who is the president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1189, will join us this week to lend some insight into these matters. He will tell us about a day in the life of a transit worker, what they’re bargaining for, and why they don’t plan on accepting any concessions from management. He will also talk about what’s going to happen when time runs out for the no-board report, and why they’re trying to get the word out early about a potential job action.
So let's talk about job action on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
The no-board report expires on November 7 at which point the union can strike, the City can lock them out, or the whole thing might go to arbitration. So what way is it going to go? We’ll have to wait and see, so stay tuned to Guelph Politico for any updates and keep on an eye on the social media feeds of both the City of Guelph and Guelph Transit respectively.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're keeping things provincial. We're going around the country to talk about the latest news coming out Queen's Park now that the government is back at work there, and then we're going to check out the new provincial governments who will take their seats in Fredericton and Victoria. For the interview this week, we're keeping things in Guelph where one of our local councillors is going to talk about gas!
This Thursday, October 24, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Cheque Before You Choose. After a 20-week break, the Ontario legislature is back in session, and we've pretty much picking up where we left off: With everyone yelling! Premier Doug Ford is offering some pre-election cheques, threatening this sanctity of bike lanes, and is under siege from the opposition and the big cities mayors for not attacking all the real problems the province is facing, so just another day at Queen's Park, right? We'll talk about the back-and-forth and what it all means.
Bi-Coastal, Bi-Results. This week, there were two different provincial elections and they had two very different results. In New Brunswick, the Liberals won decisively with what seemed like a repudiation of the divisive tactics of the incumbent PC premier. Meanwhile, in B.C., divisive tactics seemed to make a difference as the BC Conservatives pushed the NDP to a 46-45 split legislature with two recounts now underway. What do these two elections tell us about the current state of Canadian politics?
Ahead of the Gas. You may be surprised to learn that Enbridge doesn't have to pay to install natural gas infrastructure on municipal property, but one person that knows it is Ward 5 City Councillor Leanne Caron, and she wants to change that. Caron is bringing a motion to Committee of the Whole in a couple of weeks to try and make some changes, and she will talk to us about that today, and she will also talk about the mayor's 2025 budget, and what to expect over the next few weeks as city council debates its merits.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're running. Time is running out! We've dealt with some scary stuff in the last few weeks, but at least now we've moved on (ran from?) creepy clowns to get to something more earth-bound. On this episode, we're reviewing the new thriller Strange Darling, and we've also got a conversation with the head of the original documentary film festival!
This Wednesday, October 23, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Guelph Film Festival Preview! The Guelph Film Festival launches its 2024 edition on November 1, so plan your festival experience with this conversation. Kimber Sider, the artistic director and lead programmer of the festival, joins us to talk about some of the selections in this year's program including a tale from the West Bank, the fight for an Ontario landmark, and the community building that occurs around bicycles. Get more info at the fest's website.
REVIEW: Strange Darling (2024). You know the story: boy meets girl, they decide to engage in the ancient ritual of the hook-up and go to a motel, and then things turn bad. Kyle Gallner and Willa Fitzgerald are the stars of Strange Darling, a non-linear serial killer story with a twist and proudly shot on 35 mm by director of photography Giovanni Ribisi (?!). This came out of Fantastic Fest with a lot of buzz, made a splash this summer in rep theatres, and is now available on VOD. Dare you tune in to learn the terrifying secrets of the film's success?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Here, at the end of October, there’s a lot going on from new budgets to potential strikes to changes to our recycling, so it seems like a good time to pause and talk about some recent events before the news gets even crazier. This week, we're going to catch up with a friend from a different show, and we're all going to catch up with all the important issues going on in the news. The Guelph Stuff!
It was revealed last Thursday that the 2025 budget confirmation now includes nearly five per cent less spending than what was approved last year. Almost everything other than housing support and mandated services have been deferred or eliminated from next year’s budget, but are we ready for what all these budget cuts might mean as the city continues to grow and change?
There’s also been a lot of concern about the growing number of tents and homeless encampments. Last week at a meeting of the Ontario Big City Mayors, the heads of the province’s 29 largest cities, including Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie, called on the provincial and federal governments to take immediate action, but have we finally run out of compassion on these issues?
In transit news, the workers of the ATU 1189 might be either going on strike or will be subject to a lockout sometime early in November. A no-board report was filed last week, which begins a 17-day countdown that either leads to mediation or job action, and while there’s never a good time for a transit strike, this comes at a particularly precarious time. Is Guelph going to be bus-less in a couple of weeks?
We will also cover a series of motions at the Accessibility Advisory Committee that tests how dedicated the City of Guelph is to giving them their proper autonomy, and the changes coming to Guelph’s recycling program that are coming into effect in January. To help us out with this analysis, we will be joined by Open Sources Guelph co-host Scotty Hertz who will help us press the button on these hot button issues in the Royal City.
So let's dig into that Guelph Stuff on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can hear Open Sources Guelph every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca. You can also catch the re-broadcast at select times and download the podcast version every Monday from the show's website. Also, we will follow up on all these stories as they develop 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're still hungry after our turkey dinner was interrupted by some late breaking news of national importance. We will catch up with the still breaking news about Indo-Canadian relations in the wake of the expulsion of diplomats, and then we will talk about whether or not the current PM should take his curtain call. As for this week's guest, he will talk about doing the impossible!
This Thursday, October 17, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Six. The Government of Canada and the RCMP interrupted our Thanksgiving to announce that they were expelling six Indian diplomats and consular officials for a "targeted campaign against Canadian citizens by agents linked to the Government of India." While much of the corporate media has labelled this as a "row" or a "tiff", the allegations are damning, suggesting that India PM Narendra Modi has overseen a movement to intimidate Indian-Canadians who have spoken out against his government. Is Canada equal to this challenge?
Walk in the Snow Day? Before Monday's announcement, the biggest political news in Ottawa was a reportedly growing insurgent campaign to oust Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader before the next election. Trudeau, once the prodigal son, is now seen as the albatross around the neck of the party, which is about 20 points behind the Conservatives in polling. But can swapping Trudeau for someone (anyone) else solve the problem, and would there even be enough time to make that case?
When the Wal Fell. Last month, a Walmart warehouse in Mississauga did what was once thought impossible given the company we're talking about, they unionised. From an Amazon warehouse in Vancouver to a Starbucks in Waterloo, unions have been making big gains in workplaces many believed would never let their employees organise, but Walmart is the Everest for labour and they've finally made the summit. This week, Justin Gniposky from Unifor National will tells us how they did it, and what comes next.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we get terrified. Like most of North America (apparently given the box office numbers), we've caught Art Fever, so for the second week in a row we're going to dig into the cinematic adventures of a killer clown, and in this case it's Terrifier 3 we're talking about. And to keep up the spooky theme, we will revisit a Canadian horror classic!
This Wednesday, October 2, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Black Christmas at 50! It was half-a-century ago that a small Canadian movie was released in theatres, and though it might have been overlooked, it's become one of the most memorable and influential horror films in cinema history. Bob Clark's Black Christmas features a "who's who" cast and is still incredibly stylish and atmospheric 50 years later. So what a perfect time to take another look at this gem of Canadian film?
REVIEW: Terrifier 3 (2024). Over a decade ago, horror fans were introduced to Art the Clown in the anthology film All Hallow's Eve. Now? Art is a horror icon nearly on par with Freddy, Jason, and Micheal, and Terrifier 3 might be his apex. In the third entry of the franchise, Art decides to expand his act to Christmas by giving something pointy or exploding to boys and girls everywhere, but is there more to the story than pure unadulterated violence and chaos? And is Art the only clown worth talking about at the movies this October?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
A number of Ontario municipalities including Brampton, Woodstock, Milton, and Halton Hills have banned fireworks outright, and several others including Kitchener are looking at new regulations. Here in Guelph, a new permitting system is on the table; City staff and some councillors think that this may be the best of both worlds, but others think it’s the worst, including members of the fireworks lobby!
The last review of Guelph’s fireworks bylaw was in 2013, but council passed a decree last year to move up the timing of the next review by several years due to repeated complaints to councillors about small fireworks displays in area parks, and the setting off of fireworks, mostly by young people, at odd days and hours before and after those commemorations.
Guelph’s proposal to fix all that is to implement a permit system. Essentially, if you want to set off fireworks you will have to go to the City and pay a fee, which will then allow you to buy fireworks and set them off at one of Guelph’s preferred locations so long as you have insurance, safety inspections, an animal safety plan, and something called a licensed display supervisor. Problem solved, right? Not to fast because the people whose livelihood is tied to their sale and distribution have notes.
To provide them, we have Aleem Kanji, who is the chief advocacy officer for the Canadian National Fireworks Association. He's going to talk about his work advocating for safe fireworks use, fighting the nation-wide trend of fireworks bans, and why he thinks bans don’t ultimately work. Kanji will also talk about his advocacy to Guelph council, his response to the majority support in this city for a ban, and his counter-arguments to some of the talking points in favour of a ban.
So let's talk about the fireworks over fireworks on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Canadian National Fireworks Association at their website. The question of Guelph’s new fireworks bylaw will be coming back to city council for ratification on Tuesday October 29, and that agenda will be published on the City’s website on Thursday, and you will have until Friday October 25 to sign up to delegate if you like. In the meantime, you can check out the reports from Committee of the Whole.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're under pressure. We're now one-year into a war in the Middle East that no one wanted but we're dealing with it anyway, and here in Canada it's costing more to hold government agencies to account. If you want to talk about holding governments to account though, you probably want to talk to this week's guest who might be fighting a losing battle against the Ontario government to keep public land public.
This Thursday, October 10, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
One Year Later. Monday was the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, and it comes at a moment where the war that attack started is getting more and more precarious. Iran and Israel are now trading rocket fire as IDF ground forces are in Lebanon trying to root our Hezbollah. Meanwhile, here in the west, governments are facing increasing calls to take a stand against Benjamin Netanyahu, who, it turns out, is not well thought of by Joe Biden according to a new Bob Woodward book. How does this possibly end?
Integrity Costs. If you're not sick of all the other crises, there's a new one on the horizon and it's not in the place you want it to be. Harriet Solloway, Canada's public sector integrity commissioner, says that there's a two-three year backlog in cases and that the service needs over a million dollars to play catch-up. This service is one of the last lines of defence when it comes to governmental mismanagement, and it's imperative that it maintain the confidence of the people, but in these frugal times is the federal government willing to step up?
On the Waterfront. Last week, the Government of Ontario delivered a technical briefing about their plan to revitalise Ontario Place, which has been the source of a lot of controversy and derision over the last few years. A group called Ontario Place for All has fought hard to get transparency, and, if possible, to get a new deal for Toronto's water front that puts the public back in public space. Organiser Norm Di Pasquale will join us to talk about fighting Queen's Park, the effort to get to the bottom of the costs, and whether there's still hope.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we send in the clowns! Of course, these aren't regular clowns, they are clown princes. There are also not good clowns, they are criminals. In fact, you might call them the Clown Princes of Crime! Yes, we're sending in the clowns, and we're ranking and reviewing them. We're doing Joker: Folie à Deux and we're ranking all the Jokers!
This Wednesday, October 2, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Jokers are Wild! The Joker was introduced in the very first issue of Batman in 1940, and has become the most iconic, and most revisited comic book villain in movie history, he's even been the star of his own movie (and its sequel). So this week, before we talk about the new Joker, we're going to take a few minutes and rank all the Jokers. From Cesar Romero to Barry Keoghan, we will talk about which Jokers are the wildest!
REVIEW: Joker: Folie à Deux (2024). He's back! Joker was a surprising smash hit in 2019, an R-rated comic book movie that didn't look, act or feel like a comic book movie and it made a billion dollars at the box office and won 11 Academy Award nominations. Five year's later, Joaquin Phoenix is putting on the clown make up again, and this time he's singing and dancing with Lady Gaga as his Harley Quinn. So, can director Todd Phillips (not Tim Phillips) find that Joker magic again, or is the last laugh on us in the audience?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
If you want to know the history of a place, go to the cemetery, and this is no less true for Woodlawn Memorial Park. It’s natural in this Halloween month to seek out some spookiness, and conventional wisdom says that there’s nowhere spookier than the local cemetery, but our guest this week spent a lifetime promoting a simple message: Your local cemetery is not a very scary place.
Woodlawn Cemetery opened in 1854, and at the time it was at a location that was well beyond the Guelph city limits. This was purposeful because in 1853, Guelph passed a bylaw that said you couldn’t have a cemetery in the city limits, which at the time affected three cemeteries in the core including the Union located along Baker Street parking. We know the end of that story 160 years later.
In all that time, the story of so many Guelphites ended at Woodlawn, and for 44 years that meant it ended at Paul Taylor. As a young man he brought is experience in construction to his first job at the cemetery where he was, of all things, a gravedigger. The year was 1977 and a few years later a still young Taylor found himself in the position of superintendent, which is a position that would later be renamed General Manager. In 2021 he retired, and now he's bringing that experience to this podcast.
Taylor joins us this week to talk about his life’s work, and his life’s passion. He will tell us how he’s worked his whole career to change the perception of what a cemetery is, and thee cemetery's role as keepers of local history. He will also talk about whether hanging out at the cemetery as a place to enjoy the outdoors might be more than a trend, his favourite places at Woodlawn, the things about the park only he can appreciate, and the surprisingly bright future for burials among millennials.
So let's talk about why the cemetery is awesome on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Woodlawn Memorial Park at their website. At their website, you can book a tour, or get pdf copies of maps and brochures that will show you places of interest in all 80 acres of the property. You can also stop by the office on weekdays from 8 am to 4:30 pm to get information and recommendations for where to visit.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, there's a lot to figure out. South of the border, does it matter who won the vice-presidential debate? We're going to find out, and we're also going to find out if anything's really changed after all this time when it comes to Truth and Reconciliation with our Indigenous communities in recent years. Also, we're going to have more tunnel talk with a special guest who knows about real solutions for congestion.
This Thursday, October 3, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Mission Veep. On Tuesday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance appeared on stage for the first and only vice-presidential debate. They both had the same goal: Don't screw this up for the top of the ticket! The results were mixed, meaning that both men stuck to the mission and presented a facsimile of somewhat normal political discourse, while Iranian missiles fall on Israel, and Donald Trump is on the stump talking about Democrats creating water-free bathrooms. So has the game changed?
Orange Country. Monday was the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which is still not a stat holiday in Ontario by the way. Nearly 10 years after delivery of the TRC report, and nearly four years after the re-examination of the legacy of Canada's residential school system, we're still trying to figure out what "truth and reconciliation" means, and some of us are making it harder than it should be. This week, we're going to stop and measure our progress as the orange shirts come off.
Tunnel Spat. Last week, Premier Doug Ford announced his intention to explore the possibility of building a new highway, in a tunnel, under the 401. A lot of people were surprised by this announcement, and Ford, as he often does, has doubled down on it as new questions keep being raised. We've got some questions too, which is why we've reached out to Martin Collier, a transportation planner and founder of Transport Futures, who will tell us about the practicalities and possibilities of Ford's tunnel vision based his own expertise.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're ambitious! We do love a passion project on this show, and on this episode we're serving up thoughts on two of them, one new and one old. In the 'new' category, we've got the latest movie from the vanguard of the New Hollywood movement, and from the 'old' file, we've got the greatest hit from the head of the 90s indie movement. Get ready for Megalopolis and Pulp Fiction!
This Wednesday, October 2, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Pulp Fiction at 30! It was three decades ago this week that Quentin Tarantino's second feature was released to rapturous acclaim, multiple award nominations, and 30 years of influence. Pulp Fiction is frequently cited as one of the best movies of the 90s, if not in the history of cinema, and it certainly cemented the reputation of Quentin Tarantino as the pre-eminent filmmaker of his generation. But after all this time, is Pulp Fiction still the G.O.A.T. we want it to be?
REVIEW: Megalopolis (2024). For years, Francis Ford Coppola - the legendary director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now - has been trying to get this project off the ground, a fable about one man's struggle to overcome corruption and decay to make his utopian dreams a reality. In what's bound to be the most divisive movie of the year, Megalopolis follows the dreamer played by Adam Driver as he manoeuvres the flailing days of New Rome/York to build his dream. This kids is what's called a metaphor, so does Coppola manage to achieve his dream and build a better cinema?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Last week was a very busy news week here in Guelph, four stories that each, in their way, tell the story of a growing city when it comes to the economy, public safety and accountability. For this episode of the pod you're going to hear the news as it’s covered, live (ish) from around town as we get into some real shoe leather reporting from the streets of the Royal City. This is "Raw Audio News!"
First we will talk to Paul Hanna, executive VP of member relations, governance and corporate services at the Co-operators along with Shawn Fitzgerald who is the VP of real estate and workplace services. After the official grand opening of the new Co-operators headquarters in the city’s south end last week, they talked about the shape of office work post-COVID and why it’s good business to build in an environmentally sustainable way.
Next, we will hear from Staff Sergeant Michael Davis who oversees the tactics and rescue unit. He was on hand last Thursday as Guelph Police unveiled their new community rescue vehicle, which has generated a lot of attention online, and you will hear from him in a media scrum about why this purchase was necessary and how it will be deployed.
Third, we will hear from Mike Darmon, Corinna Matteliano, Adrian Salvatore, Jennifer Juste, Ken Yee Chew and Mike Schreiner, who spoke at a Ghost Ride on Saturday. The ride was organized by the Guelph Coalition for Active Transportation to honour Susan Bard, one of their members and an avid cyclist who was killed in a motor vehicle collision on September 6. These speakers, including Bard’s daughter Matterliano, will talk about road safety in Guelph and how we need to do better to protect all road users.
And finally you will hear briefly from Faye Dzikewich, she is the mother of Nathaniel Schofield, a 36-year-old Arthur man who died while in police custody at the Rockwood detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police. Nathaniel’s friends and family held a march to protest how they’re still waiting for answers from the SIU about how this healthy father of six who was arrested and held for a relatively minor offence when he died.
So let’s get into some raw audio news on this week’s edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can follow up with all of these stories on the main 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got a lot going on. There are two elections happening in Canada right now, and probably not the ones you expect. Meanwhile, Israel's war is expanding to Hezbollah now as they launch attacks both big and small around the regions, just in time for the start of another October. For the interview, we've got our local Member of Provincial Parliament who's still trying to stay on top of the premier's recent colour commentary.
This Thursday, September 26, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Eastbound and Westbound. There's been a lot of election talk lately, but it's more than just talk on the east and the west coast. While Blaine Higgs hopes to get back to a more comfortable majority position even as the Liberals seem to be surging in New Brunswick, the more interesting race is in British Columbia where the NDP and the new provincial Conservative Party are neck-and-neck with Conservative leader John Rustad taking culture war silliness for a spin. We'll catch up with both races.
"De-escalation Though Escalation." That's a line from Axios’ politics and foreign policy reporter Barak Ravid about the Israeli government's strategy when it comes to their recent attacks against Hezbollah, first with a serious of attacks using exploding pagers and then with missile attacks on Lebanon. You might note that Israel was fighting a war against Hamas, and as we approach the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks, there's no sign that anything resembling de-escalation is coming. Is a regional war inevitable?
Blame It on the Lane. This Friday, Mike Schreiner will accept the nomination of the local Green Party to be their candidate in the next provincial election, so naturally, Premier Doug Ford has spent the week giving Schreiner great new material to run on. From cancelling bike lanes to telling unhoused people to get off their ass and get a job, it's been a banner week for Ford, so Schreiner's going to tell us why he's still focused on getting people housed, and why he wants to put climate action back on the legislative menu at Queen's Park!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we get the jump on October. We can't wait another six days for the spookiest month of the year to properly begin so we're going to kick things off with Satan! For the review this week, we're going to watch the new horror flick The Deliverance on Netflix, and we're going to talk about history's greatest super-villain, and his greatest hits!
This Wednesday, September 18, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Hail Satan! The Devil was the villain of the first horror movie in 1898, and he's been a recurring villain in cinema ever since. The Devil, Beelzebub, Satan, or whatever term you want to use, is a key character or antagonist in all kinds of movies, whether it's straight-up Biblical like The Passion of the Christ, or musically helping a baseball team beat New York in Damn Yankees, The Devil is reel (see what we did there), and this week, we will hail his cinematic contributions.
REVIEW: The Deliverance (2024). Lee Daniels dips his toes in the horror genre for the first time by walking the well-worn path of the exorcism subgenre. About a year after a commercially and critically attempt to reboot The Exorcist, the accomplished Daniels' takes his turn to answer the question: How do you rally faith in a faithless era? Led by The United States Vs. Billie Holiday star Andra Day and Oscar-nominee Glenn Close, The Deliverance aims to put a Black working class spin on an old tale, so is it able to deliver the goods, or have we exorcised all juice from the genre?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
If it’s September, that means it’s time to start the United Way’s annual fundraising campaign. A linchpin when it comes to support for all kinds of area non-profits and charities, it’s worth noting that this year’s campaign comes at a time of great need. Today, we’re going to learn from the head of the United Way about how they’re coping and how they’re still trying to answer the call.
Earlier this year, the United Way gave out $1.5 million to 51 programs. Now, $1.5 million split 51 different ways may not sound like a lot of money, but in the case of the Sanguen Health Van, which was initially funded by the federal government but only for the first few years of existence, the United Way's assistance allowed it to continue to operate and offer living saving services.
A few extra thousand dollars can go a long way, which is why it’s an important and underreported fact that after the various levels of government, the United Way is the biggest source of funding for charities and non-profits. The United Way has also taken a lead role in helping to raise funds for the new supportive housing projects in Guelph, securing $3.5 million for the cause in what has to be a record amount of time. So what's next?
Glenna Banda, executive director of United Way Guelph Wellington Dufferin, joins us today to discuss what the United Way does and how it does it, why the organization’s influence in the community goes beyond fundraising, and the pressures for funding right now. Also, she will talk about the lessons learned from the Home for Good campaign, what happens if they can’t reach their funding goals, and how the charitable sector has changed in the last 10 years for the better and for the worse.
So let's talk about fundraising on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about the United Way, or to find out about how you can donate or arrange a campaign in your own workplace, you can visit their website, call them at 519-821-0571, or visit them at their office at 85 Westmount Road. You can also follow them on social media "@untiedwaygwd" on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we're going to try and tone down the rhetoric. But can we still be spicy? Probably, the news certainly is! If you think it's hot up in Ottawa this first week back from summer vacation, just wait until you hear about what's been going on in the United States lately. And for the interview in the back half, we've got a grocery list of issues about food insecurity, and we will be joined someone who knows how to fix them.
This Thursday, September 19, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Beginning of the End? MPs returns to the House of Commons on Monday at the same time that electors were going to the polls in two by-elections. That worked out fine for the NDP in Manitoba, but things went wrong again for the Liberals in Quebec as they lost another apparently not-so-safe riding. All this will put pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who will face his first big post-deal confidence challenge next week. So are we going to the polls soon or what?
Dogs and Cats (Mass Hysteria). Just as it looked like the story on Sunday was going to be Senator J.D. Vance's confession that he was making up stories about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, OH, another person with clear mental health issues tried to take another shot at Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Vice-President Kamala Harris is still riding high off her debate performance, but it's a long way till Election Day for everyone. What's next with the circus south of the border?
The Bank Job. Last week, Feed Ontario released new numbers that showed food bank usage in Ontario is at an eight-year high. Over one million people in the province used a food bank in the last year, which is a 134 per cent increase from five years ago, and that means the affordability crisis is bigger than just housing. This week, we're being joined by Feed Ontario executive director Carolyn Stewart who will tell us why food insecurity is just as big an issue as housing, and why this issue needs government action.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're going to fight the power! Get ready for another mashing of action and social justice as a former Marine hands out a lesson in justice in unexpected ways in Rebel Ridge on Netflix. For the rest of the show, we're going to tackle something funnier, and goofier, a fellow Canadian who made a very big splash 30 years ago with three comedic hits!
This Wednesday, September 18, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Jim Class Hero. Thirty years ago, Jim Carrey went from second banana on In Living Color to one of the biggest movie starts in Hollywood with a hattrick of big comedy hits. This week, we will revisit Ace Venture: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber and we will look at the ways they still hold up, the ways these films feel dated now, and why Carrey ended up riding them to become a superstar and Hollywood's first $20 million man!
REVIEW: Rebel Ridge (2024). You may have heard of civil asset forfeiture, or you may have seen the episode of Last Week Tonight about it. For his new movie, director Jeremy Saulnier decided to make this American civil rights issue his focus by telling the story of a former Marine who comes to small Louisiana town to bail out his cousin only to have the local cops seize the bail money. What follows is a tried and true movie formula: a stranger rides into town and cleans up corruption, but do you think Green Room director Saulnier would so something that straight forward?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
So has anything interesting been happening at Guelph city council lately? Of course, there has! We've already covered the first third of 2024 on a previous podcast, and we will now visit that middle third, a period of time that is supposed to be more of a laid back political time as people rest and recreate over the summer. But no! The last four months at council have been all business, and this is the business!!
Now are things you can expect ever year around the midpoint. The annual shareholders meeting for Guelph Municipal Holdings Inc and Guelph Junction Railway for example, or the presentation of the audited financial statements from the previous fiscal year. There's also constantly a new batch of new planning amendments to look at, which is key to answering the housing crisis.
Speaking of housing, this issue was the spectre that haunted much of council business this whole year. In terms of specifics from the last few months there was the Guelph Tiny Home Coalition, a proposal to sell off parcels of parkland, and the unexpected late summer return of the Public Space Use Bylaw. From the fate of the Drill Hall to the return of online voting in 2026 and all points in-between, this was council's business the last four months.
Let's catch up with council business on this week's Guelph Politicast!
As always, city council is meeting every week, so for full coverage keep coming back to Guelph Politico for all the previews, recaps and live coverage, and get all Guelph news sent directly to you inbox four times a week by subscribing to the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet newsletter on Substack.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph there's discord, and so soon in the school year! If you had the NDP 86'ing there formal agreement with the Liberals on you 2024 Bingo Card, we've got good news, but if you're a right-wing YouTuber with some bank then we've probably got some bad news for you. If you're a fan of dedicated public servants though we've got good news because we're talking to one of them in the back half of the show.
This Thursday, September 12, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
On a Singh and a Prayer. Last week, Jagmeet Singh announced that the NDP were abandoning the confidence and supply agreement with the governing Liberals, which immediately sprang to mind thoughts of an election. Singh says no, but now everyone wants to know what the point of quitting the deal was if we're not going to the polls anytime soon. Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau's caucus is meeting this week hoping for some good news before Parliament begins. Is there any?
From Russia With Cash. The U.S. Department of Justice last week unsealed indictments involving a Russian influence campaign that included YouTubers like Tim Pool, Benny Johnson and Dave Rubin all being paid thousands of dollars to spread disinformation. And yes, there is a Canadian connection because Tenet Media, the company at the centre of the scheme, is co-owned by Lauren Chen, who loves to be seen with Conservative politicians in Canada. Should we concerned about whose influencing Canada's YouTubers?
Mike Check. While the Liberals, the Conservatives and the NDP all slug it out to decide who's going to pull the plug on the 44th Parliament, one of the House's only two Green Party members is thinking about business as usual. Kitchener-Cente MP Mike Morrice joins us again this week to talk about fighting for more housing, getting real funding for the new Canadian Disability Benefit, and the environmental stakes of the coming election, whenever it is.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're haunted! It's about a month early but we've got a tale of ghosts and goblins as we once again re-unite with old movie friends who are back after a long absence. So yes, we're reviewing Beetlejuice Beetlejuice this week and speaking of old friends, we will talk about the varied and intricate career of that film's very talented leading ghoul.
This Wednesday, September 11, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Keaton Alive! The star of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is Michael Keaton, a man who's had an impressive 50 year career in Hollywood that has had some very big highs and some very low lows. Keaton has played manic, and he has played serious. He's played a superhero, a supervillain, and an actor who's haunted by his superhero persona. He's also played a newspaper man a couple of times, so to start this week's show, we'll talk about the reel Michael Keaton!
REVIEW: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024). It's been nearly 40 years since "The Ghost With the Most" propelled Tim Burton to being one of the most bankable filmmakers in Hollywood. It took a while but Beetlejuice is back in a sequel so nice they named it twice. When the Deetz family returns to their old home in Winter River, it opens up some old wounds including the ones caused by a certain ghoul in black and white stripes. Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O'Hara are joined by Jenna Ortega and a host of new actors, but is the most they can do?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Sometimes in this business, you go looking for the story and sometimes the story finds you... Last week, former Terry Fox Run organizer David Picard talked about his years of work putting this event together, and then he offered an opportunity: How would you like to hear from the woman that started it all? This week, we learn about the beginning of the Terry Fox Run and we'll learn how she did it.
Terry Fox died at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster. B.C. on June 19, 1981; he went into the hospital complaining of chest congestion and then he developed pneumonia. He fell into a coma and died nine days later. Terry had to abandon his Marathon of Hope the September before because the cancer was in his lungs, and he literally couldn’t run any further than Thunder Bay. It was 143 days and 5,373 kilometres after his history making run began.
The first Terry Fox Run in his honour happened just over two months after he died. Over 300,000 people across Canada took part raising $3.5 million, which was a down payment for the $850 million that the run has raised since that time. It’s hard to believe something this long-lasting and influential was slapped together in just a few months, but that’s what happened in the summer of ‘81, and Betty Stone was the person in Guelph who heard the call. This week, she’s going to tell us how she answered.
Betty Stone joins us on this week’s podcast to talk about her background as a teacher at King George School in Guelph, how an idle conversation before the start of the school year lead to the first Terry Fox Run, and how it quickly became a whole community effort. She will also talk about how something this big was organized in the pre-social media age, the outsized role of schools in supporting the Terry Fox Run, and why we still need heroes to look up to.
So let's talk about the beginning of the Terry Fox Run on this week's Guelph Politicast!
This year’s Terry Fox Run will take place on Sunday September 15 at Silvercreek Park at the corner of Wellington and Edinburgh. You can sign up to take part in the Terry Fox Run at the website for the Terry Fox Foundation, and you can follow the Guelph organizers on Instagram. If you have any questions about the run you can send to Theresa McGeragle at terryfoxrunguelph [at] gmail.com. To here last week's podcast with David Picard click 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's back to school time! In the spirit of learning and continuing education we will open our minds and exercise our takes by tackling the big news stories of the week including a return trip to the Middle East where war and peace continues to be top of mind, and then there's matters of immigration making the headlines here in Canada. More locally than that, we will talk about recent changes to government policy on safe consumption sites.
This Thursday, September 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Impasse. Over the weekend, six Israeli hostages were found dead in Gaza and they were recently killed too. It's a reminder that a) This is crisis now nearly a year old, and b) Despite numerous attempts to reach a ceasefire, no deal has been secured. The frustrations of the Israeli people are now overflowing on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and at the same time, the WHO is now fighting a polio outbreak in Gaza, which is a reminder that Israel isn't the only one suffering. What's next?
Come From Away. Counting down to a federal election that will take place this time next year, it seems increasingly clear that one of the major issues is going to be immigration and the temporary foreign worker program. Blame for all matter of things, from job opportunities to tuition costs to affordable housing, have been put on immigrants, and it seems like no politician is above raising this straw man. What is the truth about Canada's needs and responsibilities when it comes to immigration?
Out of Site. Last month, the Ontario government announced the closure of several safe consumption sites, including the one that operates here at Guelph Community Health Centre, and it was just in time for Drug Poisoning Awareness Day. This week, we will be joined again by manager of the Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy Jean Hopkins who will tells us about what comes next for the Guelph CTS, her concerns for people who use substances in Guelph, and this general reversal of compassionate care.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going back to school, and back to space. In space, no one can hear you scream, but they can hear you rave, and on this episode we will see if there's anything to rave about with Alien: Romulus. That was one summer movie we missed talking about before Labour Day, and we will also talk about some of the others movies we missed.
This Wednesday, September 4, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Summer Lovin'! It''s first show of the fall, or September at least, so that means it's time to leave summer, and summer movies, behind... After one last segment. To begin this week's show, we're going to talk about some of the films we didn't get a chance to do a full review for over the last few months, and we missed a lot. So join us for a quick trip through the summer movie box office, from scary movies to apes and a trip to the Old West.
REVIEW: Alien: Romulus (2024). In Alien: Romulus, six people leave their odious, precarious existence working for The Man on the planet Jackson's Star and make their way to an orbiting space station to find the tools they need that will take them to a better life on a new world. And then they find some xenomophs instead. Fede Álvarez takes his turn with this venerable franchise, and this seventh movie in the Alien series (ninth if you count the Alien Vs. Predator movies) made a big splash last month, so now we will offer our analysis.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The first Terry Fox Run took place in 1981, just a few months after the young man it’s named after passed away, and a little over a year after his Marathon of Hope came to an abrupt end. Over the last 43 years, millions and millions of dollars have been raised for cancer research, including over $1 million from Guelph alone, and all of this was done through the power of some very passionate volunteers. This is the story of one of them.
Tuesday July 22, 1980 was “Terry Fox Day” in Guelph, it was the day that the man himself passed through the Royal City while on his Marathon. He ran through town, stopped at city hall and was welcomed by Mayor Norm Jary and other dignitaries, and then continued on his way down the road to Halton Hills. It was a little over a month later when Terry called it quits, though not by choice.
One of the people inspired by Terry’s run was David Picard, and he started running too. He organized a run at the Ontario Reformatory where he worked, and then when the OR closed he started organizing the city run. The passion is still there after over 40 years, but Picard is now passing the torch to someone new with this year’s Terry Fox Run, but today he’s making a pit stop on this podcast.
Picard joins us to talk about his history with the Terry Fox Run, why he’s stayed with it all this time, and why he’s now ready to hand off the reins to someone new. We will also talk about his collection of memorabilia, and Picard’s experience following in Terry Fox’s footsteps. After that, he will discuss the ins and outs of organizing the Terry Fox Run, the outsized roles that school students play in its success, and why the community keeps coming out year after year.
So let's run for a good cause on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
This year’s Terry Fox Run will take place on Sunday September 15 at Silvercreek Park at the corner of Wellington and Edinburgh. You can sign up to take part in the Terry Fox Run at the website for the Terry Fox Foundation, and you can follow the Guelph organizers on Instagram. If you have any questions about the run you can send to Theresa McGeragle at terryfoxrunguelph [at] gmail.com.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're getting our bearings. In this late summer mode, we're looking to the coming election south of the border and the constantly changing game there, meanwhile on this side of the border the Federal Liberals are hoping that they have enough juice to change their own game. Meanwhile, here in Guelph, the game is "musical chairs" and the players are Guelph city council and community members experiencing homelessness.
This Thursday, August 29, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Whale's Head Revisited. One week after the DNC, U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris continues to capitalize on the momentum and energy that has followed her takeover as the Democratic presidential candidate in July. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has been floundering, once again threatening to withdraw from planned presidential debates. Even the endorsement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., freshly accused of new animal cruelty involving a whale and a chainsaw, hasn't helped. We'll catch up with the U.S. Election.
Halifax of Life. The Federal Liberals met this week in Nova Scotia for the annual cabinet retreat, and although the rumour about a shuffle didn't pay off, there were announcements about tariffs on Chinese-made EVs, the disposition of federal land for housing, and a meeting with U.S. officials about defense. With one year to go before the next election, Justin Trudeau et al are hoping to stop the bleeding, but is there anything they can do to convince Canadians that we've turned a corner?
Lost in Public Space. Back in February, Guelph city council heard a proposed bylaw for the use of public spaces in the city, an attempt to control the location and number of homeless encampments. The bylaw is back this week, and it isn't any less controversial six months later, so to help us figure that out what happens next we're joined by Ward 4 Councillor Linda Busuttil who will talk about the local fight to end homelessness, and the mixed messages she heard last week with the Ontario government at the AMO Conference.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're back! Well rested after summer vacation, we're going to spend this first episode back going to movie jail, or rather a movie set at a jail. Join us as we journey to Sing Sing and an early contender for best picture of the year, and there's about to be a lot of competition for that title because Fall Movie Season is here, and we'll preview it.
This Wednesday, August 7, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Fall Movie Preview. Okay, so it's been a lacklustre year at the movies so far, but that's about to change because Fall is here! With the biggest film festivals gearing up, and awards season coming into view, studios and distributors have been saving some of their best bets for the last four months of the year. From passion projects, to nostalgic runs, and some blockbuster returns, we will talk about the anticipated hits of Fall 2024!
REVIEW: Sing Sing (2024). At New York's notorious Sing Sing prison, there's a program called Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA), a theatre troupe made up of the inmates there. Yes, Greg Kwedar's new film is based on a true story, but it also features some of the men that lived it. Led by Coleman Domingo, the cast of RTA grads tell their story as they mount an original production, balancing the humanizing power of the arts and the dehumanizing conditions of prison. So is the play the thing that makes a good movie in the case of Sing Sing?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
As we do at the end of August, we’re marking Drug Poisoning Awareness Day, and it hasn't been a great week for the people fighting this issue. Last week, the Ontario government decided that no safe consumption site can be within 200 metres of a school or daycare, including the one at Guelph Community Health Centre. The drug poisoning crisis is not getting any better, and now there’s the possibility that it’s going to get worse.
In 2023, at least 62 community members died due to substance-related fatalities Guelph and Wellington according to new data from the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario. This is the highest number of lives lost on record. This is on top of the fact that someone dies from drug poisoning every two-and-a-half hours across Ontario. The conditions are dire, any progress being made is slow going, and there's the constant presence of stigma to overcome.
What’s been clear in the last several weeks is that this community is reaching what Dr. Erin Dej called “compassion fatigue”; fed up with the crisis, people just don’t want to see it anymore, and now their leaning on the policies of “Just Say No”, which never worked in the first place. This week's podcast was recorded before the announcement about safe consumption sites, but as you will hear, it's another pressure that community activists didn't need right now.
Our guests this week are Jean Hopkins, manager of the Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy, and Leandra Gilbert, a peer support worker at Guelph Community Health Centre. They talk about the most recent health alert about the drug supply, and the difficulty trying to end the stigma around substance use in the community. They will also talk about the timing of the public space use bylaw debate, fighting the crisis with a patchwork response around the province, and what they would do to remake the system to better fight drug poisonings.
So let's talk about the current state of the Drug Poisoning Crisis on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy at their website, and you can learn about the Consumption and Treatment Site and other services at the Guelph Community Health Centre site at their website. If you’re listening to this on Wednesday, the annual commemoration of Drug Poisoning Awareness Day is Thursday at noon in St. George’s Square in downtown 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're back! We're done with our usual summer vacation and we're eager to hop back on the never ending news cycle to talk about all things breaking and unbreaking. Here in Ontario, there was a big meeting of all the municipalities this week in Ottawa, and abroad in eastern Europe there was a big move in the war happening there. For the interview this week, we're also talking about a big move, a move that someone's trying to make happen right here at home.
This Thursday, August 22, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
AMO Shorts. This week is the annual conference for the Association of Municipalities of Ontario or AMO. Representatives from the federal and provincial governments join councillors and staff members from municipalities around Ontario to talk about the issues facing cities, which are pretty substantial, but the appearances by provincial party leaders on Monday sounded more like the start of a campaign then a search for answers. So what came out of AMO?
Ukraine Strikes Back. The seemingly unending stalemate between Ukraine and Russia got a little more loose in the last couple of weeks after Ukraine sent troops into Russian territory and they now occupy portions of the Kursk region, the first time since World War II that foreign troops have held Russian territory. Russian President Vladimir Putin seems stymied again as the war he thought would be brief is now almost three years old, but is this game changer we've been waiting for?
Wilmot Gonna Take It! There's something fishy going on up the road in Wilmot, a developer is trying to secure 770 acres of farmland for some kind of development, but the people who own and operate the threatened farms have no idea which level of government is threatening their livelihood: the Region or the Province. Alfred Lowrick, spokesperson for the Fight for Farmland Group, and Kevin Thomason, vice-chair of the Grand River Environmental Network, will join us this week to talk about what might be the next provincial development scandal in the making.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we’re gone. Gone fishin’? Maybe, we don’t watch the co-hosts every minute, especially when they’re not on the air. Yes, it’s that time again, time for the mid-August break. So while we’re breaking, we’ve got some cool – what the kids used to call – “repeats” for you. Get your road maps and your road snacks, because this week we’re vacationing!
Let’s Get Goofy! Summer is a time for watching movies, no doubt, but it’s also a time for hopping in the car with the family and hitting the road. It’s a big world out there, with so much to do and so many things to see, so get out of your dreams and into that car. And while you’re driving, listen to some classic End Credits entries, because if you can’t see a movie, you should at least take some time and listen to us talk about them. See you in a couple of weeks!
Programming Note: End Credits will return with new episodes on August 28.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Housing. It's an easy problem to diagnosis but it's a hard problem to solve it seems, and that has seems to have stopped the Government of Ontario from even trying. Cabinet ministers have probably been getting an earful about that this week at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference, but there's one member at Queen's Park that still hasn't given up, and you will never guess who...
This past February, we were joined on the pod by Guelph MPP and Green Party of Ontario leader. The topic was his private member's bill, the Homes You Can Afford in Communities You Love Act, or Bill 156, which aims to change planning rules across Ontario to allow for fourplexes and four story apartments in neighbourhoods and allow for mid-rise buildings ranging from six to 11 stories on transit corridors and main streets.
Now, there's been no movement on Bill 156 since it was sent to committee in February, but it seems like the Ontario government isn't doing much to try and fill the void by bringing any new policy of their own. Now, seven months after this first went to air, Ontario cities are even more desperate for housing solutions that will help alleviate the pressure on them, so can Schreiner's ideas still be the solution we're looking for?
This week you will listen to Schreiner talk again about his thoughts on how the housing crisis got this bad, the elevator pitch for the bill, and why he thinks it’s a good compromise to create density while maintaining neighbourhood character. We will also talk about municipal politics with planning, and how the bill tries to prevent NIMBYism. He will discuss “sharing the pain”, the other factors in housing like labour and the economy, and Schreiner’s expectations for the debate next week.
So let's chat again with Mike Schreiner on the subject of homes on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Bill 156, the Homes You Can Afford in Communities You Love Act, at the Green Party of Ontario’s website. The Ontario legislature will not sit again until after Thanksgiving, which is assuming that we don't end up going to the polls before then. Also, look for news coming out of this week's AMO conference in Ottawa.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we’re taking a break, and it’s the same for next week (or last week depending on when you’re reading this). Yes, the time has come for our usual summer vacation, but we’re not leaving you hanging! As we recharge our senses and collect your thoughts, you will be treated to a long-running tradition in the production of rich media: The rerun. As we cash-in some of our vacation days, you will be entertained by the ghosts of Open Sources’ past.
Taking a Break from Some of Our Worries. So July was a lot. An incumbent president decided that it was best that he not run for re-election, and an Ontario premier did the impossible and caused a strike at the LCBO. At the same time, Doug Ford is also trying to explain why he closed the Science Centre, why so much of this province’s health matters are being handled by Shoppers Drug Mart, and whether or not we’re going to have an early provincial election. No wonder he’s worked up such an apatite. Then again though, so have we. See you in a couple of weeks.
*Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will return with new episodes on Thursday August 22.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we’re gone. Gone fishin’? Maybe, we don’t watch the co-hosts every minute, especially when they’re not on the air. Yes, it’s that time again, time for the mid-August break. So while we’re breaking, we’ve got some cool – what the kids used to call – “repeats” for you. Get your road maps and your road snacks, because this week we’re vacationing!
Let’s Get Goofy! Summer is a time for watching movies, no doubt, but it’s also a time for hopping in the car with the family and hitting the road. It’s a big world out there, with so much to do and so many things to see, so get out of your dreams and into that car. And while you’re driving, listen to some classic End Credits entries, because if you can’t see a movie, you should at least take some time and listen to us talk about them. See you in a couple of weeks!
Programming Note: End Credits will return with new episodes on August 28.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It was about this time last year that the so-called Greenbelt scandal blew-up. Although the issue had been simmering since fall 2022, the persistent efforts of journalists and activists to get to the bottom of the decision to separate and sell-off portions of protected land resulted in the land being restored, the minister responsible replaced, and the RCMP looking into whether or not anything criminal happened.
It started with the Ontario government’s plan to remove parcels of the Greenbelt and allow for new housing developments there despite Doug Ford’s promise that his government would not touch the Greenbelt. Here in Guelph, hundreds and hundreds of people came out on a cold Sunday morning to express their outrage, and so did people in other cities across Ontario, an it was an outrage that didn't burn out over the months that followed.
Then things started changing last summer. Ontario’s auditor general released a scathing report into how the Greenbelt land swap came about, and that started a chain of events ending with Ford putting all that land back. This was a few weeks after a massive protest outside Fordfest at Bingemans in Kitchener, which was organized in part by the Grand River Environmental Network. They pushed hard to save the Greenbelt, but they’re still pointing out that there’s a lot of work left to do.
This week we’re joined again by Kevin Thomason, who is the vice-chair of the Grand River Environmental Network. He’s going to talk about how GREN worked hard organizing people, why so many people took the encroachment on the Greenbelt so personally, and why Fordfest in Kitchener was Doug Ford’s Waterloo, so to speak. We will also talk about why climate change isn’t a bigger issue after the wildfire season we just experienced, and whether the provincial government has learned any lessons in the last year.
So let’s take another victory lap for the Greenbelt on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Grand River Environmental Network 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we’re taking a break, and it’s the same for next week (or last week depending on when you’re reading this). Yes, the time has come for our usual summer vacation, but we’re not leaving you hanging! As we recharge our senses and collect your thoughts, you will be treated to a long-running tradition in the production of rich media: The rerun. As we cash-in some of our vacation days, you will be entertained by the ghosts of Open Sources’ past.
Taking a Break from Some of Our Worries. So July was a lot. An incumbent president decided that it was best that he not run for re-election, and an Ontario premier did the impossible and caused a strike at the LCBO. At the same time, Doug Ford is also trying to explain why he closed the Science Centre, why so much of this province’s health matters are being handled by Shoppers Drug Mart, and whether or not we’re going to have an early provincial election. No wonder he’s worked up such an apatite. Then again though, so have we. See you in a couple of weeks.
*Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will return with new episodes on Thursday August 22.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're getting weird. Now obviously, this show is always a little weird, but this week we're making it official by talking about movies that stray away from the normal path, and that includes the movie we're reviewing this week. First, we will look at "What the funk?!" movies, and then we will say "WTF?" about a French movie that's a Beast.
This Wednesday, August 7, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
What the Funk Movies. The best part of watching a movie is when it surprises you, when it makes you say "What the funk?!" Well, when we say "funk" we mean another word that almost has all the same letters in the same order, but the feeling is the same; "What the funk did I just watch?!" To begin this week's show, we will turn out some of our favourite WTF? Movies, from the bizarre to the twisted to twist endings.
REVIEW: The Beast/La Bête (2024). In the future, artificial intelligence controls everything and if you want to be a good human helper then you have to purge yourself of emotions. How do you do that? By examining your past lives. How bizarre. Léa Seydoux and George MacKay play lovers through time, each struggling with feelings of isolation and impending doom in 1910 Paris, 2014 Los Angeles, and the the cold indifferent future. So what are we to make of Bertrand Bonello's acclaimed trip through time, space, love and confusion?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: End Credits is taking the next two weeks off and will return with new episodes on Wednesday August 28.
It took a while to get here, but the Grand River Conservation Authority membership last month approved a management plan for the Niska lands, aka: the old Kortright Waterfowl Park, but this is not the end of the journey. For nearly 20 years there’s been a fierce back and forth about what comes next for the property and who’s responsible for its protection, but even with a plan in place now it doesn't mean that the controversy is over.
When we last tackled this topic on the podcast it was October 2023 and the draft land management plan had just been presented to the GRCA board. That plan was adapted by the GRCA board at their June meeting along with its three recommendations: To engage with the City of Guelph and others about future maintenance and use; to manage and monitor the sensitive environmental demands; and dispose the portion called “Agricultural Field B”, which is on the south side of Niska.
Now, what you have to understand is that it’s the plan that’s been approved, not necessarily those directions. Just because it’s been recommended that some land be sold necessarily means that it will be sold, and there’s an entirely separate process that needs to happen before any decisions are made, so let’s talk to some of the decision makers. In this case, Guelph/Eramosa Township Mayor and GRCA Chair Chris White and GRCA Chief Administrative Officer Samantha Lawson.
White and Lawson will talk about the next steps, where responsibility lies for the City of Guelph and the Conservation Authority, and who the other stakeholders might be when it comes to the fate of the lands. We will also talk about protecting the environment, the concerns raised by the public about protecting the area’s ecosystem, the pressures from the provincial government, and how the role of conservation authorities has changed as a result of those pressures.
So let's talk about the Niska Land's future on this week's episode of the Guelph Politicast!
You can rewind to episode #392 to hear the first part of this two-parter with Dr. Hugh Whitely and get his point of view on the issue here. You can see coverage of the issue on Guelph Politico, and you can see the Niska Landholdings Management plan on Grand River Conservation Authority’s website 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, 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.
Programming Note: The Guelph Politicast will be taking the next two weeks off and will be back with new episode on Wednesday August 28.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're doubling the cast. As a summer treat, we have not just one, but two different guests including a federal cabinet minister, and she will be followed by a member of our local city council who will talk to us about the year at city hall so far. And yes, we will also have news, which this week will centre around what is perhaps the most hated corporation in all of Canada!
This Thursday, August 1, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Judge Bread. A class action lawsuit against Loblaw, the parent company of Loblaws and other grocery chains, has been settled for $500 million. The case involves the price-fixing of bread products, which the company plead guilty to after being charged under the Competition Act in June 2023, and if you bought a loaf in the last 10 years you might be getting a cheque in the mail. So has Loblaw learned its lesson, or do we need break up the grocery-opoly?
After the Sudds. Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Jenna Sudds was in Guelph on Monday talking to local leaders about the roll out of $10 per day childcare, and the fight against food insecurity, two areas that Guelph and Wellington are well-versed on. Sudds also called in to CFRU to talk about that work, the differences between childcare coverage in rural and urban areas, and trying to co-ordinate with the provincial government to deliver these vital services.
In it For the Phil. Guelph city council is on summer vacation, but Open Sources isn't. (...Yet!) So before he takes off for the August break, we tapped an old friend to come into the studio and lay down some thoughts about 2024 so far. From housing solutions, to public spaces bylaws, to a new governing relationship with Wellington County, to Strong Mayor Powers, we will cram seven months into 20 minutes with Ward 3 City Councillor Phil Allt.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: Open Sources Guelph is taking the next two weeks off and will return with new episodes on Thursday August 22.
This week on End Credits, we're appreciating that all it takes to make $200 million in one weekend is a foul mouth and lots of gore. Or maybe it's gratuitous cameos from comic book movies you've all but forgot about. If you haven't guessed already, we're reviewing Deadpool & Wolverine, and sticking with the X-Men, we're ranking that whole series.
This Wednesday, July 31, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepagee will discuss:
Lists of Future Past. The X-Men movie franchise played a big role in supporting the idea of serious and ambitious comic book movies can be a box office winner, but it seems like the the movement's gotten away from Marvel's Merry Mutants. Before Deadpool & Wolverine there were 13 movies under the X-Men banner, so to say goodbye (hello?) to the movie X-Men, we will rank all those movies from worst to best.
REVIEW: Deadpool & Wolverine (2024). It's a team-up that people have been looking forward to for years, and it comes at a precarious time for the once mighty Marvel Studios. It started as a joke, but after a massive opening weekend it does really feel like Deadpool is now "Marvel Jesus," as in he brought the franchise back from the dead, and with no small [maximum] effort from Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman. Despite being the perpetual underdog, it looks like Deadpool has won again, but is the movie any good? Let's find out!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
A couple of weeks ago at city council, a group of leaders representing four frontline agencies appeared to support the idea of a tiny home project in Guelph. The head of the Guelph Community Health Centre appeared on this podcast a few months ago, and so did the head of the Canadian Mental Health Association, plus the CEO of Guelph General Hospital was our special Christmas guest this past December. So if you've been counting, that leaves one more...
The Stonehenge Therapeutic Community has been doing the work for over 50 years when it comes to helping people in Guelph battling addictions and mental health issues. It started as a small, farm-based residential treatment program for men and women in 1971 and has expanded over the decades to include all types of services like compassionate care, peer support, safer supply, and yes, housing.
Stonehenge’s latest achievement is helping to launch the supportive housing project on Shelldale Crescent, the Kindle Communities, a massive community effort that was more than two years in the making. Unfortunately, that's not the end of the story, but this is an issue that can’t be solved by any one agency, or any one group of agencies, so the work is ongoing as the staff of Stonehenge look for new opportunities to help the growing need.
Kristen Kerr, who is the executive director of the Stonehenge Therapeutic Community, will give us some insight into that work. We’re going to talk about the origins of Stonehenge, and how it got the same name as that famous landmark in the English countryside. We will also talk about the current pressure on frontline agencies, how Stonehenge is responding to the growing trend of compassion fatigue, and where Stonehenge might take harm reduction next now that the Kindle Community is almost complete.
So let's uncover the secrets of Stonehenge - the Guelph version - on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Stonehenge at their website. Drug Poisoning Awareness Day will take place on August 22 in Mount Forest and August 29 here in Guelph, and you have until tomorrow, August 1, to order a “Remembering Lives Lost” t-shirt, which you can do through the Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we need a drink. Good thing the liquor stores are open again, and to talk about why that is and what the workers in those stores are thinking, we're joined by one of their union leaders on this episode. Why are we drinking? Drama! So much drama in the U.S. Presidential election this week as the odds changed again, and meanwhile, closer to home, we've got some big decisions to make in terms of our own defence.
This Thursday, July 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Bye-Bye, Biden. After weeks of consternation, not to mention a bout of COVID-19, President Joe Biden announced on the weekend that he would not seek re-election in this November's presidential election. Instead, Vice-President Kamala Harris will carry the Democratic banner against Donald Trump, and any concern about party strife quickly disappeared as Harris secured enough delegates to get the nomination in less than 30 hours. So what happens now in this historic campaign?
Defence on Defense. Gen. Jennie Carignan, the new chief of the defence staff, says that Canada has five years to get ready for threats posed to the country resulting from the loss of Arctic ice and other challenges. Canada is in last place among NATO countries to reach the two per cent of GDP spending goal, and that has not gone unnoticed by our allies, many of whom are under threat without, and within. Is Canada finally ready to address the gap in defence spending, or are we going to continue to waffle?
Booze Dues. The workers of the LCBO ended their strike on the weekend, but that was not the end of the animus. The stores are open, but the blame game is still being played between the Premier and union leaders, and this week, we will get some insight from one of those parties. Colleen MacLeod, the bargaining team chair for OPSEU, will join us to talk about the negotiations, trading statements with Doug Ford, and what the future of the LCBO looks like along with the future of its workers.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're thinking about stormy weather! About a week after a major storm washed out so many parts of Ontario, including the Pergola Galaxy Cinemas here in Guelph, we're going to take things up a notch with Twisters. And on the subject of weather and the movies, we will talk about some other movies about the weather.
This Wednesday, July 24, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Weather Flap. The movie of the week leads to a rather obvious pre-review discussion. There are a lot of movies about the weather, or movies where the weather has a major influence on the plot, and while it my not be obvious, not all of those movies are based in disasters. That brings us to this week's show, where between the snow, and the rain, and the floods we will talk about our favourite movies inspired by the weather.
Twisters (2024). It shouldn't be surprising that someone would want to make a sequel to Twister, the 1996 smash about tornado chasers in Oklahoma. It's kinda surprising that we're getting it almost 30 years later, but if there's ever been a good time for a tornado movie, it's now! Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell replace Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton leading a new generation of chasers through tornado ally on a quest for science and thrills. The formula is solid, but can this team catch... (ahem) lightning in a bottle?!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
What could have been a small one-day story about disagreements around the table at Stratford city council has become emblematic of a bigger issue. Aside from the fine line between criticism of our civic leaders and outright threatening behaviour, there’s also a question about whether their mayor and council are being as open and transparent as it should be, and one man - famously - has his doubts.
Members from Get Concerned Stratford have appeared on this podcast before. The group itself was born out of concerns around Stratford council’s efforts to approve the construction of a controversial glass plant in the city. But the circumstances that led to the Xinyi controversy lingered, even with a new council, and it all seemed to come together at a council meeting on February 26.
At that meeting, there was a report about the use of closed meeting protocols that showed Stratford council was frequently making decisions in-camera, but attention instead went to a matter of zoning where two delegates - Mike Sullivan and Barb Shaughnessy - were accused of making statements that were allegedly threatening and disrespectful. They both got three-month bans from council and that's where the controversy - and this podcast - really begins!
Sullivan joins us this week to tell us about what happened at the February 26 meeting, how he learned that he was temporarily banned from council and what happened the first time he showed up anyway. He will also tell us about his efforts to learn more about what goes on in closed meetings, the repeatedly failed attempts to get the ban lifted, and where the battle goes now that the ban has expired. Also, where's the fine line between legitimate criticism and an ad hominem attack?
So let's look at what's going on in Stratford with this week's Guelph Politicast!
Some late breaking news at Monday council’s meeting it was unanimously decided that the Respectful Workplace Policy would be reviewed by staff, but only two members of council voted to suspend the policy. You can learn more about Get Concerned Stratford at their website here. You can find links to the videos of council meetings at the City of Stratford 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, 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.
Photo Courtesy of Get Concerned Stratford Facebook.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it was a rough one. Looking south of the border these days is a white knuckle ride through all your fears about the future, and it's so bad that we have to dedicate the whole first half of our show to talk about American politics. We will then look closer to home and talk to a member of our local city council about a concern that all of us have these days. You know what we're talking about.
This Thursday, July 18, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
This is America. It's been a wild week in American politics, and that's really saying something in the year of Our Lord 2024 A.D. On the weekend, there was an attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the Republic National Convention began, MAGA-stan J.D. Vance was named Trump's VP nominee, Elon Musk announced he's giving a Trump PAC $45 million a month, and a pro-Trump judge dismissed his classified documents case. Oh, and the Dems are still in disarray. We'll wrap our heads around this in a super-sized news segment.
Klassen Act. This week at Guelph city council, there was a new report about the Guelph Tiny Homes Coalition project. We've now entered the second half of the year, so winter is closer than it was a few months ago when this project first came up, and the pressure is on to get something going. One of the people feeling that pressure is Ward 2 Councillor Carly Klassen, who will join us this week to talk about her thinking on the matter, the ongoing effort at city hall to fight homelessness, and how she's co-ordinating between council and the concerns of Downtown Guelph people.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going back to the turn of the millennium, or do we mean the Willennium? For those of you who remember the turn of the century have we got a treat for you! Remember 1999? A lot of great movies came out that year, and some people think that it might be the one of the best for the breadth and variety of projects, so this week. we'll draft them!
This Wednesday, July 17, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The 1999 Movie Draft. Now halfway to episode #400, we pause to hold a very special movie draft. Exactly 25 years ago, we were halfway through what's come to be known in some quarters as the "Best Movie Year Ever". This week, the whole gang is here to draft the great films of that year, from a cyberspace dystopia to a Shakespeare comedy in high school to the mockumentary about a scary witch in the forests of Maryland. This week, we're going to party like it's... you-know-what. Cue the Prince!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The housing and affordability issues are massive, and to think that one action at one level of government is going to have a measurable impact is not understand that. This week at city hall, Guelph council will talk about proceeding with a tiny homes encampment, but that's one finger in one hole of a dam that needs a lot of repairs.
Reaching back into the files of Open Sources Guelph, we highlight three interviews that lay out the structural and systemic issues that led to the housing and affordability crises:
All the way back last March, we talked to Dr. Paul Kershaw, the founder, lead researcher and executive chair of Generation Squeeze who told us about what the then-upcoming federal and provincial budgets mean for young people, and others in Canada looking some government relief in an expensive world.
In October, we were joined by Craig Pickthorne from the Ontario Living Wage Network to talk about affordability, the minimum wage hike, and the giant gap in-between. This came before it was announced that the living wage in Guelph and area had gone up to nearly $21 per hour, which is about $5 difference over the current minimum wage.
And from November, we will hear Wellington County councillor and chair of the Social Services Committee David Anderson who’s going to talk about working with the City of Guelph on creating solutions to the great and increasing community need.
So let's talk about the broader issues in fining housing solutions on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can tune into Open Sources Guelph every Thursday at 5 pm. You can also catch up with the goings on at city council by subscribing the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet newsletter on Substack.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're right brained. An ideological shift? Hardly, but there's been a lot of action on the right side of the political spectrum in the last week, meaning that we're going to talk about election outcomes across the Pond, and a bizarre road show that's now rolling across Canada and rallying people to hate. For the interview this week, were going to talk about architecture with someone who knows.
This Thursday, July 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Right Flight. Two elections in two of Europe's biggest countries have re-phrased the global fight against far-right extremism. Labour's landslide victory in the U.K. general election ended 14 years of chaotic Tory rule while the fascist National Front hit a wall in France's snap election thanks to strategic voting. It seems like that right-wing momentum has been stunted, but the struggle is probably still far from over. We will talk about what happens next.
Diago-Gone. Last weekend, residents in the Carp area of Ottawa were a little shocked that the Carp Agricultural Society would rent space to a far-right, racist, neo-Nazi adjacent group - apparently - without knowing who they are. The Diagolons are on a cross-country tour creatively called the "Road Rage Terror Tour" and it may be coming to a town near you, but is the average person on the street aware of who they are, and what they want?
Centre Rage. On Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford said again that the condition of the Ontario Science Centre is so dire that it needed to close, but that's still news to a lot of experts and one of them is Elsa Lam, the editor of Canadian Architect magazine. Lam will join on this week's show to break down those technical concerns, what work will need to be done to make the building secure, and why the Ontario government should just fess up and tell everyone that they got this one wrong.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
Photo courtesy of Twitter/X.
This week on End Credits, we dance! Fancy Dance. You may not have heard of this movie, but it's there waiting for you on AppleTV+ and it might just be one of the best movies you will see this year. And, along similar topics, we will dedicate the first part of the show to some of the best movies that we've seen so far in this very fleeting year of 2024 now more than halfway over.
This Wednesday, July 10, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Best of the Year (So Far...). There's been a lot of anxious talk abut what kind of movie year this has been with the bad box office and the slim pickin's coming out of the strikes last year, but what if it hasn't been a bad movie year? As usual, you can find some diamonds in the rough if you want to go looking for them, and this week we will go looking for them. What are some of the best movies released so far in 2024? We will give you six of them.
REVIEW: Fancy Dance (2024). Lily Gladstone got an Oscar-nomination for her fantastic work in Killers of the Flower Moon, but during the campaign, it was this movie that she really wanted to talk about. Fancy Dance, which is from documentarian Erica Tremblay, follows a woman from the Seneca-Cayuga First Nation as she desperately tries to protect her teenage niece from social workers and the horrible knowledge that her missing mother is probably dead. Sounds dire, but is it possible that Fancy Dance is one of the most heart warming movies of the year?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
There's a lot of work when it comes to the grind of municipal governance and policy development, but it doesn't always start with city council (though it does often end with them). So on this episode of the podcast we're going to try and cram six months of work by eight different committees into 30 minutes of audio, from the retirement of the library's head to the debate over a bus chime to the ongoing issues around housing.
This week we will cover the highlights of the Accessibility Advisory Committee, the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Board of Health, the Grand River Conservation Authority, Guelph Police Services Board, the Guelph Public Library Board of Directors, Heritage Guelph, the Joint Social Services and Land Ambulance Committee, and the Transit Advisory Committee between January and June.
This is not an exhaustive list of those committees activities, but it will give you some idea of what they've been up to. Some of this work has already made its way to council like several approved heritage designations, or the move to online voting for the next municipal election, and some of it's coming up in the near future, like a final decision on the Guelph Tiny Homes Coalition proposal. This is a chance to go inside and see how the proverbial sausage is made before it comes to market at city council.
So let's see what the boards and committees have been up to on this week's Guelph Politicast!
There’s a Guelph Police Services Board meeting next week, but for the most part committees are not getting back to business until September. To see full recaps, and committee meeting previews, check out the “Local Boards and Committees” page 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're dealing with disappointment. Was it wrong to hope that an 81-year-old man would find the energy at 9 pm on a weeknight to argue with a sociopath for two hours? Maybe, but then again it's hard for leaders half that age to avoid calls to leave out the side door, at least that is what's going on our own capital. In terms of good news, we're going to talk to a community group that is literally making it a cool summer for low income people in Hamilton.
This Thursday, July 4, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Grumpy Old Men. To say that there was a lot riding on last Thursday's presidential debate for Joe Biden is an understatement, but despite almost pitifully low expectations, Biden was unable to clear the bar, his raspy voice sometimes vanishing into a dissembling stammer. The post-debate freak out was further compounded on Monday when people were reminded of the stakes of this election as the U.S. Supreme Court decided that presidents have some legal immunity after all. So what happens now?
Tru-don't? Not to be outdone by all the craziness south of the border, the Liberal Party is also allegedly looking to make a change at the top of the proverbial ticket. In the wake of last week's loss in Toronto-St. Paul, there's supposedly some dissatisfaction in the Liberal ranks with Justin Trudeau's leadership, enough, it seems, to make some members want a new leader before next year's election. But is such a move advisable, and who is the new magical leader that can save Liberal fortunes?
Air Force Won. In the wake of a rapidly changing climate, air conditioning is no longer a "nice to have" but a necessity of life, one that people can't easily afford in the midst of compounding affordability crises in housing, food and utilities. In Hamilton, the council there recently approved assisting low income residents get access to air conditioning, and that's to the credit of ACORN Hamilton. This week, we're going to be joined by organizer Taylor Korolenchuk about how they're successfully helping people in need stay cool in the Hammer.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we see the music! Let's be clear, this is not a music show, but we're still dedicating this episode to the very busy intersection between the movies and music. For the review, we've got a movie called The Greatest Hits, which is about time travel, and speaking of greatest hits were going to revisit an old-fashioned bit of cross promotion called "the soundtrack".
This Wednesday, July 3, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Soundtrack and Vision. Since our movie this week is about music, and since this is a show about movies, why don't we combine the two? Movies and music have gone together since the beginning, although the music part used to be done live, so it makes that we got around to the idea at some point to highlight the movie soundtrack. This week, we draw some of our favourite tracks from our favourite soundtracks.
REVIEW: The Greatest Hits (2024). You know when that one perfect song takes back to a certain moment in time? What if that was literal? That's the conceit of The Greatest Hits, a new romantic fantasy you can stream on Disney+ where Harriet, stricken with grief about the death of her boyfriend two years prior, has the ability to go back in time when she hears a song associated with a certain point in their relationship. And then things get complicated. So is The Greatest Hits a summer smash, or is just another disappointing remix?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Our daily news is overflowing with stories about the breadth of the housing crisis, and governments are responding with new measures and funding, but these actions are based in a system that wasn’t designed to handle a problem this massive, or this complicated. This partially explains why nothing we’ve tried so far has had the impact we’ve wanted, so do we truly understand homelessness on a systemic level?
For too long, homelessness and poverty has been phrased as personal choices or, more likely, personal failings: You didn’t pull yourself up by your bootstraps hard enough, or you’re spending too much money on specialty iced coffee and avocado toast. We know that’s bunk, because in the last 30 years there's been massive changes in the economy, wealth redistribution, social services, and downloading from upper levels of government. It takes a system to make someone homeless.
At the Health and Housing Symposium in April, Dr. Erin Dej talked about her definition of homelessness, and systemic and structural causes of homelessness. Dr. Dej is an associate professor in the Department of Criminology at Wilfrid Laurier University, and a postdoctoral fellowship with the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness at York University, and as a "critical criminologist" she's dedicated her career to better understanding how people end up homeless in Canada.
So on this week’s edition of the podcast we will dive deeper with Dr. Dej on some of the issues she raised in her talk at the Symposium. We will discuss why it’s so hard to find housing solutions, the difficulty overcoming jurisdictional barriers, and the limitations in having individual municipalities being incubators for housing solutions. We will also talk about the ongoing fight against stigma, the new fight against “compassion fatigue”, and what could we do if we rebuilt the system from scratch.
So let's get smarter understanding homelessness on this week's Guelph Politicast!
If you want to see Dr. Dej’s scholarly work, you can find links to her academic papers on Google Scholar, but for something a little more accessible, you can check out her recent appearance at Waterloo Region Community Town Halls. You can also check out the coverage from day three of the Health and Housing Symposium here on the 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're bummed. Our long weekend plans collapsed like so much roofing that may or may not be a threat to some school kids on a class trip! Fortunately, there is lots of news and politics to chew on including surprise closures of tourist attractions, a surprising electoral victory and even a not-so-surprising one out west. As for the rest of the show, we've called the police, and they're here to talk!!
This Thursday, June 27, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Mystery Science Centre Theatre. It was more than a little shocking last Friday when the Government of Ontario announced that they were closing the Ontario Science Centre due to a roof that might literally collapse at any minute. Naturally, that's not the whole story, and half the province has spent the last six days trying to figure where the spin ends and where the truth begins. Now we take our turn, is there skulduggery afoot, and is Doug Ford trying to blind us by getting rid of Science?
In Naheed of the Night. Former Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi won the leadership of the Alberta NDP in a veritable landslide, and now all he has to do is bide his time till 2027 and the next Alberta election. We'll talk about what Nenshi's going to do in the meantime, and the road to get there, and we will also interject this talk about Alberta politics with a brief discussion about that big Liberal loss in Toronto-St. Paul and why it might not be the end of the world for Team Trudeau.
Police Stories. This week, the Guelph Police Service released their annual report and in its pages there's a picture of what a tricky balancing act it is to police a rapidly growing city like ours. Here to take us behind the scenes, and behind the numbers this week, is Chief Gord Cobey, Deputy Chief Steve Gill, and Inspector Andrew Goody who oversees policing needs downtown. Together, they will explain why Guelph is safer than you might think, where they want to make improvements, and why they're trying to be more proactive.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we take a ride. With the long weekend coming it's a good time to get out on your bike whether it's motorized or not, and for this episode of the show we're going to head out with the gang in The Bikeriders. But the ride only ends there, we get things started in Beverly Hills with three movies about a Detroit Cop who can't stay out of their business.
This Wednesday, June 26, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Run the Series: Beverly Hills Cop. In 1984, fresh off a stint "saving" Saturday Night Live, Eddie Murphy was cast in a project once intended to be a Sylvester Stallone vehicle. Directed by Martin Breast, Beverly Hills Cop was an instant success, and solidified Murphy's star status spawning two sequels with a third coming out next week on Netflix. But first, we will look back and run the series on the original Beverly Hills Cop trilogy.
REVIEW: The Bikeriders (2024). If there's a movie genre aside from the western that activates a real sense of nostalgic Americana it's the motorcycle movie. In The Bikeriders, filmmaker Jeff Nichols captures that feeling, looking at a decade in the life of a motorcycle gang in the Midwest as they evolve from a social club into something a little more... sinister. Austin Butler, no stranger to a sense of Americana after his Oscar nom for Elvis, leads a stacked cast as they ride through various trials and tribulations, but is it an easy ride or a hard one?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Hillside Festival. Have you heard of it? Every July, the population of Guelph decreases, and the population of the island in Guelph Lake radically increases. They’re all drawn there for an annual celebration of music and community that’s still going strong after 40 years, and this is despite changing musical tastes, changing economic concerns, and even a global pandemic. So what's the secret to their ongoing success?
Hillside is the little festival that could and by it's fourth year it was too big for Riverside Park and moved to Guelph Lake. Soon the big names were coming to Hillside, it attracted Arcade Fire, Metric, and k-os on their way to international stardom, and it was prescient in other ways outside the musical. It was one of the first festivals to encourage the use of reusable cups and other green measures that are now just generally proforma.
Perhaps, it’s Hillside’s iconoclastic status that has allowed it to - if not thrive - then definitely survive in the face of numerous existential threats to the cultural sector post-pandemic. This is much to the relief of Kate Johnston who is managing her first Hillside as the executive director, picking up the baton from Marie Zimmerman who led Hillside through both the best of times and the worst of times.
Johnston joins us to talk about what last minute preparations for Hillside, what’s special about this year’s festival and what she’s looking forward to as Hillside’s top organizer. We will also talk about the challenges in the arts sector right now, how they’re managing with financial and volunteer support, and how Hillside continues to balance its Guelphiness with its tourist appeal. Also, how does Johnston wants to leave her mark on Hillside?
So let's face the music on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
The Hillside Festival takes place July 19, 20 and 21 at the island on Guelph Lake, and you can get the full line-up and ticket information at their website. If you like the in-person, you can also buy tickets at the Bookshelf downtown. You can also follow the festival and get updates on special media @HillsideFestivalGuelph on Facebook and YouTube, @HillsideFestival on Instagram and TikTok, and @HillsideFest on Twitter.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're beating the heat with hard hitting punditry. To that end, we're knocking off some of the circus politics to talk about serious issues like foreign interference in our politics and the seemingly increasing gulf between police and reporters while they're on the job. For the interview this week, we're talking to one of the newer members of the Ontario legislature about how she's spending these 120 some-odd days of summer.
This Thursday, June 20, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Sum of All Interference. The word from Parliament Hill is interference, but nobody quite knows what to do about it. On the one hand Elizabeth May says no current MP is on the list of compromised Canadian politicians, but Jagmeet Singh says that's not true. Meanwhile, both Pierre Poilievre and Yves-François Blanchet are going the read-no-evil, see-no-evil route, which leaves Justin Trudeau who has to face down another crisis of confidence in his government's efficacy. So what does it all mean?
We Have Cop-cerns. A piece by Savanna Craig for Aljazeera outlines her concerns about the way that police are treating journalists covering protests in Canada after she was detained covering a pro-Palestinian protest in Montreal a few months ago. We've seen some of that in our own backyard when a Guelph Today reporter had his camera seized by the coroner's office while covering a car accident, so we must now ask the following question: Are police respecting journalists doing their jobs?
Clancy Feast. It was about seven months ago that Aislinn Clancy scored a big win for the Green Party of Ontario by securing a seat in Kitchener Centre, the second seat for the Greens. Since then, there's been a whirlwind of issues inside and outside the legislature, not the least of which is the possibility that all MPPs might have to run again in an early general election this fall or next spring. We're going to talk about all that with Clancy, as well as fighting for action on climate change in the middle of our first heatwave of the year.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we escape. Greatly! No we're not talking about the classic 1963 John Sturges' movie staring Steve McQueen, but it is about World War II and it is about an escape, and it was kinda great. Today, we're going to review the new bio-pic conveniently called The Great Escaper, and we're also going to talk about other movie escapes.
This Wednesday, June 12, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Great Escapes. Movies are full of great escapes, and this week's entry falls into that category (and not just because "great" and "escape" are in the title). Whether one is escaping literal confinement, or something a little more metaphorical, there are lots of movies about one person's unyielding quest for liberation. Whether that's confinement in a room, a city, a planet, or a weird moving maze, we will talk about great movie escapes.
REVIEW: The Great Escaper (2024). When the world marked the 70h anniversary of D-Day in 2014, a 90-year-old veteran named Bernie Jordan left his seaside nursing home in England, under his own steam, and made his way across the channel one last time to mark the occasion. Jordan's story has been realized in The Great Escaper, a heartfelt tribute to love and duty as seen through the eyes of a married couple played by the late-Glenda Jackson and Sir Michael Caine it what looks like his last movie. So this is an easy thumbs up, right?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
There’s a presidential election this year in the U.S., maybe you’ve heard about it, and like so much of American culture it threatens to block out the sun here, not to mention a lot of serious political issues we’re dealing with here in Canada. Why are we so obsessed with American politics and is it to the detriment of our own political enlightenment in this country?
We could intellectualize this by saying that what goes on in America is a sneak preview of what’s coming in Canada. The neo-liberal centrism of Bill Clinton presaged the arrival of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin, the neo-conservative George W. Bush was followed by his Canadian equivalent in Stephen Harper, and many people are seeing a comparison between Donald Trump and Pierre Poilievre with the performative outrage over woke and a lean towards economic populism.
We also have a cross border alt-right feedback loop. Yes, you can say that something like the Freedom Convoy was fed by Trumpism and other appendages of the MAGA machine, but Canada has given them Gavin McGinnis, Lauren Southern, Jordan Peterson, and patient zero for the "Satanic Panic", Michelle Smith, was a resident of Victoria, B.C. So should we ignore American politics, or ignore them at our peril? Our guest this week spends part of his year in Florida, and he might have an answer!
Oliver Rockside, a Guelph Politico booster and friend, podcaster, and former colleague from the Gang of Four show on CFRU, joins us this week to talk about the state of play living in a gerrymandered area of Florida, what it’s like today talking to Americans, and whether or not he’s seeing some warning signs here in Canada that were following in their example. Also, are we too focused on American politics here in Canada, and does it have a negative impact on understanding our own issues in this county?
So let us consider American politics on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can check out the Oliver Rockside podcast universe by listening to his music show In Your Ear Holes, the Law & Order podcast The 27th Precinct, and the now complete Star Trek pod 78 Episodes 30 Good Ones. We will continue to dip into the American election for the next few months on Open Sources Guelph, which you can hear Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we won't say that democracy doesn't work, but it certainly seems to be malfunctioning. We will look to our friends in the EU who seem to be increasingly embracing authoritarianism, but things aren't too rosy on our own shores where a beleaguered Indigenous community here in Ontario has to take the government to court to get action. For the interview this week - and don't hate us - we're talking about landlord issues with a landlord.
This Thursday, June 13, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
All the Far-Right Moves. Elections for the European Union parliament took place last weekend, and while the EPP majority held, there were significant gains for far-right parties, which prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to call a snap election in France for the end of the month. More broadly, the election results were seen as another lurch towards a new western autocracy driven by anti-immigrant sentiment and economic malaise. How concerned should we be?
Narrows Pursuit. For decades, the Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek First Nation - more commonly known as Grassy Narrows - has suffered from the ill-health effects of mercury contamination. In fact, 90 per cent of the people living there are feeling the effects. Now, the people of Grassy Narrows are taking the federal and provincial governments to court for failing to protect their treaty rights and the decision will surely shake up nation-to-nation relations here in Canada. We'll dig into that.
Going SOLO. It turns out that everyone's fed up with the Landlord Tenant Board. A new group called SOLO, Small Ownership Landlords of Ontario, want changes to the board because systemic backlogs and delays are making it harder for them to get rid of problem tenants in a time when the housing crisis is putting pressures on all ends of the housing spectrum, including the small landlords. Board member Kevin Costain will talk to us about the changes that SOLO wants the provincial government to follow-up on.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we watch TV. Sort of. Our movie in this episode is about people who watch TV and maybe watch a little too closely, but that's okay because there's allegory in them there hills! We're going to talk about the new sure-to-be cult classic I Saw the TV Glow, and we're also going to talk about summer movies the best way we can, with a draft!
This Wednesday, June 12, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The Summer of '89 Draft. Without hyperbole, the Summer Movie Season of 1989 is the Best Summer Movie Season that there's ever been! It was the summer of Batman! Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade! Do the Right Thing! Shag! (?!) A summer this good can only mean on thing: We need to draft!! To start this week's show, we're going to draft the movies from the Summer of '89 across five carefully chosen categories.
REVIEW: I Saw the TV Glow (2024). We've probably all been obsessive about a beloved TV show, but have you ever been so obsessed with a show that you thought it was real? That is perhaps the most basic plot description of I Saw the TV Glow, the second film from the very talented Jane Schoenbrun, but there's a great deal more going on. From commentary about obsessive fan culture to allegories about the trans experience, we will try to unwind all the implications of I Saw the TV Glow, but we might need a bigger show!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
For this week’s podcast, we’re taking it on the road! There are two big protests of a sort happening in Guelph right now, one is technically a strike, and the other is an encampment on campus. Both are local stories with implications beyond the city limits, both are examples of renewed interest in direct action, and both started at around the same time. So how are things going out there, and are these actions having an impact?
On May 27, nearly 1,000 workers at the Cargill plant on Dunlop Drive went on strike after 82 per cent of the members represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 175 rejected a deal with management. The primary issue, unsurprisingly, is the cost of living. Striking workers at Cargill Dunlop are angry, they're fighting for a small increase to their take home pay when just last year the company saw record profits. Their frustration is palpable.
Meanwhile, down at the University of Guelph, there are others experiencing frustration. The day after Victoria Day, a group of student activists set up an encampment to demand that the U of G divest from any company that does business with Israel, and work to end discrimination on campus. These demands have not been well received by the university who have spend more time trying various ways to get rid of the encampment as opposed to negotiating with the campers.
First, we will talk to Ashland Kearns and Melissa Bortolon, workers at the Cargill Dunlop facility and members of striking UFCW Local 175, who will tell us about how the strike is going in week three, what they’re on the picket lines for, and the pandemic impacts of working at the plant. Then, on campus, "Lavender", one of the encampment organizers, will tell us the reasons why the University of Guelph group started an encampment, the lack of engagement with the U of G admin, and the effort to get the full picture of the university’s investments.
So let's go on a field trip on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can follow the progress of the strike at the local’s website. And you can also stay up-to-date with what’s happening at the People’s Plaza on Instagram at UoGforPalestine. There will be a special convocation vigil on Friday June 14 at 3 pm.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we don't take the law into our own hands, we go to court with some popcorn. On this episode, many of our news items intersect with justice matters as we talk about the deportation of a national pariah, the trial of a serial killer, a plea deal for a would-be mass murderer, and the unexpected result of a corruption trial in the U.S. Also, because a week can't go by without him sticking his foot in his mouth, we'll talk about Ontario's Premier.
This Thursday, June 6, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Diplomatic Doug. What was supposed to be a nice easy photo op at Sanofi's new manufacturing plant turned into the latest embarrassment for Ontario when Premier Doug Ford dabbled in some light racism while responding to a shooting at a north Toronto Jewish girls’ school. It's the latest hit against Ford and his government, but despite that the PCs are still fundraising up a storm and talk of an early election has still not gone away. We will talk about the latest Ford follies.
Crash Ban, Deport. The 2018 car accident that killed 16 people and injured 13 more from the Humboldt Broncos hockey team has a big tragedy for a Saskatchewan community. Jaskirat Singh Sidhu was the truck driver responsible for the crash, and he's taken responsibility and plead guilty to having caused the crash, but now he faces deportation to India. Calgary Liberal MP George Chahal wants to fight it, but is it possible to find compassion for a man in spite of the circumstances?
Law & Order. In Winnipeg, Jeremy Skibicki is currently on trial for the murder of several Indigenous women in the area, some of whom have not yet had their remains recovered, and this on the fifth anniversary of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls report. Meanwhile, up the road in Waterloo, Geovanny Villalba-Aleman has plead guilty to a stabbing attack supposedly driven by his belief in conspiracies around gender identity. Is justice being served?
34 For 34. After five weeks of trial and testimony, it took a New York City jury less than 10 hours to decide that Donald Trump is guilty of election interference for trying to cover up a one night stand with an adult film star. The historic occasion of the first former president becoming a convicted felon was somewhat muted by Republican defiance, but accusations of political bias in the Justice Department is hard to sell when the new trial this week involves the current president's son. So what next?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're being careful about what we're pretending to be. Sly references to Vonnegut aside, things aren't quite that serious today as this episode tackles the lies we tell when we fall in love while pretending to be a contract killer in Hit Man. But the fun doesn't stop there because we're going to Tatooine and back with a return visit to the galaxy far, far away!
This Wednesday, June 5, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Phantom Menace at 25! It took nearly 20 years of waiting but Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace opened in theatres, and it happened now exactly a quarter of a century ago! At the time, the hype was so massive that everyone felt it, but the follow on negging by fans was almost just as massive. It's taken a long time, but the Star Wars prequels are having a renaissance, so how does The Phantom Menace stand now 25 years later?
REVIEW: Hit Man (2024). He stole scenes in Top Gun: Maverick, and he stole Sydney Sweeney's heart in Anyone But You, so with this much heat there's only one thing that Glen Powell could do: Play a nebbish college prof turned pretend hit man in a Richard Linklater movie. But don't get us wrong, it turns out that there's lots of heat in Hit Man as Powell gets in way over his head and falls in love with a woman that tries to hire him to wack her abusive husband. Can these two Texas boys - Linklater and Powell - put a little rom-com spice in our summer movie viewing?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
There's been a lot of discussion recently about boosting Guelph's tourism profile. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, cities are working hard to rebuild their shattered tourism industries and Guelph is no exception, which is why the City of Guelph this week launched the Tourism Grants Program, designed to support the development and attraction of new tourism initiatives across Guelph. So here's an idea...
Last fall, Guelph Politico explored the possibilities of dark tourism in Guelph for a special Halloween episode of the show. The Royal City, with its relatively sunny disposition and progressive appeal, doesn't look like a bastion for all things morose or macabre, but that's the candy coating for a seedy underbelly. And, as a bonus, Guelph is already well on its way to being a dark tourism hotbed.
Our thriving dark tourism industry is largely grassroots. It’s people like Greg Taylor, and Jay Wilson, and Bonnie Durtnall, people who have turned their fascination with the dark corners of Guelph into a lucrative side hustle. But would it surprise you to know that the University of Guelph actually has a professor who studies dark tourism? Perhaps he might be able to answer this question: Is Guelph a dark tourism hot spot and we don’t know it?
This week, we’re joined again by Brent McKenzie, who is a professor in the Department of Marketing and Consumer Studies at the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph. He will give us a formal definition of “dark tourism” and talk about the local examples of the trade. He will also talk about the grassroots nature of dark tourism, whether dark tourism can go “too far”, and some of McKenzie’s favourite dark tourism experiences whether they’re in Guelph or not
So let’s talk again about Guelph’s dark tourism future on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
There are many ongoing local dark tourism experiences in Guelph including Ghost Walk of Guelph, Jaywalking with Jay Wilson and his performance of “The Unfortunate Man” for which you can fine tickets at Eventbrite, and a wide variety of history walks and tours with Guelph Urbex. You can find information about the Tourism Grants Program at the City of Guelph 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're all about elections. We're not having one across Ontario anytime soon, but the premier didn't rule it out last week. However, they are having an election right now in Mississauga, they're going to the polls next month to choose a new mayor. For the interview this week, we look to the United Kingdom where they're also having an election, and our guest has thoughts.
This Thursday, May 30, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Sum of All Beers. Doug Ford has done it again! He's made it easier to buy beer and spirits in corner stores around Ontario, presumably in celebration of having solved all of Ontario's other problems!! Sarcasm aside, Ford has actually created new problems for himself, including the Liberal revelation that the tab for free flowing beer may be in the billion dollar range. Is Ford now undone by beer?
A Mad Mayor 'Sauga. Mississauga is one of Canada's largest city, and there's presently a by-election there to replace now-Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie as mayor. Over 20 people are vying for the job including city councillor Alvin Tedjo, former MP Carolyn Parrish, and businessman Brian Crombie who is also Bonnie's ex-husband. With election day coming June 10, what political direction will Mississauga choose?
Rishi Rich? Last week, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called election for July 4, but some people are seeing it a sign of surrender after a decade of turbulent Tory rule. Since no one on this show is a U.K. resident, we're outsourcing to John McInally, a Scottish-born London resident, retired labour organizer and political activist. He will take the pulse of the electorate across the pond, and tell us why this election is more a referendum on Sunak than an endorsement of the Labour Party.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're speaking French to power! Well, not really. This episode is definitely France adjacent though, because there's a big annual film festival that just wrapped up there, and they premiered a great many movies over the last few weeks. One of them is the movie we're reviewing today, a prequel to a 10-year-old movie and a sequel to a 45-year-old one.
This Wednesday, May 29, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Yes We Cannes. Every year, the centre of the film world moves to the south of France. The Festival de Cannes is not like all the other film festivals, it's much more professional and serious and uptown than the ones with a public component, but that doesn't mean we can't still have some fun. To kick off this week's show, we're going to talk about the most buzzed about movies this year, including that one that was made by a madman. No, the other one.
REVIEW: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. In 2015, George Miller raised his post-apocalyptic saga Mad Max out of development hell with Fury Road, a propulsive, action-packed two-hour chase movie that introduced the great new heroine Furiosa. In this prequel to the sequel we see a young Furiosa, now played by Anya Taylor-Joy, as she's taken from her home and made a ward of various tyrants and gangsters as she becomes the most fearsome warrior in the wasteland. Big shoes to fill for Joy, but can Miller pull off another surprise hit of epic proportions?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
At next week's Committee of the Whole meeting, Guelph City Council will look at the fate of the Drill Hall; staff wants to put it up for sale, but there's at least one group in Guelph that wants to do something with it now. It's an idea called the Guelph Centre for Visual Art, and it could feature exhibition space, artist studios, educational and meeting space, and so much more. But does city hall share their vision?
This is a tale of two long-term projects. The first is a story about creating a centralized arts building in Guelph. Nearly 20 years ago, a group called the Guelph Arts Platform tried to create to create a collaborative art space with cheap studios, exhibition areas, and networking opportunities, but for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the Great Recession, the project fell apart.
That brings us to the second part of the story, which is the Drill Hall. Constructed in 1866 so that members of the local militia could run drills (hence the name), the hall outlived its purpose by 1911 when the Armoury opened across the street. Over 100 years later, we still don’t know what to do with the Drill Hall, which is why City staff will be recommending that council authorize them to put it up for sale, but there is one group that wants to put the Drill Hall to some practical use as an arts centre. Can it be done?
Former city councillor Mike Salisbury and Lise Anne Janis think so, and they're leading the effort to establish the Guelph Centre for Visual Art. They join us this week to talk about the plan, why this time will be different, and why the centre should be considered key in discussions around downtown revitalization. They will also discuss government support for the arts, the stakes at Committee of the Whole next week, and why an arts centre matters in the middle of these tough economic times.
So let's drill to the bottom on this Drill Hall debate on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Guelph Centre for Visual Art at their website, and you can also follow them on Instagram. The Drill Hall will be discussed at the Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday June 3 and you can see the report now as part of the agenda, which you can find on the council page of the City’s website. You have until Friday 10 am to sign up to delegate or to send a correspondence.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're looking for change. Everyone who's ever been a politician started out as something else, and as we're looking to next year's federal election, and an open seat here in the riding of Guelph, we've already got a couple of people looking for a career change. This week, we're talking to a labour activist and a city councillor who both want to be your next MP.
This Thursday, May 23 at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Folk-Dawson’s Creek. The next federal election is still more than a year-and-a-half away, at least if the confidence and supply agreement holds up. But even if it comes apart, the NDP in Guelph are ready because they have a candidate in place, and it’s Janice Folk-Dawson. A well-known and accomplished labour activist, Folk-Dawson will tell us about making the move to politics and why she wants to put the labour back into Canada’s labour party.
O’Fork in the Road. A couple of weeks ago, reps from Guelph and Wellington County met at the third session of the Health and Housing Symposium, and one of them was Ward 6 Councillor Dominique O’Rourke. On this week’s show, she will tell us what she got out of the symposium experience, and we will also talk about O’Rourke’s new political endeavour, a play to take her skills and experience to Ottawa as Guelph’s next MP!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we put up our dukes! Join us as we celebrate violence with three movies that we've reviewed recently, all of which taught us again and again that sometimes all it takes fix things is to break stuff. So stop, stretch, and line-up your knuckles because when we get into this week, we really get into. Let them fight!
This Wednesday, May 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Peter Salmon, and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Fight Movies! Sometimes you've just got to punch something. That's not the message we got in preschool, but it is a message that we sometimes get from the movies. This week, we're going to revisit some movies that show us the best way to solve problems - whether that's family dysfunction, shady real estate developers, or international crime syndicates - is by punching the hell of it. Whether it's the sisters of Polite Society, the bouncers of Road House, or the Equalizer in The Equalizer 3, we will come back to the idea that violence does solve problems!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Time flies when you're having fun in the council chambers, which brings us to the first recap podcast of the year. We started off slow with one meeting in January, and then things go really busy in February and March, including one meeting that was really two meetings, but all together they were 12 hours long. Remember what that one was about? Remember what any of them were about?
So there was one meeting in January and it cued up a meeting in February, the one about the Public Spaces Uses Bylaw. If there was an award for the most contentious/controversial meeting of the year, this will likely still be the winner when we get to the end of the year. That ties into the overarching theme of the first third of this year, which is housing. There was the payment in-lieu plan for downtown parking, fourplexes, and a new development charges bylaw.
If you're forgotten any of these developments than this is the podcast for you. We will go through all the meetings from January to April and cover the highlights from each meeting. And yes, there was a lot of development and planning stuff to chew on, but there was also some heritage protection, infrastructure renewal, tree protection on private property, and, for the procedural nerds out there, an honest to goodness investigation by the integrity commissioner.
So let's recap the first few months of 2024 in council business on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Obviously, city council is meeting every week, so for full coverage keep coming back to Guelph Politico for all the previews, recaps and live coverage, and get all Guelph news sent directly to you inbox four times a week by subscribing to the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet newsletter on Substack.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got a digest for you. As we lean back on an ant hill, touch grass and love life, we're treating you to two recent in-depth conversations with fascinating and insightful activists in their respective fields. First, just in time for Pride Month, we're going talk about trans equality, and second, just in time for Victoria Day planting, we're going to talk about farm workers.
This Thursday, May 16 at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Johnstone of Destiny. Canada’s queer and trans communities are feeling besieged lately with many provincial governments trying to legislate parental rights and/or are openly discriminating against LGBTQ+ people. This week, we’re joined by Fae Johnstone, a trans activist and the executive director of the Society for Queer Momentum, who’s going to tell us about how they maintain hope that we’re still on the progressive road to equality.
Migrants at Work. With the planting season here, more migrant workers will be arriving in surrounding communities to help with the busy and strenuous tasks that come with farming. But there’s more than one type of migrant worker, and they are facing all kinds of challenges as they’re going about their jobs and to help us sort all that out, we will be joined by Kit Andres from the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we learn from the best! There's been a lot talk in the last few years about there being nothing good at the movie theatre anymore, but as a dedicated listener of this show, you know that's not true and to prove it, we will dedicate this week's episode to some of the best movies we've seen so far this year at the cinema, though you can now get them at home.
This Wednesday, May 15, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Peter Salmon, and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Good Movies from 2024! It's only the fifth month of the year, and there's already been a bunch of great movies that might fit on anyone's best of the year list. This week, we will go back to Arrakas, join two women on a crime spree, and enjoy some perfect days as we clean some of the most beautiful public toilets that you’ve ever seen. Yes, we’re going to go back in time and revisit our past reviews featuring some of the best films we’ve seen so far this year. Cue up the wayback machine, and by that we mean the premium VOD channel of your choice!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This is the 20th anniversary year for the Special Olympics, which speaks to the tremendous success of the event, and while it is about the competition in some respects, these games are mostly about fun and camaraderie. In an era where we talk so much about kids being attached to their screens, what can be more essential than some good, old-fashioned sports?
Today (Wednesday), over 700 athletes from over 60 schools are competing in various track and field events, some of which are adapted so that all kids can compete regardless of their capability. There’s no doubt that playing sports has a positive impact on young people, but sometimes sports aren't welcoming to kids with all abilities, which is why something like the Special Olympics was created.
There are over 100,000 Special Olympic events around the world every year, including the one here in Guelph and Wellington hosted by the two main school boards. Participants will compete in 50m, 100m and 200m races, standing/running long jump, and softball throw, as well as adaptive events for those with physical challenges including obstacle course, basketball shooting, T-ball, Popbottle bowling and a 40m walk/run. Organizing all this must be quite the logistical challenge, right?
Nicole Hearn, a special education resource teacher with the Wellington Catholic District School Board and an event committee member for the Guelph-Wellington Special Olympics, is going to tell us about it on this episode of the podcast. Plus, she will talk about the importance of physical education in a well-rounded school experience, balancing the spirit of competition with the promotion of fun and exercise in sport, and why this year's event is even more special than usual.
So let's talk about making the Special Olympics special on this week's Guelph Politicast!
If you’re listening to this on Wednesday, the Special Olympics are being held today at St. James Catholic High School in Guelph. You stay up-to-date with all Special Olympics news at the Upper Grand District School Board and Wellington Catholic District School Board websites, and on Facebook.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, everything old is new again! Nothing changes after two big by-elections in different parts of Ontario, and the war that has stymied the world for the better part of a year now only looks close to reaching a resolution. Also, under hope and change, we have a guest this week that hopes a commemoration this month will lead to improved lives for people everywhere!
This Thursday, May 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Paradise Lost, and Found. That's a John Milton joke, and Milton Ontario was in the news this week as the location of one of two by-elections, both of which were won by Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives. That's where paradise was found, where it was lost was affordable housing money from the feds and the keffiyeh ban that no one wants, but no one can get rid of. We'll tall about another wild week at Queen's Park.
The Beginning of the End? On Sunday there was an announcement that a ceasefire agreement had been reached in the now seven-month conflict in the Gaza Strip, but before you could say "Done deal", the Israeli Defense Forces launched an attack on the crossing at Rafah, the last portion of Gaza still standing. With the U.S. Administration at its wits end, are we entering the most perilous phase of this conflict, the end?
Sexual Violence Prevention Month. May is Sexual Violence Prevention Month. and while different groups may have a variation on the name, the intent is always the same: An end to all forms of sexual violence. This week, we're joined by Cindy McMann, the public educator of Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis, who will tell us what she's doing locally including the effort to make Intimate Partner Violence an epidemic.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're doing endings and beginnings. On the subject of the latter, we're talking about a new movie that officially marks the first release of the Summer Movie season, a little - but big - movie called The Fall Guy. As for those endings, we will talk about the current state of the franchise that used to launch every summer, and why it's struggling.
This Wednesday, May 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The Blame Endgame. It's been five years since the release of Avengers: Endgame, the pinnacle of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. No Marvel Studios movie has every been as successful, before or since, and while some of that blame can fall on the pandemic and the strikes, part of it is probably a loss of direction since the series reached it's natural conclusion in Endgame. To begin this week's show, we'll start with the End and everything after.
REVIEW: The Fall Guy (2024). Summer begins with throwback, a good, old-fashioned action movie with an emphasis on stunts and practical effects, plus it's got romance and humour. It's also self-referential and takes place against the backdrop of the movie business, and it's based on an cult favourite 80s TV show. It's also got the star-power of Ryan Gosling, newly minted as "Kenough", plus his fellow 2024 Oscar nominee Emily Blunt as his partner in crime, but with so much going for this movie, how can it possibly deliver, and why does it still manage to deliver?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Earlier this year, Statistics Canada reported that there has been a five per cent increase in positive responses in the proportions of adults who reported excellent or very good mental health, a strong sense of belonging to their local community, and a high level of life satisfaction between 2021 and 2023. And yet, considering that still less than three out of five adults report excellent or very good mental health, we still have a long way to go.
If you’re listening to this on Wednesday, then we’re halfway through Mental Health Week, which is an annual commemoration by the CMHA to promote better overall mental mental health in communities across Canada, and boy does that need some promotion. The theme of this year’s Mental Health Week, and yes there is a theme, is “Be Kind.” Meaning that we're focusing on "the healing power of compassion" and appreciating that "kindness is equally intrinsic to our humanity."
It’s hard to think of a better time to send out a message about kindness and compassion. Have you been on the internet lately? To say that there’s a lot of anger and hate and vitriol seems like an understatement. Then we’re seeing online hate and disgruntlement affect us here in the real world as more politicians are seeing anger and division as powerful campaign tools, and foreign governments see dividing a people against each other as a way of achieving their own transnational goals.
It really feels like we need to call a time out and ask each other sincerely, "Are you okay?" which is what Helen Fishburn is here to do this week on the podcast. She's the CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo Wellington and she's going to discuss the overall mental health condition of the Guelph community right now, what it means to have “mental health literacy”, what the various levels of government could be doing to lend a hand, and how you can work to improve your own mental health.
So let's talk about getting better, mentally speaking, on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can see all the programs and events that the CMHA has planned for Mental Health Week at their website. If you do find yourself in immediate crisis you can call the Here 24/7 helpline 1-844-HERE247 or 1-844-437-3247 for one-stop access to 11 different local agencies that work in mental health and addictions, and you can also call the Suicide Crisis Helpline at 9-8-8. If you feel like you need help, do reach out and ask for it.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we reconnect with our roots. It's been a busy week for student protests and campus shutdowns, and it's not escaped media attention, but getting less media attention is B.C.'s move to re-criminalize drugs, which may be a big step backwards. As always, this media is focused on local, and we will talk to a city councillor that maybe making a move from local to national.
This Thursday, May 2, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Shock and Quad. Pro-Palestinian protests are nothing new to university campuses, but they've blown up in the last few weeks do to clashes between police and students at Columbia University in New York. Solidarity protests have popped up on other campuses, and now there's a political game being played about free speech and the cultural wars, but is the coverage missing the point of these protests in the first place?
Re-Criminal Minds. In a shocking move backwards, the provincial government of British Columbia has decided to re-criminalize the use of drugs in public spaces. Many are seeing this as a pre-election move by Premier David Eby to seem tough on crime, but activists are concerned about hitting rewind on hard fought progress on harm reduction strategies. Has the pendulum swung back to policing our way our of the addictions crisis?
O'Fork in the Road. A couple of weeks ago, reps from Guelph and Wellington County met at the third session of the Health and Housing Symposium, and one of them was Ward 6 Councillor Dominique O'Rourke. On this week's show, she will tell us what she got out of the symposium experience, and we will also talk about O'Rourke's new political endeavour, a play to take her skills and experience to Ottawa as Guelph's next MP!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
Every year, four or five people are plucked from Guelph’s sporting history and are immortalized for all eternity on the walls of the Sleeman Centre, but one doesn’t spend a life in local sports to be immortal. It’s a passion that can span a lifetime, which is what decades of Royals might say about Paul Ante, who has been one kind of Guelph Royal or another for the last half-century.
Paul Ante been a part of the Guelph Royals Intercounty baseball team for over five decades as a player, coach, manager, and administrator. He's helped lead the team to championships, and he runs baseball clinics every year to help even younger players to develop their skills. Imagine all the lives that Ante has touched in 50 years being involved with the Guelph Royals and Guelph baseball.
And Guelph history is so indelibly tied with the sport of baseball. The Guelph Royals organization has existed in one form or another since 1861, and it even roped in George Sleeman in the 1880s who invested big in order to bring American talent to Guelph. The Royals are such an institution that they also survived their own near-death experience in 2016, and that's owed to the dedication of people Ante, who will once again be at first base on opening day later this month!
Ante took time out from getting ready for the 2024 baseball season to join us on this inaugural edition of the Guelph Sportscast to talk about his life and career in baseball in Guelph, how he feels about getting into the Hall of Fame, and what he thinks is the secret to his success in baseball. He will also talk about the difference between being a coach and being the boss, what to look out for in the upcoming season, and the role that sports has played in shaping his life and career.
So let's play ball on this inaugural edition of the Guelph Sportscast!
Paul Ante will be inducted into the Guelph Sports Hall of Fame at the Induction Ceremony & Kiwanis Sports Celebrity Dinner on Wednesday May 15 at the Italian Canadian Club, and you can find info on tickets and other inductees here. The Guelph Royals 2024 season home opener is on Saturday May 18 at 1 pm at Hastings Stadium. You can get all ticket information at the Royals' 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, 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.
This week on End Credits, we work on our serve. Summer is here, so we have thoughts about getting outside and getting involved in sports, and romance (?) The two are combined in the new film Challengers, which was the number one film at the box office last weekend. And speaking of summer, it unofficially begins this weekend in theatres. Stand by for a preview!
This Wednesday, May 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Summer 2024 Movie Preview! For the first time since 2006 (excluding the pandemic), the summer movie season begins with a film that's not a Marvel movie. The Summer Movie Season officially begins this Friday with The Fall Guy, a straight-up action comedy starring Ryan Gosling, which is emblematic of what might the most uncertain movie slate of any summer in decades. Still, it looks like there will be some bangers, and we will seek them out!
REVIEW: Challengers (2024). Is Zendaya a movie star? Sure, she's a BFD to the Disney Channel set 10 years ago, and then she graduated to big franchises like Spider-Man and Dune, but can she hold court (heh) as one point in a romantic triangle in a big, old-fashioned Hollywood love story. The answer is in Challengers, the latest movie from Luca Guadagnino. Set against competitive world of tennis, Challengers followers three players caught between love, sex, ego, money, competition, and status. It's a capital 'S' star vehicle for Zendaya, but do we want to take the ride?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
As we count down to the 200th anniversary of the Canada Company settling Guelph in just three years, you can expect to hear more about how we’re honouring our history in Guelph, both pre- and post-settlement. Between that moment John Galt cut down that first tree and this moment listening to this podcast, there’s been a whole lot of Guelph history, and one man has published a new collection about some of those lesser known bits that you should definitely know.
This week, we're joined by Ed Butts, a local author and historian. Butts has dedicated much of the last decade inspecting all of Guelph’s nooks and crannies, looking at all the forgotten tales, the forgotten celebrities, the newsmakers and royals who came to town, and all the times that no one liked what was in the headlines. Butts has taken all this and woven weekly adventures through Royal City history for Guelph Today, and the Guelph Mercury before that.
Now, Butt’s collected some of those tales in a new booked appropriately called Guelph Stories. From the origin of certain Guelph landmarks, to all the mysterious and still unsolved crimes in Guelph’s underbelly; from that time after World War II when Guelph City Council banned midnight movies to Anne Jamison who lived in Guelph between her birth in Ireland and Hollywood fame on the radio, Guelph Stories is 300 pages of local character that money can’t buy (although buying a copy of the book will cost you $30).
On this week’s podcast, we will go behind the pages, as it were, to talk to Butts about how the book, and the history, came together. He will tell us about how his Guelph Story started, how he seeks out the history he tells and how, sometimes, the history comes to him. We will also talk about how he knows when he’s found a good story, and how he separates fact from legend when he’s doing research. Also, which local history nerd would win a round of Jeopardy! that focuses on Guelph history?
So let's dig into the story behind Guelph Stories on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can get your copy of Guelph Stories at The Bookshelf independent bookstore downtown, and at the gift shop of the Guelph Civic Museum. You can also email Butts about getting your copy by sending your order to edpbutts [at] yahoo.com. You can also stay up-to-date, so to speak, with all of Butt’s latest insights into Guelph’s rich and varied history by reading his weekly column at Guelph Today.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we mark Earth Week by discussing some of the news that happened on this planet. We will travel from Washington D.C. to Kiev where there's finally some good news in that war effort, but it's just too bad that there wasn't any good news when it comes to funding our regional transit system. Also, we will talk and act locally with one of our Guelph city councillors.
This Thursday, April 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
For a Few Dollars More... At long last, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to send much need financial aid to Ukraine. Now three years into their all-out war against Russia, the Ukrainians have been fighting with anything they can as they desperately await help from the States, aid that was mostly held up by Russia's new fair-haired girl, Marjorie Taylor Greene. With the bullets set to flow again, might 2024 be a breakthrough year for our Ukrainian allies?
Slowpiercer. Last week, Premier Doug Ford announced expansion plans for several GO Train lines, but not everyone gets improved transit equally. While the Government of Ontario increased frequency on the Kitchener Line, those additional trains don't make it all the way to Kitchener, which is one of many gaps in a system that's desperately awaiting more service for users. Why is Ontario still so far behind on regional transit?
The Shroud of Erin. Council is taking the week off, but it's been very, very busy lately on a variety of topics. One of those topics was a series of complaints about the mayor's social media posts, and out of that came a couple of motions about beefing up council's online policies. The author of those motions was Ward 1 Councillor Erin Caton, who will join us this week to talk about about the results, and they will also look ahead to new council business in May.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it's war! Yes, it's time to get political again with the movie that everyone's talking about, whether you follow every last detail about American elections or not. Yes, we're tackling Civil War, and we're also going to talk about the studio that launched this controversial (and lucrative) project, and some of their less well-known (and controversial) efforts.
This Wednesday, April 24, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Fing A24! In 2012, a new studio was launched to try and capture some of those new and eccentric voices that were getting squeezed out of the market. Within a decade, A24 had won an Oscar for Best Picture (Everything Everywhere All at Once), and fostered talent like Ari Aster, Ti West, Greta Gerwig, Sean Baker, and many, many more. Civil War* is their biggest film yet, but we're dedicated the first part of the show to some of their underappreciated gems.
REVIEW: Civil War (2024). It's the talk of the culture right now, a movie called Civil War, coming out in an American election year where people are talking about a second U.S. civil war. There's no doubt that Alex Garland has his finger on the pulse with this one, a tale of four journalists travelling across war-torn America to get to the frontlines outside Washington D.C., but Garland seems less concerned with up-to-the-minute political analysis when compared to the inner-psychology of the people that document death and destruction, so is that okay for this audience?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
If it’s the end of April, then you know it’s time for the annual National Day or Mourning. Although the pandemic is over, it's worth remembering there was a whole class of workers who had to keep working as it happened, and that meant intentionally putting themselves at risk. This was important, but even before the pandemic, workers across Canada in all sorts of work were taking risks every day, often unknowingly, and they still are.
According to the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada, in 2022, there were 993 workplace fatalities recorded in Canada. Among these deaths were 33 young workers aged 15-24. Now, there are dangerous jobs in the world, jobs that can expose you to dangerous people, or dangerous circumstances, but would you classify climbing a ladder under the category of “dangerous work”? Sometimes the little dangers become big problems with high personal costs.
According to lore, two labour activists were driving to a union meeting in 1983 when they were stopped for a funeral procession. The deceased was a firefighter who died in the line of duty - he died on the job - and they were struck by an idea: Not everyone that is killed on the job is given this kind of remembrance. The Government of Canada legislated the Workers Mourning Day Act in 1990, and since then workers in Canada stop on April 28, and remember colleagues hurt and killed on the job.
Here in 2024, we will be joined by Sarah Neath and Janice Folk-Dawson from the Guelph and District Labour Council. They will talk about the things they think about during the National Day Mourning, the things they hope you’re thinking about, and the things that they want the people in power to think about in order to make sure that fewer people die on the job. Also, they will talk about how affordability plays into issues around worker safety, and their own experiences with workplace safety.
So let's talk about marking another year of people killed on the job on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The local commemoration for the National Day of Mourning is on Sunday April 28 at 1 pm at Goldie Mill Park off Cardigan Street, and that will be followed by a reception at Diana’s Downtown on Upper Wyndham. You can also follow #DayofMourning on social media to stay on top of all the events and all the advocacy that comes along with the issues behind worker safety on the job across Canada. You can follow the Guelph and District Labour Council on Facebook or 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to have an "orgy of spending." That's how one Conservative MP described this year's federal budget, and we're going to talk about why, and speaking of elicit sex, we're going talk about the criminal trial of the former U.S. President. In the back half of the show though we're going to keep things nice and professional with a future election candidate.
This Thursday, April 18, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Eat the Rich? The federal government released the 2024 budget on Tuesday, and it was meant to be a balm to Canada's affordability crisis, especially for young people. The new spending claims to have no impact on the deficit because of modest increases to the capital gains tax, but there's a big question mark about whether this spending will have a real impact. We'll talk about what all's in this budget.
Blight Court. For the first time, a former President of the United States is on criminal trial, before you ask if that's Donald Trump, let me tell you, it's Donald Trump! The case is about about the alleged use of campaign funds to buy the silence of adult film star Stormy Daniels about their dalliance that one time, and it means some long, boring, embarrassing weeks in a court room for the Republican nominee. We'll talk about the first two days.
Folk-Dawson's Creek. The next federal election is still more than a year-and-a-half away, at least if the confidence and supply agreement holds up. But even if it comes apart, the NDP in Guelph are ready because they have a candidate in place, and it's Janice Folk-Dawson. A well-known and accomplished labour activist, Folk-Dawson will tell us about making the move to politics and why she wants to put the labour back into Canada's labour party.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to raise the dead. Sounds serious, but it's not. It's funny! Our main review this week was thought dead on arrival when it was released in theatres earlier this year, but all movies can live again on VOD and today we're going to see if there's some life left in Lisa Frankenstein. As for the rest of the show, we go full zombie with a modern classic!
This Wednesday, April 17, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Shaun of the Dead at 20. In 2004, Edgar Wright did something remarkable: He made a zombie movie that was funny. Forget that this was a time when the business wasn't making a lot of zombie movies, the idea of taking the trappings of that genre and making it a laugh? Impossible! Well, Wright proved them wrong, and on the 20th anniversary of Shaun of the Dead's U.K. release, we will talk about why the movie still slaps after two decades of zombie overkill.
REVIEW: Lisa Frankenstein (2024). The year is 1989 and Lisa is not like the other girls. Her mom was killed by an axe murderer (no, really), she's been wedged into a new family where she sticks out even more, and she's more than little into the morbid side of life doing things like hanging out in a graveyard. And that's where true love finds her! From the mind of Jennifer's Body scribe Diablo Cody, Lisa Frankenstein combines 1980s excess and 1800s excess in a unique package, and this week we'll determine if it's the can't miss movie we missed.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Doors Open Guelph is one of dozens of similar events across Ontario that celebrates local history and heritage by throwing open the doors to buildings that are typically pretty inaccessible to the general public. There’s no shortage of history and heritage nerds in Guelph who all have their favourites so how are the sites chosen, why are they chosen, and why are these buildings on the 2024 tour?
The Ontario Heritage Trust started organizing Doors Open events around the province in 2002 and Guelph started doing it’s own a few years after that and it’s been a regular appointment every April. Well, almost every April. You might recall that there was a pause in going to strange places four years ago with the COVID-19 pandemic, and while that means there are still no tours of private homes that doesn’t mean there’s no shortage of juicy stops on this year’s tour!
On Saturday April 27, a dedicated group of community volunteers will be ready to receive you at nearly dozen different places around Guelph. You can go from duelling city halls downtown, to the home base of the Guelph Black Heritage Society; from Dublin Street United Church, which is marking their sesquicentennial this year, to the literal end of the line at the mausoleum of Woodlawn Memorial Park. Also, you can blind yourself with science at the Guelph Research and Development Centre on Stone Road!
This week, we're joined by Susan Ratcliffe, who is one of the organizers of the annual Doors Open Guelph, and she will take us through the program to talk about each property, the secrets it holds, why it was chosen, and what you’re going to see when you get there. We’re also going to discuss how Doors Open is organized, how the program comes together every year, how pandemic concerns are still impacting what appears, and Ratcliffe’s personal, favourite pick from this year’s line-up.
So let's learn more about these Doors that will Open on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can take part in Doors Open Guelph at all the locations we discussed on Saturday April 27 from 10 am to 4 pm, and you can get the full of locations and addresses at the City's website. You can also take part in Doors Open After Dark, which takes place the day before from 5 pm to midnight at the Guelph Civic Museum.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're still recovering from eclipse fever! More earth-bound matters are our concern this episode, and that means talking another trip to the Middle East to talk about the war inside Gaza, but it also means acknowledging that we've got defence problems closer to home too. In the back half of the show, our concern is going to be about work, and the people coming here to work.
This Thursday, April 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
180 Days. It's now been a little over six months since Hamas fighters launched a terrible terror attack on Israel, but in that time any sympathy seems to have faded due to Benjamin Netanyahu's disproportionate counteroffensive. Even U.S. President Joe Biden seems ready to put conditions on aid as sources inside the Israeli government says the date for the invasion of Rafah has been set. So what now?
The Two Per Cent Solution. The Government of Canada this week announced billions in new defence spending, but despite that we will still fall short of the NATO pledge to dedicate two per cent of our GDP to the cause of our own security. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tried to play it cool and say that more could be coming, but the pressure is on for Canada to carry it's weight in the Alliance. Is this enough?
Migrants at Work. With the planting season here, more migrant workers will be arriving in surrounding communities to help with the busy and strenuous tasks that come with farming. But there's more than one type of migrant worker, and they are facing all kinds of challenges as they're going about their jobs and to help us sort all that out, we will be joined by Kit Andres from the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it's the Year of the Monkey! Well, technically it's not the year of the monkey for another four year, so maybe it's the week of the monkey, and a year for revenge!! On this show, we're going to review the new action thriller Monkey Man, which is all about revenge fights, and we're going to take a moment to talk about the best movie revenge fights so far!
This Wednesday, April 10, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Best Served Cold. Monkey Man is a tale of revenge, but so are a lot of movies. They say that the best revenge is living well, but most of the time it seems that the best revenge is fighting as many guys as possible between you and the source of your betrayal. Before getting into Monkey Man, we will talk about other movies were the best revenge is not served cold, it's served with a kick-ass fight and lots of over the top and sometimes gratuitous violence!
REVIEW: Monkey Man (2024). Rescued from the ash bin of the Netflix algorithm by Jordan Peele, Dev Patel's directorial debut Monkey Man is now in theatres everywhere. The story follows a man seeking revenge on the corrupt police chief that murdered his mother, which leads him into the deep rot of India's political and societal systems that keep the people under thumb. It's been, perhaps unfairly, described as "John Wick in India" but it's been impossible to not admire Patel and his vision, especially as a first-time filmmaker. But did it work for us?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
We’ve heard a lot about tiny homes lately as the housing crisis has gotten worse, but they’ve been a thing for a while. Somehow, it’s both a niche real estate trend, and a new innovation in accommodating Canada’s unhoused population, but it’s the latter that we’re interested in today because we're going to talk about one of Guelph's two tiny home projects meant to tackle homelessness.
In Kitchener, there was this idea called A Better Tent City. In 2020, various community partners teamed up to turn an industrial lot into a community of tiny homes that would offer low barrier housing with access to hygiene and sanitation facilities, and connection to services and healthcare on a path to stable housing. It also gave the opportunity for shelter to people who have partners, or companion animals, neither of which are allowed in your typical, traditional shelter.
Kitchener’s success with Tent City has been an inspiration for communities around Ontario and across Canada, and that includes Guelph. Mayor Cam Guthrie used his Strong Mayor Powers to direct City staff to start to develop a plan for A Better Tent City-style encampment, and while that plan is in progress, a group called the Guelph Tiny Homes Coalition announced that they had already starter their own project and they're out to prove that a housing first solution is the best solution.
Liz Hales, who is one of the organizers of the Guelph Tiny Homes Coalition, joins us to talk about the reasons she wanted to take part in this project as a nurse practitioner, the paradigm changing idea that housing is healthcare, and why having a permanent place to live is key to assuring a property recovery from medical procedures. She will also discuss who all is on this team, what they’re doing right now in terms of organizing, and what kind of help they’re looking for and when they need it.
So let's talk tiny on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about the Guelph Tiny Homes Coalition, you can go to their website. Under the “Get involved” tab you will find a link to that volunteer form where you can give the group your information and where you want to help out. As for the City of Guelph project there’s a deadline of April 26 to hear from property owners who have land within one kilometre of downtown that they’d like to donate. If this sounds like you, send an email to purchasing [at] guelph.ca.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're feeling hungry... Hungry for the news! To begin with we will look 75 years into the past to when the last piece of Canada fell into place, and speaking of piece, we'll talk about the people who get the bigger parts of paycheque pie. It's going be no piece of cake for the people that fight forest fires in Ontario this summer, but there could be a sour lemon in the U.S. election.
This Thursday, April 4, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Diamond Jubi-Newfie. Exactly 75 years ago last Sunday, Newfoundland and Labrador became the 10th and (so far) final province to join the Canadian confederation. It wasn't an easy process, and the people of Newfoundland only voted to join after two referendums, and by a bare majority. We'll talk about why there still seems to be a debate about whether those voters in 1949 made the right call.
Let the Sunshine In. Last week, the Ontario government released the annual Public Salary Disclosure, aka: The Sunshine List. Introduced in 1996, it provides a list of public servants that make over $100,000, and it's a hot button topic for people that don't like how government employees make such a nice living, and that goes double in an affordability crisis. Still, do we put to much emphasis on all that "Sunshine"?
Fire Storm. It may not look or feel like it right now, but spring is here and that means firefighters in Ontario's north are getting ready for another busy fire season. At issue though is whether or not the provincial government is taking the danger seriously enough because everyone from opposition parties to the firefighters' own union says they're not. What will it take to get real government action?
Spoiler Alert? Last week, independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, the independently wealthy ex-wife of one of the Google founders who has no experience in public service. Polling suggests that RFK Jr.is getting a lot of use out of his last name and less from his status as a well-known anti-vaxxer, so will Kennedy be spoiler, and whom will he spoil more?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we wanna fight! Now this is typically a collegial show where the hosts get along, so when we talk about fighting it's usually in relation to a movie, and this week we're watching all the fighting with Road House. Now this movie is a remake, and while he was a lover and a fighter, we will pay tribute to the star of that original Road House movie.
This Wednesday, April 3, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Saint Patrick's Day. In 1989 Patrick Swayze starred in the original Road House, which was an interest role for him coming out of his then-recent hit playing sexy and graceful and romantic in Dirty Dancing. It's hard not to think about either Road House or Dirty Dancing when it comes to Swayze's greatest hits, and though he tragically passed away fairly young in 2009, he still stands pretty tall as one of Hollywood's most interesting modern leading men. We will talk about his greatest roles.
REVIEW: Road House (2024). The larger points are pretty much the same, big trouble at a road side bar and the one bouncer that's got to unravel it, but Doug Liman's remake takes, if you will, some bigger swings. Jake Gyllenhaal subs for Patrick Swayze as the bouncer, but this time he's a former MMA fighter who's drifting from place to place trying to avoid a fight till some rowdies harassing this small town bar finally push him too far. Gyllenhaal is one oddest leading men working today, so does Road House use his manic weirdo energy well enough as he beats guys to a pulp?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
HIV/AIDS Resources and Community Health, or ARCH, suddenly announced its closure last week. Losing ARCH impacts a wide variety of people in Guelph and area, whether that’s HIV prevention and care, needle exchanges and harm reduction, or gender affirming and trans healthcare. For these people, ARCH has been the first and only place they could turn for help, so who's going to fill the void?
The short answer is a team-up of the Guelph Community Health Centre and the AIDS Committee Of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo and Area, otherwise known as ACCKWA (pronounced "aqua"). They have big shoes to fill because ARCH was a pretty big part of the local healthcare picture for decades, emerging at a time when there was not just a tremendous stigma for people diagnosed with HIV, but when an HIV infection was almost certainly a death sentence.
ARCH was radical at the time of its inception, inclusive, sex-positive, anti-oppressive, and focused on harm reduction as a first line of defense. And for members of the queer community, ARCH was very important, especially in the realm of gender-affirming care because many trans activists will tell you that even in 2024 it’s hard to find a doctor that will take you as you are and not what you were born as biologically. That's a lot for one group to cover, so we're getting two!
This week, we're joined by Guelph CHC executive director Melissa Kwiatkowski, and ACCKWA executive director Ruth Cameron, who are here to talk about logistics. They'll discuss the changes to the delivery of services formally covered by ARCH, the division of labour between CHC and and ACCKWA, and how new clients needing those services can best access the help they need. Also, we will talk about the ongoing need for HIV/AIDS education and awareness and the growing number of services covered by CHC.
So let's get into the change face of care in Guelph on this week's Guelph Politicast!
If you are a patient receiving HIV or gender-affirming care, or if you take part in the needle exchange programs, you shouldn’t notice too much of a change in your service. But if you have any questions or concerns, you can get in touch with Guelph Community Health at 519-821-6638 or info [at] guelphchc.ca, or you can get in touch with ACCKWA at 519-570-3687 or by visiting 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we're all about the bling, bling! Money matters matter to us this week as we tackle the debate around the carbon tax and the follow-on debate about confidence, and then we will talk about the updated fiscal picture of Ontario and our brand new provincial budget. Also, w will get some straight dope about current political conditions in Guelph direct from city hall.
This Thursday, March 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Wax on Axe the Tax. Last week, the federal Conservatives tried to bring down the governing Liberals by forcing a repeal of the carbon tax increase on Monday, which naturally failed. At least in the short term. The political trends seem to indicate that Pierre Poilievre is going to win the next election, and it's on the back of the carbon tax he's going to do it, but do voters have a firm sense of the situation?
Red Ink Tories. The Ontario budget for 2024 was released on Tuesday, and it was big. The amount of money that the Government of Ontario is spending is bigger than ever, and so is the deficit, or rather it's bigger than Queen's Park originally intended this time last year. We'll talk about the highlights and the lowlights of this year's Ontario budget, and how Guelph was affected.
We Got Ward 5 On It. It's been a while since we had a member of city council on the show, so there's a lot to catch up on. Naturally, we went to one of the councillors that represents Ward 5, CFRU's district, and talk to Cathy Downer. From questions about protesting government interference, to a vacancy tax proposal, to the protection of local heritage assets, we will dig into all that more with Councillor Downer!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we ain't afraid of no ghost... busters movie review. In the spirit of Easter and themes of rebirth and rising from the dead, we head to movie theatre to check out a terrifying return in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Along similar lines, we will go back in time to the year 1984 to look at two movies and an open weekend paradox that crosses the streams!
This Wednesday, March 27, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The Battle of '84. On the same weekend in June 1984, two similar but very different movies opened in theatres everywhere; one was Ivan Reitman's Ghostbusters and the other was Joe Dante's Gremlins. Both have elements of horror and comedy, but perhaps the films slide more to one side or the other, and yet one thing is clear: Two major releases this similar would never get released on the same weekend in 2024! So we will decide, once and for all, who's superior.
REVIEW: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024). For 40 years now, we've been asking. "Who you gonna call?" and we have occasionally got an answer, but in this movie, everyone answers the call. Almost anyone that's even been, thought about or tangentially connected to the Ghostbusters returns for Frozen Empire, in which the ghostbusting Spengler family fight a giant snow demon and their own internal dysfunctions. They've spent a lot of years trying to turn the Ghostbusters into a massive action/adventure franchise, so does this busting end up feeling good?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The City of Guelph has two goals, one to be a net zero community by 2050 and the other to be 100 per cent powered by renewable energy at the same time, and while 2050 is still a good 26 years away, it’s going to get here sooner than we think. This week, we're going to go over the climate action report card, how is Guelph doing as we're trying to turn the tide?
From the moment Guelph city council established their net zero and 100 per cent renewable goals in 2021, local climate activists have been asking to see a plan and interim goals. Guelph has a reputation for being one of the most environmentally-friendly cities in the county, but the devil’s in the details and people have been wanting City Hall to do go beyond bike lanes and electric vehicles.
There’s also a matter of logistics. City hall has been trying to help us out with things like the Guelph Greener Homes program, which offers interest free loans to homeowners to make environmentally-friendly renovations, but that’s only going to help about 600 households; Guelph has 55,000. And then a new controversy arose this week with the Ontario government preparing to override a decision of an Ontario Energy Board, forcing city councils around the province to weigh in.
What a perfect time to be joined again by Evan Ferrari, who is the executive director of eMERGE Guelph, an environmental consultancy. Ferrari will tell us about the current state of Guelph’s conversion to net zero, and how there’s still a lot of work to do. Also, he will talk about how climate action is getting lost in the housing and affordability crisis, and the hiccups in the shift to EVs. And finally, he will look at how the climate deniers have changed the game with new talking points.
So let's look at where we are in the local climate fight on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the advocacy and services of eMERGE at their website, or by following them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin. You can learn more about the City of Guelph’s Greener Homes program at the City’s website. Also, to learn more about the natural gas decision of the Ontario Energy Debate at council this week, you can catch the meeting 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's starting to feel like the bad guys are winning. It's certainly true that a bad guy won in Russia this week, and he has a friend in the United States who he wants to join him in all the winning, but that's still be determined because that guy's got bigger problems. In terms of the smaller problems, we'll have a guest on to talk about solutions.
This Thursday, March 21, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Totally Vlad Show. In an election outcome that was assured long before a single vote was cast, Vladimir Putin has secured a fifth term as the President of the Russian Federation, which means he'll be in charge for a period longer than even Joseph Stalin. While Putin secures his continued dominance in the Kremlin, countries in eastern Europe are preparing for war so where does Russia go from here?
"Bloodbath" and Beyond. Donald Trump did it again, threatening America with violence in the event that he doesn't win the U.S. presidential election this fall. But maybe he was just lashing out because he's seemingly run out of gullible suckers who will cover his legal costs as he faces the possibility of having his assets seized by the New York Attorney General. We will catch up with some American politics.
The Fraud Squad. March is Fraud Prevention Month; in fact, 2024 marks the 20th annual observance of the occasion. These are very fraud-y times indeed with reports coming in all the time about someone losing money to a cryptocurrency scam or losing thousands of dollars to someone posing as their grandchild's criminal lawyer, but there are ways you can protect yourself. Jeff Horncastle from the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre will join us to talk about how.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to get swoll! Prepare to enter the exciting world of bodybuilding and queer romance in the late 1980s with the new neo-noir movie Love Lies Bleeding, and for all the K-Stew fans out there, we will pay tribute to your favourite actress' career by talking about some of her greatest hits!
This Wednesday, March 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Taming of the K-Stew. Kristen Stewart has been in the movie-making business for the 25 years now, and while most people know her from the big stuff like the Twilight films, and her Oscar-nominated turn in Spencer, she's actually had a lot of different roles in a lot of different kinds of movies. Before we get into Stewart's new film, we will talk about some of her old ones, which Stewart performances are among her best after her first quarter-century in the biz?
REVIEW: Live Lies Bleeding (2024). Not to be confused with Drive-Away Dolls, another period movie about lesbians caught up in some criming, Love Lies Bleeding embraces its film noir roots for all its heartache and violence and fatalism. Bodybuilder Jackie arrives in town and meets gym manager Lou, and just when they think they might escape and find happiness together, they realize that they're both bound by a dark fate, and the dark criminal underbelly of their border town. So do we love Love Lies Bleeding, or do want we let it bleed?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The last few weeks have been busy news weeks, so on this edition of the podcast we're going to lift the veil of news gathering and take you behind the scenes to see how the sausage the media gets made. To do that, we're going to talk to an Ontario cabinet minister about promises, hear from local fire officials about safety, and discuss how best to not get scammed.
First up, we will go back to last Thursday when Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra was in Guelph announcing that we were receiving $4.68 million for our progress in achieving local housing targets. While Calandra was here, he was asked about the premier's past comments about Guelph and our own desire for the provincial government to take a housing pledge. Hear how he answered.
On that same day, there was a media availability in front of a house on Edinburgh Road South. It was the site of fatal fire last week that cost two people their lives, and it seemed to happened because there was a definite lack of smoke detectors in their home. You will hear from Guelph Fire Chief Brian Arnold and Ontario Fire Marshal Jon Pegg about why you need to put safety first.
And finally, a sneak peak for the next edition of Open Sources Guelph! This is Fraud Prevention Month, which is still happening every March since it was first held now exactly 20 years ago. Sadly, fraud has not gone away and it's only seemed to become bigger business, and that's why we wanted to talk to Jeff Horncastle of the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, and you will hear him talk - in part - about how to stay safe from scammers.
So let's listen to the news as it happened on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about all of these stories on Guelph Politico. You will be able to hear the full interview with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre's Jeff Horncastle on Open Sources Guelph, which airs tomorrow (Thursday) at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca!
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we throw ourselves into international drama. From civil unrest in Haiti, to the ongoing disaster that's still unfolding - and might yet get worse - in Gaza. Also, there's a princess missing in England, and can you believe that's going to be the last segment?! Also, closer to home, we've got another great government attempt to regulate the internet to discuss.
This Thursday, March 14, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Know Haiti. For the last few weeks, a coup d'état has essentially been in progress in the Caribbean country of Haiti. This week, Prime Minister Ariel Henry agreed to resign once a transitional council is in place after gangs seemingly took control of vast portions of the county, including the capital Port-au-Prince. Is Haiti finally about to turn a corner, or is this just more chaos as Haitians pay the price for centuries of colonialism?
Rafah on the Brink. The holy month of Ramadan has begun, but the full blown assault on the Rafah area of Gaza has yet to begin as Israel threatened (as of this writing). In the west, President Biden is drawing red lines despite affirmations about protecting Israel, while Benjamin Netanyahu says he's not listening to those concerns. Is a turn coming for the war in the Gaza Strip?
Harm Offensive. The Government of Canada has introduced a bill called the Online Harms Act, which will create a new regulator separate from the CRTC, that will focus on overseeing digital safety with particular emphasis on protecting children and youths from internet exploitation. Still, this government has not had a lot of success regulating internet stuff, so will this bill deliver the right results?
Stuck in the Middleton With You. The Princess of Wales had abdomen surgery earlier this year, nothing major the Palace said, and then she took a powder from public appearances. With conspiracy theories on the rise, the Firm released a photo of Princess Kate and the kids, but what's that meme? It's a fake! So we're forced to ask the question: How were they so stupid, and why do we care so much?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we search for perfection. It's hard to find, difficult to describe, and different for everyone, but if there's one thing that many critics can agree on, it's that the new film Perfect Days is pretty close to perfection. We will let you know if we agree with that assessment, but also under the topic of perfection, we will revisit another blast from our 80s past.
This Wednesday, March 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
This is Spinal Tap... at 40! Forty years ago this month, a small movie was released and while it didn't hit so hard at the time, it ended up having a huge impact in the long-term. Rob Reiner's first film, This is Spinal Tap, introduced the concept of the mockumentary, a documentary-style movie about a subject matter that's made up, in this case the British hair band Spinal Tap. This week, we will talk about the lingering effect of The Tap and take our nostalgia all the way up to 11.
REVIEW: Perfect Days (2024). What initially began as a tourism project to promote Tokyo's splendid new public toilets became a movie worthy of nomination for the Best International Feature Oscar! The legendary German director Wim Wenders takes us into the life of Hirayama, who spends his days keeping those toilets clean and enjoying a quiet life filled visits to his favourite haunts, taking pictures of trees in the park and his favourite American music on cassette tapes. In short, all of Hirayama's days are perfect days, but what happens when fate intervenes?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
As listeners familiar with the work of Guelph Politico are aware, improved transit is a pretty big part of the mission, and more often than not, we’re talking about local transit. But did you know that transit can take you to places outside of Guelph’s urban boundaries? This is somewhat tricky because regional transit, both to and from Guelph, is lacking, and we're not alone. That’s where a new advocacy group wants to make a difference.
Before looking at the pan regional picture, let’s look at what you have when it comes to getting out of Guelph on a bus or a train. First, you’ve got the Kitchener Line GO Train. Then there are several GO bus routes including ones to Toronto, Milton, Mississauga, Hamilton and Waterloo. There’s also RideWell and the Guelph Owen Sound Transit but almost all those options don’t run on the weekend.
What’s weird is that the demand is clearly there for more service. The Hamilton-Waterloo bus was an immediate success, and social media is littered with pictures of packed bus platforms at the Mount Pleasant GO Station on the weekends as people wait to head further west. Those of us who live at the far end of the GTHA and beyond continue to struggle, and are often left to our own devices to fill the gaps, plus no one’s looking at the broader regional picture...
...Until now. This week, we're joined by Haadhi Faizal, the founder of the advocacy group, More Transit Southern Ontario, who's going to talk about the gaps in regional transit, the difficulties of trying to pick your battles when there are so many, and how trying to co-ordinate between the municipal transit systems is part of the problem. He will also talk about building density around transit stations, and how we can get more people involved in the fight for more and better transit.
So let's talk about more buses and trains on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about More Transit Southern Ontario at their website or by following them on @MoreTransitSO on Twitter and YouTube. In terms of local regional transit expansion, there’s an open house for the business cases to build a rail line connecting Union Station and Cambridge through Guelph on Thursday March 21 from 6 to 8 pm at City Hall. There’s a virtual meeting on Tuesday March 19 too, and you can get all that information at engagewr.ca.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going back to the 80s. The 18th Prime Minister of Canada passed away last week and we will talk about his impact between then and now, and speaking of the 80s, we've also got to talk about Trump again. In the back half of the show, there was good news about the pharmacare, and we will try and find some good news for the women out there in advance of their day.
This Thursday, March 7, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Life of Brian. Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney passed away last week and he will be honoured at a state funeral on March 23. But what will Mulroney be honoured for? A lot of people have pointed to his successes fighting acid rain and apartheid while others have pointed to his constitutional failures, neo-liberal economic policy and the collapse of his political party once he retired. Will the real Brian Mulroney legacy please stand up?
Super Tuesday's Child. This past Tuesday was Super Tuesday in the United States as 16 states held their primary on a single day. It was widely suspected that Donald Trump would secure the Republican nomination, so all eyes were on the future of Nikki Haley, and the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court who ruled that Trump gets to stay on the ballot in places where he was removed. Where does U.S. politics go now?
Down on the Pharm! Last week, the federal government revealed their national pharmacare plan. The policy, which was a key demand from the NDP for their confidence and supply agreement, will begin by covering contraception and diabetes drugs and then set up a process by which other drugs are added. Should we be excited about this progressive development, and will it be a selling point for this tired Liberal government?
Women's Day Economics. Friday is International Women's Day, and there are themes every year for the occasion. For 2024, the United Nations has set the theme, "Invest in women: Accelerate progress", meaning that we need to empower women who are so vulnerable to many different economic factors. From the "pink tax" to fact that women took the brunt of job losses in the pandemic, we will talk about finding equity in the economy.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, the movies are back! Obviously, they never went away, but after a fairly dry year at the movie theatre so far, boy we're we back last weekend with the arrival of the the long-awaited second chapter of Dune! If that's not exciting enough for you, there are some huge movie awards being given out next weekend, and we're very excited to talk about them!
This Wednesday, March 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Flight of the Awards. The Oscars are coming! The 96th annual Academy Awards ceremony is this weekend, and it almost goes without saying that this is going to be a big weekend for Oppenheimer. All the odds-makers are saying it's a good bet that Christopher Nolan's hit about the father of the atomic bomb is the one to beat, and it's been pretty unbeatable this awards season indeed. We'll talk about whether those odds will hold and the other bets around this year's Oscars.
REVIEW: Dune Part Two (2024). When we last left Dune, Paul Atreides and his mother had found sanctuary with the Fremen, the indigenous population of the planet Arrakis , and now Paul must decide whether to embrace his destiny as their saviour even if that means starting a holy war that sets fire to the universe. If may look like your standard big-budget, Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster, but Denis Villeneuve doesn't do conventional, and Dune's not your average cinema spectacle, so after a gangbusters opening weekend, we're going to talk about our thoughts about Dune: Part Two.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It's rare these days to work in the same place for over four decades, but when you go to the Guelph Public Library this week you may notice that one long-time face is no longer around. Maybe you didn't notice because you were so obsessed with the thought of heading into the DVD stacks to find more Denis Villeneuve flicks, high on the hit from Dune: Part Two. If any of this sounds right, this podcast is for you!
First, we will insert a little End Credits action into this show by replaying the definitive ranking of Denis Villeneuve movies pre-Dune from September 2021. The Quebec-born director has risen through the ranks from being the darling of homegrown Canadian cinema to being a major Hollywood filmmaker, but American reviewers ignore those quirky first Canadian flicks. We don't!
After that, we will re-play our interview with now former-Library CEO Steve Kraft from last September where he talked about his career, why he wanted to become a librarian in the first place, and how technology has changed what a library is all about. He also talked about the Library’s future, from the new building to all the branches, plus he discussed the demand for library programs, and if there’s anything libraries can’t do.
So let's talk books and movies on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The Guelph Public Library Board of Directors has formed a CEO recruitment committee and they will be dedicated to hiring a new CEO sometime later this year. Dune Part Two is no in theatres everywhere and you can listen to the full review on this week's episode of End Credits.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's Leap Day! Recorded for posterity, episode #460 of this show is being released on Leap Day, February 29, 2024. This year February added an extra day, and on this show we're adding to the discourse! We're going to drop in on our friends at the Ontario Legislature, and then we're going to talk to a friend from the trans community to see how they're coping with current events.
This Thursday, February 29, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Weak in the Fees. This week, the Government of Ontario announced that they're pumping $1.3 billion in extra funding into the province's universities and colleges, and this after Premier Doug Ford reportedly canned a decision to hike tuition fees by five per cent over three years. And yet, the biggest controversy of the week involves judicial appointments and accusations of patronage. We'll catch up with all the fun at Queen's Park.
The Johnstone of Destiny. Canada’s queer and trans communities are feeling besieged lately with many provincial governments trying to legislate parental rights and/or are openly discriminating against LGBTQ+ people. This week, we're joined by Fae Johnstone, a trans activist and the executive director of the Society for Queer Momentum, who's going to tell us about how they maintain hope that we’re still on the progressive road to equality.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're on the road again. The last few weeks of winter hardly seems like a good time for a road trip, but maybe that's the point. It's time to get in the car and drive with the Drive-Away Dolls and our old friend Ethan Coen, but before that we will talk about all the movies they aren't entirely sure they want you to see as we reach the end of "Dumpuary."
This Wednesday, February 28, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Dumpuary Jones. We've reached the end of February (though technically nearly the end because it's a leap year), which also means it's the end of "Dumpuary". It's the time of year where Hollywood studios dump the movies that they think can make some money but are too embarrassed to release in the harsh light of summer or Christmas. So for the first part of the show this week, we will hail some Dumpuary classics both past and present!
Drive-Away Dolls (2024). As you may recall, the famous filmmaking fraternity the Coen Brothers are taking a break from each other. A couple of years ago, Joel made The Tragedy of MacBeth, and Ethan made this, a 1999-set road trip comedy about a pair of young women finding themselves on the road to Tallahassee and finding something mysterious and tantalizing in the trunk of their borrowed car. If you like Classic Coens like Raising Arizona or Burn After Reading, you will probably see a lot to recommend in Drive-Away Dolls, but is one Coen Coen enough?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
One of the problems covering issues of homelessness in the media is that it’s hard to find people to be the face of those issues. You see this in just about every news story, “person X is experiencing issue A”; it’s a way of personalizing the issue and making it relatable to the audience, and it’s one of the reasons why the homelessness crisis is so unrelatable. That’s where Greg Dorval entered the picture a few weeks ago.
As government representatives and social services agencies got together for a two-day Health and Housing Symposium at the Delta Hotel and Conference Centre, Dorval pitched a tent in the back of the Wellington County Administrative Centre. Dorval had decided to become an ambassador for the people living rough in Guelph, and his point was clear: We’re here, and we need assistance greater than what’s been received.
Dorval also set up shop in advance of a special meeting of city council, one that discussed a new bylaw that regulated the use of public spaces on City-owned property. Developed in 11 days, City of Guelph staff felt like they were trying to walk a fine line between human rights and safety concerns, but people living rough and their advocates saw it as an attack on people who had no place to go. Dorval was one of the delegates at that meeting, but he still has more to say.
On this edition of the pod, we catch up with Dorval as he talks about how he felt sitting through the rest of the meeting, and trying to find some peace of mind when people are saying unkind things about people living rough. He will also talk about his initial uncertain interactions with Wellington County staff and how he turned that into a path forward on the issues. And finally, he will talk about the need for continuity of care, and how we wants this to be the last winter anyone lives in a tent in Guelph.
So let's hear more from Greg Dorval on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Greg Dorval continues to take up residence in St. George’s Square to demonstrate for more assistance for people who are unhoused. The City of Guelph’s Public Spaces Use Bylaw is on hold for the time being, and there will be a third day of the City and County’s housing symposium that will be open to public participating sometime in April. Thanks to Bry Webb and Christopher Currie at CFRU for setting up time in studio to record in studio even as a band warmed up!
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, 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.
This week Open Sources Guelph is dealing bad news. What else is new? From critics silenced to cities under siege, we're reminded that there's a world full of danger and destruction out there, which are two things that are closely associated with a specific man who was once President of the United States, and might be again. Meanwhile, closer to home, an old man is almost literally yelling at clouds.
This Thursday, February 22, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Alexei. They finally did it. After years of trying, Vladimir Putin and his appendages in the Russian state were finally able to eliminate his biggest critic, Alexei Navalny. The lawyer-turned-agitator "died suddenly" in one of the worst prison in all of Russian, and coincidentally just a few week ahead of a national election and the second anniversary of the Ukraine invasion. So where does Russia go now?
Rafah. The next front in Israel's war against Hamas seems to be the city of Rafah, but as the IDF are promising to launch their campaign just before the start of the holy month of Ramadan, the Israeli government is facing for blowback from the international community who are calling for a ceasefire and the resumption of humanitarian aid in Gaza. Nearly five months into this war, is there any chance that Israel will listen?
Oh Carolina! This weekend is the South Carolina Republican primary, and it's widely expected that Donald Trump will win. It will be just about the only winning that Trump's experienced recently after being told he doesn't have total immunity, he has to pay $364 million in fines for the way he did business in New York, and there are still so many court cases to go. So why does Trump look unbeatable?
They Call Me Mr. Tibbits. So the head of Conestoga College called his colleague from Sault College a "whore" last week in an actual interview with the press. Tibbits, along with many Ontario college leaders, has been on the defensive for the drastic increase in the number of international students enrolled, but is this ad hominem attack a sign of the stress getting to Tibbits, or is just a sign he should retire?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're back! Good thing Hollywood is so royally messed up due to several months of strike action last year that we haven't missed much!! So in our first episode back we're going to check one of this year's big Oscar nominees, Maestro, and we're going to go back in time to re-visit an Oscar-nominee from 40 years ago, Footloose (you read that right).
This Wednesday, February 21, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Footloose at 40! It's old versus young, rock 'n' roll versus classical, avant garde versus traditional. It's Footloose! Released 40 years ago this week, the Herbert Ross movie sees Kevin Bacon as Chicago transplant Ren, who arrives in small town America where dancing's against the law. Ren wants to use his fancy feet but a town full of small minds stand in his way, and a cinema classic is born. But now, four decades later, we wonder how Footloose shakes out.
REVIEW: Maestro (2023). You may not know the name Leonard Bernstein, but his impact on music in the mid-20th century is undeniable. He brought classical music to kids in New York, he wrote the score for On the Town and West Side Story, and he was a master of the art of orchestra conducting. In fact, Bernstein was such a master he stymied two of them when it came time to tell his story - Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese - so it falls to Bradley Cooper and his eternal search for Oscar glory, to do the Maestro right. So did Cooper deliver a masterpiece, or a flop?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
When the Ontario Legislature resumed sitting this week, Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner wasn’t sitting alone as the only Green member. The fact that Aislinn Clancy won handily in Kitchener Centre might be a sign that people are interested in listen to Green ideas, and the Legislature will get a chance to show they they’re listening next week by sending Schreiner's private member's bill to committee and naturally, he thinks they should!
Bill 156, the Homes You Can Afford in Communities You Love Act, changes planning rules province-wide to allow for fourplexes and four story apartments in neighbourhoods and allow for mid-rise buildings ranging from six to 11 stories on transit corridors and main streets. The bill would also let these changes stands by not allowing them to be taken to the Ontario Land Tribunal for review, a process that can delay projects for years. It would be a game changer.
Now, some of this work is being done on the local level, Guelph included. But you’ll hear from Schreiner this week that while these are positive developments, it’s hard to make permanent planning changes one municipality at a time, especially when they can be appealed to the OLT. So doesn’t it make sense to change it province-wide all at the same time? Schreiner is banking on the idea that it does, and this week, he’s going to try and sell it to you on this very podcast.
Schreiner will talk about his thoughts on how the housing crisis got this bad, the elevator pitch for the bill, and why he thinks it’s a good compromise to create density while maintaining neighbourhood character. We will also talk about municipal politics with planning, and how the bill tries to prevent NIMBYism. He will discuss "sharing the pain", the other factors in housing like labour and the economy, and Schreiner’s expectations for the debate next week.
So let's talk about Schreiner's bill with the author himself on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Bill 156, the Homes You Can Afford in Communities You Love Act, at the Green Party of Ontario’s website. As you heard, Bill 156 will come up for second reading next Wednesday, February 28, in the Ontario Legislature, which returned to work yesterday for the opening of the winter sitting.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're not feeling the love this day post-Valentine's. We're going to start local where the Mayor of Guelph declared himself strong, and just in time for a very complicated and emotional meeting about public policy around encampments. Also (sorta) local, we will talk about the impact of the latest round of media job cuts and then it's off to Queen's Park for another adventure!
This Thursday, February 15, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Stronger Than Yesterday. Last week at the annual State of the City, which is mostly a networking opportunity and a chance for the mayor to talk up Guelph, Cam Guthrie announced that he's a strong mayor now. Using powers granted by the provincial government, Guthrie said that he's doing it to advance some key policy objectives on housing and homelessness, but is he sacrificing local democracy to achieve them?
Camp of Approval. Across the country, there seems to not be a war on poverty, or a war on homelessness, but a war on encampments. Here in Guelph, the battle space was the council chambers this week as council debated a bylaw to rid public spaces like St. George's Square of homeless encampments. We will talk about how Guelph's response is a microcosm of government failure on the issue of housing.
The Bell Tolls. Last week, Bell Media announced that they were cutting nine per cent of their workforce. In practical terms, that means no more noon hour news for anywhere other than Toronto, and no weekend news for anywhere that's not Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. People are taking this as another bad sign for local journalism, so how can local news be saved and why does nobody seem to want to fix it?
124 No More. Next week, the members of the Ontario legislature will roll back into Queen's Park for more law-making, which will now include the repeal of the highly-controversial Bill 124. An Ontario appeals court confirmed it was unconstitutional, and the Ontario government seemed to decide to give up. That's just one of the many controversies coming to Toronto next week, and we're going to try and dig into them all!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we have cause for celebration. Some how, we’ve now cranked out 300 episodes of this local movie show for local movie fans, and on this distinguished occasion, we’re giving our listeners the present. Congratulations, you are about to listen to the biggest draft any movie show has ever done as we look back at some of our greatest hits!
This Wednesday, February 14, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Candice Lepage, Peter Salmon and Tim Phillips will discuss again:
300! Is this is madness? No, this is the 300th episode of the show! It was six years ago this week that we sat down and produced episode one of End Credits. It wasn’t the first movie show ever produced, but it was the Guelphiest, and to mark 299 episodes completed so far, we’re this week joined by the entire panel for the End Credits 300th Episode Draft! From the some 280-plus reviews done on this show, the cast will each draw five movies from five different categories that represent some of our best memories. This. Is. SPAR-TA!!!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Just because it's February, it doesn't mean that it's too late to think about last year, at least in the realm of council business. We've only had a couple of meetings under our belts so far in 2024, and a lot of what's been on the council agenda actually started in the latter part of last year, from the announcement of the housing symposium, to the 2024-2027 budget process, to Mayor Cam Guthrie's announcement that he was looking to regulate encampments.
So let us flashback to August. Yes, there was a council meeting in August, which was a very unusual circumstance, but it plays into the issue of the day. The Home for Good campaign needed an emergency boost, and city council wanted to give it to them to ensure that the Kindle Community supportive housing project stays on track. Housing was a major point of concern for the rest of the year.
There were two whole, long meetings on the subject of housing, and out of that came the housing symposium that took place just a few weeks ago. (We still don't know what actually came out that though.) There was also some debate about the new Downtown Parking Master Plan including the introduction of the Payment-in-Lieu of parking policy, which was just introduced at Committee of the Whole last week.
And of course there was the budget. It was an interesting process this year with the first full multi-year budget, and the first budget produced under the spectre of Strong Mayor Powers (you might have heard something about that in the last week). There was also some more back and forth with changes prompted by the provincial government, there were a lot of new planning projects approved, and there was a whole controversy about an old bell. Just another fall in the council chambers!
So let's gt back into council business on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
There's so much going on at city council this February. Stay tuned to Guelph Politico for all the latest developments!
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, are we even real? Maybe this show has been one, big nine-year conspiracy. Not that we’re trying to put thoughts in your head, but it turns out that we don’t even really need to try that hard because so many us are ready to believe a conspiracy theory. We’re going to talk about that, and we’re also going to talk about the latest from the war between Israel and Hamas. Closer to home, we’re going to talk to the newest member of the Ontario Legislature.
This Thursday, February 8 at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss again:
Back to Your Regularly Scheduled War. Despite the accomplishment of a nearly one-week long ceasefire and prisoner exchange, the fighting is back in Gaza and it’s even more fierce as Israeli Defense Forces are now moving on the southern end of the Strip. The difference this time is that Israel is feeling the heat. The international community that was once so supportive is now trying to get Benjamin Netanyahu to take it easy, but can the pressure work?
We Want to Believe. The polling firm Leger has discovered something interesting: An almost shockingly big number of Canadians believe in at least one conspiracy theory. That includes five per cent who think the Earth is flat, and 11 per cent who think humans never landed on the moon, which is to say nothing of the 34 per cent who think the government is withholding a cure for cancer. How concerned should we be about the electorate’s inclination towards conspiracies?
Take a Clancy on Me! It was big news last Thursday when it was announced that Aislinn Clancy would become the new MPP for Kitchener Centre, beating her nearest competition by just over 5,000 votes. It creates a Green Party beachhead in southwestern Ontario between Clancy, Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner, and Kitchener Centre MP Mike Morrice and now everyone’s looking at Kitchener and wondering, “How did they do it?” Clancy will join us this week to talk about how she helped turn Kitchener Green and what comes next when she joins Schreiner in the Legislature.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it’s a Barbie world, and we are Barbie girls! (So to speak). We had to make the proverbial Sophie’s Choice when it comes to “Barbenheimer” and we sided on Barbie. We will have our review of that big summer hit, and speaking of summer hits, we will talk about some of the movie news that has made this summer very interesting indeed.
This Wednesday, February 7, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss again:
Newsy Much? Obviously, the big news of last weekend was “Barbenheimer”, the arrival of two of the biggest, most unexpected hits of the year, which opened at the same time. But that’s not the only thing that’s going on. What about the smash success of the highly dubious Sound of Freedom? And what about the fall of so many major franchises at the box office? And aren’t their two big Hollywood strikes happening? We’ll cover The News!
REVIEW: Barbie (2023). In a modern age of studio movies where ideas are almost exclusively derived from successful intellectual property, a movie based on Barbie just makes a lot of sense. But a Barbie movie directed by Greta Gerwig, the godmother of mumblecore? That’s something weird enough to get excited about! Barbie may be the big hit of summer, but it got there following the least conventional path. Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, the picture perfect Barbie and Ken, we will look at how Barbie became the unlikeliest hit of the year.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Every year, the Guelph Chamber of Commerce hosts an event called the State of the City, and like its more famous counterpart south of the border, it’s a chance for the head of the city to lay out the challenges and priorities facing the Royal City for the next 12 months. Make no mistake, there are no shortage of challenges, but in order to unlock the future, you must first find the keys to the past. This week, we get those keys out of the drawer.
During Cam Guthrie’s time as mayor and delivering the State of the City, he usually uses some kind of gimmick like a board game, or Wordle, or a parody of The Office, but in 2023 Cam got very serious. No games, no gimmicks, just straight talk. "I need you to listen very carefully to my words today. To watch my demeanor, my body language. Listen to my tone,” he said.
You can probably guess the content before listening to the speech. Last year’s State of the City was in the immediate aftermath of the 2022 municipal election, and the sweeping changes to planning and budgeting announced in Bill 23. One year later, there are still a lot of pressures; housing prices remain high, low cost solutions remain in short supply, and the evidence of homelessness and poverty are getting harder and harder to ignore.
On this week’s edition of the podcast, we’re going back to 2023. The voice you’ll hear belongs to Mayor Guthrie as he talks about the housing crisis, NIMBYism, mental health and addictions, and the lack of Provincial help on any of this. He also took questions from people in the audience and talked about the impact of the housing crisis on students specifically, and the need for help to clean up brownfields and make them ready for redevelopment.
So let's get into the State of the City - one year ago - on this week's Guelph Politicast!
As for this year’s State of the City it’s Thursday February 8 at 7 am at the Delta Hotel and Conference Centre in Guelph. The event is sold out, but you will be able to see full coverage on Guelph Politico on Thursday morning.
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, 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.
In this edition of the digest, Scotty Hertz talks to urban designer and urban mobility expert Mikael Colville-Andersen, host of TVO's six-part series The Life-Sized City.
This week on End Credits, things are sombre. Halloween is over, it’s the long dull march through November to the official start of the Christmas season, and the serious award-seeking movies are starting to come out. Speaking of which, we’re going to talk about one of those movies, Killers of the Flower Moon, and to balance things out, we’re also going to talk about some happier times on film.
This Wednesday, January 31, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss again:
The Feels. Let’s be honest, this week has been a lot. The movie we’re reviewing is kind of a downer, and with the recent deaths of Piper Laurie, Richard Roundtree, Matthew Perry and others, there’s been a lot to be sad about in the pop culture sphere. To fight against all these blue feelings on this first day of November, we’re going to talk about the uplifting power of cinema and some of our favourite feel good movies!
REVIEW: Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). In the 1920s, oil was discovered under the territory of the Osage people in Oklahoma, which made the Indigenous people there very, very, rich. And then the killings began. Martin Scorsese’s magnum opus walks similar ground he’s covered before, greedy criminals taking everything they can with brutal violence, but the scale is different as he tackles America’s original sin, the genocide of its Indigenous people. There’s so much to talk about with Killers of the Flower Moon, including the essential question: Should you see it too?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
When we’re talking about the housing crisis we frequently talk to activists or government representatives. This is understandable, but there are a lot of pieces to the housing puzzle and we don’t lean on all of them equally, and in so much as we want to vilify the people who take part in the open housing market that so many of us are priced out of, we still need them if we’re going to have a hope in developing solutions to the crisis.
So where do realtors fit in? Where do they see themselves in developing solutions to this housing crisis? Do they even think about it at all? Well, one realtor definitely does, and she even wrote about it on her website. Kelly Caldwell confesses that she’s not an expert in municipal politics, but she put together an eight-point plan that even got the mayor talking about some of her ideas.
And some of Caldwell’s ideas might surprise you: Fund housing assistance programs, increase wages and introduce universal basic income (UBI), increase protections for renters, allow for something call community land trusts, and initiate reforms of the real estate industry itself. Interesting thoughts, but more broadly speaking, what is the responsibility of people working in the market to help solve the housing crisis? What is the responsibility of realtors specifically?
Caldwell previously joined us on this pod to explore these and other questions. She will talk about why she wanted to start writing about the housing crisis, and what role she sees people working in real estate playing to help solve the problem. She will also talk about whether her industry is equipped to deal with a system in crisis, and why wanting your investment in housing to pay off is about more than just greed. Plus, Caldwell will offer her advice for home buyers and sellers alike in this market, even if they don’t want to hear it.
So let’s get another view of the housing crisis on this week’s repeat edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can find Kelly Caldwell at her website, and you can also find her blog posts there including her latest one called simply “NIMBY in Guelph”. You can also find her contact information there if you wish to engage her services as a realtor, and you can also find her on social media @RealtorKellyCaldwell on Facebook and @kcaldwell on Twitter.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we grab some canned programming off the shelf. It’s a pretty busy week at city hall so we can’t really dive into the news as much as we would like to. Instead, we put a call in to a new friend and an old friend to round out our time and chat around the news. First, we will talk to someone uniquely placed in the fight against gender-based violence, and second we’ve got another Green fellow named Mike who’s having a very busy time lately too!
This Thursday, January 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss again:
A Man’s Work. Nest week is the 34th anniversary of the attack that killed 14 women at L’École Polytechnique in Montreal, which is now known as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. It’s an important reminder that there’s a lot left to do in the mission to eliminate gender-based violence, and this week we will talk to one of the people leading the way. Our guest is Humberto Carolo, executive director of the White Ribbon campaign, and he will explain why men need to carry their weight in this struggle.
Don’t Bore Us, Get to Morrice! It’s a pretty busy time up the road in the riding of Kitchener Centre, there’s a provincial by-election wrapping up as we’re going to air. Green Party supporters are hoping for a breakthrough, and this week we’re joined by the man who pointed the way, MP Mike Morrice. Kitchener Centre’s federal rep will join us again to talk about the federal government’s action on housing and affordability, Canada’s influence on the war between Israel and Hamas, and how he’s proved to the people in his riding that Green leadership can work for Kitchener.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we’re going back to school! At the end of November? Sort of. Our movie of the week takes places at a boarding school where the only magic is the power of human connection and interaction. We’re reviewing the new Alexander Payne movie called The Holdovers, which features our man of the week (pictured above) actor Paul Giamatti!
This Wednesday, November 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
A-Pauled. Our movie this week stars Paul Giamatti, a great actor that has been working over 30 years in the industry including movies, TV and theatre, but he’s been fairly under appreciated in his own time. Did you know Giamatti’s only ever received one Oscar nomination? You would be totally surprised what it was for if you could remember because it’s not the movie you think. Anyway, with all these thoughts about Giamatti, we will dedicate the first part of the show to Paul.
REVIEW: The Holdovers (2023). Every year, the students at Barton Academy go home for a two-week holiday, but a few unlucky kids are stuck at school. They’re called “The Holdovers”. This year, the hated classics teacher Mr. Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is supervising, but his typical Scrooge-like demeanour is going to be tested by the gifted but troubled “Holdover” Angus, and the head of the school’s cafeteria Mary, who’s trying to navigate the first Christmas after her son was killed in Vietnam. Can these three lost souls change their fate, and, more importantly, do we care?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
As you may know, Ontario has set the goal of building 1.5 million houses by 2031, and Guelph’s share is 18,000, but there’s a difference between setting a goal and having the means to reach it. One of the people that’s been trying to promote that idea is a man named Mike Moffatt. You might have heard have him. Certainly everyone concerned about housing in Ontario has!
Dr. Mike Moffatt is the Senior Director of Policy and Innovation at the Smart Prosperity Institute and an Assistant Professor in the Business, Economics and Public Policy group at the Ivey Business School at Western University. He was a special presenter at a Guelph city council meeting in February before our city council signed the housing pledge, and offered some interesting insights into the process and the challenges.
Moffatt explained to council that the 1.5 million target for Ontario is about right, but he also wondered if it was a bit on the low side too. He pointed out that Ontario’s never built more than 850,000 homes in a 10-year span. He noted that the issues with housing are multifaceted and multi-level, and that they’re issues that the municipality can’t resolve alone no matter how many legislative changes that the Government of Ontario passes.
This is where we pick things up as we revisit this podcast from last July. Moffatt will talk about whether any municipality will be able to achieve their housing pledge, and whether they’ve been set up to fail. He will also talk about the role of developers in reaching the pledge, and the role of other groups like upper levels of government and post-secondary institutions. And finally, he will discuss why the lack of mobility in the market is a big problem, and how we can address housing needs now.
So let’s talk housing with the Housing Guru on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the work of the Smart Prosperity Institute at their website. You can follow Mike Moffatt on social media at “MikePMoffatt” on Twitter to get insights daily. As for Guelph, you can watch Moffatt’s presentation at the February 28, 2023 meeting of city council, and you can follow this link to find the City of Guelph’s story map about housing in the city.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we revisit a pair of very interesting interviews we did in the last year, one about the state of making a living wage in Ontario right, and the other about the addiction crisis on our streets. Shall we talk again?
This Thursday, January 18, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss again:
Wage Match. Last weekend, the minimum wage in Ontario was increased to $16.55, which makes us the third highest in Canada, but a minimum wage is not a living wage, and depending on where you live in Ontario it’s tougher and tougher to close that gap. In fact, the living wage for Guelph is still about three dollars higher than the minimum. This week, we’re joined by Craig Pickthorne from the Ontario Living Wage Network to talk about affordability, the minimum wage hike, and the giant gap in-between.
Streets of Dire. August 31 marks Drug Poisoning Awareness Day, which used to be known as Overdose Awareness Day and the name change shows just how concerning the poisoning of the drug supply has become to those on the frontlines of the addiction crisis. This week, we will be joined by Jean Hopkins, who is the new manager of the Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy. She’s going to tell us about how the drug poisoning crisis is affecting us locally, how the community is fighting to turn the tide, and what support local advocates need to ensure the safety of people using substances.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we tackle the back half of “Barbenheimer”. Although it came out last summer, Oppenheimer is still making news as we count down to the Academy Awards nominations, because this movie is probably going to get a lot of them. We're going to revisit the film, and if you still have a jones for Oppenheimer adjacent material, we will have some recommendations for you.
From Wednesday, August 2, 2023, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips discussed:
The Day After Oppenheimer. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film that covers one of the most famous events in history, and it centres on a man who has both his good and bad qualities. These are the perfect ingredients for a movie, and it’s been done in different ways with all sorts of famous historic figures and events, and it’s also been done with the invention of the atomic bomb. We’ll talk about what to watch after Oppenheimer.
REVIEW: Oppenheimer (2023). He was man plagued by terrible visions, he might have been the first rock star scientist, and without him it’s unlikely that the United States would have created the world’s first atomic bomb. J. Robert Oppenheimer was a complicated man, and so is the movie that now bares his name. Oppenheimer calls on all of Christopher Nolan’s skills as a filmmaker as he tells one man’s story spread over multiple timelines and featuring a cast of thousands, but does he overcome his mechanical prowess to find Oppy’s humanity?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The weather has been pretty good reminding us this past week that winter is dangerous, especially when driving on snowy icy streets. That’s why we salt, but the evidence is building that we salt our roads too much and it’s had a profoundly negative impact on our rivers and streams. So are we sacrificing our water quality for winter road safety, and is there a way that we can have both?
It was about two years ago that a study was released in the journal Facets that found levels of salt in rivers and streams exceeded federal exposure guidelines in 89 per cent of samples from four different watersheds in the greater Toronto area, and that one-third of the studied sites showed that one-quarter of all species are impacted. The real concerning part though was these sample were taken in the proverbial dog days of summer, late July and August.
If salt levels are hitting dangerous levels in summer, what must they look like in the winter with all the winter maintenance? Or what happens in a winter like this, where we get a winter storm, lay down salt, and then watch it wash away with a rise in temperatures, melting and then rain before starting the process all over again? Lauren Lawson, who’s an ecologist, conservation scientist and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto, will try and answer those questions.
Lawson joins us on this podcast episode from last March to talk about our history with road salt, why high salt levels are so dangerous to waterways and animal life, and why it’s so dangerous to human beings as well. She will also discuss why the salt levels are so surprisingly high in the summer, and whether or not the damage to the environment is reversible. And finally, she will talk about best salt management practices, and how Lawson made this problem her academic life’s work.
So let’s talk about things getting too salty out there on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can watch a webinar Lawson hosted for Watershed Canada here, plus you can check out this info sheet with facts and information about proper and sustainable use of road salt. You can also find the City of Guelph’s own salt management plan on the City’s website, and you can follow Lawson on Twitter and through her 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, 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.
From the Open Sources Guelph archive, it's our very first political movies show from 2015. On this one, we cover the struggles of standing between competing parties in the Danish parliament and comedic efforts to beat the odds and be elected President of the United States. We also have the struggles of a Communist fighting the Spanish Civil War and the reconsideration of an American pariah.
From Thursday, December 24, 2015, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson discussed:
1) Scotty’s Pick #1. Borgen: Birgitte Nyborg becomes Prime Minister of Denmark through a political fluke and has to learn the ways of power, quickly. She’s an altruistic public servant in an old boys club and must master the art of the deal overnight, manage her image and understand that she has advisors but no real friends. She also must perform the impossible juggling act of maintaining a family life while serving as Denmark s first female Prime Minister. The rigors of public life and the press may attract some of Denmark s finest, but it also exacts a high price from them all for participating in an open democracy.
2) Adam’s Pick #1. Head of State: A low-level Washington, D.C., public servant, Mays Gilliam (Chris Rock), is thrust into the national spotlight when he’s asked by Martin Geller (Dylan Baker), the head of the Democratic Party, to run for president after the party’s presidential and vice-presidential nominees are killed in a plane crash. The odds are against Gilliam, mostly because he has a penchant for telling the truth about what is wrong with the country. Remarkably, his straight-talking style catches on with the public.
3) Scotty’s Pick #2. Land and Freedom: David Carr (Ian Hart), a committed member of the Communist Party in his native Liverpool, England, travels to Spain in 1936 with the intention of joining the anti-fascist International Brigades in the country’s civil war. Instead, he falls in with the POUM, a Marxist splinter group opposed to Stalin‘s oppressive totalitarianism. Despite falling in love with the politically passionate Blanca (Rosana Pastor), Carr finds the leftist infighting a distraction from the greater struggle.
4) Adam’s Pick #2. W: Flashbacks to key events in his life reveal the rise of George W. Bush from ne’er-do-well party boy and son of privilege to president of the United States. After trading in booze for religion, George mends his aimless ways and sets his sights first on the Texas governorship, then on the presidency. But the country’s involvement in the Iraq war decreases his approval rating.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we grab our hat and our bullwhip and our leather jacket and head out on one last ride. As we wait for the movie machine to rev up again later this month, we spend this week's show catching up with everyone's favourite archaeologist and adventurer in his two most recent films, both of which are now steaming on your favourite app that starts with a "D".
This Wednesday, January 10, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Run The Series: Indiana Jones Part 2. We conclude our review of the Indiana Jones series this week by tackling the two 21st century Indiana Jones movies. First up is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the much maligned fourth entry from 2008 that introduced aliens, Russian psychics, and Indy's greaser son Mutt. After that, we're talking about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the $300 million final(?) entry in the series that was widely seen as a box office disaster. This week, it's the last word on Indiana Jones as we finish our run!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we start 2024 by looking back at 2023. It's that time again for our annual political awards show, and for nearly 10 years we've given out the hardware in some very specific categories that capture all the best and the worst of a given year, and as usual there might be more of one than the other. You know what? Let's keep hope alive because we're now in our tenth year of doing this and we're still going strong!
This Thursday, January 4, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Worst Politician of 2023. Every year, the number of nominees for this category far exceeds the number of slots available, and this past year was an incredibly good year for politicians being bad and behaving worse. A banner year you might say. So as we kick off this first show of 2024, we will look back at the last year and see who went from bad to worst, maybe it was the prime minister of a country at war, or maybe it was the prime minister of our own country.
Good News Story of the Year. Good news? In 2023?! We make that joke every year, but there's usually some small to medium-sized bit of hope for us all to cling to as we enter the new year, and another slate of new and old challenges. In terms of good news in the last 365 days, we might look at how direct action by ordinary people can still change things for the better, or we might look at a local election up the road where they changed the game.
Dumpster Fire of the Year. Everyone's favourite category to feel completely deflated by, and if you were looking for a good dumpster fire then you had the pick of the litter in 2023! You can go with the ongoing rise of the misinformation space including the complete perversion of a certain social media site, or you can go with the literal fire that affected many massive portions of our country. Get the marshmallows ready...
Best Politician of 2023. Last, but certainly not least, we end the show with another chance at hope. As always, if there's a Worst Politician of the Year then there must also be a Best Politician of the Year, and 2023 was no exception. So who does this award go to? Toronto's new "loony lefty" mayor? The first Indigenous premier of a Canadian province? Perhaps someone more local, or the head of a major North American trade union? Stay till the end and find out!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we welcome you to 2024 with a trip to the past! It was a hard year for sequels and franchises in 2023, and the series we're going to be talking about for the next few weeks is a primary example of that. On this episode of the show, and on the next, we're going to review one of the most interesting, successful, and consistently popular movie series of all time!
This Wednesday, January 3, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Run The Series: Indiana Jones Part 1. In the summer of 2023, a movie called Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was released in theatres everywhere, and there were some... mixed results. In the lead up to Dial of Destiny, we spent each week of the show tackling one of the four previous Indiana Jones and collected here for the first time are those reviews. This week, we will focus on the "original trilogy"; Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Next week: the 21st century Joneses.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Although this is now technically 2024, we’re going to spend this week’s show having the last word about 2023. We plowed through a lot of news in last week’s clip show, but this week we will bring some much needed analysis: What will 2023 be remembered for? Who were the players? Who failed when it was their turn to play? And what’s going to happen next as we go into 2024?
Much of the year seemed to be focused on one topic in particular, and that’s housing. Whether that was more social housing for the people in greatest need, or the generation of more market units to increase supply, it seemed like no council meeting went by without the issue getting name-checked. Council had two different long meetings about housing this past fall and the only real conclusion they came to was that they don’t have the powers they need to take any real action on the problem.
But there were the usual politics too even though there were no elections this year. Consider the full court press to get our MPP Mike Schreiner to ditch his green colours and go for red, and speaking of the red team, our member of Parliament decided that he’s not going to run for a fourth time, which opens up a world of possibilities. The new riding of Guelph has an NDP candidate, and at least one member of city council wants to carry the Liberal brand into a fourth decade.
To talk about all this and more, we're joined by Open Sources Guelph co-host Scotty Hertz for this first show of 2024. Did we really do anything on homelessness this year? Which version of Mayor Cam Guthrie won the year, the friend of Doug Ford or his very loud critic? We will also talk about the post-secondary problems in Guelph in 2023, and the next move for Guelph’s Greens after holding on to their leader and helping to get Aislinn Clancy elected in Kitchener Centre.
So let's analyze the last 12 months in Guelph news on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can catch Open Sources Guelph in it's regular slot on Thursdays at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca!!! You can also see the Top 10 Guelph News stories of 2023 over on the Guelph Politico website. And for next week’s show, we will be recapping the last five months of 2023 in the chambers of Guelph city council!
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're taking the week off, and you probably are too. If you've entered the usual post-Christmas/pre-New Year's boredom, then this is the show for you because it's our annual Political Movies Show! For the last eight years, we've used one of our last shows of the year to talk about some of our favourite politically-minded movies, and this year will not be any different. So tune, drop out, and bring on the flicks!
This Thursday, December 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Adam's Pick #1: First Blood (1982). "A veteran Green Beret is forced by a cruel Sheriff and his deputies to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers." Directed by Ted Kotcheff. Starring Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, and Brian Dennehy. You can stream First Blood on Paramount+ or rent it on VOD.
Scotty's Pick #1: Between Two Worlds (2021). "Based on French journalist Florence Aubenas's bestselling non-fiction work Le Quai de Ouistreham, investigating rising precarity in French society through her experiences in the northern port city of Caen." Directed by Emmanuel Carrère. Starring Juliette Binoche, Louise Pociecka and Steve Papagiannis. You can borrow Between Two Worlds from the Guelph Public Library.
Adam's Pick #2: JFK (1991). "New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story." Written and Directed by Oliver Stone. Starring Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones and Sissy Spacek. You can rent JFK on VOD.
Scotty's Pick #2: Push (2019). "A documentary shedding light on the global phenomenon of the commodification of housing and consequent lack of affordability, especially through the eyes of Leilani Farha, a United Nations special rapporteur on housing who lives in Canada." Directed by Fredrik Gertten. You can stream Push on TVO's website or rent it on AppleTV.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we say goodbye to 2023, and what a year it is. Great movie year? That's to be determined. As per usual at the end of the year, your favourite cast of characters on local radio will gather for a December celebration of the greatest movies of the year, and the pickings were actually pretty good. From tales of lost love to tales of greed and obsession, we will deliver the Top 5 of 2023.
This Wednesday, December 27, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Best of 2023. We have reached the end... of the year. You know what that means: Lists! As per usual for the last show of the year, the whole gang is here to talk about the best films that came out in the last 12 months. What rose to the top of cinematic taste in 2023? The story about a doll come to life, or Barbie? (That was a reference to M3GAN, by the way.) It was also a good year for Canadian movies, whether that was the tech story or the movie about the kid working in a video store. In any event, it's probably safe to say this guy didn't make the cut unless it's goofy accents for the win!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
On this holiday week, you're probably listening to a lot of reruns and year-end recaps on your podcast feed, and that's why Guelph Politico is demonstrating its incredible efficiency by combining both things into one podcast. This week, we will review the 2023 soundbites that made the news in Guelph; the announcements, the arguments and the silliness that helped define the last 365 days in the Royal City.
On this edition of the podcast you're going to hear from many different voices including our city's mayor, Cam Guthrie, plus our Member of Provincial Parliament Mike Schreiner and even the premier of the whole darn province. Their fates were kind of intertwined earlier this fall, and so was the commencement of construction on two big projects in Guelph. Bike thefts, parks, pickleball, housing and so much more await you as this long-running series brings you a lousy clip show for holidays!
So let's listen to some clips on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Happy New Year! The Guelph Politicast will continue to roll our new episodes in 2024!!
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got one more before Christmas break. On this, the shortest day of the year, we will dig into this epically long strike in Quebec that looks to roll on into the new year, and we will also talk about everyone's favourite 2023 controversy, which is pronouns. For an additional Christmas present, we will end the year (of interviews) with another conversation with our local Member of Parliament. One of the last...
This Thursday, December 21, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
General Strike Back. Meanwhile in Quebec, labour strife is even more strify than usual. Teachers there have been on strike for weeks, and other government workers, including those in healthcare, had a week long job action last week and promised that if things don't change, there might be a general strike before the end of the year. Despite the support, many Quebec teachers are saying that they're worn our from the fight, so this Christmas, we give Scotty the gift of labour talk.
How Soon is Pronoun? The Canadian Press got a look at some of the letters that inspired the Saskatchewan government's move to create a pronoun policy, and here's a sample: "If New Brunswick can take a stand against this UN-backed deterioration of our society surely Saskatchewan can also take a stand as well." Great stuff. Scott Moe used the notwithstanding clause to pass the transphobic legislation earlier this year, and it looks like he did no consultation before he did it. We'll get the lay of the land.
Longfield's Deeds. It's been a long year on a number of fronts, and it's been a busy year at Canada's House of Commons. Our own local MP, Lloyd Longfield, has been feeling that length and this year he announced that this term would be his last, but that doesn't mean he's slowing down. Longfield joins us this week to talk about working on housing, healthcare funding, protecting carbon pricing, and the government response to the Israel-Hamas War, plus his to-do list before retirement comes in 2025 (if not before).
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits it's Christmas! Obviously. Maybe you're relaxing, or maybe you're out and about doing some last-minute shopping, but in any case, we've got your soundtrack. Like we do at this time every year, we've got the Christmas hits (sans that one from you-know-who) that will remind you of some of your favourite holiday movies. "Have yourself a merry little Christmas"? You will after this show.
This Wednesday, December 20, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Sounds of the Season. Every Christmas comes with your favourite holiday movies. Consider this touching tale: A young boy learns the value of family after getting left behind when they depart in a whirlwind for Christmas vacation. Fortunately, it's this point he finds his calling as a moral enforcer as he elaborately tortures two burglars who make the mistake of crossing paths with him. We all love Home Alone and it's blood thirsty idealism, and as usual this Christmas week we will highlight music from this and our other favourite holiday movies. Merry Christmas!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It’s time for our annual fireside chat with a prominent member of the Guelph community, and since we’re run the gamut of local political leaders over the last few years, we turn to the new head of the hospital. It’s a massive challenge, but in keeping with the spirit of the season, and the need to help people who can’t help themselves, we're going spend Christmas week with the president and CEO of Guelph General Hospital, Mark Walton.
Walton hasn’t been the head of the Guelph General Hospital for even a year yet, but he had to hit the ground running. He’s already appeared at city council twice, once to talk about offload delays at the hospital, and the other to talk about how homelessness and poverty create more work for hospitals as lagging indicators. And then there's the ongoing demand for a new hospital facility, which is complicated, but it’s another one of those things that’s on Walton’s very busy desk.
But let’s back up for a minute, who is Mark Walton? Before coming to Guelph earlier this year, he served as the Senior Vice-President, COVID-19 Pandemic Response as well as the Regional Lead and CEO of Local Health Integration Networks in the region with Ontario Health. We always associate hospitals with people with stethoscopes, but there are a lot of people with all kinds of experiences and expertise who make hospitals work, and this Christmas, we’re going to talk to one of them.
So on this holiday edition of the podcast, we sit and chat with Walton about his background, and what brought him to Guelph. We will also talk about where pandemic planning fell short, and the paradox of running a hospital in that you have to make an attractive place that no one wants to visit. He will also talk about the hospital’s role in fighting poverty, how fighting the affordability crisis is changing his job, and what the future of Guelph General, and a future Guelph hospital, both look like.
So let's spend some quality Christmas time with the head of the hospital on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about Guelph General Hospital, you can go to their website, and you can learn more about fundraising to support the hospital at the website for the Foundation of the Guelph General Hospital. While you’re there, you can buy tickets for Black Tie Bingo or take part in some holiday giving.
And speaking of which, Merry Christmas to all you listeners. Thanks for tuning in all year and stay tuned as we keep cranking out new episodes over the holidays and on into 2024.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's a time for gift returns. What? It's not even Christmas yet! Well, the provincial government has been doing a lot of returning lately, taking back policy that they themselves developed and they were at it again this week. We'll talk about that, plus the scapegoating of international students, and for the interview this week, we will roll out the red carper for one of the city councillors who represents CFRU at 1 Carden Street.
This Thursday, December 14, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Student Counsel. Last week, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced that international students are going to need even more money in their pocket if they want to study here. International students are getting blamed for a lot: the housing crisis, more demand on food banks, etc, but what about the blame for post-secondary institutions that have been using international students like cash cows. Is there a way we can help students and without breaking the system?
Peel Back. Although they announced just six months ago the plan to dissolve Peel Region, the Ontario government announced this week that - Surprise! - they're not going through with it. This is the third major policy flip-flop for the provincial government recently, and it comes on the same week that the Province is also looking at getting some new green energy projects going, another flip-flop. Well, at least we'll now be able to buy beer at the corner store! We'll discuss all that.
A Christmas Caron. Guelph City Council has begun their holiday break with the approval of over 500 new units of housing. It's a pretty pointed comment on a year where housing was the big issue, and how municipal councils took much of the blame for being obstructionist in the creation of more housing. Ward 5 Councillor Leanne Caron thinks that's a bad wrap and she will join us this week to talk about Guelph's housing moves and why the issue is still more complicated than approving new developments.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to Japan. Our friends on the other side of the Pacific are having quite a movie moment right now with two of the three movies in the Top 5 at the North American box office being Japanese. On this show, we're going to talk about one of those movies, The Boy and the Heron, and we're going to look ahead to some of the movies coming out next year, be they Japanese or not.
This Wednesday, December 13, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Best of 2024. (Too Soon?) It's almost the end of the year, and while our Top of 2023 is still a couple of weeks away, it's never too early to talk about what some of the best movies of 2024 might be, or even just some of the movies that we're looking forward to. It's going to be an unusual movie release calendar next year with the Writers' and Actors' Strikes both creating delays, but if you look at what's coming you'll see that there's still a lot to look forward to. We're going discuss some of the movies to watch in the next 12 months.
REVIEW: The Boy and the Heron (2023). In 2013, Hayao Miyazaki announced that The Wind Rises was going to be his last film, and 10 years later, here we are with his latest film. The Boy and the Heron follows a lot of the same beats as previous Miyazaki works, but it's also been called his most biographical film, set during World War II as a young boy tries to find his way after the tragic death of his mother. In the midst of his grief, he's led to a magic kingdom by a gnome-like creature disguised as a grey heron, but will the boy find peace there, or more danger? For that matter, will our reviewers?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
There was a lot to complain about when it comes to the Ontario provincial government in 2023, but complaints were always the loudest when it came to the decision to open the Greenbelt to development. Thousands and thousands of Ontarians were unified in their desire to make the Greenbelt whole again, and then the strangest thing of all happened, they won.
It’s almost exactly one year ago that the first protests began in response to the Ontario government's plan to remove parcels of the Greenbelt and allow for new housing development despite Doug Ford’s promise that his government would not touch the Greenbelt. Here in Guelph, hundreds and hundreds of people came out on a cold Sunday morning to express their outrage and it wasn’t for the last time as protests continued all over Ontario for much of the last year.
Then things started changing this past summer. Ontario’s auditor general released a scathing report into how the Greenbelt land swap came about, and that started a chain of events ending with Ford putting all that land back. This was a few weeks after a massive protest outside Fordfest at Bingemans in Kitchener, which was organized in part by the Grand River Environmental Network. They pushed hard to save the Greenbelt, but they're still pointing out that there's a lot of work left to do.
This week we're joined by Kevin Thomason, who is the vice-chair of the Grand River Environmental Network. He's going to talk about how GREN worked hard organizing people, why so many people took the encroachment on the Greenbelt so personally, and why Fordfest in Kitchener was Doug Ford’s Waterloo, so to speak. We will also talk about why climate change isn’t a bigger issue after the wildfire season we just experienced, and whether the provincial government has learned any lessons in the last year.
So let's take a victory lap for the Greenbelt on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Grand River Environmental Network 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, are we even real? Maybe this show has been one, big nine-year conspiracy. Not that we're trying to put thoughts in your head, but it turns out that we don't even really need to try that hard because so many us are ready to believe a conspiracy theory. We're going to talk about that, and we're also going to talk about the latest from the war between Israel and Hamas. Closer to home, we're going to talk to the newest member of the Ontario Legislature.
This Thursday, December 7, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Back to Your Regularly Scheduled War. Despite the accomplishment of a nearly one-week long ceasefire and prisoner exchange, the fighting is back in Gaza and it's even more fierce as Israeli Defense Forces are now moving on the southern end of the Strip. The difference this time is that Israel is feeling the heat. The international community that was once so supportive is now trying to get Benjamin Netanyahu to take it easy, but can the pressure work?
We Want to Believe. The polling firm Leger has discovered something interesting: An almost shockingly big number of Canadians believe in at least one conspiracy theory. That includes five per cent who think the Earth is flat, and 11 per cent who think humans never landed on the moon, which is to say nothing of the 34 per cent who think the government is withholding a cure for cancer. How concerned should we be about the electorate's inclination towards conspiracies?
Take a Clancy on Me! It was big news last Thursday when it was announced that Aislinn Clancy would become the new MPP for Kitchener Centre, beating her nearest competition by just over 5,000 votes. It creates a Green Party beachhead in southwestern Ontario between Clancy, Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner, and Kitchener Centre MP Mike Morrice and now everyone's looking at Kitchener and wondering, "How did they do it?" Clancy will join us this week to talk about how she helped turn Kitchener Green and what comes next when she joins Schreiner in the Legislature.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we bring you season's grievings! See what we did there? If we're making generic holiday salutations with a dark twist, then you know the time has come for another Christmas horror, and this year that happens to be It's a Wonderful Knife, which you can now watch on Shudder. In other end-of-year matters, we will kick-off this last month of 2023 by talking about some of the stuff that happened in 2023.
This Wednesday, December 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Your Trend Till the End. It's our first show of December, and it's one of our last shows of the year, so you know what that means: It's time to recap! What kind of year has it been? That's what we're going to talk about as be begin this episode, the movie trends of 2023. Was this year the end of the comic book movie as we know it? Was it the year of Taylor in concert? Barbenheimer? M3GAN? Come to think of it, there were more than a few killer A.I.s and other automatons this year. We'll get to the bottom of the meaning of 2023.
REVIEW: It's a Wonderful Knife (2023). In 1946, Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life came out and while it bombed at the box office, it has since become a cherished holiday movie tradition. Nearly 80 years later now we have It's a Wonderful Knife, a slasher-inspired take on the classic. When Winnie stops a masked killer, it looks like life goes on in the small town of Angel Falls, but Winnie now feeling out of place wishes that she was never born. You probably know what comes next... Can Winnie defeat her sadistic serial killing nemesis again and get back to her home reality in time for Christmas? What time of year is it again?!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It makes sense to take some time now to talk about the media picture here in Guelph, and across Canada. While the Government of Canada reached a deal last week with Alphabet, the parent company of Google, to help fund the Online News Act there are still a lot of people in the news business who are going to be laid off at the end of the month including staff at the Guelph Mercury Tribune. But one person remains...
It’s fitting that this topic has come up for the 400th episode of this show. When the daily Guelph Mercury closed down in January 2016, Guelph Politico was in the process of transforming from a personal expression of Guelph political stuff to something a little more formal. When the old Merc closed on January 29, 2016 uncertainty weighed on many people in the community; what would happen to daily news coverage in the city? What would happen to the Mercury’s vast community and institutional knowledge?
Some of those issues were resolved when Metroland tagged the weekly Guelph Tribune paper with the "Mercury" branding, and though it wasn’t the same as a daily paper, the small cadre of Tribune tributes persevered. For a time. In September, Metroland announced that in an effort to stave off bankruptcy they were cutting print editions of those weekly papers plus 60 per cent of their workforce. They also left a lot of unanswered questions, even for the staff members that were sticking around.
On this week’s edition of the podcast were joined by Guelph Mercury Tribune reporter Graeme McNaughton who will help us parse some of those questions. He will talk about how it’s going these days on the job, what the current editorial structure looks like, and whether or not he’s privy to the corporate strategy at Metroland as it’s trying to restructure. He will also talk about his plans for being the last man on the Mercury, how much of a say he’ll have about what he covers, and whether or nor he has any regrets.
So let's talk about the news on this 400th episode of the Guelph Politicast!
You can read Graeme McNaughton's work at the Guelph Mercury Tribune. You can also follow him @iamgmcnaughton on Twitter, Mastodon, Blue Sky and Threads, and you can send him a tip or message to gmcnaughton [at] guelphmercurytribune.com.
(And on the occasion of this 400th episode let me just say to everyone thanks for listening! I’m always amazed and humbled when someone tells me that they listen to this show at work or while commuting, and that’s the kind of feedback that keeps me going, and will hopefully keeping me going though to 500 episodes this time in two years.)
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we grab some canned programming off the shelf. It's a pretty busy week at city hall so we can't really dive into the news as much as we would like to. Instead, we put a call in to a new friend and an old friend to round out our time and chat around the news. First, we will talk to someone uniquely placed in the fight against gender-based violence, and second we've got another Green fellow named Mike who's having a very busy time lately too!
This Thursday, November 30, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
A Man's Work. Nest week is the 34th anniversary of the attack that killed 14 women at L'École Polytechnique in Montreal, which is now known as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. It's an important reminder that there's a lot left to do in the mission to eliminate gender-based violence, and this week we will talk to one of the people leading the way. Our guest is Humberto Carolo, executive director of the White Ribbon campaign, and he will explain why men need to carry their weight in this struggle.
Don't Bore Us, Get to Morrice! It's a pretty busy time up the road in the riding of Kitchener Centre, there's a provincial by-election wrapping up as we're going to air. Green Party supporters are hoping for a breakthrough, and this week we're joined by the man who pointed the way, MP Mike Morrice. Kitchener Centre's federal rep will join us again to talk about the federal government's action on housing and affordability, Canada's influence on the war between Israel and Hamas, and how he's proved to the people in his riding that Green leadership can work for Kitchener.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we've got a complex. We've got a long movie about a small man, and all the violence and psychological issues that drove him to try and take over Europe. We're going to talk about that guy, Napoleon, and the new movie that bears his name, and we will also talk about our homework for the next couple of weeks, as we work towards the end of the year and a robust discussion about the best films of 2023.
This Wednesday, November 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
To Be Concluded... This is the last show of November, and that means we're about month away from the finish line of 2023. In the case of End Credits, the "finish line" means our Top 5 of the Year show that airs on the last Wednesday before New Year's Eve, and in order to make the best possible lists we can, we've got to spend the next couple of weeks cramming. So before we dive into this week's movie, we're going to list off some movies on our "Must See" list before we take final look at 2023 at the end of December
REVIEW: Napoleon (2023). Napoleon Bonaparte followed the same path of a lot of men of history; he went from rank and file soldier to general to government leader to dictator. Along the way he enjoyed some incredible victories, overcoming tremendous odds in the different fields of battle across Europe. It's a story tailor made for Ridley Scott, the director of such epics as Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven and Robin Hood, who captures Napoleon's 30-plus year journey from the Terror to his last stand at Waterloo. But after years of waiting for Napoleon to get his Hollywood minute, we ask the question: Was it worth it?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This is the last week of November. December begins on Friday, and then winter arrives three weeks after. You’re probably thinking about Christmas, but you should probably also be thinking about cold and flu season. We’re about to hit our peak with the flu, especially with all that holiday socializing coming soon, so do you have your flu shot? It’s okay if you don’t because this is the perfect time to get it!
Last week, the Public Health Agency of Canada announced that so far this year, the overall rate of influenza is low. So, it’s starting to look a lot like a normal flu season, but let’s put "normal" in perspective because influenza and pneumonia are among the top 10 leading causes of death in Canada with influenza killing about 3,500 people and sending 12,200 to the hospital.
Of course the focus of the last several years has been on COVID-19, and understandably so, but last year’s flu season was especially bad and nobody wants a repeat, which is why pharmacists and doctor want to make sure as many people as possible get their flu shots. The added bonus this year is that you can get your flu shot and your COVID booster at the same time, and there seems to be a positive impact on the uptake of both vaccines. But it could be better...
That's the message from Kevin Li who is the Senior Manager of Pharmacy Programs at the Rexall Group of Pharmacies. As this week's guest, he'll talk about what kind of flu season it’s starting to look like, why this is definitely the right time to get your flu shot, and why even the healthiest among us should take the time to get a flu shot this year. He will also talk about the flu shot supply, the impact of combining the flu shot with the COVID booster, and whether this is the new normal going forward.
So, for the umpteenth time, let's talk about why getting a flu shot is important on this week's Guelph Politicast!
If you have any questions about the vaccines for flu, COVID-19 or RSV you can consult the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health website. Flu shots are available at most, if not all, area pharmacies, and you can get them with your COVID-19 booster. You can either walk in or book an appointment so call your neighbourhood pharmacy to find out what works best.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, many storylines seem to be wrapping up. In the Middle East, there's a hope for peace after more than a month of war. In Ontario, the third place party is about to find their new number one. Here in Guelph, it's almost time to pass a new budget, but one city councillor is going to have the last word before the time comes. Join us as we mark American Thanksgiving with some largely Canadian affairs, aka: Just another Thursday on the radio.
This Thursday, November 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Deal Life. Nearly 50 days after a terrorist attack just outside the southern border of Gaza, Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement, brokered by Qatar and supported by the United States, to pause the fighting for four days and release 50 of the over 240 prisoners currently in Hamas custody. It's progress. Although Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu has promised that the war isn't over, many in the international community are seeing this as a sign of hope. So is this the good sign we're all hoping it is?
Bonnie Ways? The Ontario Liberal Leadership race wraps up next weekend. There are still four candidates in the race, but it's largely believed that Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie will be the winner by the time all the votes are counted. So then what? Some Liberals think Crombie leans too much to the right for the red team, and it seems like Doug Ford is on the rebound from the summer lows of the Greenbelt scandal, so are the Liberals close to seizing the moment, or does this even matter?
Quatro Quandaries. This time next week, Guelph City Council will have passed the 2024-2027 multiyear budget, so on this week's show we're going to give the last word to Ward 4 (aka: The Quatro) Councillor Linda Busuttil. She's going to talk about some of the things she's struggling to balance heading into next week's budget meeting, including the ongoing difficulty balancing city needs and affordability, and she will also talk about the mayor's proposed motion to bar encampments from downtown.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going back to school! At the end of November? Sort of. Our movie of the week takes places at a boarding school where the only magic is the power of human connection and interaction. We're reviewing the new Alexander Payne movie called The Holdovers, which features our man of the week (pictured above) actor Paul Giamatti!
This Wednesday, November 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
A-Pauled. Our movie this week stars Paul Giamatti, a great actor that has been working over 30 years in the industry including movies, TV and theatre, but he's been fairly under appreciated in his own time. Did you know Giamatti's only ever received one Oscar nomination? You would be totally surprised what it was for if you could remember because it's not the movie you think. Anyway, with all these thoughts about Giamatti, we will dedicate the first part of the show to Paul.
REVIEW: The Holdovers (2023). Every year, the students at Barton Academy go home for a two-week holiday, but a few unlucky kids are stuck at school. They're called "The Holdovers". This year, the hated classics teacher Mr. Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is supervising, but his typical Scrooge-like demeanour is going to be tested by the gifted but troubled "Holdover" Angus, and the head of the school's cafeteria Mary, who's trying to navigate the first Christmas after her son was killed in Vietnam. Can these three lost souls change their fate, and, more importantly, do we care?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
By the numbers $43,335 per year for two years is probably the smallest ask of this budget cycle, but the work that money will fund is actually pretty important: Attracting new doctors to Guelph and Wellington. For many of us that live here, Guelph is a destination that sells itself, but the competition for a small number of new doctors is fierce and Guelph-Wellington is one of the last municipalities to have a formal plan to get them. Is it too late for us to get in the game?
On budget delegation night at council last week, Dr. Ian Digby explained that accounting for growth, Guelph is going to need 35 new doctors over the next decade and Wellington County is going to need 25, and that's in addition to the usual turnover. In Guelph and Wellington, there's 254,247 health card holders, and 21 per cent of them right now do not have a family physician. It’s easy to see that a need is there.
Several area communities have had formal doctor recruitment efforts going for years, local governments and chambers of commerce combining their efforts, or leaning on the local medical school like in London and Hamilton. So what does Guelph and Wellington have to offer? Dr. Digby, who’s an emergency physician at Guelph General Hospital, president of the hospital’s Professional Staff Association for 2023-24 and Physician Lead for Guelph Wellington Physician Association has some answers.
Dr. Digby will talk about Guelph’s desirability as a home for new doctors, the nature of the competition with other regional recruitment efforts, and the things that Guelph can offer that other places may not. He also talk about the players in the recruitment strategy and the challenge of finding general practitioners when so many med school grads are specializing. Also, he will talk about how the recruitment strategy can be used for future staffing needs, like at a second Guelph hospital.
So let's talk about how we bring more doctors to the area on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can check out the letter attached to Dr. Ian Digby's delegation from the November 15 council meeting on the City’s website here. You can learn more about the Guelph Wellington Ontario Health Team at their website here, and you can learn more about Guelph Wellington Physician Association at their website 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, 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 credit: "Visiting the Family Doctor" by Norman Rockwell, featured in the Saturday Evening Post April 12, 1947.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, can you smell what the show is cooking?! That's an old reference, but it might have new relevance if a certain wrestler turned actor decides that he wants to be a politician now. Somehow, this idea is far less concerning than the company that the Premier of Alberta is keeping, and speaking of concerning, we will play host to a member of our local city council who's going to talk about that big budget conundrum.
This Thursday, November 16, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Tucker Up! It's been a while since we talked about Alberta, so let's see what's going on: At their annual general meeting, the UCP went full MAGA by supporting library censorship, defunding I.D.E. initiatives, and opposing 15-minute cities, and this was after Premier Danielle Smith announced that her government was breaking up the Alberta Health Service and the she would be appearing with former Fox News fascist Tucker Carlson at an event in the new year. What next?
President Rock? In a new interview with Trevor Noah, actor and former WWE wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson revealed that he had been approached by multiple parties to run for [checks notes] President of the United States. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised because celebrity seems to be a key ingredient to success in politics now, so why not draft an actual celebrity? It sounds bizarre on the surface to have a President Rock, but could Johnson be successful if he wanted to get political?
Fast X Per Cent. It was shocking news, but perhaps not surprising news, when the City of Guelph budget calculator for 2024 spit out a 10.3 per cent increase for next year. Guelph is not alone coping to pressures like housing and inflation that created a massive jump in rates this year, but Guelph is on its own when it comes to how it will adapt to those changes. This week, we're joined by Ward 2 Councillor Rodrigo Goller who's going to help us figure out how council plans on charting a course to balance need with affordability.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we don't have any feelings. That's the aesthetic - some people say - of David Fincher, and it's pretty much a theme of his new movie, The Killer. On this show, it's going to be all Fincher, all the time as we draft the director's best works, and then we will dive into his new entry, which you can now stream on Netflix, and see if it's worthy of future "Best of" lists.
This Wednesday, November 15, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The Fincher Draft. For over 30 years, David Fincher has been making some of the most talked about movies, stylish and innovative, while tapping into some of the most creative talent in Hollywood below the line. But he's not just about movies, Fincher has applied his talent to music videos, commercials, and, in the Netflix era, a slate of TV shows. So before we talk about his new movie, we will spend the first part of this week's show drafting Fincher's very best work.
REVIEW: The Killer (2023). You know the story, a professional killer, meticulous and thorough in his craft, screws up that one hit that forces him to reckon with his job and his role in a cold, indifferent world. Except this time, the director is David Fincher and the killer is played by Michael Fassbender. In his twelfth film, The Killler, Fincher tests your assumptions about what this type of thriller can look like while still bringing that same tension and atmosphere that Fincher is famous for. Having said that though, milage may vary, so what do we think about The Killer?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Ever wonder what your life would be like if you didn’t have easy access to a digital device. How would you get the news? How would you sign up for your COVID-19 booster? How would people reach you? For many of us, crossing the digital divide is easy, but for other people in our community it’s hard to cross that Rubicon, and now there’s a group in Guelph that is dedicated to helping people build a bridge.
In a report published by Statistics Canada last year, it was noted that the number of people in Canada who were classified as either non-users or basic users of the internet and digital technologies shrank by almost five per cent between 2018 and 2020; in other words nearly 1.4 million Canadians went from being digital have notes to haves. Still, there was a big gap on things like changing privacy settings, subscribing to a streaming service, or buying goods and booking appointments online.
And then COVID-19 showed just how wide the digital divide can be. How are you supposed to access the internet and, say, do your school work, when you’re stuck at home when you don’t have a computer? Or what's when you’re out and about and your phone suddenly runs out of power? These are key questions about our digital age, and they’re some of the questions that the Guelph Wellington Digital Equity Coalition was created to answer.
This week we’re joined by Jen Lisso, digital services librarian at the Guelph Public Library, and Shayla Spalding, a research assistant with the Regional and Rural Broadband Project at the University of Guelph. They will talk about the creation of the Coalition, and the different meanings when it comes to digital inequity. They will also discuss how the coalition promotes their services, the importance of the library, the creation of their first Digital Access Guide and what they’re working on next.
So let's talk about crossing the digital divide on this week's Guelph Politicst!
You can learn more about the Guelph Wellington Digital Equity Coalition at their website. That’s also where you can find the Digital Access Guide for Guelph and Wellington County which can refer you to places where you can find public wifi, internet hotspots, charging outlets, and other services to bridge the digital divide.
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, 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.
Photo courtesy of Filip_Krstic/Getty Imaes.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we make jokes about snow tires. Good thing because the rest of this show is about some super serious stuff including the war in Gaza, which has really heated up since we last talked about it, and along with that we will also talk about how we're discussing the war here at home. Speaking of home, there are a lot of people in our community without one and we're going to talk to someone in government trying to fix that.
This Thursday, November 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The War. Now more than a month after the brutal terrorist attack by Hamas, Israeli Defense Forces are making a push into Gaza on the ground while air strikes continue overhead. Gaza City is surrounded and the IDF are primed to go from building to building in order to find Hamas and their vast network of tunnels, plus the hostages they're holding, but there's global concern about the collateral damage and as many as 10,000 dead Palestinian civilians. We'll talk about the latest news.
The Discourse. Along with the war in Gaza, there's the war right here at home. We've seen alarming rises in both Islamophobic and Antisemitic hate crimes, but we've also seen an increase in the number of accusations. Social media posts supporting Israel being called genocidal, chants at pro-Palestinian rallies being called hate speech, and was someone flying a swastika in the National Capital Region again?! We'll talk about the present state of the discourse around the war.
Dave's Here, Man. More locally, the City of Guelph is in the process of putting together the 2024-2027 multiyear budget and one of the biggest pressures on that budget is increased need for social services like housing and emergency shelters. To help us lay out the challenges and solutions, we're joined this week by Wellington County councillor and chair of the Social Services Committee David Anderson who's going to talk about working with the City of Guelph on creating solutions to the great and increasing community need.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're upsetting the system. Gender politics and the politics of power are on the menu with the movie we're reviewing for this show as we fire up in the Netflix machine and put Fair Play, one of the most talked about films of the year, in the queue. And speaking of systems, we'll ask if whether November 8 is too early for a Christmas movie marathon.
This Wednesday, November 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Christmas So Early. You can barely make it through Halloween night anymore before you start getting hit with Christmas commercials even as you're watching the Halloween marathon on AMC. (Speaking from personal experience there.) Having said that, is it ever too early for some Christmas movies?! We will put that to the test this week by talking about some interesting holiday movies to check out early, and for an added level of difficulty, we're only going back 30 years to find them!
REVIEW: Fair Play (2023). Gender and power dynamics have been a big topic of conversation in and around Hollywood since the fall of Harvey Weinstein in 2017 and the start of the #MeToo movement. In Fair Play, the feature debut of Chloe Domont, the tension plays out in the world of high finance as a newly engaged couple (Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich) working for the same hedge fund are tested when she's promoted and he's nearly fired. Fair Play won Sundance this year, but how does the psycho-sexual drama work when you're watching it at home on your screen?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This Saturday is Remembrance Day, our annual opportunity to stop and remember Canada’s war dead who made the ultimate sacrifice and the ones that came home. But not all wars are remembered equally. For instance, the Korean War has long been characterized as “the forgotten war”, so on this 70th anniversary of the unofficial end of the Korean War, how can we make sure that the forgotten war gets remembered?
On Remembrance Day 2013 in Guelph, the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War was given special consideration in the ceremony. Frank Bayne, a retired colonel who spent 14 months in Korea during the war, was the keynote speaker, and he commended his comrades for their bravery and denounced the characterization of the Korean War as a "conflict" or a "police action." Just five years after the end of World Ward II, 30,000 Canadian served in Korea, which is not exactly small potatoes.
There are plenty of scholars who are doing their best to make sure the Korean War gets remembered, and one of them is Dr. Andrew Burtch, a historian at the Canadian War Museum that specializes in post-World War II history. A few years ago he took part in a virtual event for the global affairs think tank the Wilson Centre to discuss Canada’s participation in the war and how it was key to the United Nations success in repelling the North Korean invasion. So why isn't the Korean War more of a part of Canada's story?
Dr. Burtch will join us on this week’s edition of the podcast to shed some light on the Korean War and Canada’s role in it. He will discuss what the war was about, and the complexities around how it ended. He will also talk about the role that Canada played among the UN forces, how Canadians distinguished themselves on the battlefield, and how the Korean War was thought about on the homefront as it was happening. Also, he will talk about the best ways to ensure that the Korean War is no longer forgotten.
So let's all remember the Korean War together, 70 years later, on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The Canadian War Museum presently has an exhibit dedicated to the Korean War called “Canada, Korea, and the War” and it runs until March 31 at the Museum in Ottawa. You can follow Burtch on social media @PostWarHist on Twitter, and you can buy his book Give Me Shelter: The Failure of Canada's Cold War Civil Defence wherever you can buy books. Remembrance Day services here in Guelph will take place on Saturday morning at McCrae House and then downtown at the Sleeman Centre, and to learn more check out the Legion Branch 234 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, 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
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we come down from the Halloween sugar high. A lot's been happening on the homefront lately so we will take a break from current affairs in the Middle East and look at Queen's Park, where the government seems buried under a mound of paper released to the press this week. Speaking of getting buried, we will look at if the federal government has buried itself by revisiting its most controversial piece of legislation. And lastly, we have another city council friend to talk with.
This Thursday, November 2, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Out of Boundaries. Premier Doug Ford hadn't appeared in front of the media for 40 days, not since he announced that the changes to the Greenbelt would be reversed. It wasn't a great week for Ford to get back into the game because two environmental groups released 7,000 pages of documents, secured through an FOI request, that show that developers were calling the shots on policy changes beyond the Greenbelt. So how's it going for Ford now? Hint: It's not great!
Carbon Floppy. Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a carbon tax pause on households that use home heating oil, and an increase to the rural top-up rate, two moves that will benefit people in Atlantic Canada especially. If Trudeau thought that was the end of that, he was wrong, because now the premiers of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario all want a carbon tax holiday, but the PM has said no dice. So did Trudeau just undermine his key environmental policy for cheap votes on the east coast?
Carly By Your Name. City Council took the week off due to Halloween, but it's a brief pause in the action before the debate begins about the multiyear budget next week (the documents will be released on Friday). To help tee up the discussion, we're joined this week by Ward 2 City Councillor Carly Klassen who's going to share her thoughts about the coming budget, her motion to petition for a guaranteed livable income, and her new role as the Downtown Guelph Ambassador on council.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, things are sombre. Halloween is over, it's the long dull march through November to the official start of the Christmas season, and the serious award-seeking movies are starting to come out. Speaking of which, we're going to talk about one of those movies, Killers of the Flower Moon, and to balance things out, we're also going to talk about some happier times on film.
This Wednesday, November 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Feels. Let's be honest, this week has been a lot. The movie we're reviewing is kind of a downer, and with the recent deaths of Piper Laurie, Richard Roundtree, Matthew Perry and others, there's been a lot to be sad about in the pop culture sphere. To fight against all these blue feelings on this first day of November, we're going to talk about the uplifting power of cinema and some of our favourite feel good movies!
REVIEW: Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). In the 1920s, oil was discovered under the territory of the Osage people in Oklahoma, which made the Indigenous people there very, very, rich. And then the killings began. Martin Scorsese's magnum opus walks similar ground he's covered before, greedy criminals taking everything they can with brutal violence, but the scale is different as he tackles America's original sin, the genocide of its Indigenous people. There's so much to talk about with Killers of the Flower Moon, including the essential question: Should you see it too?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Silence has been around for 11 years now. In the fall of 2012, it was founded to provide an outlet for the presentation and creation of new, creative and non-idiomatic music in the fields of improvisation, electro-acoustics, post-rock, jazz, chamber music, computer music, noise, ambient, sound art and more. Silence's niches have niches, but how are they managing in the midst of all the post-pandemic challenge?
You may recall that city council passed the new Culture Plan last week, which was created to address issues affecting the cultural sector like a lack of affordable exhibition and performance space, the limited representation and opportunities for equity-deserving community members, and the difficulties attracting community support and audiences. These are definitely issues, but these are also three boxes that Silence was built to check off.
Because of the work they do, and the artists they support, it might have been understandable if Silence had disappeared like other establishments, some of them much older, but Silence continues to endure with all manner of music and events. They've also now launched a monthly subscription campaign called “Vow of Silence” to generate some sustainability going forward. So is Silence proof that there’s life after the pandemic, or are they just luckier than others?
Scarlett Raczycki, who is the executive director of Silence, will lend some insight into those questions and others. She will talk about the history of Silence, why it does the things it does, and their role in the cultural landscape in Guelph. Raczycki will also talk about how Silence weathered the pandemic, balancing artistic growth and the audience desire to just see a good show, and the ways that Silence is supported to meet those two goals. Plus, what does the future of Silence look like?
So let's talk about Silence on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Coming up at Silence is MOOCH with Still Sound on Thursday November 2 at 7 pm and Ursa: A Folk Musical in Concert on Saturday November 11 at 7:30 pm. The next art show in the gallery is “Eve” by Zoe Dougherty, and the opening reception is this Saturday, November 4 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. For all upcoming Silence events or to learn more about how you can get involved and support Silence, go to 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we realize that it's always darkest just before Halloween. At least that's what it seems like when we open social media or a news app on our phone. We've got a full slate of political news for you from the latest in the Middle East and the frontlines in Israel to the battle lines in Queen's Park. And then, we go to Saskatchewan where there was some constitutional experimentation, and speaking of experimenting, might Guelph be flirting with the blue team?!
This Thursday, October 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
War. Week 3. It's been now nearly four weeks since a brutal Hamas attack in Israel, and as the Gaza Strip is being bombarded almost constantly, there's still great concern about the fate of Palestinian civilians when and if an all-out ground invasion begins. Meanwhile, international pressure seems to have forced Hamas' hand, they've released a couple of hostages but it's being seen as little more than a delay tactic. Is there still no end in site for this crisis, and is there any chance for peace?
Pump Out the Jama. She's barely been in office for six month, but on Monday Hamilton Centre MPP Sarah Jama was censured by the Ontario legislature and then ejected from the NDP caucus, and it was all because of a statement about the Israel-Hamas War, which the legislature has no influence over. But while that drama was happening, there were more Official Plan changes, a lawsuit against the feds, and did Doug Ford call Mike Schreiner "Mr. Green"? We'll talk about a crazy week at Queen's Park.
The More You Moe. Last Friday, the Saskatchewan legislature passed Bill 137 using the notwithstanding clause of the Constitution. What law could possibly make Premier Scott Moe call a special session to use the proverbial "nuclear option"? Pronouns. The so-called "parental rights" bill has been called transphobic and homophobic, and the passage of Bill 137 came just one day before another series of nation-wide 1 Million March 4 Children protests. So now what?
Royal Blue? An article in Guelph Today quoted a poll from 338Canada that said there's a 52 per cent chance that the Conservatives could win the federal riding of Guelph if the next election were held today. Say what? Guelph hasn't sent a Conservative to Parliament Hill for over 30 years, the legendary Bill Winegard left office in 1993 and since then it's been a series of Liberal MPs, but with the waning popularity of Justin Trudeau's Liberals is it possible we're looking at a Blue Shift?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it's Halloween! Obviously. Let us mark the occasion, appropriately enough, with a review of a horror movie, and this time let it be The Exorcist: Believer. The Power of Christ will compel us to render a verdict about that movie, and it will also compel us to do something new as we hand out the first ever Horror Oscars!
This Wednesday, October 25, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Horror Oscars. You thought we were still months away from awards season? Not so fast! With Halloween next week, and with a new The Exorcist in the queue, we will pause this week to address the awards backlog: The Horror Oscars. If the Best Picture race was all about horror movies in 1973, 1983, 1993, 2003, and 2013 (to mark 50 years since the release of the original Exorcist), which movies would make the cut, and which ones would take home the prize?
REVIEW: The Exorcist: Believer (2023). Five decades ago, the late great William Friedkin redefined terror with the improbably Christmas release of The Exorcist. Different filmmakers have tried four times to continue the story, but they've all failed either commercially or artistically (or both), but now along comes director David Gordon Green. Green, once an indie darling, restored Halloween to its former glory and they made some questionable creative decisions with his own follow-ups, so what about Believer? Can The Exorcist make a believer out of us?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Maybe you’ve heard the term "dark tourism", there’s a whole Netflix series about it, but you don’t have to go abroad to somewhere famous to get a taste of dark tourism. Would it surprise you to learn that we have a hot little dark tourism industry right here in Guelph? As we approach Halloween on Tuesday, perhaps it’s time we appreciated just what kind of a sorted little town we have here, historically speaking.
Now there’s an actual definition for “dark tourism” and we will get into that in the podcast, but what’s interesting about dark tourism as it pertains to Guelph is multifaceted. First, the City of Guelph has been dedicating time and resources lately to developing a tourism strategy, and the focus has been on some of the usual suspects like sports tournaments, music festivals, and classical heritage like Catholic Hill.
Second, our thriving dark tourism industry is largely grassroots. It’s people like Greg Taylor, and Jay Wilson, and Bonnie Durtnall, people who have turned their fascination with the dark corners of Guelph into a lucrative side hustle. But would it surprise you to know that the University of Guelph actually has a professor who studies dark tourism? Perhaps he might be able to answer this question: Is Guelph a dark tourism hot spot and we don’t know it?
This week, we're joined by Brent McKenzie, who is a professor in the Department of Marketing and Consumer Studies at the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph. He will give us a formal definition of “dark tourism” and talk about the local examples of the trade. He will also talk about the grassroots nature of dark tourism, whether dark tourism can go "too far", and some of McKenzie’s favourite dark tourism experiences whether they’re in Guelph or not.
So let's talk about Guelph's dark tourism future on this week's Guelph Politicast!
If you’re interested in some local dark tourism experiences, there’s no shortage of things to do this Halloween week. Ghost Walk of Guelph will be running walks from Thursday to Saturday at 8 pm. Jay Wilson will be leading one more walk this season with his performance of “The Unfortunate Man” on Friday at 7 pm, and you can get tickets at Eventbrite. You can check out a wide variety of history walks from the OR lands to Guelph’s hidden burial grounds with Guelph Urbex. And finally, local historian Bonnie Durtnall will talk about her new book Haunted Guelph at the main library on Thursday October 26 at 7 pm.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's a kind of rerun. On the one hand, there's still violence in the Middle East and it seems to be getting worse despite the interventions of foreign leaders and aid agencies. On the other hand we've got a great big new convoy, except it might not be as big as the previous one, but it's still kind of annoying. And then, on our hidden third hand, we will talk about local stuff with a member of city council and how that might impact your wallet.
This Thursday, October 19, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
War. Week 2. The last week did nothing to cool tempers in Israel and Gaza, and though an all-out ground war/invasion of the Strip hasn't happened (yet), the violence and the death has only accelerated, and that was before Tuesday's bombing of a hospital in Gaza that both sides are now frantically trying to blame each other for. Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden is was in Israel on Wednesday offering personal first hand support, but is there anyway this can't get worse for the people in Israel and Gaza?
Ode to Convoy. It may not have been front page news this time, but there's a new convoy making trouble in Ottawa the last few weeks. This time it's the "Save the Children Convoy" and they're operating out of a rural base outside of Ottawa and been making daytrips into the National Capital Region, harassing politicians and spreading lies and misinformation about LGBTQ+ inclusion, so how are the police dealing with this convoy, and should it be bigger news?
Saved By Michele. It's been a busy couple of weeks at city council with a pre-budget workshop and a meeting exclusively about the housing crisis this week. The message is clear: this is going to be a very difficult budget year thanks to the wide variety of issues from provincial changes to inflation to the increase demands for social services. Joining us this week is Ward 3 Councillor MIchele Richardson who will guide us through some of those considerations and challenges as we countdown to this year's budget deliberations.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we'll cue the music, and no, we don't mean the usual mid-show music segment. The movie we're reviewing this week is a kind of musical, or at very least a musical celebration. Can the power of music save your soul, your relationships, and your love life? Flora and Son will tell us, and we'll also talk about other movies about making music.
This Wednesday, October 18, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Music, Man! Can you have movies without music? Even in the days of silent films, there was a live musical accompaniment, but as movies integrated sound they would soon give birth to the musical, and along with that, movies about musicians and movies about people making music. True, a lot of those are about famous musicians in bio-pics like The Doors or Bohemian Rhapsody, but there are lots of movies about regular folks making music. We'll talk about a few.
REVIEW: Flora and Son (2023). Writer/director John Carney has made an industry creating movies about regular Irish folks finding love and fulfillment through the power of music. Flora and Son is a lot like that. Eve Hewson is the titular Flora, who's trying to reach her distant son with the discovery of an acoustic guitar, but it's Flora that finds something to sing about as she starts taking guitar lessons from a handsome American teacher over Zoom. The rest of this might seem pretty predictable, so does Flora and Son rock out or is it the tune the old cow died on?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This week's podcast is dedicated to you, the people, who sent in questions for this Guelph Politicast mailbag over the weekend. Guelph is filled with lots of curious people who are deeply concerned about issues and politics, and some of you came up with some very deep and probing questions for this first mailbag edition since well before the start of the pandemic. Get ready for 45 minutes of one annoying person talking!
Here are the topics that the mailbag will cover:
1) Is Doug done?
2) Two concillors per ward versus one.
3) Challenges to the incumbent mayor.
4) Internet voting.
5) The police budget.
6) Affordability.
7) Changes to the Blue Box program.
8) Guelph Politico.
So let's dig into the mailbag on this week's episode of the Guelph Politicast!
Don't forget to sign-up for the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet on Substack. Please feel free to send guest suggestions for the 400th episode on December 6 and the Christmas episode on December 20. Stay tuned for the Halloween special next week, plus the second part of the "Caution's Creek" episodes about the Kortright Waterfowl Park, and the Remembrance Day episode marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War in the week's to come.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got to get serious for bit. Well, more serious. As we were enjoying the Thanksgiving long weekend, there was no rest for the people in Israel and the Gaza Strip and now a full-scale war seems to be inevitable. In lighter news though, there's more dysfunction in the Republic Party for us to laugh at, and for the interview this week, we'll head back up Highway #7 to visit another provincial election candidate.
This Thursday, October 12, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
War. A surprise attack on the southern border between Israel and Gaza has sparked some of the worst violence in the region for nearly a decade. Hamas' brutality has been on display, rocket fire has been exchanged and hostages have been taken as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to be preparing for an all-out invasion of the Strip in order to root out Hamas. But how many innocent Palestinians and Israelis still have to die? We'll talk about the war, and the political posturing in this country.
Not My Kevin. After having the audacity to work with the opposition party to keep the government open, Rep. Kevin McCarthy is now the former Speaker of the U.S. House. You may recall that it took McCarthy 15 tries to secure the job in January, so his grasp was always tenuous, but far-right members of the GOP seem to think that "My Kevin" is not as ideological as a modern Trump-loving Republican is supposed to be. So what happens next, and who takes over this important and influential role in U.S. politics?
You Only Live Steiss. It might be kind of sticky in Kitchener City Hall these days because two city councillors and one member of staff are all running in the future Kitchener-Centre by-election. This week, we're being joined by the staff member. Kelly Steiss is the Liberal candidate, and she wants to use her two decades of experience working for the City to try and find solutions to healthcare, housing and affordability, but can a candidate of the leaderless Liberals pick up a seat from the NDP and an active Green Party campaign effort? Steiss will answer that and other questions.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're thankful for good movies. Obviously. After a long weekend off, we're back with not just one movie, but one movie and four shorter movies. As you can see from the picture, we're going to mark the VOD release of The Equalizer 3 by talking about why it's so awesome, plus Wes Anderson made some stuff for Netflix. Did you notice?
This Wednesday, October 11, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Anderson Four. In 2009, Wes Anderson made The Fantastic Mr. Fox, his first feature length stop-motion animated film based on the children's novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. Anderson has returned to stop-motion, but he hasn't gone back to Dahl... Until now! Anderson has made four short films based on four different Dahl stories and they're all available now on Netflix. We're going to talk about all four and discuss whether they work better on their own or as a package.
REVIEW: The Equalizer 3 (2023). Denzel Washington is a movie star, so that's why we're getting a third chapter in a mid-budget action movie series based on a cult classic 80s TV show about a former spy turned vigilante for hire for the everyman. In The Equalizer 3, the action moves from big city Boston to a small town in coastal Italy. as our man Robert McCall (Washington) finds himself in a one man war against the mafia to save his idyllic new home. So is it still satisfying to watch Denzel beat up Euro-trash bad guys or has everything truly been equalized?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This is one of those episodes that’s based on events that predate many of us that have come to call Guelph home in the last few decades. It’s also a story about land issues, and the desire to protect sensitive land from development. It's had a lot of names over the years including the Kortright Waterfowl Park, the Niska Lands, and the Hanlon Creek Conservation Area, but the story around this property is just as complicated to sort out.
Perhaps the most concise history of the area was written in an article by Cameron Shelly for Metroland in 2021. It starts with a man named Horace Mack, a person of unique vision who bought a piece of property at the mouth of the Hanlon Creek for a bird sanctuary in 1948. He called it Niska Farm, “Niska” being the proper Cree name for the Canada Goose, but Mack only got to live his vision a short time. He died in 1959, but his dream would live on till 2005 when the area was finally closed to the public.
Now, nearly 20 years later, there's a plan on the floor about how to proceed with the four portions of the Niska Lands now under management of the Grand River Conservation Authority, and there's pretty much one person to thank for this. Dr. Hugh Whiteley, a retired professor and hydrologist from the School of Engineering at the University of Guelph, secured a pathway to ensure a public process for the redevelopment of this area. So how does he think it's going?
That’s one of the questions Dr. Whiteley will answer on this week’s podcast along with discussion of the site's vast history, the various plans for the area that have come into play over the last seven decades, and the City of Guelph and the GRCA's roles in determining the property’s future. We will also talk about his decision to bring the appeal of the Official Plan to the Ontario Municipal Board, and whether he thinks all sides have lived up to the spirit of that agreement. Plus, what does the future look like?
So let's dig into the past of the Niska Lands before we dig into the future on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can see background and information on the Grand River Conservation Authority website. You can also see the GRCA’s future plans for the site and some of the notes provided by the members at their last meeting in the latest Guelph Politico coverage. A final decision about the Niska Lands is likely to come before the GRCA membership at their November 24 meeting
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, 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.
Photo credit: Former Kortright Waterfowl Park executive director Eileen Hammill in 1975 from the Guelph Public Library archives.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we're thankful for scandal. As we head into the long weekend, we're going to talk about the ongoing issues facing the House of Commons that have kind of made a mockery of Canada on the international stage. It's good fodder for a podcast, which might soon be under the regulatory umbrella of the CRTC. In the back half of the show, we're going to talk about the recent increase in the minimum wage, and why it still isn't good enough.
This Thursday, October 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Third Week Watch. Can you believe this is only the third week of the fall session? It's been a busy three weeks of controversy that's for sure. While Greg Fergus made history by being elected as the first Black Speaker of the House of Commons, the long shadow of Parliament's warm welcome for Yaroslav Hunka and the accusation that the Indian government had Hardeep Singh Nijjar killed continue to linger. We will talk about the latest developments on those issues.
Podcast Away. The CRTC announced last week that they were looking at changes to regulate streaming content, which is a big change from the regular order. Streaming and podcasting has been the Wild West, mostly lawless and left to its own devices, so initiating any kind of regulation is a big change, which is why some people - including foreign provocateurs like Elon Musk and Glenn Greenwald - have been throwing gas on the fire, but what are the real stakes?
Wage Match. Last weekend, the minimum wage in Ontario was increased to $16.55, which makes us the third highest in Canada, but a minimum wage is not a living wage, and depending on where you live in Ontario it's tougher and tougher to close that gap. In fact, the living wage for Guelph is still about three dollars higher than the minimum. This week, we’re joined by Craig Pickthorne from the Ontario Living Wage Network to talk about affordability, the minimum wage hike, and the giant gap in-between.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we get spooky. Halloween is around the corner, and by "around the corner" we mean in the next several weeks. True, there's still a whole month to go before the day, but we begin this episode by visiting a streaming channel that's spooky 365 days a year. And then, in the review, we get spookier still with one of the latest horror movie releases.
This Wednesday, September 27, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Three From Shudder. It's our first show for October, which as you all know is Halloween Month. (Yes, it's a month now.) Did you know that there's a whole streaming channel dedicated to the horror genre? There is, and it's called Shudder. On this channel there's literally a world of horror from movies that count as classics to new stuff that might be the classics of the future. This week, we're each going to pick three movies from Shudder you should check out before the 31st.
REVIEW: It Lives Inside (2023). How does that song go? "Every single one of us has a devil inside." It turns out that that there's some truth in that in Hindu mythology, which is the the basis for the new horror movie, It Lives Inside. Sam is just a high school-aged daughter of Indian immigrants trying to fit in, but her former-BFF Tamira has issues and they all come down to what she has inside some cloudy looking mason jar. In his first film, Bishal Dutta taps into a lot of anxieties around clashing cultures and immigration, but does that translate into a scary movie?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Since it closed in 2000, the Ontario Reformatory, and the 108 hectares that surround it, have been the source of much conversation, optimism and fantasy. We got the Guelph Innovation District Secondary Plan, we’ve got a Heritage Conservation District Study, and now we’ve got a project to turn the area into a national park. Is creating a national park the end game for the OR Lands we’ve been looking for?
Creating a National Urban Park system was an initiative started by the federal government in 2021, when they pledged $130 million to create 15 sites across Canada with local partners. To become a national urban park, any proposed site has to meet three criteria: it has to conserve nature, connect people with nature, and advance reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. The OR Lands check all three boxes.
Now, you may be thinking that the OR Lands are already well protected by various heritage designations, but it's the connections to Indigenous heritage that are the most at risk; an old accessory building that was home to a program that helped Indigenous inmates work through their trauma and led many of them to overcome a life of substance addiction and crime. The proof is there in murals on the wall, in the basement of a building that’s outside the current heritage protections for the rest of the site.
With that heritage at stake, we turn to an expert. Former chair of Heritage Guelph P. Brian Skerritt is leading this effort to turn the OR Lands into a National Urban Park and he joins us on this week's podcast to tell us about it. He'll talk about why the OR lands are the best candidate for a national park in Guelph, the difficulties in accessing the Indigenous history on the site, and what Skerritt would ideally like to see on the property in terms of ensuring that all the heritage there is preserved.
So let's talk about making a national urban park on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the creation of National Urban Parks at Parks Canada website. You can add your name to a petition in support of the OR Lands Urban National Park at the petitions page of the Our Commons website. The Heritage Conservation District Study is in it’s second and final phase, and you can learn more about that on the City of Guelph’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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it all just blew up! It was kind of cruel last week when Ontario's premier came out and apologized for a two-month old scandal on show day, but it was well-timed for the start of the fall session, which we will talk about on this show. In other news, Parliament Hill was not to be outdone in controversy and if you have "100-year-old Nazi" on your Bingo card, we've got good news. And finally, did you know there's an election in Manitoba right now?
This Thursday, September 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Fall Out? Boy. It was a bit of a shock last Thursday when Premier Doug Ford came out and apologized to trying to peel off portions of the Greenbelt for redevelopment and said that he would keep his promise and leave it alone. And that was the end of that, right? Not quite, because the opposition parties still want answers and now all eyes are turning to the Ontario government's deal to redevelop Ontario Place and the potential skulduggery there. Otherwise, how was the first week back at the legislature?
Did Nazi That Coming. An appearance by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the House of Commons on Friday made news, but not the type anyone wanted. Applause was offered for 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka as a veteran of war against Russia, but what no on apparently realized was that he was a member of the Waffen-SS Galicia Division. You know, a Nazi. House Speaker Anthony Rota has fallen on his sword for the matter, but are the implications bigger than one parliamentarian?
Kinew Trip? Advanced polls are open and everyone in Manitoba is counting down to next week's general election, while the country might actually be counting down to the election of the country's first Indigenous head of provincial government. NDP Leader Wab Kinew looks like he might be leading his party to a victory on Tuesday, making history and defeating the incumbent Progressive Conservatives in the process, but what does he have to do to seal the deal, and what happens next?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we get a jump on Halloween month with a vampire tale. But lest you think this is some horror movie like Last Voyage of the Demeter, it's got a very pointed historical and political point of view. We're going back to Netflix to review the new political satire El Conde, and along with that, we're going to discuss other similar satires.
This Wednesday, September 27, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Satire Power. So this week we're talking about a political satire, but that doesn't mean a laugh-out-loud comedy. No, sometimes a political satire holds up a dark mirror to the audience and makes them confront a certain reality under the veil of jokes and silliness, and sometimes it borrows from the occasional silliness of our politics and takes it to the extreme. For this week's show, we will talk about some of our favourite satires, from the silly to the serious.
REVIEW: El Conde (2023). Director Pablo Lorrain has done a couple of very stylistic bio-pics with Jackie and Spencer, but those were a warm up for the creative license taken with El Conde. You may think that Augusto Pinochet died in 2006, but in this movie we see the "reel" Pinochet, a 300-year-old vampire in hiding with his greedy family, ungrateful wife, and Russian man servant Fryodor, who's also a vampire. It's a bit weird to take the (after)life of a brutal dictator and turn it into a Universal Monster Movie, but is Lorrain able to make that shot, or will it bounce off the rim?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
For years, Guelph has been a hotbed of protest, a very politically inclined city on a variety of issues including climate change, poverty, workers rights, equality, Black Lives Matter, and the systemic abuse of Indigenous peoples. Last Wednesday, direct action was on display again as people gathered in Market Square, but this was a protest completely unlike any other in a number of ways, and we need to take a moment to unpack things.
To recap, last Wednesday morning about about 250 people gathered in Market Square under the banner called “1 Million March 4 Children" to address concerns about sex education, plus parental rights and input. On the other side was a crowd nearly three times the size who had their own concerns that terms like "parental rights" were thinly-veiled attacks on queer youths by erasing them and their identity from schools and the greater community.
For added difficulty, the “1 Million March 4 Children” featured some holdovers from other protests in recent years like anger about mask and vaccine mandates, which no longer exist, or concerns about the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, who have to influence on education policy in Ontario. How do you approach a protest based on misinformation, and how to you talk to the people turned by that misinformation and suspicious of journalists covering the story?
Troy Bridgeman knows something about that. He's a freelance journalist working in Guelph, and if there’s a protest in town, you’ll probably see Troy there with his camera. He's going to talk about how the “1 Million March 4 Children” was a different kind of protest to cover, and the strangeness of having two protests happening at the same time. He will also discuss how people live different lives online, what will happen next with this movement, and what he plans to do with all those hours of protest footage.
So let's talk about protesting and covering a protest on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can find Troy Bridgeman’s work on Guelph Today and other Village Media sites, and you can follow him on Twitter at troybridgman. You can also check out coverage of last week’s "1 Million March 4 Children" and the counter-protest at the Guelph Politico main 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph things get serious. Well, they're pretty serious every week, but it's not every week that we're talking about a foreign government allegedly killing a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil. And to think we were going to start this week with talk of grocery prices... So there's that, plus we'll talk about the seasonal return of COVID-19 and in local news, we will turn to one of our city councillors about some of the latest doings at 1 Carden Street.
This Thursday, September 21, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Modi Operandi. It wasn't the bombshell we were expecting as the fall session of Parliament opened. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the June killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh Khalistani separatist in Surrey, was connected to the Indian government. The announcement helped explain the seemingly frosty relations between Trudeau and Narendra Modi a couple of weeks ago at the G20. But how will this impact Indo-Canada relations, and the India's broader role in world affairs?
Face/Cough. It's cold and flu season again, and you should probably add RSV and COVID-19 to that cadre. It's probably safe to say that COVID-19 never left us, but now we're feeling it's embrace again, especially after Dr. Theresa Tam did a media conference while wearing a mask. As we start fall, the number of COVID cases is definitely going up, the last boosters are on the wain, and nobody's wearing a mask anymore. Are we ready for the next wave?
Eastbound and Downer. Last week at Guelph City Council, they had a big meeting about housing and the gaps in social services. The desperation of the housing situation in Guelph is apparent, but the solutions seem a lot harder to find. We're going talk about that this week with Councillor Cathy Downer, who's also going to talk to us about the fights to protect heritage, next week's debate about parking minimums downtown, and, just in time for Homecoming, we will cover some town and gown matters too.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week, End Credits is all about the craft. You can have the best script, the greatest cinematography, and state-of-the-art special effects, but it means nothing without the actors to bring it to life. That's what Theater Camp does, it celebrates the actors, and their eccentricities. And speaking of celebrating actors, we're also going to talk about one of Peter's favourites.
This Wednesday, September 13, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Denzel's Hidden Gems. Now in theatres is Denzel Washington's new movie, The Equalizer 3. An improbable hit at the box office, it's a simple action movie about one man cleaning up an Italian town of mafia corruption. It's proof of Denzel's staying power and strength as a movie star that he can still make a splash without indie clout or big visual effects or even spandex and a cape. This week, we will pay tribute to Denzel by shining up some of his hidden gems.
REVIEW: Theater Camp (2023). Every kid loves camp, and if you're not especially into sports or boating or other feats of athleticism, you can always go to theatre camp. Well now there's a movie of the same name. Largely improvised and staged like a documentary, Theater Camp takes us to AdirondACTS summer camp where beloved founder Joan is in a coma due to the ill-advised use of a strobe light. With the camp under threat of foreclosure, the summer program perseveres with the only thing that matters: A love of the arts. But do we rise in applause?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Have you heard there’s a housing crisis? It’s pretty much all anyone can talk about, which is understandable, and the causes of the crisis are many. But have you thought about the Building Code? Chances are you haven’t, but this important document meant to govern our health and safety indoors might have some holes in it, and it might be causing complications that are getting in the way of desperately needed new units.
The Building Code, you say? We often talk about it like there's just one, but there's the National Building Code, the latest version of which was finished in 2020 but not published until 2022. Then, there's the Ontario Building Code, which needs an update based on those NBC changes, which is currently underway. Meanwhile, the OBC is based on the one previously established one in 2012, and there's stuff in the OBC that the NBS doesn't deal with like more stringent durability standards.
And that’s just the beginning of our drama because there’s a building code for how you build a residential building and there’s a building code for how you build an office building. There’s one for how you build a three-storey apartment building and there’s one for how you build a four-storey apartment building. How does that affect affordability? It's because our building code might be getting in the way of making more of that mythical "missing middle."
To learn more, we turn to Toon Dreesson, president of Architects DCA in Ottawa and past president of the Ontario Association of Architects. Dreesson will take us step-by-step through the process of how the building code makes a simple three-storey apartment project more expensive and more dense, plus he will talk about the overlapping demands of all the various building codes and building code updates. Dreesson will also tell us if we can balance the needs of the code and the needs for affordable housing.
So let's get into the code on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Toon Dreesson’s professional work at the Architects DCA website. You can also follow him on social media @toon.dreesson on Facebook and @toon_dreesson on Twitter. You can read Dreesson’s piece from the Globe & Mail earlier this year called "Canada’s building codes and standards need to get with the times" on their website 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're bring it home! The news that is. Of course, that's also the new catchphrase for the all-new, all-different Conservative Party who had a very newsy policy meeting in Quebec City last week. A little to the west in Ottawa, a couple of people once supported by the new leader of the Conservatives are now on trial, and we will discuss that too before finding an Ontario mayor not named 'Guthrie' to fill our interview slot this week.
This Thursday, September 14, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Pierre Up There. The Conservative Party of Canada had their policy convention last week, and that policy seems to be saying no to vaccine mandates, gender affirming care, diversity, and the carbon tax. There was also a call to defend what might have once been called "Old Stock Canadians" and a lot of lingering upset about the redesigned passport. You don't have to be a political genius to recognize American right-wing grievance politics, so is this how Pierre Poilievre intends to win?
Wellington Street Legal. We're now in the second week of the trial against "Freedom Convoy" organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber who are facing charges that include mischief, counselling others to commit mischief, intimidation and obstructing police. At stake is whether or not Lich and Barber have any criminal liability for the events of Winter 2022 in downtown Ottawa, but this is only the beginning of their legal struggles. We'll talk about the latest from the trial.
A Ward Season. Last month at the annual conference of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, the province's big city mayors were led into talks with the Ontario government by Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, the chair of the OBCM. This was after Premier Doug Ford put her on blast for not being a team player on housing, so Ward joins us this week to talk about recent events, Burlington's challenges on housing, and the recent decision to pause the provincial review of regional governments like Halton.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going back to the well. For the review this week, we're going to catch up on one of the summer hits we missed with the now home video release of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. And speaking of sequels, we will celebrate the second entry in a horror movies series by talking about our other favourite horror movie #2s.
This Wednesday, September 13, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Scream Two. This past weekend, The Nun II was number one at the box office. The latest offering in The Conjuring universe of films is just the latest successful horror sequel, which got us thinking about all the other great horror movie number twos (or part twos). The part two can make or break your franchise, so on this week's show we're going to look back at some of our favourite second entries in various scary movie institutions.
REVIEW: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023). This summer, Indiana Jones came back to theatres for one last ride, and... things did not go as expected. It wasn't the big hit of summer, not even close, but that doesn't mean we should write off Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Now available on VOD, we will take another look this week at Dial of Destiny and determine where it stands in the pantheon of Indiana Jones movies, and whether there is any place in the modern movie eco-system for an archaeologist/adventurer anymore.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It’s one week till the Big Book Sale, the annual event that the Friends of the Guelph Public Library was created to administer over 15 years ago. It was a fundraising project launched to show that Guelph had an appetite for a new main library building, and after years of banking all the funds raised, the endgame is finally in sight nearly 20 years later. So what happens when the Friends have achieved their goal?
The first book sale was in Old Quebec Street in 2007, almost 20,000 books were sold and it made around $10,000. That's not a bad haul for any fundraiser, but the act itself was as much a statement of intent: a new downtown main library building was going to get built. That was 16 years ago, a bit longer than the Friends might have hoped, but the sale itself grew. By 2019, the last year the sale was held before a two-year pandemic hiatus, $127,000 was raised
A lot's changed in the last few years. Ground was finally broken in the Baker District Redevelopment site back in June, and on Monday, the Friends issued a comically large novelty cheque to Guelph Library staff for $1 million. It probably won’t be the last cheque because the sale's still going but then what happens? What is the role of the Friends of the Guelph Public Library when their 20 year mission is achieved in 2026 when the new downtown main library opens its doors?
That is one of the questions that Anne MacKay, who is an at-large member of the board for the Friends, will have to answer on this week’s podcast. She will give us a brief recap of the Friends’ history, and will talk about the logistics of this year’s sale including why the date was changed from October to September, and what kind of volunteer help they still need. Also, MacKay will discuss why she wanted to be a Friend, and what the Book Sale’s success tells her about Guelph's thirst for literacy and education.
So let's talk about the future of the Friends on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The Big Book Sale will take place from Wednesday September 20 to Sunday September 24 at this year’s sale location at 69 Huron Street. Wednesday is early bird night, which means it will cost you $10 to enter, but the other days are free to enter. To see times, and to get more information about the Book Sale, go to the Friends of the Guelph Public Library website. While you’re there, sign up for the newsletter and learn how to volunteer.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're not back at school but we're still looking for an education. With this episode, we're trying to get smarter about Greenbelt-gate, which had a number of big developments in the last several days, and a new mass protest based on conspiracy theories that has us worried. For the interview this week, we go to Ward 3 where one of the councillors from Guelph's north end will talk about the fall sitting of the horseshoe at City Hall.
This Thursday, September 7, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Are You Afraid of the Clark? Things seem to fall apart pretty quickly for Steve Clark, now the former Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. But despite the damning indictment of the integrity commissioner, and the (delayed) resignation of Clark, Premier Doug Ford has affirmed that his government's decision to sell portions of the Greenbelt stands and will now be reviewed, not withdrawn. How much more punishment can the government take on this file?
The Divides of March. This year, there's been something of an alarming uptick in the number of protests, vandalism and death threats against LGBTQ groups, drag time store hour events, and other places that encourage inclusiveness. Now, it seems like the people driving these incidents are combining their efforts into something called the "1 Million March 4 Children", which will take place on September 20 across Canada. Should we be concerned that we're looking at a new Freedom Convoy?
Fallt Preview. It's not just young people getting back to a routine this week, our city council is getting back to business as usual with a very busy fall slate of meetings that will get really real next week with a meeting entirely dedicated to the housing crisis and social service delivery gaps. This week, we're joined by Ward 3 Councillor Phil Allt who's going to tell us what to expect as council tackles planning matters, the multi-year budget, and the struggle to achieve Indigenous reconciliation, and that just covers the first few weeks of September.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we become adults! That's the whole point of a Bat Mitzvah, and that's the whole point of the new Netflix coming-of-age comedy You Are So Not Inviting to My Bat Mitzvah, which has a fun local connection. Speaking of making connections, we will talk about some of the movies we're looking forward to seeing over the next few months.
This Wednesday, September 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Fall Movie Preview. As September dawns and festival season begins, we look forward to lots and lots of consequential movies. But wait, there are still strikes going on which means that our well planned fall movie release schedule might get interrupted; we're already lost Dune Part 2!! It's okay though, because there's still a lot of cool stuff that hasn't been moved to 2024 (yet?) and we're going to talk about some of those picks from historical epics to indie darlings!
REVIEW: You Are So Not Inviting to My Bat Mitzvah (2023). Last summer, Guelph was in the middle of Sand-man Fever! Adam Sandler kept turning up at Guelph establishments as he was shooting a movie in nearby Elora, and this is that movie. You Are So Not Inviting to My Bat Mitzvah is not you're typical Sandler fare, but it is a Sandler family affair. It's an adaptation of a YA novel about two young women who's friendship falls apart just as they're about to become adults in the eyes of God. So was this movie funny enough in the eyes of these two reviewers?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This year, Guelph Public Library CEO Steve Kraft is celebrating 40 years as a dedicated employee of the Guelph Library, rising through the proverbial ranks - or is that stacks - from the counter in the children’s library to the chief executive’s office. As Kraft’s library career in Guelph turns 40, the system he runs is turning 150, and as the Guelph Public Library marks its sesquicentennial in 2023 it’s in the middle of very big transitional period.
On June 20, something impossible happened in downtown Guelph: ground was broken on the new main library building. Kraft brought a special prop for the occasion, a shovel owned by WIlliam Tytler when he planted a tree on the grounds of the library to mark his 50 years as a member of the library board in 1931. It was symbolic of Guelph truism that Kraft and Tytler have in common: Those involved in the Guelph Library tend to stay involved.
Kraft will be leaning on that kind of community commitment for the next few years because there’s still a lot of organizing that needs to be done between now and when the new library opens in 2026. There’s some serious fundraising to do, decisions about new programming to offer and hiring people to bring those programs to life. Also, the library is feeling the issue of homelessness as the building serves as a kind of sanctuary for those with no where else to go.
That's a lot for a library CEO to take on, but we're going to try and cover it all through the lens of Kraft's four decades of experience. He will talk about his career, why he wanted to become a librarian in the first place, and how technology has changed what a library is all about. He will also talk about the Library's future, from the new building to all the branches, plus he will discuss the demand for library programs, and if there’s anything libraries can’t do.
So let's talk about 40 tears behind the stacks on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Guelph Public Library, its programming and locations at its website, or by connecting with them on social media @GuelphLibrary on Facebook, Twitter and Pintrest or at @GuelphPublicLibrary on Instagram and YouTube. The next meeting of the Guelph Public Library Board is Monday September 25 at 6 pm.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're getting you ready for Labour Day! No, not the holiday weekend widely considered the last break of the summer, we mean the "fight the power" version where you get out on the streets and fight for workers' rights. We've got work on the mind with labour negotiations for Ontario's teachers, and we've got fighting on the mind with the latest from Ukraine. In terms of a labour fight, we've got someone who's a picket line right now.
This Thursday, August 31, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Bold School. Kids across Ontario go back to school next week, but... For how long?! Well, that's more of a pressing question for elementary, Catholic school and French-language school students because members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation reached a deal with the Ministry of Education to enter arbitration, which was kind of a coup for Stephen Lecce, but left the other unions out in the cold. What does labour look like at Ontario's schools this fall?
Cloak and Wagner. Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian private army called the Wagner Group, was killed on a flight outside Moscow last week almost two months to the day he gave up his apparent coup attempt on the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin. Why Prigozhin quit when it looked like he had the momentum is still a mystery, and speaking of a lack of momentum, what happened to the Ukrainian counteroffensive that was supposed to be so effective? We'll have an update.
TVOn Strike! They're not the first workers to go on strike this year, they're not even the first group to go on strike in the last month, but the workers of TVO, Ontario's public broadcaster, have been on the picket line for nearly two weeks now. What do they want? A long delayed pay raise and an end to contract labour that's creating instability in the work force would be a good start. This week, we're joined by Canadian Media Guild president Annick Forest about the stakes of the strike for TVO workers and the stakes more broadly for journalists and public broadcasting in Canada.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're back! After taking our annual summer vacation! We're refreshed and reinvested just in time for the fall movie season, but since we're not there yet we will have to settle for a summer release. This week, we're reviewing the new sci-fi comedy mystery on Netflix, The Cloned Tyrone, and on the occasion of his 25th birthday, we're re-visiting Blade.
This Wednesday, August 30, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Blade of Glory. In August 1998, New Line Cinema released an action movie based on a Marvel Comics character that almost no one outside of regular shoppers at the comic book store had ever heard of. Not only did Blade become a success in it's own right, but it established a new tone and style for comic book-based movies, a refreshingly serious one. Now, 25 years later, we will look back at Blade and how the Daywalker might have changed things forever.
REVIEW: They Cloned Tyrone (2023). It's just another day in the Glen. Fontaine goes about his day like any other drug dealer, shaking down late payments and (literally) running over the competition, but then something weird happens... Where the story goes from there might be too good to spoil, so let's just say that it involves secret labs, government conspiracies, systemic racism, and lots and lots of clones! John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, and Jamie Foxx are caught in a trap, they can't walk out, but is it too much for us, or is it just right?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This weekend is Labour Day, and boy is there labour activity these days. From the Canadian Media Guild workers at TVO to employees at Toronto area Metro grocery stores to municipal workers in Cochrane Ontario, it's been non-stop labour action in 2023. Our podcast this week isn't about any of those strikes, but it is about someone who held deeply the cause of advancing workers rights.
Go down to Goldie Mill Park, the unofficial home and rally point for local labour here in Guelph, and you may stumble upon a little red box in the ground. It says “Guelph Soap Co. Crystal Soap Chips” on the side, but this is Alan's Soapbox. Alan Pickersgill was a millwright by vocation, but he was an activist at heart. He cranked out columns for the newspaper and stuck a finger in the eye of the establishment. He even ran for office a couple of times. He passed away in 2021.
Alan left a big mark in Guelph, so it’s weird that this public memorial is a small red and silver box named after a fake soap company, but that’s the point. In ye olden days, one used a soapbox, a sturdy wood box used to transport dry good like soap, to give themselves a stage to speak on. Hyde Park in London still has its "Speakers’ Corner" soapbox every Sunday after 150 years, so maybe we can do the same thing here in Guelph now with Alan's Soapbox.
That's one idea for Alan’s Soapbox, and we're joined this week by two of the people that helped make it happen: Janice Folk-Dawson, executive vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, and Juanita Burnett, local labour activist and sometime Communist candidate. They’re going to tell us about how the Soapbox project came together, what made Goldie Mill Park a good location, and obviously, we will talk about the current state of labour in Guelph and beyond.
So let's talk about Alan's Box on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Alan’s Soapbox can be found at Goldie Mill Park by the river, and the bottom of London Road. There doesn’t seem to be any plans to hold the annual Labour Day Picnic in Riverside Park, but if you’re looking for a labour-related activity for your Labour Day, your best bet is to check out the events page of the Canadian Labour Congress’ 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, 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.
This weekend on Open Sources Guelph, we go from one mess to another. We will look at the political fight to make progress on fighting climate change, and then we will look at the fight to hold Donald Trump to account as he's arrested again in an entirely different jurisdiction. And finally, for the interview this week, we will talk to a person that's fighting the good fight on the drug poisoning crisis on our community ahead of a very special occasion.
This Thursday, August 24, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Crisis Management. It's been a rough summer, at least it has been if you've been even a little concerned about the climate crisis. From wild fires, to unbearable heat, to a hurricane flooding L.A. last weekend, the signs are all around us. So why is Alberta Premier Danielle Smith shutting down efforts to move to renewable energy, and why is Pierre Poilievre doing a coast-to-coast tour about cancelling the carbon tax? At least the federal Liberals want to get to net zero by 2035, but do they have any juice left to do it?
Go Fourth Old Man. While we were on our summer vacation, the Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis indicted former-President Donald Trump and 18 others for their alleged criminal conspiracy to steal the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. As Trump turns himself in for the fourth time, the rest of his competitors in the Republican presidential nomination race gathered for their first debate, which will almost certainly not do anything to de-throne Trump as the frontrunner. Will they ever learn?
Streets of Dire. August 31 marks Drug Poisoning Awareness Day, which used to be known as Overdose Awareness Day and the name change shows just how concerning the poisoning of the drug supply has become to those on the frontlines of the addiction crisis. This week, we will be joined by Jean Hopkins, who is the new manager of the Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy. She's going to tell us about how the drug poisoning crisis is affecting us locally, how the community is fighting to turn the tide, and what support local advocates need to ensure the safety of people using substances.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, and next week (or last week depending on when you read this), we're on summer vacation. Are we watching movies over these two weeks off? Probably, but we're not reviewing them for you. While we're out getting some sun and enjoying the beach, you get a couple of reruns. Grab a drink, feel the waves, and we'll see you in a couple of weeks!
Summer's Off. It's no easy thing to take a vacation from your high-powered and stressful job. Maybe the whole thing falls apart while you're away; maybe the whole thing falls apart because you're away. And what about that vacation? You've got to pack up your stuff and your family, cram into a car for hours, and when you arrive at your destination, the beach house is a shack, the landlord is rude, and it's all you can do to summon the courage to challenge him in a boat race aboard a pirate-themed schooner! It's summer vacation!! Deal with it.
*Programming Note: End Credits will return with new episodes on Wednesday August 30.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It happened again on the August long weekend. Offload delays at the Guelph General Hospital created some long line-ups for ambulances, and a couple of days before that there was another Code Red. The story has been repeating itself for over a year now, too many ambulances lined up at the hospital and not enough available in the community, but how do the paramedics themselves feel about the pressure they're under?
Earlier this year, we were joined by Nick Di Ruzza, who was the president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 231. This is the union that represents the paramedic workers for Guelph and Wellington County, and they've been under a lot of the same pressures that all other medical workers have been under these last three years. As reported, paramedics have done 9,400 hours of overtime in the last year.
So the burnout is real, but there are other pressures on the service beyond the hours. A joint meeting of the Guelph and Wellington councils back in June, covered how many paramedic stations across the region where not meeting the needs of the service, especially the ones out in the county. So while there's pressure on paramedics to do the job, we're also falling short in our support of paramedics when they get back to the station.
Back in February though, we talked to Di Ruzza about what a day in the life of a paramedic looks like, and the Paramedics Services’ success despite their challenges. He will tell us about the human resources issues his local is trying to overcome, and how paramedics approach standards of care beyond answering emergency calls. Later, he will discuss the problems around doing advocacy on behalf of paramedics, support from management and what the community can all do to help.
So let's hear again the paramedic perspective on this week's repeat of the Guelph Politicast!
You can follow OPSEU Local 231 on Twitter. Guelph Wellington Paramedic Services Chief Stephen Dewar has been delivering a monthly report about the demands on the service at the Wellington County Social Services Committee Meeting, and the next one’s in March. To learn more about our local paramedic service, you can find them under the “Living” section of the City of Guelph website or on Twitter.
All new episodes of the Guelph Politicast return next week!
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're back from summer vacation, and it was nice that everyone waited till the first part of August to launch their biggest scandals. We're going to talk about one of those on this week's show, a scandal that intersects with housing, the environment, and government process in what we like to call a trifecta, but in this case we'll just call Greenbelt-gate. We'll discuss that, and we'll talk to a person on the frontline of fighting high rents!
This Thursday, August 17, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Green Dealt. Last week, Ontario's auditor general said that according to her expert opinion, the Government of Ontario committed a boo-boo when then signed off on selling a portion of the Greenbelt last fall. It's actually more serious than that because it seems like staff in the office of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing was taking direction from the developers who were going to profit, but it's okay because Doug Ford, Steve Clark, et al have all seen the error of their ways... So why won't they undo the deal?
Rent Check. Have you heard about the rent? It's too damn high! In many places around this province, people are struggling to keep up with the rent, and in other places people are being thrown from their rent-controlled digs into the cruel market because their landlord can charge more once a building is remodelled. It's tough for people to know their rights and learn how to fight back, so this week we talk to someone who knows that struggle well, Geordie Dent, the executive director of the Federation of Metro Tenants' Associations.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, and next week (or last week depending on when you read this), we're on summer vacation. Are we watching movies over these two weeks off? Probably, but we're not reviewing them for you. While we're out getting some sun and enjoying the beach, you get a couple of reruns. Grab a drink, feel the waves, and we'll see you in a couple of weeks!
Summer's Off. It's no easy thing to take a vacation from your high-powered and stressful job. Maybe the whole thing falls apart while you're away; maybe the whole thing falls apart because you're away. And what about that vacation? You've got to pack up your stuff and your family, cram into a car for hours, and when you arrive at your destination, the beach house is a shack, the landlord is rude, and it's all you can do to summon the courage to challenge him in a boat race aboard a pirate-themed schooner! It's summer vacation!! Deal with it.
*Programming Note: End Credits will return with new episodes on Wednesday August 30.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
In August, there's usually no council business to talk about but there are unusual times so on the same day the annual mid-year council recap goes live we get a super-unusual August council meeting. In this very busy first year of a new council term, perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that council business would burst over the side and flood the vacation months, and it all comes down to a single word: housing.
The housing crisis has been hovering over just about all aspects of City business in the last seven months. Obviously, the biggest piece of this is the so-called housing pledge. As part of Bill 23 passed by the Ontario government, every municipality had to sign a promise to Queen's Park that they will build their share of 1.5 million homes by 2031, and our city council signed their unique version of the pledge way back in February.
Housing would emerge in other ways, like the amended Official Plan amendment that caused controversy at council, or the new Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw that's now waiting to replace the old one that's nearly 30 years old due to over a dozen appeals. That part wasn't in the Strategic Plan, which was also refreshed in 2023 with renewed emphasis on a lot of the City's main objectives, which includes transit, the environment, and yes, housing.
So this week on the podcast, we will cover all the ins and outs of the last seven months at city council and that includes all the issues discussed above plus other matters that have come to council including the first phase of the Heritage Conservation District on the OR Lands, changes to the fare structure for Guelph Transit, the tree canopy, short-term rental licensing, the South End Community Centre, and the rise of pickleball. That's a lot of ground to cover, but we'll do it in about 10,000 words to an hour!
So let's recap the year at council so far on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The special meeting of council to make a decision about the allocation of affordable housing funds to Kindle Communities is tonight. The next official meeting will be Committee of the Whole on Wednesday September 6 at 2 pm, and the agenda for that meeting will be posted next week on the City'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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we’re taking a break, and it’s the same for next week (or last week depending on when you’re reading this). Yes, the time has come for our usual summer vacation, but we’re not leaving you hanging! As we recharge our senses and collect your thoughts, you will be treated to a long-running tradition in the production of rich media: The rerun. As we cash-in some of our vacation days, you will be entertained by the ghosts of Open Sources’ past.
Barbeque Season. As Doug Ford and other politicians cook up some delicious meats, the scandals are taking a break. For this lazy August, we’re going to take a break too as we wait for the governments to return to their chambers and grill some more controversy, and in the meantime we’re presenting you two different episodes of the show that highlight some of the interesting news we’ve covered lately, and some of the interesting people we’ve talked to. Get outside, have fun, and don’t forget the coleslaw!
*Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will return with new episodes on Thursday August 17.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we have Turtle Power! As we enter the proverbial late summer doldrums at the box office, we look for some gold in the form of the new animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. And since summer's best days are behind us, we will peel back the layers and determine what was the best, and yes, what was the worst.
This Wednesday, August 2, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Summer's End. Okay, so it's not technically the end of summer, but then again, September 20 is technically the real last day of summer. Anyway, since we're going on vacation for the next few weeks, we're going to close the book on Summer Movies from 2023 a bit early by giving out the awards: What was the best movie? What movie did the most damage to its franchise? And which Part One had us the most excited about Part Two? Let's find out!
REVIEW: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023). In the 1980s, two indie comic book artists turned a spoof about the growing trend of ultra-violent comics into the basis of a multi-million dollar marketing empire directed mostly at kids. Over six movies and three decades later, the Ninja Turtles are still teens, and they're still chasing that cheese (pizza) now with a new animated movie from producer Seth Rogen. He's enjoyed a lot of success with comic book material lately (Prime's The Boys for example), so can he bring the Turtles back to prominence?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
*Programming Note: End Credits will be taking the next two weeks off. Repeat episodes will air in the usual Wednesday afternoon time slot with new episodes returning on Wednesday August 30.
"Hot enough for ya?" A charming conversation starter in summers past, but here in August 2023 it seems more like a damning curse. Last month was the hottest month on the planet in a few hundred millennia, forest fires rage out of control in several provinces, smog from those fires choke cities in the south, and now there's the threat that the Gulf Stream may be gone by 2025. What can we do on the local level in the wake of all these developments?
That was one of the questions we put to Byan Ho-Yan, the manager of Energy and Climate Change at the City of Guelph, when he appeared on the podcast last fall. Fresh off an election, there was a pause for the new council to consider how they might build on the accomplishments of the previous council, a directive to accelerate the City’s shift to net zero and 100 per cent renewable. Ho-Yan is the man who has to make it happen.
Since December, there has been some progress. Council passed the Guelph Greener Homes program earlier this year offering zero-interest loans to residential property owners in Guelph to help cover the costs of residential energy efficiency upgrades. We just initiated an e-scooter pilot program,and we got federal money for new EV chargers and to cover the cost of HVAC upgrades at the West End Rec Centre. Good news, but we need to do more.
Ultimately, the City of Guelph, as a corporation, is only responsible for three per cent of the local carbon footprint, which means it's up to the rest of us to get the other 97 per cent of the way to zero, and that's where we start with Ho-Yan. He will about the limits of what the City can do to affect our climate change goals, and the ways that they can rally the community. Plus, he will talk about the progress made so far, and the one thing he wishes everyone knew about the fight against climate change.
So let’s talking about fighting climate change at the city level (again) on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can see the City of Guelph's 2022 Sustainability Report here, and to learn more about how to apply to the Guelph Greener Homes program, you can click here. Programming note: Next week's pod will be the midyear council recap, and then there will be another repeat on August 23 before getting back to our regularly scheduled programming on August 30.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we’re taking a break, and it’s the same for next week (or last week depending on when you’re reading this). Yes, the time has come for our usual summer vacation, but we’re not leaving you hanging! As we recharge our senses and collect your thoughts, you will be treated to a long-running tradition in the production of rich media: The rerun. As we cash-in some of our vacation days, you will be entertained by the ghosts of Open Sources’ past.
Barbeque Season. As Doug Ford and other politicians cook up some delicious meats, the scandals are taking a break. For this lazy August, we’re going to take a break too as we wait for the governments to return to their chambers and grill some more controversy, and in the meantime we’re presenting you two different episodes of the show that highlight some of the interesting news we’ve covered lately, and some of the interesting people we’ve talked to. Get outside, have fun, and don’t forget the coleslaw!
*Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will return with new episodes on Thursday August 17.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we tackle the back half of "Barbenheimer". After rolling with Barbie last week as she travelled from the real world to Barbie word and back again, this week we go into the past with Oppenheimer, which is as real as the real world gets. And if you still have a jones for Oppenheimer adjacent material, we will have some recommendations for you.
This Wednesday, August 2, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Day After Oppenheimer. Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is a film that covers one of the most famous events in history, and it centres on a man who has both his good and bad qualities. These are the perfect ingredients for a movie, and it's been done in different ways with all sorts of famous historic figures and events, and it's also been done with the invention of the atomic bomb. We'll talk about what to watch after Oppenheimer.
REVIEW: Oppenheimer (2023). He was man plagued by terrible visions, he might have been the first rock star scientist, and without him it's unlikely that the United States would have created the world's first atomic bomb. J. Robert Oppenheimer was a complicated man, and so is the movie that now bares his name. Oppenheimer calls on all of Christopher Nolan's skills as a filmmaker as he tells one man's story spread over multiple timelines and featuring a cast of thousands, but does he overcome his mechanical prowess to find Oppy's humanity?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
“John Galt, novelist, colonial promoter. Galt was superintendent of the Canada Company, a colonization company created to settle part of Upper Canada. During that time, he founded the town of Guelph (1827); the town of Galt was named after him.” That’s what the Canadian Encyclopedia tells you about Galt, but it doesn’t tell you a lot about who he really was.
A lot of assumptions have been made about Galt, and the popular wisdom for years was that he was a failure as the head of the Canada Company, yet the city he created survives and thrives 200 years later. But what about Galt as a colonizer? It may surprise you to learn that Galt, ever the iconoclast, had some unusual ideas for how settlers and Indigenous people should get along as equals, and it was among the reasons why he was sent back to Scotland two years after founding Guelph.
This week, we're joined by someone who might know Galt better than anyone (in the 21st century). Gil Stelter, a professor emeritus from the history department at the University of Guelph, has dedicated his life's studious endeavours to the man who's name is on the proverbial patent for Guelph. In his career, Stelter has amassed quite a number of insight into the man, his career as a businessman and author, and what his intentions were for Guelph, some of which actually came to pass.
And that’s where we pick things up on this week’s podcast as Stelter gives us a breakdown on who John Galt was, and his notoriety beyond the borders of Guelph. He will also talk about what Galt’s written works tell us about his thinking, how his relationship with John Brant informed his thinking when settling Guelph, and what Galt might think of Guelph now nearly 200 years later. Also, he will talk about how Galt might have been right at home among the celebrity businessmen of modern day.
So let's talk about the John Galt you don't know on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Learning the basics about the life of John Galt is relatively easy, but if you want to follow up on this particular discussion, you can consult Galt’s written works, including The Apostate or Atlantis Destroyed, which you can buy through Vocamus Press. You can also watch Stelter’s presentation to the Guelph Historical Society on Rogers’ YouTube channel.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're a four quadrant success. We're going local, provincial, national and international with the news this week, and this is what we're talking about in no particular order: There's a new map of Guelph and you may not like it in the south end, patronage is back in Ontario, the prime minister hopes that new cabinet faces will solve all his problems, and Florida Man is still being Florida Man.
This Thursday, July 27, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Shuffle My Feathers. Rumour control said that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was going to reshuffle his cabinet this week. Probably a good call since at the time of this writing at least three cabinet ministers have announced that they won't be seeking re-election. But between election interference, the Bernardo transfer, transportation problems, the dock strike in B.C., and ongoing problems with housing and affordability, how much can one shuffle solve?
Counsel Culture. It's been a pretty quiet summer for all things Doug Ford, but there's always controversy brewing underneath Queen's Park somewhere. While people are still trying to get to the bottom of the skulduggery around the Greenbelt, and express concerns around the growing privatization of healthcare, Ford decided to whip out a good, old-fashioned patronage scandal by naming Caroline Mulroney a King's Counsel, a position that no one's filled for 40 years. Why Doug?
Indict Club. By the time you're reading this, Donald Trump may have been indicted for a third time and even if he hasn't, it's only a matter of when. And then there's a fourth indictment coming sometime in the near future... So given all this, why is Trump still the frontrunner for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2024? We will look at Trump's mounting legal troubles, and why none of his competitors, including Ron DeSantis, seem unable to catch him.
Map Battle. Last week, the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario released their new maps for Ontario, and there was a surprise for Guelph: We're no longer one riding. Now that's not necessarily a surprise, the maps are unchanged from the proposed maps released last fall, but it now leaves Guelph in a position it's never experienced before, being separated by federal boundaries. Will this have an effect on city business, and why does this make our job harder?
*Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will be taking the next two weeks off. Repeat episodes will air in the usual Thursday afternoon time slot with new episodes returning on Thursday August 17.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it's a Barbie world, and we are Barbie girls! (So to speak). We had to make the proverbial Sophie's Choice when it comes to "Barbenheimer" and we sided on Barbie. We will have our review of that big summer hit, and speaking of summer hits, we will talk about some of the movie news that has made this summer very interesting indeed.
This Wednesday, July 26, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Newsy Much? Obviously, the big news of last weekend was "Barbenheimer", the arrival of two of the biggest, most unexpected hits of the year, which opened at the same time. But that's not the only thing that's going on. What about the smash success of the highly dubious Sound of Freedom? And what about the fall of so many major franchises at the box office? And aren't their two big Hollywood strikes happening? We'll cover The News!
REVIEW: Barbie (2023). In a modern age of studio movies where ideas are almost exclusively derived from successful intellectual property, a movie based on Barbie just makes a lot of sense. But a Barbie movie directed by Greta Gerwig, the godmother of mumblecore? That's something weird enough to get excited about! Barbie may be the big hit of summer, but it got there following the least conventional path. Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, the picture perfect Barbie and Ken, we will look at how Barbie became the unlikeliest hit of the year.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
As you may know, Ontario has set the goal of building 1.5 million houses by 2031, and Guelph’s share is 18,000, but there’s a difference between setting a goal and having the means to reach it. One of the people that's been trying to promote that idea is a man named Mike Moffatt. You might have heard have him. Certainly everyone concerned about housing in Ontario has!
Dr. Mike Moffatt is the Senior Director of Policy and Innovation at the Smart Prosperity Institute and an Assistant Professor in the Business, Economics and Public Policy group at the Ivey Business School at Western University. He was a special presenter at a Guelph city council meeting in February before our city council signed the housing pledge, and offered some interesting insights into the process and the challenges.
Moffatt explained to council that the 1.5 million target for Ontario is about right, but he also wondered if it was a bit on the low side too. He pointed out that Ontario’s never built more than 850,000 homes in a 10-year span. He noted that the issues with housing are multifaceted and multi-level, and that they're issues that the municipality can’t resolve alone no matter how many legislative changes that the Government of Ontario passes.
This is where we pick things up on this week's podcast. Moffatt will talk about whether any municipality will be able to achieve their housing pledge, and whether they’ve been set up to fail. He will also talk about the role of developers in reaching the pledge, and the role of other groups like upper levels of government and post-secondary institutions. And finally, he will discuss why the lack of mobility in the market is a big problem, and how we can address housing needs now.
So let's talk housing with the Housing Guru on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the work of the Smart Prosperity Institute at their website. You can follow Mike Moffatt on social media at "MikePMoffatt" on Twitter to get insights daily. As for Guelph, you can watch Moffatt’s presentation at the February 28 meeting of city council, and you can follow this link to find the City of Guelph’s story map about housing in the city.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we don't do summer fun, we do serious issues. One the one hand, there's a refugee crisis in Toronto that no one has an explanation for, and on the other hand you have a presidential candidate saying crazy things, and you can't call him a Republican this time. We're serious on local news too, and one of our friends from city council is stopping by to lend a first-person view on big issues facing our city hall right now.
This Thursday, July 13, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Gimme Shelter. It's not an usual site to see people experiencing homelessness on the streets of Toronto, but it is kind of weird when all of those people are 1) concentrated in front of one shelter, and b) are actually asylum seekers who were referred to that one shelter to get help. What the hell went wrong? That's a question that a lot of people want answers to as the blame game between the various levels of government has given way to some temporary solutions, but what about permanent ones?
Bobby Pinhead. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a famous name, and it's probably for that reason alone that this man has been allowed to get away with vaccine hesitancy and conspiracy theories for this long. But he stepped in it this weekend when he was caught on tape suggesting that COVID-19 was designed to infect White and Black people and not Chinese or Jewish people. Even his sibling couldn't ignore his blatant flirtation with anti-Semitism, so is this end of RFK Jr's White House run?
Yes We Ken. Guelph City Council is about to wrap up for the rest of the summer, but you'd have a hard time arguing that anyone at 1 Carden Street is slacking off right now. There was a double-header at council last week, there was a double-header at council this week, and there's a lot of unfinished business from Committee of the Whole to deal with next week. To help us sort all that out today is Ward 6 Councillor Ken Yee Chew, who will tell us about progress on housing and other issues before the horseshoe.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're doing a little extension of Black History Month into July. It's also time again for some horror talk, which maybe makes this a little like Halloween Summer. Whatever the occasion, we will review the new film The Blackening, and in its spirit we will talk about some notable Black characters in horror movies who are winning even if they may not survive.
This Wednesday, July 19, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Character Study. As you will see in this week's movie, it's not easy being Black and being in a horror movie. There's a certain trope about the fate of all Black characters in horror movies, especially if there's only one Black character, and while there's a certain truth to that, we couldn't help but wonder about where the tropes get it wrong. This week, we'll look at great Black characters from horror movies, some of whom don't die first, or even at all!
REVIEW: The Blackening (2023). What started as a short film from the comedy troupe 3Peat is now a full length feature film. Inspired by movies like Get Out, Antebellum, and other elevated horror movies with a social message, the makers of The Blackening ask the most pointed question: If the Black character always dies first, then who dies first when the whole cast is Black? The Blackening wants to lampshade a lot of the tropes we've come to know and love from the horror genre, but does it hit just as hard if you're more of a casual horror fan (or not at all)?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Dhwani, which in the Gujarati-language means "The Voice" or "The Sound", launched back in March and it immediately tested a few assumptions. Could you successfully start a newspaper in the year 2023? Is there an audience for a community paper that’s specifically pitched to an ethnic community? It turns out the answer to both questions is "yes", but how big can it get?
It’s been over a decade since someone tried to start a newspaper in Guelph. There have been calls, especially at the time of the Guelph Mercury’s closing in 2016, but there was a fundamental understanding that no one could start a newspaper in this digital era. But what if that paper wasn't written in English? Guelph is a growing community that's also becoming a more diverse community, but it's hard to reach people and get them involved if you’re not speaking their language.
The City of Guelph’s communications department is trying to make those changes, but helping people get informed about community happenings is one of the reasons that the news media exists. This was also a thought that Hitesh Jagad had last year when he was running for city council, and the co-proprietor of Kirtida's Kitchen decided that the time was right for an idea he had been cooking for several years now: There are people in Guelph who need news that literally speaks to them.
That’s just the beginning of the journey on this week’s podcast as Jagad tells us about why he started Dhwani, and why he wanted it to be a physical newspaper first. He will also tell you about how Dhwani works, what his future expansion plans are, and why Google Translate is just not the same as someone writing in another language. And finally, he will discuss when you might see reporters working for Dhwani, and why you need to always to make time for the community.
So let's talk about the news, or સમાચાર, on this week's Guelph Politicast!
If you speak the language, you can find a copy of Dhwani at over 30 locations between Guelph, Waterloo Region, Brantford, Hamilton and the GTA, and you can find a digital copy here. If you don’t read Gujarati, you can always visit Kirtida's Kitchen on Eramosa Road at Metcalfe, and you can follow Jagad on social media on Twitter and Instagram.
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.
Photo Courtesy of Hitesh Jagad/Kirtida's Kitchen.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, things get awkward. It's hard enough to criticize your political enemies, but what happens when you criticize your friends and then you have to fly off to Europe and see them face to face? That's one question this week, and another question is how concerned we should be about a mosquito-borne disease that's making a local-ish comeback? In the second half of the show, we will hear from the woman who hopes to hold on to a nearby riding for team orange.
This Thursday, July 13, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Cluster F**k Up? Last week, the United States announced that it was making cluster munitions available to Ukraine for deployment on the frontlines with Russia, which offered a rare moment of disunity among the united front of NATO. Canada was among the countries that called out the U.S. for the move, but everything seemed hunky dory in Lithuania when the full complement of NATO met to welcome Sweden to the team and affirm their dedication to defeating Russia. So what's next?
Malaria Code. It's a mosquito-borne infectious disease that usually causes fever, fatigue, vomiting, and headaches, but can also cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or even death. Malaria is still a problem in many parts of the world, but it was eliminated from the United States in 1951. It's back now with new cases in Florida and Texas, but while it's only a handful of patients, it's gotten some doctors worried about an underappreciated aspect of climate change. How worried should we be?
It Can Chapman to You! There are a couple of Ontario by-elections happening at the end of the month, but one of them isn't in Kitchener Centre. That doesn't mean that there's not any election action happening up the road, and to prove that we're joined this week by Debbie Chapman, current city councillor and now NDP candidate. Chapman will tell us why she hopes to succeed fellow NDP politician Laura Mae Lindo, how it feels to face off against fellow City Councillor Aislinn Clancy, and why she wants to trade the council table for a bench in the Ontario Legislature.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we have reason to be happy and we have reason to be sad. On the happy side, we will talk about some of our favourite movies from this year, which is going to be fun. As for the sad, Paul Schrader is back with another movie, so you know what time it is. This week, we're reviewing Master Gardener, which may yet be one of the best movies of 2023!
This Wednesday, July 12, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Simply the Best (of 2023 So Far). We're more than halfway through 2023 so that means the time has come to take stock of what's been released so far and pan for those gold nuggets. This year represents the closest we've been to a normal movie release schedule since the start of the pandemic, so there are a lot of expectations. From a true Canadian tech story, to a documentary about a true Canadian icon, we will talk about the best so far!
REVIEW: Master Gardener (2023). The latest entry is Paul Schrader's "Sad Man" trilogy, or "Man Sitting at a Table" trilogy, is about a gardener at a massive Southern estate. Like Pastor Ernst Toller in First Reformed, and William Tell in The Card Counter, Narvel Roth is a man with a dark past desperately trying to live a life of quiet contemplation as he desperately tries to avoid his own memories. And then a stranger comes along. Joel Edgerton is the sad man this time, and if you're familiar with Schrader's recent work this will definitely seem familiar, but how does it work for us now?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
There’s been a lot of discussion around the council table lately about the future of cycling in Guelph and whether or not staff and council are serious enough about taking on the challenge, and some of that debate centred around the G2G Trail. While the trail is 99 per cent complete, the one per cent of the portion that’s incomplete is exclusive in that second “G” in the trail’s name, Guelph.
The 132-kilometre trail runs a course from Downtown Guelph to the shores of Lake Huron and passing through Blyth, Milverton, Milbank and Elmira along the way. It follows old rail lines, which is appealing for people looking to enjoy a nice relaxing ride because it’s mostly flat the whole way, and it’s also appealing for more than just a nice steady bike ride. At least until you get to Guelph.
If you access the trail map you will note that much of the Guelph end of the connection is coloured in a dark yellow when the vast majority of the rest of the trail is coloured green. This is why three different cycling advocates last week came to city council and used the presentation of the Future Guelph Strategic Plan to push for the completion of the Guelph end of the trail. Why is it so hard to invest a couple of million dollars and complete the last three kilometres of a potential tourism draw to the area?
To talk about that we're joined by Lorenz Calcagno who is the treasurer of Guelph Cycling Club, president of the Guelph Off-Road Bicycling Association, and a spokesperson for the Guelph portion of the G2G Rail Trail. He will tell us about the history of the G2G Rail Trail, and why it’s so appealing to recreational cyclists and the local tourism picture. He will also talk about the problems with the Guelph end, and why it's been so hard to make progress to finish those last three kilometres.
So let's fig into the G2G enigma on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Guelph-to-Goderich (G2G) Rail Trail at their website, including the complete map of all 132 kilometres and ways you can get involved as a volunteer. You can also find them on social media at @g2grailtrail at Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, plus @g2grailtrail84 on YouTube.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, the weather is hot, and so are the topics! It's an all news show this week as we look to some international news that happened in own backyard, and some international news that happened in France but has a very familiar tone to it. In news from across Canada, we'll talk about the problem with News Brunswick, or its premier at least, and why your favourite leader of His Majesty's loyal opposition is changing things up, for the better(?).
This Thursday, July 6, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss
Attack on Gender Studies. News about last Thursday's assault in a philosophy class where three people were stabbed - a professor and two students - was all the more frightening because it happened so close to home, up the road at the University of Waterloo. As people try to understand the violence and the reasons for it, others are concerned about the security failures on campus and whether this is just an isolated incident. We'll try and make sense of the senseless.
Pain and Blaine. New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has been fighting public blowback, including some blowback inside his own cabinet, about changes to Policy 713, which is legislation meant to protect LGBTQ+ students in schools, but has now been perverted into something that could now potentially put them at risk. To many, Higgs is making a cynical political calculation to tact to the far-right and galvanize the anti-queer sentiment, but might he lose his job in the process?
Mid-Plight in Paris. Just months after civil unrest around the increase in retirement age, people are taking to the streets of French cities to protest an instance of police brutality, a 17-year-old kid who was shot dead by police. There are shades of similar killings here in North America, but the clashes in Paris have been occasionally more brutal, and the family of Paris' mayor were nearly victims themselves. Can France make it through their Black Lives Matter moment?
A Pierre to Remember? Something's changed about Pierre Poilievre. He's lost those nerdy glasses and the stuffy suit for something more relaxed, laid back, and dare we day, Trudeau-esque? Just in time for the summer barbeque season, there's a new Pierre on the block, but is it enough to make people forget the old Pierre, the one that spend most of the long weekend attacking Transportation Minister Omar Alghabra for talking about his sneakers in a CBC article?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to a place called Asteroid City, which is not an asteroid and it's not a city. It's also not a real place, but it does look like a lovely vacation spot, or a good place to kill a couple of hours in an air conditioned movie theatre. We will make those determinations, and we will also wrap up our Indiana Jones re-watch.
This Wednesday, June 28, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Run the Series: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. We wrap up our Indiana Jones re-watch with the most controversial entry (yet?). Nearly 20 years after The Last Crusade, the clouds parted and all parties were able to get on the same page for a long-awaited fourth entry, but it didn't go according to plan. Remember, "nuke the fridge"? Remember Shia LaBeouf in Marlon Brando cosplay? Well, maybe it's not as bad as you remember it. We'll find out.
REVIEW: Asteroid City (2023). This is a Wes Anderson movie so you've got to expect a couple of things: a large cast of Hollywood stars, numerous members of the Anderson rep company, an Alexandre Desplat score, highly complex and methodical mise-en-scène, and a health dose of nostalgia. Anderson's brand is so recognizable that there's a cottage industry of A.I.-generated spoofs, but you can't beat the original and even Anderson seems aware that he needs to shake things up get ahead of the wags with Asteroid City. Does it work though?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
For decades, Crime Stoppers has offered itself as a kind of investigative middleman: If you didn’t want to go to the police yourself for whatever reason, you could leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers and they would pass it along. Our local Crime Stoppers is admittedly pretty successful at what they do, and they have the awards and statistics to prove it, but what's their role 35 years from where they started?
When Crime Stoppers began in the 1970s it was radical in a number of ways. They would offer awards for information about crimes in the area, and they could also offer anonymity for the people leaving the tips if the tipster was worried about becoming a target for retaliation by sharing information. Another unique feature of the program was those TV recreations, which brought the crime to life to jog the memories of potential witnesses.
Here in Guelph and Wellington County, our Crime Stoppers branch was incorporated in 1988 and in the last 35 years it has collected over 23,000 tips which has led to 1,600 arrests for over 4,500 charges. In recent years, Crime Stoppers has extended themselves to make people more knowledgeable about crimes before they happen, like fraud and human trafficking, and like all the work Crime Stoppers does, it's paid for through their own fundraising efforts, not through the police budget.
This week, we're joined by one of two staff members at Crime Stoppers Guelph Wellington, program co-ordinator Sarah Bowers-Peter. She will tell us about how she got involved with Crime Stoppers, and how the organization has changed over the years. She will also talk about how Crime Stoppers works with groups beyond the police, and how they’ve been affected by the changing media landscape. Also, she will discuss Crime Stoppers expansion into other types of programming.
So let's take a bit out of crime (sorry, wrong program) on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Crime Stoppers at their website, and that’s where you can find the details about the Crime of the Week, and details about various Crime Stoppers programs like Crime Stoppers 101 and Human Trafficking. To make an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers call 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), or email at info [at] csgw.tips.
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.
Photo courtesy of Crime Stoppers Guelph Wellington.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're not phoning it in before the long weekend. There are some very serious issues that we need to shed a light on, including that was-it-a-coup-attempt in Russia last weekend that might have changed the game. And speaking of changing the game, is Canada about to be serviced by one big newspaper company? What about the fate of local news? In the back half of the show, nothing major, just the state of our emergency rooms in Canada.
This Thursday, June 29, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Man Who Coup Too Much. Over the weekend, the mercenary Wagner Group marched across Russia towards Moscow in what looked like the opening moves of a coup d'état and then, just as swiftly as it began, Wagner's leader (and former hot dog peddler) Yevgeny Prigozhin decided to call the whole thing off. So what happened? Are we really supposed to believe that Vladimir Putin's favourite puppet Aleksandr Lukashenko brokered a deal? And what happens next on the frontlines in Ukraine?
Stop Local. A little more than a week after they cut 1,300 jobs and shuttered bureaus around the world, Bell Media sent a letter to the CRTC asking them to review the requirement to have their local TV stations produce local news. These requirements have existed since the dawn of commercial television, but now Bell thinks that local news is a lemon that they want to get rid of. Following Bill C-18, and the announcement that the Toronto Star maybe merging with Postmedia, can anything save local news?
The Old Department. It's been one of the worst kept secrets that emergency departments at Canada's hospitals are in trouble. COVID-19 turbo charged the issues they were facing, and in a post-COVID world, hospitals are dealing with staff burnout coupled with constant high levels of activity that fall outside the normal patterns. Then, last week, Dr. Catherine Varner wrote in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that not only are the problems in Canada's E.R.'s persistent, they're going to continue for the foreseeable future. She's going to tell is all about why.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we have wedding bell blues. Well, not us necessarily, but the heroines of this week's film do. In this episode, we watch a movie that takes us to one of those most ordinary of summer activities, going to a wedding. We're watching Polite Society, a hit from this year's Sundance Film Festival. Also, we've got another Indiana Jones to talk about.
This Wednesday, June 28, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Run the Series: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. At the end of this week, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opens in a theatre near you, and it's supposed to be the last Indiana Jones ever. But there was once another last Indiana Jones, and it was fittingly called The Last Crusade. It's got more Nazis, the ultimate MacGuffin in the Holy Grail, and Sean Connery as Indy's dad, and this week we'll take a look back and this fan favourite entry in the series.
REVIEW: Polite Society (2023). June is peak wedding season, so why not end the month with a nice wedding movie? A story about sisters struggling to observe tradition while balancing their modern ambitions, as wannabe stunt woman Ria has to deal with her sister Lena's upcoming wedding to a handsome young doctor. Are Ria's concerns that her big sister is throwing away her life valid, or is there really something sinister afoot on this supposedly happy occasion? The resulting action dramedy redefines what it means to be a wedding crasher, but is it for the best?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Coming out of the pandemic, the future of sports and recreation has been top of mind because we were all encouraged to get outdoors during the lockdowns. It was the safest, and in some cases only, way to interact with other people and even in these non-lockdown times we’re still jonesing for outdoor experiences. That brings us to the Good Games. Can Guelph be a sports destination in these very sporty times?
Originally called the Guelph Games, the Good Games were all set to go for their inaugural event with athletes coming in from all over Canada and around the world in Summer 2020, and then something happened that spring. The first Good Games were delayed by two years thanks to COVID-19, and while the first games last summer were a bit smaller than originally intended, they definitely made an impression.
The Good Games arrive this year as the City of Guelph is reviewing the Parks and Recreation Master Plan, as the City is also reviewing the development of a tourism and place making strategy, and as the leaders of various sporting groups in Guelph are organizing as an activist body. Those political issues are out of the scope of the Good Games, but you can’t say that it doesn’t play into the consideration of those issues. So as the Good Games get set for their second year, we ask the question: How big can it get?
To answer that, and other questions, we're joined by Good Games president and CEO Helen Stoumbos and chief marketing officer Mike F. Jean. They will talk about how the Games evolved during and since the pandemic, how the Games hope to appeal to even the non-sporty among us, and what the Good Games can tells us about the appeal of Guelph for sports tourism. They will also tell you how you might be able to get involved as we count down to Games' days and what you can expect from this year's events.
So let's talk about why these Games are so Good on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The Good Games take place on Saturday July 8 and Sunday July 9 at the University of Guelph, and to learn more about the events and activities and how to get involved, go to the website. You can also follow the Good Games on Facebook and Twitter, or on Instagram.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're in a summer mood, but there's no time to relax because there's a lot going on! First, we have to talk about the loud and growing group of people that want to deny history, and speaking of history, might Toronto be on the brink of electing its first female immigrant person of colour mayor? We're not here to tell the future, but our local MPP will be here to talk about the recent past in the interview.
This Thursday, June 22, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Jewel of Denial. Kimberly Murray, the independent special interlocutor for the search for unmarked graves, delivered a report last week outlining several challenges and one of the biggest is the "increase in the violence of denialism." A concerted effort is underway to pretend that the atrocities at Canada's residential schools didn't happen despite the mound of evidence to the contrary, so we have to interrupt this National Indigenous History Month to talk about why people want to erase those dark chapters.
Chow You See Me. And you may be seeing more of Olivia Chow if the polls turn out to be true! The former city councillor and Member of Parliament is all but assured victory in the Toronto Mayoral byelection Monday, and this despite all the salt in her game these last few days with former campaign rivals John Tory and Doug Ford both endorsing other candidates. Leaving aside the fact that she still has to win on Monday, what might the future look like for "Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow"?
And Just Mike That... The Ontario Legislature rose for the summer last week, and that means Premier Doug Ford may be too busy at the cottage to blow up the regular order for a couple of months. As we stop to catch our breath, we're joined by Guelph MPP and Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner to talk about the first year of this term, trying to influence the government on his own housing ideas, and the provincial response to the wild fire smoke that's settled over much of Ontario this month.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
Editor's Note: If you're a residential school survivor, or are a victim of the inter-generational trauma caused by residential schools, you can seek help for your pain and distress 24 hours a day by calling the National Indian Residential School Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419.
This week on End Credits, after 301 episodes, we found the film that perfectly encapsulates the aesthetic of this show: we like movies. This week, we go for something Canadian with the coming of age story I Like Movies, and we continue on with our re-visit through the Indiana Jones series with the second of five entries. See, we do like movies!
This Wednesday, June 21, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Run the Series: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. As we continue the countdown to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, we visit one of the most controversial entries in the series. Set in 1935, this dark adventure finds Indiana Jones and his companions searching for magic stones at a legendary palace in India and along the way flirts with some pretty racist tropes. But looking back nearly 40 years, how does Temple stand in the series, and as its own entry?
REVIEW: I Like Movies (2023). The scene is Burlington, ON sometime in the early 2000s, and Lawrence likes movies. He wants to go to NYU film school, and he starts working at a video store to save up to pay for it. It's his last year of high school, things are strained with is friend Matt and his mom, and he might be falling in love with his manager at the video store. Chandler Levack's coming-of-age comedy/drama hits all the highlights of the genre, but in a deeply personal and very-Canadian package. Here's the question though, do we like I Like Movies?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Last Friday, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark announced that so-called Strong Mayor powers were being extended to 26 of Ontario's biggest cities, including Guelph. The move was not shocking, and going back to the original announcement last summer, it had indeed been promised, but it was kind of surprising that Guelph's mayor was there, on stage with the minister, for the announcement.
But the surprises didn't stop there. Many local media outlets, including Guelph Politico, sought out comment from Guthrie about the announcement and how he felt about being bestowed with Strong Mayor powers. The hope for this publication was to dedicate this episode of pod to a conversation with the mayor about it, but like other outlets, we were told that Mayor Guthrie was unavailable.
In another universe, you would hear Guthrie's answers to questions like whether he was at the press conference merely because he was the past Chair of the Ontario Big City Mayors, or whether this was an endorsement of the powers? Also, has his opinion about the powers changed in the last several months? Does he intend to use those Strong Mayor powers? In what circumstance will he use them?
In lieu of any new audio, we pop into the archive to find other times that Mayor Guthrie has commented on the Strong Mayor powers, and other provincial changes, to determine where he might land on the issue now. You will hear a speech he gave at a council meeting last September where council passed a motion condemning Strong Mayor powers, a November interview on Open Sources Guelph post-election, and the State of the City speech early this year.
So let’s talk about strong mayors and their powers on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
There's going to be a special meeting of city council on Tuesday July 11 to discuss an Official Plan amendment to delegate authority to City staff to approve minor Zoning Bylaw Amendments. That agenda will be posted on the City's council calendar sometime in Thursday June 29. You can read Mayor Guthrie's full statement about the expansion of Strong Mayor powers 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're looking for reading material. Let's go to the bathroom where, naturally, you keep all your state secrets! Speaking of secrets we'll talk about the ongoing efforts to wrap our head around election interference in the last two Canadian elections, and then we'll head to the U.S. where a certain Florida Man is making trouble again. For the interview, we've got someone local with something to celebrate.
This Thursday, June 15, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Gone-ston in 60 Seconds. And just like that, David Johnston fired himself. After weeks of pounding by all the opposition parties, Johnston decided to give up being rapporteur as a bad job, and the questions persists about where the investigation into Chinese election interference goes now. While Parliament sorts that out, there are bigger questions about how MPs are told that they're targets of influence campaigns by foreign governments, or why they're not told. So what's next?
It's Only a Paper Boon. For the second time this year, Donald Trump was indicted, arrested and arraigned in a U.S. court, but this time it might be the most serious of all. After months of investigation by the special counsel Jack Smith, Trump was hit with 37 charges around his treatment of classified materials and the game of cat and mouse he allegedly played to keep them out of the hands of the FBI and the National Archivist. So is this finally the end for Trump?
Caton to Exhale. It's Pride Month, and it's quite the cause for celebration here in Guelph. We just opened our first official rainbow crosswalk, and our city council has it's first non-binary representative in the form of Ward 1 Councillor Erin Caton. We're going to talk about taking pride in Pride, and we're also going to talk about the housing issue in Guelph and whether council is any closer to finding real solutions now six months after the start of the term. On top of that, we'll access Caton's techy side to talk about the use of A.I. in government services.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going in several different directions. It's almost like there's more than one of us, or perhaps there should be. Speaking of multiplicity, the movie we're reviewing this week is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which features a spider-cast of thousands, and since we're talking about legends, we're going to take a closer look at another franchise.
This Wednesday, June 14, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Run the Series: Raiders of the Lost Ark. At the end of the month, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will be released in theatres everywhere. To mark the occasion, we're going to spend the next several weeks of the show re-visiting the first four movies in the series, starting with the 1981 original Raiders of the Lost Ark. Does Raiders still hold up as one of the greatest adventure films ever, and how does it influence us today? We'll take another look.
REVIEW: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023). It's been five years since Miles Morales took his first big screen spin as the Amazing Spider-Man in Into the Spider-Verse. In the sequel, Miles returns, and so do many of his spider-friends. In fact, you might say all the Spider-Men, and Women, turn up in Across the Spider-Verse as Miles struggles to understand and accept his place in the panoply of Spider-People from across the multi-verse. This sequel has already done some major bank at the box office, but does it satisfy every Spider-fan in this universe?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
You may know Mike Ashkewe. You might have read his insightful columns at the Guelph Mercury Tribune, or you might have heard him on the radio talking about video games and pop culture, or you might have seen him serve as vice-chair of the Accessibility Advisory Committee, or you may have run into him when he was volunteering at Chalmers downtown. But do you really know Mike Ashkewe?
As you may have already guessed, Mike Ashkewe is the guest of this week's podcast. He's perhaps a kindred spirit between how many pies he has fingers and the way he manages a a love of politics with an obsession with popular culture. He approaches his activism with an optimistic spirit that always looks on the bright side, like his recent column “Exploring Guelph's accessible parks, trails, splash pads and more”, which celebrates Guelph for its level of accessibility.
Of course, Ashkewe's had a lot to overcome. Like a lot of survivors of the generational trauma resulting from our treatment of Canada’s First Naitons, Ashkewe came late to his Indigenous heritage. He lost his leg a few years ago, which made him aware of the barriers to people with disabilities on a first hand basis. Ever adaptable though, he’s used his experience to advocate for both these communities, while sometimes breaking for a video game or doing a podcast!
That brings us to this week's show, where Ashkewe will tell us about how he manages that busy work schedule, how he started getting political, and the personal value of not being known for that one thing. He will also talk about the personal impact of his activism, how it feels to be recognized on the street, and how he maintains optimism while making sure that he doesn't burn himself out. Also, we may need to talk to Ashkewe about his obsession with buying toy cars that turn into toy robots.
So let's talk about politics, activism, and Transformers on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can read Mike Ashkewe's columns at the Guelph Mercury Tribune, you can find his nerdy content at This Week in Geek, and you can follow him on social media at BirdmanDodd on Twitter, Instagram, and Tik Tok. Also, Guelph will mark the National Celebration of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples on Wednesday June 21 at 5:30 pm at the bandshell in Riverside Park.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, all we've got are the issues. In this jam-packed news week, we will head to Toronto where some renters have had enough of being held upside-down and shaken till their pennies fall out, and speaking of accommodation, we have to talk about the new digs for Canada's most well-known prisoner. In the back half of the show we're looking at bigotry, the type being suffered by our LGBTQ+ friends and the type being perpetuated some some religious extremists.
This Thursday, June 8, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Suffer Rental. Two different buildings in Toronto have launched rent strikes in recent weeks as a response to their landlords' request to raise the rent beyond what's automatically allowable by the Government of Ontario. Now we all know that the rent is too damn high, and we all know that we're in a housing crisis, but here's the thing, the landlords know it too, which is why no matter how high the rent is, they know someone will pay. Are these strikes the beginning of a trend?
Paul in Cell Block 99. News that Paul Bernardo had been moved to a medium security prison was exactly as controversial as you might have expected it to be. Bernardo is perhaps the most notorious serial killer ever produced in Canada, and the idea that he would have a standard of incarceration even slightly better than a dark hole in the ground is understandably abominable to most people. Having said that though, has the media and political reaction been commensurate to the situation?
Eyes Pride Shut. This week, it was announced that the federal government is offering $1.5 million for Pride Month events to increase security. This year's Pride festivities are being held under the cloud of new waves of homophobia, and especially transphobia, and the concern is that online confrontations might turn into something more violent IRL. Can Pride organizers fight the wave of online-driven hate, and what is the role of LGBTQ+ allies to help them?
More Church in the Wild. A recent report on CBC's Frontburner podcast dived into the world of Christian fundamentalism in Canada. These churches started radicalizing during the pandemic against masking, lockdowns and other public health measures, and now they seem united against LGBTQ+ people, abortion, and left-wing politics in general. Now there's an organized efforts to get these people into government, so it begs the question: How worried should we be?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we have cause for celebration. Some how, we've now cranked out 300 episodes of this local movie show for local movie fans, and on this distinguished occasion, we're giving our listeners the present. Congratulations, you are about to listen to the biggest draft any movie show has ever done as we look back at some of our greatest hits!
This Wednesday, June 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Candice Lepage, Peter Salmon and Tim Phillips will discuss:
300! Is this is madness? No, this is the 300th episode of the show! It was six years ago this week that we sat down and produced episode one of End Credits. It wasn't the first movie show ever produced, but it was the Guelphiest, and to mark 299 episodes completed so far, we're this week joined by the entire panel for the End Credits 300th Episode Draft! From the some 280-plus reviews done on this show, the cast will each draw five movies from five different categories that represent some of our best memories. This. Is. SPAR-TA!!!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The business of managing the City of Guelph goes beyond the confines of the council chambers, so starting this year Guelph Politico has expanded its meeting coverage to nine local boards and shared services committees. It's five months now, and a lot of different business has been done in those first five months, so we're going to stop and use this podcast to do a high-level overview.
These are the regular meetings that Guelph Politico covers: the Accessibility Advisory Committee, Committee of Adjustment, the Grand River Conservation Authority membership, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Board of Health, Heritage Guelph, the Guelph Public Library Board of Directors, the Guelph Police Services Board, Wellington County Social Services Committee, and the Transit Advisory Committee.
Now this is not a complete list of the existing committees, but they are arguably the most important ones. Some of them manage ratepayers' money that funds these services, but they all have a bearing on policy and planning and other directives at the City of Guelph. Often, before you see something brought to council, it's been raked over the hot coals of once of these committees, and covering them helps gives us a broader picture of how the proverbial sausage is made.
In that spirit we will look at some of that business from the first five months of 2023 including Public Health's re-calibration to get back to regular order now that the pandemic is officially over and the growing controversy around separating big plots of land at Committee of Adjustment. We will also look at how the Accessibility Advisory Committee has been using its authority, the growing need to recognize the library as a social service agency, and the rapid pace of structural changes at the GRCA.
So let's look at what's been happening at some of the local committees and boards on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can stay up to date about the latest doings at various local boards and committees by clicking that tab at the top of the Guelph Politico site (or by clicking here). Many committees will be taking the summer off after June, but it will be back to business as usual for everyone when September begins.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we will usher in meteorological summer by casting some sunshine on key issues. For instance, there was an election this week in Alberta and it was a close one (relatively speaking in a Alberta terms), and there was more election talk in the House of Common as nobody's happy with the former Governor General investigating interference. Also, since it's summer, let's talk about farming!
This Thursday, June 1, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Ms. Smith Goes Back to Edmonton. For those hoping that the Danielle Smith premiership of Alberta was going to be short-lived, we're here to report that she just got four more years! While Rachel Notley and the NDP made impressive gains, adding 15 seats to their roster, they ultimately fell six short of unseating the United Conservative Party from government. So where does the Wildrose Province go from here, and what will Smith and Notley do next?
The End of the Rapporteur. Last week, former Governor General David Johnston delivered his first report as the official rapporteur investigating Chinese election interference in the last two federal elections, and that was the end of the story. Come on! Of course that wasn't the end of the story!! All opposition party are questioning Johnston's determination that no public inquiry is needed, and more MPs are being identified as targets of the interference in question, so now what happens?
Farmers' Target. A few weeks ago, a collection or organizations representing Ontario farmers released a joint statement to announce their displeasure with the Ford government's Bill 97. One of the provisos that the coalition was worried about was making it easier to turn large parcels of farmland into ready to develop smaller portions for housing, and considering that Ontario is losing about 319 acres of farmland everyday already, you can probably see the urgency. This week, we're joined by Drew Spoelstra, vice president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, to talk about the issue, and how they coalition might have gotten the government to change their mind.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we head into the beautiful and forever sky. No, we're not dying, but we are going back to space with the latest edition of the Guardians of the Galaxy, who are now up to Volume 3. Along with that, we will talk about remakes, which despite what you heard are not always terrible. All this as we take one last ride before getting to 300 episodes!
This Wednesday, May 24, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Fake it Till You Remake It. This past weekend, The Little Mermaid opened in theatres everywhere, the latest in Disney's long line of live-action remakes. Now some people say that all remakes are terrible and the very idea of remaking films is bad, but you know what was a remake? 1941's The Maltese Falcon and 1956's The Ten Commandments! So this week, we will look at the panoply of remakes from the good to the bad to the sorta okay.
REVIEW: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). Excluding crossovers, the last time the Guardians of the Galaxy were on the big screen was 2017's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. A lot's changed for the Guardians, and for the movie audience in the meantime, including a new job for filmmaker James Gunn at Marvel's distinguished competition. For now, we've got one last ride with this crew of Guardians which finds them facing off against a typical comic book megalomaniac and the secret origins of a fan favourite character, so do the Guardians deliver one last time?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
June 1 marks the start of meteorological summer and that sunny and warm weather makes you want to go into the water. You’re also - hopefully - putting on sunscreen in order to reduce the risk of skin cancer, but in the last few years there’s been some reason to question whether sunscreen is as safe for our waterways even while it protects you from UV light. Should everyone still be free to wear sunscreen?
In fall 2020 there was a study out of the University of Alberta that suggested that the active ingredients found in sunscreen have detrimental effects on freshwater ecosystems. The researchers exposed water fleas, Daphnia magna to be more precise, to three common ingredients in sunscreen and the results showed that exposure to ultraviolet filters (UVFs) over a 48-hour period prevented the fleas from navigating through their environment.
This was kind of a big deal. Other studies showed that ultraviolet filters were having an effect on very sensitive sea water life forms like coral, but these are water fleas, one of the most common creatures found in almost every freshwater everywhere; if they’re feeling the effects of sunscreen ingredients leaching from people’s skin, then what is the total environmental impact from UVFs? That same team has been working on answering that question, and they recently released new findings.
The lead author of both studies, Aaron Boyd, is the guest on this week's podcast. Boyd's a grad student and researcher in the Department of Biology at the University of Alberta, and he will tell you about the ingredients in sunscreen, the difference between studying the effects of sunscreen in salt water versus freshwater, and why Daphnia magna are the chosen test subjects for these experiments. Also, where will the research go next and is it okay to wear sunscreen without killing a lake?
So let's talk about sunscreen on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
This is a link to an article on the University of Alberta for the original 2020 study and this link will take you to an article about the latest research. For the scientifically literate, you can read the original research paper published in the March issue of the Journal of Hazardous Materials. TL;DR - It’s definitely okay to wear sunscreen while you’re out there having summer fun. Don’t leave home without it.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're city folk! Municipal matters are top of mind on this edition of the show, as we look at independence day for three Ontario cities, and then that election to fill the vacant mayor's seat in Canada's biggest city. In the back half of the show, we will once again serve in our essential roll as the mandatory stop for all local Green Party candidates who want to get elected!
This Thursday, May 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Final a-Peel. The Ontario government announced last week that Peel is over. The region will be dissolved on January 1, 2025 as Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon become their own independent municipalities. Not a bad present for Doug Ford to give Bonnie Crombie on the eve of her announced bid to run the Ontario Liberals, but the question now is how much more meddling with municipalities is going to tale place in Ontario these next three years?
DeepStar 6ix. The Toronto mayoral by-election is entering its final month of campaigning, and from all appearances right now it seems like it's Olivia Chow's to lose. At the very least, there are about five or six likely mayors in the field of 102 (!!) and they're facing off in a couple of different debates this week. Candidates are also throwing out policy fast and furiously so what can we expect in the final couple of weeks of this election, and can anyone consolidate enough support to take on Chow?
Clancy Dance. Earlier this year, Kitchener Centre MPP Laura Mae Lindo announced that she would be stepping down at the end of the spring session, which means a by-election will be coming up the road sometime in the next couple of months. The Green Party has gotten ahead of things, buoyed by the local success of the Two Mikes (Morrice and Schreiner), and have acclaimed Kitchener councillor Aislinn Clancy as their nominee. This week, we'll talk to Clancy about being the first one in the race, why she wants to make a move to Queen's Park, and the potential fate of Waterloo Region under the current government.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we play to win. Completing the trifecta of recent brand origin stories at the cinema, we come around to the video game that made Game Boy and put Russia on the map as a video game maker. Yup, we're reviewing Tetris, and in honour of that big action movie that came out this weekend, we've got to say something about the art of the car chase.
This Wednesday, May 24, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Coup de Chase. In honour of this past weekend's release of Fast X, and also - interestingly enough - the climax of Tetris, we're going to talk about car chases. The car chase is a well-worn staple of action cinema, when one-person chasing another on foot isn't big enough, they hop into cars, onto motorcycles, and, in some rare cases, a subway train or flying vehicle. This week, we tick off a list of some of our favourite movie (mostly) car chases.
REVIEW: Tetris (2023). Joining the recent trend of brand origin stories is this film about the video game that made handheld gaming consoles, and ended the Cold War (?). Tetris follows a game programmer played by Taron Egerton who has to out hustle billionaires, middle men and the KGB to get the rights to the famous Russian game about lining up falling four-piece blocks. Complications ensue? You bet! There's not doubt that there's a lot of dramatic aggrandizement with Tetris, but can you still enjoy this embellished-from-a-true-story story?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
We’re coming up on the end of the first year of the Ford government’s second term, and it’s been a highly consequential year if you work in one of Ontario's 444 municipalities. At times, it felt like there was an announcement every week about some change to how cities conduct oversight or run their own planning processes. It's enough to make you ask, "what will happen next?" and last week we got the answer.
It’s called Bill 112, the Hazel McCallion Act, and it will turn the three municipalities in Peel Region into three independent entities: Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon. On the surface, this kind of makes sense; Mississauga is Canada’s sixth biggest city, and Brampton is the ninth; on the other hand, interfering with Ontario cities has seemed to be the Ford government’s raison d’etre, and now it's being done in the name of solving the provincial housing crisis.
Housing is supposedly the reason for a lot of these changes, from Bill 23 to the dissolution of Peel Region. It's the idea that government red tape is getting in the way of more housing starts, and if more government equals more red tape, then getting rid of government should make it easier to get houses built. Is the tangled web of municipal governance in Ontario really the source of all our housing troubles?
We put this hypothesis to the test this week with Andrew Sancton, a professor emeritus of Political Science at University of Western Ontario. He's going to talk about the history of municipal governance in Ontario, and how we ended up with regional governments in some places. He will also talk about whether or not the time has come to give cities more autonomy, and what may come from the pending review of the other regional governments in Ontario, even after they already did one.
So let's talk about the supposed problem with local governance on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Bill 112 has passed first reading but there’s just two weeks left in the spring sitting of the Legislature, so it may not get passed before the house rises on June 8. The Government of Ontario has set the date of January 1, 2025 as the first day of an independent Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon. An announcement will be coming soon about the appointment of regional facilitators to assess other regional governments.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we go back into the internet toilet. Yay? No, not yay, because we've got to tackle the increasing craziness of Canada's own version of U.S. culture wars (passports, anyone?), and then speaking of sewers we have to get back into the mind of a former game show host/con artist who was once the leader of the free world. For the interview this week, good news! An exemplar of the ways that labour organizing still matters.
This Thursday, May 18, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Prêt-à-Passport. It's been a strange week in Canada. The reveal last week of the newly designed passport erupted into a full blown controversy because images of Terry Fox and Vimy Ridge were replaced with image of bears and people skating. Confused? It's just the Canadian version of the stupid culture wars drowning American politics, like these new F**k Trudeau "parties" in Canadian Tire parking lots. Is there anyway we can pull the plug on this kind of silliness?
Town Hall Pass. Last week, CNN - "America's news leader" - held a Bund meeting on live TV. Former U.S. President Donald Trump, somehow still the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president, was invited to take part in a so-called town hall where he lied about the 2020 election, defamed a women he was found guilty of sexually abusing, and called the host a "nasty person". So it begs the question, did the U.S. mainstream media learn anything from the last eight years?
Union Specific. Earlier this month, it was announced that a Starbucks in Uptown Waterloo had successfully organized under the United Steelworkers union, which is a first for a Starbucks here in Ontario. There's a growing demand for union representation in the service industry, which has long be able to block labour organizing on the ground through various "union busting" tactics, including Starbucks. But labour won this round, and in this week's interview we're joined by organizers Jaymi and Kale who will tell us how they did it.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we'll BBM you. Are you old enough to remember BBM? Maybe it doesn't matter because the direct messaging app between BlackBerry devices is a minor plot point in the new film about the titular device. This week, we're going to review the new true Canadian story, BlackBerry, and talk about other movies about fights overs technology.
This Wednesday, May 17, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Tech Wars. This week's movie is about the human conflict that's created as a result of technological innovation. Sometimes these movies are about man versus machine, but sometimes it also means man versus man over the machine. Then, there are the stories about how man's faith in machines is his undoing, and when you add all this up, it means you get the movies of the pre-review segment on this week's show as we dig into, "Tech Wars"
REVIEW: BlackBerry (2023). Around the turn of the 21st century, a Waterloo company became the centre of the tech universe when the device they created changed telecommunications forever. They called it the Blackberry, both fans and critics called it the "CrackBerry" and for the better part of a decade, if you had a smartphone, it was probably from the finest minds in K-W. This period of time's now been captured in BlackBerry, the amazing rise and stunning fall of a made-in-Canada success story. But is the made-in-Canada film about it any good?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
If you’ve ever been downtown on a Friday night from November to April, then you know how much of the action is centralized around the Sleeman Centre. The Guelph Storm have been a local institution since their inaugural season in 1994, a Friday night beacon for Royal City hockey fans, so in honour of all that, we’ll talk to the man who turned the Dukes of Hamilton into Guelph’s team.
Mike Kelly became the first general manager of the Guelph Storm in 1991, and by the 1994-95 season the team finished first in the OHL, which was an accomplishment that won him the distinction of being voted the OHL Executive of the Year. Two years later, the Storm made it to their first ever Memorial Cup though they ended up losing the OHL Championship. The Peterborough Petes won that year, but they were also hosting the Cup.
Kelly moved on from the Storm in 1997 for different gigs in the OHL, and overseas with the Alleghe Hockey Club in Italy, but he came back to Guelph in 2010 where he helped lead the team to one more OHL championship and Memorial Cup appearance in 2014. He retired from hockey completely in 2017 but he took to the ice at the Sleeman Centre last month to be honoured after the announcement that we was joining the Guelph Sports Hall of Fame with four other local sports legends.
But for our purposes, we're focusing on Kelly, who talks to us about how it feels to end up in his second Hall of Fame, and how his two loves, hockey and education, informed everything he's done in his career. He will also talk about his best day as the Storm’s general manager, and the worst day. Plus, did he know which Storm players would go on to have a future in hockey, and how did he manage it when it turns out they didn’t? Also, does he still follow the Storm in retirement?
So let's talk about local hockey history on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The 2023 Guelph Sports Hall of Fame Induction and Kiwanis Sports Celebrity Dinner is tonight, Wednesday May 17, at the Italian Canadian Club. All of this year’s inductees will then be immortalized on the wall at the Sleeman Centre with all current members of the Hall of Fame, and you can learn more about the Hall here. The Guelph Storm are done for the season, but you can stay connected to the team 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, 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.
This week's Open Sources Guelph is a down affair. What else can you say when China is making trouble again for Canadian politicians, and when things are getting so bad that making Canadians pay extra for the "privilege" of watching Fox News just isn't enough anymore. And if these two topics aren't a big enough bummer, we're going to round out the show with some discussion about animal abuse for human amusement. Sadly, it's just another Thursday in this timeline.
This Thursday, May 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
China Breach. Foreign interference in Canada was back on the front page this week, a Globe & Mail article detailed how Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong and his family were apparently targeted for retaliation after he led the charge to condemn the Uyghur genocide in China. Now a tit-for-tat game of expelling diplomats has begun, which is raising concerns about diplomatic relations with China, and also raising questions about who knows what when it comes to MP safety. So what's next?
Fox on the Run. Egale Canada has launched a campaign to have Fox News wiped from Canadian airwaves for repeated anti-LGBTQ+ commentary. Now, unlike the U.S., you have to pay extra to get Fox in Canada, it doesn't come standard in your cable package, but a lot of people in Canada are still exposed to the madness through social media and other means. So can Canada really purge itself of Fox, and if it can, will it have any impact on the threats to safety for Canada's queer community?
The Whale Moonlight. Reports emerged this week that a beluga whale and bottlenose dolphin both died on the premises of Marineland in Niagara Falls, and this comes after the March passing of Kiska, the last living orca in captivity in Canada. The culture has not been kind to Marineland over the last decade, but three animal deaths in the last two months is not a great look when your business is a family friend animal performance venue. This week, we're joined by Camille Labchuk, the executive director of Animal Justice, to talk about this and other animal welfare issues.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we grow up. Not that this is an immature enterprise, but there are some serious big-time adult issues that we have to discuss about the entertainment business, and then the movie of the week is also about growing up. We're reviewing Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. and we're also going to talk about Hollywood's present labour strife.
This Wednesday, May 3, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Walk the Line. Last week, the members of the Writers' Guild of America went on strike, which means, for the time being, no one's working on scripts in Hollywood. At issue are a couple of things: changes to the TV business including more outlets and shorter seasons, plus the arrival of A.I. which can help penny-pinching studios cut some corners. Before the review this week, we'll break down the details and talk about why this strike matters.
REVIEW: Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. (2023). In 1970, Judy Blume published a book that captured on the page what it's like for a young woman to go though puberty and deal with all the biological and sociological issues that come with it. Now, 53 years later, Edge of Seventeen filmmaker Kelly Fremon Craig has turned it into a movie, but the story's the same: Young Margaret deals with issues of growing up, liking boys, and finding her faith in a very eventful year in one of the most relatable coming-of-age stories ever told. But does it make a good movie?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
There are about 1,700 food-based businesses across the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph region, and they all get regularly inspected, but sometimes accidents happen, just like it did last month at a luncheon for International Women’s Day at an Orangeville hotel and conference centre. We've made it through the COVID-19 health emergency, but what happens when the health crisis is something we ate?
On March 8th, Family Transition Place in Orangeville held their annual International Women’s Day Celebration Luncheon, and for the first time in three years it was in-person. The venue was the Best Western Plus Orangeville Inn & Suites, the number of guests was in the neighbourhood of 244, and at some point during the event, people started getting sick.
By 2:30 that afternoon, the reports started coming in. People were sick with various symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, and nausea and the likely source was something they ate at the luncheon, food prepared by an outside caterer used by the hotel. In all, 88 people said that they experienced symptoms, and eventually the culprit was identified as Bacillus cereus. It was on the quinoa and sweet potato in the chicken bowl, but how did Public Health put it all together?
Paul Medeiros, who is a Manager of Environmental Health at Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, will walk us step-by-step through the investigative process, from the reporting, to the investigation, to the testing, and the conclusions. We will talk about the ways that Public Health prepares for these crises, whether there’s more general awareness about public health in these now post-pandemic times, and how new food-based businesses are making the job of food inspectors harder. Plus, what happens next time?
So let's talk about investigating a lunch gone bad on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can check out Medeiros’ report in the May Board of Health meeting package at the Public Health website, or you can see Guelph Politico’s coverage of the meeting for the relevant links. Mangez!, Guelph Politico’s dine safe guide, still gets published at the first and 16th of every month, but if you just can’t wait, can see all the latest inspection results 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we would make a May the 4th joke, but we've got some serious stuff to discuss. First, there's a provincial election going in Alberta now, which is a pretty big deal, but what's happening in Sudan is even a bigger deal as violence and civil strife has erupted once again. In the second half of the show, we'll talk about issues around abortion here in Canada, and believe us there are some.
This Thursday, May 4, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Will Be Wild (Rose)! It began on Monday, the long-awaited showdown between United Conservative Party Premier Danielle Smith and the former NDP Premier Rachel Notley. At stake are two competing visions for Alberta, but it's tough to say how all this is going to end; has Smith's UCP become too extreme for the averagely conservative Albertan, or can that same voter hold their nose and support a little social progress in their provincial government? We have four weeks to answer that question.
Meanwhile in Sudan... No one's calling it a civil war, but it sure feels like it is. Political tensions with their roots in Sudan's last civil war has erupted again with violence across Darfur and in the capital city of Khartoum, humanitarian workers have been killed and a widespread evacuation of foreign nationals from the county is underway. It's a complicated story, so we will look at the roots of the current conflict, what's happening on the ground, and what's happening with the Sudanese people as foreigners flee.
Canada Has Abortion Issues Too. There's a lot of attention on abortion issues south of the border, but while no government or court is trying to get end the right to an abortion here in Canada, there's still a lot of anti-abortion activism, and some of it can be sneaky. This week, we're joined by Galya Bravo, a board member of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, who will talk about the problem with "crisis pregnancy centres" and how these unregulated clinics are backdooring abortion misinformation by appealing to pregnant people.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're going to go big or go home. Well, we're going to go big and then go home because why can't we do both? We're going to try this week with a very peculiar movie from one of our most peculiar directors right now, and since he's taking a gamble, we take a gamble too by talking about other directors that like to embrace risk.
This Wednesday, May 3, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Big Swings! This week's movie might be characterized as a big swing, meaning a director with clout who uses every bit of it on a movie that has a 50/50 chance of working out. Maybe that's the work of some British director who gets ahead of his American counterparts by two decades, and maybe that's the executive who bets his studio on some New Zealand's director's interpretation of a fantasy novel, but the thing they have in common is they're... big swings!
REVIEW: Beau is Afraid (2023). Ari Aster knows how to provoke an audience. He did it with Hereditary, he did it with Midsommar, and he's back again with Beau is Afraid, the story of man trying to get home. Joaquin Phoenix plays the titular Beau, who lives in a vaguely near future America in a horrible urban hellscape. And then his mother dies. If you don't think things can't get any worse for Beau, you've clearly never seen any Ari Aster movie because its obviously going to get worse. The question is whether or not we want to take the ride, so do we?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Sandwiched between May Day and Cinco de Mayo in the first week in May is Star Wars Day, May the 4th. It’s a portmanteau, “May the Force be with you” becomes May the 4th be with you. May the 4th. Star Wars is more than a good time at the movies for some people, but what drives someone to spend hours studying pictures and videos to figure out how to make movie accurate Stormtrooper costumes?
You can call what the 501st Legion does cosplay, but that’s actually too simplistic in their case because they have standards. Their costumes aren’t just sorta accurate, they are screen accurate and if you’re going to be an official member of the 501st Legion you have to measure up. Now it’s not a contest, the community is very welcoming and helpful if you want to join up, but the point is that these people take their fandom seriously.
The 501st is more than 4,000 members strong with garrisons across the U.S. and around the world, including the Canadian Garrison, which launched in 1999 and has over 200 active members. They show up at charity events, fundraisers, movie premieres, parades, promotional events, and conventions, and, as you can imagine, May the 4th is basically their Christmas. This week, we're joined by Santa.
Jim Sobota, who is the C.O. of the Canadian Garrison of the 501st Legion, will talk to us about how he got involved in the organization, and what he finds appealing about dressing up as a Stormtrooper. He also talk about the difficulty level making movie-accurate Star Wars costumes, and how various members choose the costumes they make. Also, Sobota discusses what type of event he would like to do but hasn’t done yet, and his favourite Star Wars movie or series.
So let's see if the Fourth is with us on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about the 501st Legion, go to their website. You will be able to see the Legion this week in-person on Thursday at the REC Room in Toronto, at the LEGO Store in Yorkdale on Friday, and at Heroes Cards and Comics in London and GNU Books in Oshawa on Saturday for Free Comic Book Day. The 501st Legion won't be there, but you can take part in Free Comic Book Day festivities at The Dragon in Downtown Guelph on Saturday.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're caught between the picket line and the receiving line. You may have heard that there's a strike going on right now, so we will talk about the labour issues therein, and after that we go to the other side and the crowning of a king, which apparently we're not all excited about. In the second half, we're going to talk about the future, and the past, with a member of Guelph City Council.
This Thursday, April 27, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Strike Back. The Public Service Alliance of Canada has been on strike for over a week now and there seems to be no sign of a resolution soon (unless there's some serious negotiating going on behind the scenes). The strike is about some of the usual stuff like wages, but the post-pandemic working environment is also at stake with people wanting to enshrine work from home and hybrid work options. Meanwhile, the strike comes at the end of tax season, so are Canadians just more concerned about their refund cheques?
Charles in Charge. Next week, King Charles III will take the throne of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland in a more discreetly garish coronation ceremony, but it seems like Canadians don't care. According to an Angus Reid poll, a bare majority of Canadians, 52 per cent, want to flirt with republicanism, and not even a third of Canadians say they have a favourable view of the King. So are Charles' days as king numbered before they even formally begin?
Five Alive! As usual, it's been a busy couple of weeks at city council; the Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw update was passed, the Ontario government returned a decision about the City's latest Official Plan, and they approved changes coming soon to the fare structures for Guelph Transit. Here to help us make sense of all this is Ward 5 Councillor Leanne Caron, who will join us to talk about all these important matters, and, as the unofficial Minister of Local Heritage, get us excited about Doors Open Guelph this weekend.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we light the match on summer. Yes, we know it's still April for a few more days, but in movie terms summer is almost here, and we have decide to celebrate in the only way that we can. So we'll draft! And for the movie this week we're going back to the stream for a comedy that is sending up the funniest time in human history: Medieval France!
This Wednesday, April 26, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
2023 Summer Movie Draft. Next week, the summer move season officially begins with the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 so you know what that means? It's time to get excited about the movies that we're going to be fed up with by the time September gets here! This week, we draft our summer movie picks in the realm of comedy, drama, franchise, action/horror and, as always, the wildcard. Join us to see who makes the cut this summer.
REVIEW: Quasi (2023). The Broken Lizard gang is back... In time! The guys who made Super Troopers and Freeloaders had expanded their oeuvre into what can nominally be called an adaptation of the Victor Hugo classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This time, you can call the titular Hunchback Quasi, and through a series of misunderstandings he finds himself caught between the King of France and the Pope and their quests to get rid of each other. Can Quasi get himself out of this tough medieval jam, and can he do it while making us laugh?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
If it’s the end of April, then it’s time for the Workers’ Day of Mourning. For 40 years, workers across the country have stopped to remember those who lost their lives on the job and to inspire workers to fight to prevent further tragedies. It's widely considered a rare opportunity to make a point that only sometimes penetrates our common narrative: Are all workplaces as healthy and safe as they could be, and are they equally safe for everyone?
According to the WSIB Ontario, the number one workplace injury in 2021 and 2022 was sprains and strains. The second? COVID-19. CUPE Ontario notes that workers are “facing increased pressure to ‘get back to normal’”, and interestingly, workers have gotten “back to normal” in one very specific and disappointing way according to the WSIB... There were 255,318 claims in 2022, which is about 2,000 short of the 10-year high in 2019, right before the start of COVID.
In the wake of the pandemic, which despite what you may have heard is still not technically over, the pressure on workers, and the pressure to look out for their own health and safety, is immense. Staffing pressures are forcing workers to put in more hours, and increased workloads make it harder to focus on the so-called little things, like whether the work your doing is dangerous, or even if you’re qualified to do it. And what ever happened to 10 sick days?
This week, we will examine that and other questions with the President of CUPE Ontario Fred Hahn, and co-chair of CUPE’s Health and Safety Committee Brittany Nesbitt. They will talk about their personal thoughts on this year’s Day of Mourning, what health and safety issues they're seeing right now, and the ongoing health and safety impacts from COVID-19. Plus, they will talk about empowering workers to look out for their rights and their concerns about the relaxing of child labour laws in some U.S. states.
So let's talk health and safety on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
The Workers’ Day of Mourning is this Friday April 28. The Guelph commemoration hosted by the Guelph & District Labour Council takes place at Goldie Mill Park at 5:30 pm with local labour historian Bonnie Durtnall as the special guest speaker. You can learn about all the various CUPE campaigns and work actions 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we meet some characters. Did you know that four dozen people want to be the next mayor of Toronto? Perhaps they're all animated by the potential fate of the Toronto waterfront, which is once again in the news. Some of them would likely find good company with Elon Musk who has no problem finding strange bedfellows, and speaking of strange bedfellows we need to talk about Fox News. What a week to talk smack about the news!
This Thursday, April 20, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Ready Mayor One. The first poll in the Toronto Mayoral By-election came out and it revealed a four-way race between current Toronto councillor Josh Matlow, former councillor Ana Bailão, former police chief Mark Saunders, and Olivia Chow, who just got into the race on Monday. There are nearly 50 candidates in all now including a wannabe auteur, a Toronto Sun columnist, and a genuine white nationalist, so where do things sit nearly two months till Election Day?
A Disquiet Place. After several days of speculation, Premier Doug Ford finally announced that the plan for the new Ontario Place is going to include moving the Ontario Science Centre down to the waterfront where it will join a European spa chain and a new Live Nation concert venue. If it's starting to feel like everyone's making it up as they go along, you're not alone, so is there really a plan when it comes to revitalizing Ontario Place, and why do it in the middle of a mayoral election?
Off Label. Elon Musk's Heart of Darkness-like journey to render Twitter unusable to anyone but far-right gadflies won new favour this week with Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre. After Twitter labelled accounts from NPR and the BBC as "government-funded media", Poilievre wrote to Musk on Conservative Party letterhead to ask Musk to do the same thing for the CBC, and guess what happened next? What does Poilievre get out of this weird alliance?
Fox on the Run. It was supposed to be the trial of the century and a test of nearly half-a-century of precedent in media law, but after lunchtime on Tuesday it was clear that Dominion Voting System's defamation lawsuit against Fox News had resulted in a settlement agreement. And while it's true that Dominion is getting more than three-quarters-of-a-billion dollars for Fox News lies, we won't see their famous stars swearing to that on the stand, or on their TV network. Was this the best outcome?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we want to suck... [turns page] Your blood! Who doesn't love a good vampire movie, especially when the story ais centred around the greatest and most famous vampire of all time. So on this episode, we're going to talk about Dracula's latest in the horror-comedy Renfield, and also talk about some of Dracula's greatest hits!
This Wednesday, April 19, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Too Many Draculas! There are two characters that have been in more movies than any other, one is Sherlock Holmes and the other is Count Dracula. Yet another Dracula is the [co-] star of this week's film, but to begin with we're going to countdown some of the other Draculas. From the classic portrayal in 1931, to an even more classic portrayal from the silent era, and then more recent efforts with actors of every sort, we'll count off (heh) the best Draculas.
REVIEW: Renfield (2023). Being Dracula is easy, but being the guy that lures Dracula's victims to a blood curdling doom and then cleaning up the mess is hard. This is the premise of Renfield, in which Nicholas Hoult plays the long put-upon minion of the dark prince, while Nicolas Cage plays the most famous vampire of all-time. Transplanted from Europe to New Orleans, and time-shifted from the Victoria Age to modern day, does this horror-comedy raise Dracula from the pop culture grave or is it merely just the walking dead?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This has been an exceptionally busy week for the City of Guelph's planning department. As the staff were getting for the final approval of the new Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw this week - the first update in nearly 30 years, remember - the Government of Ontario dropped their decision on Official Plan Amendment #80, the latest version of Guelph's Official Plan. It never rains, but it pours!
Cities, towns and villages all over Ontario were required to file updates to their Official Plan before last year's municipal elections, and Guelph was one them. But because the Ontario government had an election last summer, it's created a kind of backlog at the ministry, so even though Guelph passed OPA80 last summer, we only just got the provincial approval last week.
In all there were 18 changes, and none of them can be appealed because the last word goes to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. The most controversial part of the decision was that the skyline of Downtown Guelph can now max out at 23 storeys, which has provoked a lot of doom and gloom scenarios in the news and on social media, but that's an oversimplification. Today, we're going to dig a bit deeper.
To help us, we're joined by the City of Guelph’s General Manager of Planning and Building Services Krista Walkey and the City’s Manager of Policy Planning and Urban Design Melissa Aldunate. They're going to talk about the impact of the changes on various other pieces of Guelph planning business and the complexity of planning downtown beyond the maximum building height. They'll also discuss why Guelph has limited options around major transit stations, and why you don’t need to worry about Guelph growing beyond its borders in the immediate future.
So let's get the 4-1-1 on OPA #80 on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can see the decision on OPA80 from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing here, and you can see the staff memo on the decision that was provided in a council information report 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, 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.
his week on Open Sources Guelph, we make the perfect call... to cover some recent news! Speaking of calls, we will talk about ruining your election chances with a last minute ethics investigation, and, in more serious news, we will talk about the struggle to get someone to make the call to protect women in the Winnipeg area. Closer to home, we will talk to one of our city councillors about Guelph stuff including new rec centres and big zoning changes coming soon.
This Thursday, April 13, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Call Me By Your Blame. Danielle Smith won the leadership of the UCP, and the premiership of Alberta, by courting people you supported the "Freedom Convoy", but did she take returning that support too far? Now facing an ethics investigation for talking to a street preacher charged for being at the Coutts border blockade prior to his trial, Smith is just days from an election call with a blatant reminder of her affinities. Does Smith stand a chance on Election Day next month?
Like Garbage. The Brady Road landfill re-opened this week after a brief closure following the discovery of Linda Mary Beardy's remains. The 33-year-old Indigenous woman from the Lake St. Martin community is the fifth Indigenous woman to be found dead in a landfill in the Winnipeg area in the last several months, and though foul play is not suspected in this case, the other four women seem to be victims of the same killer. Have we given up on protecting Indigenous women?
The Six is In. There's been a lot going on at Guelph City Council lately, and a lot of it's been around Ward 6. This week, we're joined by Ward 6's senior councillor Dominique O'Rourke who will talk about some of those details like how it's finally full speed ahead on the South End Community Centre, and some of her concerns around next week's passage of the updated Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw. Plus, since it's spring, we will touch on the eternal concerns about speed bumps on Downey Road.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to play ball with sports politics! We head out to the theatre for a good old-fashioned adult drama about business dealing and inter-personal dynamics with Air. And since that movie is sports adjacent, we will let ourselves get sports adjacent by talking about some of our favourite sports movies (with caveats).
This Wednesday, April 12, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Sporty Vice. Sports movies are almost always a winner with the general audience, and even if they're bad, they're still pretty good. Now Air isn't quite a sports movie, but it takes place around a sport, so for the first part of this week's show we are going to talk about the best sports movies but with a twist! We're going to talk about the best true-to-life sports movie (narrative or documentary), the best underdog sports movie, and the best movie about a fake sport.
REVIEW: Air (2023). Believe it or not, there was once a time when Nike was not the pre-eminent name in basketball shoes, and there was a time when Michael Jordan was only the number three NBA draft pick. Nike needed Jordan, but how where they able to overcome the odds to win over the future man often called the Greatest of All Time? That's the story of Ben Affleck's latest movie starring his good friend Matt Damon as the man who bet it all on Jordan and won sports merchandising in the process. But can a movie audience thrill to this story about good branding?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
When we’re talking about the housing crisis we frequently talk to activists or government representatives. This is understandable, but there are a lot of pieces to the housing puzzle and we don’t lean on all of them equally, and in so much as we want to vilify the people who take part in the open housing market that so many of us are priced out of, we still need them if we’re going to have a hope in developing solutions to the crisis.
So where do realtors fit in? Where do they see themselves in developing solutions to this housing crisis? Do they even think about it at all? Well, one realtor definitely does, and she even wrote about it on her website. Kelly Caldwell confesses that she’s not an expert in municipal politics, but she put together an eight-point plan that even got the mayor talking about some of her ideas.
And some of Caldwell's ideas might surprise you: Fund housing assistance programs, increase wages and introduce universal basic income (UBI), increase protections for renters, allow for something call community land trusts, and initiate reforms of the real estate industry itself. Interesting thoughts, but more broadly speaking, what is the responsibility of people working in the market to help solve the housing crisis? What is the responsibility of realtors specifically?
Caldwell joins us on this pod to explore these and other questions. She will talk about why she wanted to start writing about the housing crisis, and what role she sees people working in real estate playing to help solve the problem. She will also talk about whether her industry is equipped to deal with a system in crisis, and why wanting your investment in housing to pay off is about more than just greed. Plus, Caldwell will offer her advice for home buyers and sellers alike in this market, even if they don’t want to hear it.
So let's get another view of the housing crisis on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can find Kelly Caldwell at her website, and you can also find her blog posts there including her latest one called simply “NIMBY in Guelph”. You can also find her contact information there if you wish to engage her services as a realtor, and you can also find her on social media @RealtorKellyCaldwell on Facebook and @kcaldwell on Twitter.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we witness something completely rare and unexpected in our natural world: Accountability. We join, well, everyone in the political world right now by looking to New York City where a certain Florida man had to go to court. Back here in Canada, we were dealing with the fall out of other, more serious crimes, but the back half of the show will be reserved for money matters as Guelph's MP will tell us why he likes the Federal Budget beyond the obvious.
This Thursday, April 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Do the Indict Thing. The beginning of the end? Maybe. For the first time in his life, it seems that Donald Trump's criminality and corruption has caught up with him and it resulted in his indictment in a Manhattan court room Tuesday on 34 different felony counts tied to his scheme to allegedly use campaign funds to cover-up extra marital affairs. After that, Trump went back to Mar-a-Lago for a victory lap (?), but how much trouble is the former president really in, and has justice finally found him?
The Report. Last week, the Mass Casualty Commission into the murder of nearly two dozen people in Nova Scotia delivered their report, and the sword predictably fell on the RCMP and the many mistakes they made over the 14 hours the event unfolded in 2020. It also said that domestic partner violence in Canada is an epidemic, and addressing those issues should be considered more than a police matter. Will anyone end up taking these recommendations to heart?
Budget Politics. Last week, Minster of Finance Chrystia Freeland announced the 2023 Federal Budget, which offered some help with affordability, plus expanded health and dental care spending and money to support the development of clean technologies. What does this mean for the average Guelphite? This week, we're joined by Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield who will discuss how the budget will support work at the University of Guelph, Canada's competitiveness on hydrogen and other new fuels, and the limits of Federal support to fight the housing crisis.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we roll a natural 20. Do you know what that means? Then you're probably very acquainted with the subject matter that our movie this week is based on. We ventured back out to the theatre to see the new fantasy movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, and we're also going to talk other, different fantasy movies too.
This Wednesday, April 5, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Practically Magic. Fantasy movies. They sound simple enough, but they're hard to pull off, and the genre is about more than some guys with a sword, a damsel in distress, and a man in a pointy hat casting spells. You can't put every fantasy movie in the same box, so we will line-up some of the boxes and open then in the first part of this show to talk about all kinds of fantasy movies, some set in magic kingdoms and some set in our own modern world.
REVIEW: Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (2023). There was once an attempt to make the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons into a movie franchise and it did not go well. So we're now doing take two, and if the reviews already posted are to be believed, it seems like they got it right this time. Shall we believe the hype? You may as this week we look at the dawn of another movie franchise, ably made by "The Johns" - Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley - and starring Chris Pine leading a motley crew of well-meaning mystics and fighters across a fantasy land.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Pickleball is huge. Don't believe it? Consider this line from a recent CNN Business story: “The number of people playing pickleball [in the U.S.] grew by 159 per cent over three years to 8.9 million in 2022.” Here in Canada, a survey by Pickleball Canada last year showed that eight per cent of Canadian households have one pickleball player who plays the game at least once a month. This is a growing trend too.
That's why members of the Pickleball Guelph Association delegated to the budget confirmation meeting in January. Their concern is having too many members and not enough space, plus there's no dedicated pickleball courts in Guelph. The game's being played on tennis and badminton courts, which are different games with their own rules and regulations despite the fact that they’re all games with rackets and nets.
But more than the personal enjoyment of local pickleball players, groups like the PGA are making pickleball the centre of a plan to draw tourism to the region by hosting tournaments. There’s no doubt that pickleball is a growing sport, and that it has more room to grow since it's unisex, all-ages and family-friendly, but is pickleball the next big thing, or are we sitting on a pickleball bubble? To get a better handle on these, and other questions, we go to the source...
This week, we're joined by PGA members Rick Thompson, Ryan Thompson and Susan McDaid who will tell us pickleball’s origin story, how each of them found their way to the sport and why they combined their efforts with others to form the Pickleball Guelph Association. They will also talk about co-ordinating with other pickleball groups across Canada, and how advocacy is a double-edged sword in terms of encouraging more people to get into a game that’s struggling to manage the numbers it already has.
So let's talk about the pickleball revolution on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The PGA’s next intro to pickleball session is sold out, but you can email the PGA at info [at] pickleballguelph.com to learn how you might be able to get involved. Indoor pickleball games hosted by the PGA are played Saturday nights and they’re adding a new night on Tuesday starting on April 11. You can learn more about pickleball in Guelph by going to the PGA'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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're thinking about life in the capital. There's always a lot of controversy up in Ottawa, and for the last couple of weeks that controversy's been all about Chinese government election interference. But good news! Joe Biden came to town to save the news cycle with some life-affirming North American camaraderie. For the interview this week, we're pleased to talk to someone who pays more attention to federal and provincial budgets than we do.
This Thursday, March 30, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Dong Turn? Since last we talked about this issue, former-Governor General David Johnston was named the rapporteur on alleged Chinese election interference, and Liberal MP Han Dong has resigned from the party after a Global News report that alleged he gave advise to Chinese diplomats on the detainment of the Two Michaels, which Dong has denied. He's now suing Global News for what he calls "false reporting" by the way. We'll talk about where the scandal sits now.
One to Joe On. U.S. President Joe Biden made his way to Ottawa for his first official visit to Canada since becoming the head of the American government. There was substance, like a new agreement on controlling the flow of immigrants at Roxham Road, and there was some style like the moment in the House of Commons when Biden burned politicians that won't prioritize gender parity in their cabinet. So what are the takeaways from Joe's 27-hour tour de force in this nation's capital?
Squeeze Play. It's been a busy budget week. At Queen's Park last week, the Ontario government revealed its budget and then on Tuesday the federal government revealed theirs. So many details, so much money, and so little time to cover it all, so we called in a stringer. This week, we're joined by Dr. Paul Kershaw, the founder, lead researcher and executive chair of Generation Squeeze. He's going to tell us about what the budgets mean for young people, and others in Canada looking some government relief in an expensive world.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we catch up with old friends, and newer old friends. We had to wait a whole year, but we finally get a new entry in the retooled Scream franchise, which means we're heading to New York (via Montreal) for Scream VI. And sticking to the horror realm, we're going to play a game and dive deep into horror's golden age in the 1980s.
This Wednesday, March 29, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The 1980s Horror Movie Draft. The Scream franchise began as a kind of satire of slasher films, which came to prominence in the 1980s in what was probably the greatest film era of horror movies until very recently. But which horror movies from the 80s are draft worthy? To start this week's show, we're going to play another draft, and choose the best horror flicks in categories like "Franchise", "Fantasy", and "Creature Feature".
REVIEW: Scream VI (2023). It took eight movies for Jason to make to his way to New York City, but Ghost Face has done it in six! The latest entry in the Scream franchise sees the new characters introduced in last year's re-quel head to the Big Apple as a way to prevent their lives from becoming another horror movie, but Ghost Face has moved to New York too and he's still interested in making the Carpenter Sisters the stars of another franchise entry. Were the directing team of Radio Silence able to capture again the magic of Scream?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
James Gordon decided last year that eight years on city council was enough and that he would step away to return to his first love, music. Of course, Gordon never really left music to take part in local politics; all the while he was on council he was still touring and still releasing new music as a city councillor, but can he now quit politics so easily? We're going to find out...
Before his successful elections to Guelph City Council in 2014 and 2018, and even before his first political run as the local NDP candidate in 2011, Gordon was an accomplished singer, songwriter, producer, and instrumentalist. He was also a successful activist and community organizer; he co-founded the Hillside Festival, the Canadian Songwriters’ Festival, the Guelph Civic League, the Guelph Arts Platform, and Wellington Water Watchers.
Last May, Gordon announced that his formal career in politics was at an end. He wanted to make more space on council for a new generation of leadership, which meant embracing his musical career again, the Other James Gordon as it were, and this week he’s having an official launch for not just one, but two different books. So is this the official relaunch of Gordon the musician. It could be, but has he really been able to leave politics behind?
On this week's podcast, we’ll learn if Gordon still feels compelled to keep an eye on council business, and how it feels like to be on the outside again after all those years on the inside. He will also talk about picking up where he left off with his music, being on the road again, and how he’s been able to cope with the changes to the music business in the age of streaming. Plus, Gordon will talk about his new activist work abroad, and whether he's done with politics for good.
So let's talk to the other James Gordon on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can find links to Gordon’s music and other projects, as well as a list of upcoming tour dates on his website. Gordon will be holding his double book launch tonight at the Bookshelf Cinema starting at 7 pm, tickets are $10 at the door. If you’d like to learn more about the efforts to build a health clinic in Ciruko in the Democratic Republic of Congo there’s a GoFundMe page where you can learn more.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we mark a grim milestone. You see the smiley, happy man with the thumb up in the picture above, well he's responsible for what might end up being the biggest foreign policy debacle of the 21st century, and the century was barely three years old when it happened. On this episode, we're marking the 20th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, and we're also going to talk about other fights closer to home, like housing, and we've got a city council guest to talk about it.
This Thursday, March 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Iraq at 20 (Part 1 and 2). Twenty years ago this week, the United States with the United Kingdom and a small "Coalition of the Willing" launched a war on Saddam Hussein and his authoritarian regime in Iraq. We were told Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, he had connections to terrorists, and he was a clear and present danger to the Free World, and two months after the war begin, George W. Bush declared that the mission was "accomplished."
But it wasn't, and the reason for the mission was a lie. Two decades later, the Iraq War is now understood as a disaster, destabilizing the whole Middle East and undermining the global leadership of the United States. We will spend the first part of the show this week talking about how Bush et al were allowed to get it so wrong and why we're still haunted by it.
Goller Back! Back at the beginning of the year, Ward 2 Councillor Rodrigo Goller posted to social media that he had a tiny house built in his backyard that he was looking to rent out. There was more than a little controversy around that, but as you will hear, it gave him some personal insight into the housing issues facing Guelph from multiple sides. That's only the beginning of our latest discussion with Goller as we tackle questions about the housing pledge, NIMBYism, and the fate of 90 Carden Street.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, there's more here than meets the eye. Are we transforming? No, but we're here to talk about transformative performances and we'll start with the one that just won the Oscar for Best Actor. On this show, we're reviewing winner of two Academy Awards, The Whale, and we're going to talk about other actors who did more for a part than get a haircut.
This Wednesday, March 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Transformers. Sometimes it's not the cloths that make the man or woman, sometimes its more basic than that. In the history of film, actors have found great performances and great characters by losing a lot of weight, or gaining a lot of weight, or having to fake it with state of the art make-up effects. Before our movie of the week, we're going to take a minute to remember other actors who found their characters by changing themselves.
REVIEW: The Whale (2022). Most Darren Aronofsky are ensemble pieces built around one great performance, and The Whale is no exception. Brendan Fraser achieved a rare comeback after years away from Hollywood to deal with personal matters, and took centre stage, and an Oscar, for playing Charlie, man literally eating himself to death. Fraser's pathos and humanity shine through the layers of prosthetic make-up, but what about the dark and occasionally disturbing world built around him by Aronofskey. Is The Whale deserving of its biggest asset?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
We've always thought of Guelph as a uniquely artsy place, but is that still the case? Like with just about every aspect of life, COVID-19 had an effect on the arts; it’s hard to get out and see a band, or a local theatrical production, or to take part in a local festival when there’s no going outside. But as we recover from COVID we’re learning that the pandemic is not the only pressure point on the arts and local artists.
This is where we talk about the ubiquitous housing crisis because the average income for an emerging artist is, well, not a lot. If it’s hard for someone who makes a good living to find somewhere to live in Guelph, imagine how hard it is for someone who works part-time so that they can spend much of the rest of their time on their craft. Of course, but it's not just about a place to live either, what about cheap rehearsal or studio space?
The issues around physical space are one of the things that are having an effect on local arts and artists, and as we head into prime festival season in the spring and summer, it makes sense to take account with an expert. This week, we will engage the expertise of Paul Barson, who is a quadruple threat as a member of the Downtown Theatre Project, organizer for Guelph Fringe, lead singer of the Vanishers, and a director on the Guelph Arts Council’s board.
Barson sits at the intersection of local music, the performing arts and arts administration so he's the perfect person to have an honest discussion about Guelph’s arts scene. We’re going to talk about how far back the present challenges to local arts go, and how much of the blame for those challenges goes to COVID-19. We will also talk about the role of the arts council, whether or not there needs to be a combined advocacy from Guelph’s arts groups, and whether we’re on the verge of a local arts renaissance.
So let's talk about the state of the arts on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
The next performance of the Downtown Theatre Project is Venus in Fur from May 24-28 at the Red Brick Cafe and you can learn more about the group here. The Guelph Fringe Festival will return on August 10-13 and you can learn more the festival here. You can listen to the music of the Vanishers on Apple Music and Spotify, and you can subscribe to the Guelph Arts Council newsletter 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we're going to run on the bank like it's 1929! We shouldn't joke, people's livelihoods are at stake, but we're once again seeing high-risk banking causing big problems, and that's one of things that we're going to be talking about on this week's show. In other news, we will talk about the Canadian government's face-off with Facebook, and to mark the COVID-19 pandemic's third birthday, we're joined by the woman atop our public health planning.
This Thursday, March 16, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Bank the Kool-Aid. Last Thursday, clients of the Silicon Valley Bank, reacting to some scary sounding scuttlebutt, tried to withdraw about $40 billion in assets at the same time. You might understandably start having some flashbacks to the financial crisis of 2008, but this time the circumstances are different in terms of impact even though they're still kind of the same in the fine print. Once again, bankers are behaving badly and we will talk about why the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Greed 'Book. There's legislation presently in the Senate that will make social media companies like Meta, which owns Facebook, and Alphabet, which owns Google, give some of their profits to Canadian news outlets who's advertising income has been gutted by these companies. But neither Meta nor Alphabet are taking that lying down and are threatening to no longer carry Canadian news on their platform. So who's going to blink in this multi-million dollar Mexican stand-off?
Mercer Mission. This week marks the third anniversary of the unofficial start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, which is another way of saying that three years ago this week we all went into lockdown for the first time. This week for the interview, we're going to be joined by Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Medical Officer of Health Dr. Nicola Mercer, who's going to talk us through where we are right now in the pandemic, how best you can still protect yourself, and if holding steady with the number of COVID cases is the best we can do now.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet's get ready to rumble!!!!! Of course there will be no real rumbling, unless there's some violent disagreement about the quality of this week's movie, which is about boxing obviously. We're reviewing Creed III, and in honour of the recently completed Oscar cycle, we will re-write history to fix some historic wrongs.
This Wednesday, March 15, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Comic Gold. The Oscars were handed out last weekend, and a lot of the trophies went to Everything Everywhere All at Once, and while there are some comedic (zany?) elements to that movie, you can't really call it a comedy. It's a truism that if you want to win an Oscar, you're probably not going to make a funny movie, but what if life were a little more fair? What if they gave out Oscars more often to comedies? This week, we'll re-balance the scales.
REVIEW: Creed III. In Creed, Michael B. Jordan played the son of original Rocky adversary Apollo Creed, a man struggle to break free of his father's shadow and create his own legacy, and by the start of Creed III he's done it! But look out, because the past comes back to haunt the new Creed in the form of Jonathan Majors, an old friend who's boxing career was waylaid by two decades in prison. Jordan not only stars, but he takes over the directing duties too, which is doubling the pressure on this franchise and its star so did Jordan knock it out, or did he get knocked out?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It was this week three years ago when the City of Guelph announced that they were closing all their public facilities, when the University of Guelph started sending all students in residents home, when all Guelph students started online learning, and every business in town, except for the most essential, closed their doors. It was start of the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, and three years later we still have questions.
First, let's think about how far we've come. In less than a year we had vaccines emerge that offered reasonably good protection from the virus. We were also able to emerge out of lockdown thanks to the public's willingness to take sensible precautions like masking and physical distancing. Was the response perfect? No, one lockdown turned into two and three and even four, but there was a heartening collective response for the greater good.
But then something changed in the last year. The mandates and protections started going away, but the virus did not. Cases locally have not gone under 100 since mid-fall 2021, and Guelph's once commendable 90 per cent rate of full-vaccinated has now fallen to less than 30 per cent as people are failing to keep up with boosters. Outbreaks are still being reported in long-term care homes, but completely gone is the urgency and sense of community. So are we done with COVID even though it's not done with us?
That's one of the questions we'll consider on this personal edition of the podcast that will dare to ask all the COVID-19 questions you might only ever think about. Why have we given up on masking and vaccines even though the virus is still among us? Was "zero COVID" only ever a pipe dream and did someone mislead us about that? What are people with disabilities and medical complications supposed to make of our disinterest fighting COVID? And what does a "steady" number of COVID cases mean for the future?
So let's talk about COVID-19 on it's third birthday on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can still get the weekly local case count and long-term trends about the spread of COVID-19 at the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health dashboard and it's updated every Wednesday morning. WDG Medical Officer of Health Dr. Nicola Mercer will be our guest on this week's episode of Open Sources Guelph Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to spring ahead with the underdogs. (Daylight savings time starts this weekend people.) First, we will head to Hamilton to catch up with the Ontario Liberals as they struggle to come out of the wilderness, and then we will talk about labour issues on the railways, and whether or not we should be concerned given recent events. And finally, we will spend some time with the other elected Mike from the Green Party. The one from Kitchener.
This Thursday, March 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Blown the Libs. The Ontario Liberals met in Hamilton last weekend to set a course for coming back from the political hinterlands, and it's going to be a long journey. While there are a lot of potential leadership candidates in the mix, both inside (Mitzie Hunter) and outside (Bonnie Cromby) Queen's Park, the Ontario Liberals still seem rudderless nearly one year after another election where they couldn't even achieve official party status. Can anything, or anyone, change that?
Rail of a Tale. Two different unions representing workers for CN Rail have now voted overwhelmingly to go on strike. Labour dissatisfaction among rail workers has been something under the surface for a while, but it's also occasionally taken the spotlight like it did last month after the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, OH. We will talk about how rail has become the latest frontline of the labour fight, and whether Canadians should be concerned about rail safety here.
A Morrice Line. These are contentious times in Ottawa; Liberals are on the defense about foreign election interference, and Conservatives are on defense about having dinner with the wrong European politicians. But what does the Green guy think? This week, we're joined by Kitchener Centre MP Mike Morrice who will talk to us about the tensions on Parliament Hill, the appointment of a rapporteur of all cockamamie things, and some of his own personal projects including housing affordability and accessibility.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're just saying "yes" to drugs. Well, we're saying "yes" to movies about animals doing drugs and then attacking people. If you're unsure based on this complete lack of subtlety, we're reviewing Cocaine Bear, which may end up one day being a cult classic, but in case it doesn't, we'll suggest a few other movies that are already classics.
This Wednesday, March 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
A Cult Above the Rest. So the movie this week seems ready made to be a cult classic, a type film and a type of film fandom that's hard to define, but is usually around a film that was a box office bomb, controversial, and/or obscure but none the less gathered a small but passionate fanbase. So the level of diffi-cult-y is hard, but nonetheless we will talk about some of the best cult classics from pre-1970s, the 70s-90s, and post-2000.
REVIEW: Cocaine Bear (2023). In 1985 several bags full of cocaine were thrown from a plane over a national forest in Georgia. A bear found some the coke, ingested it, and then died of an overdose, but what if instead that bear went on a cocaine fuelled rampage in the woods, eating hikers and disembowelling park rangers? Filmmakers had a similar thought, and it fell to actress/director Elizabeth Banks to bring this tale to life with that rarest of mixes, horror and comedy. So how did Banks do? Is Cocaine Bear the cult classic in the making it wants to be?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It was about this time back in 2019 that Guelph and Wellington County were announced as the winners of the Smart Cities Challenge. The challenge was to develop a circular food economy that was going to reduce food waste, promote sustainable food development, and increase access to nutritious food and produce. By many metrics, the project has been a success, so what happens when the funds run out this year?
To start the Smart Cities Office, Our Food Future, Guelph and Wellington County got $10 million from the Federal government, and they nearly doubled that investment between an additional $17 million from various sources plus almost $2 million from in-kind donations. That money has, among other things, diverted over 86,000 tonnes of food waste, turned nearly 76,000 tonnes of food waste into new products, and saved over 116,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
Not too shabby, but the primary funding for Our Food Future runs out in December. A February report to the Committee of the Whole explained that the Our Food Future office is on track to deliver on all its milestones; some projects will come to their natural conclusion while others will end up under the umbrella of one of Our Food Future’s many community partners. But will there still be an actual Our Food Future office in 2024, and what happens to all that work if there isn't?
David Messer, who is the executive director of Our Food Future, joins us this week to talk about that. He will discuss the accomplishments of Our Food Future, how the pandemic might have helped accelerate the goals of the project, and the office’s usefulness creating one place for anyone interested in the circular economy to collaborate. He will also talk about the long-term impacts of Our Food Future and why the office won’t just disappear before New Year’s Eve at the end of the year.
So let's talk about the future of Our Food Future on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can find out more about Our Food Future at their website. There’s also been two different reports about the work of Our Food Future presented in the last month, one to Guelph Committee of the Whole and the other to the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Board of Health just last week, and you can see the coverage of both those meetings here 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're crowding the national news leaders by stealing their thunder. From our non-existent news headquarters in Ottawa, we're going to look at the increase in use and rhetoric around unofficial border crossings, plus the new controversy around Chinese election interference. We're also going to discuss the importation of far-right European politics (for a week anyway), and then the two old men who host this show are going to discuss Tik Tok!
This Thursday, March 2, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
On the Roxham. Canada's most famous unofficial border crossing is back in the news with an increased number of people coming into Quebec from the U.S. since the end of 2022. Quebec Premier François Legault and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre are both demanding that Roxham Road be closed but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has warned that this comes with its own set of complications. Can Canada respond compassionately, or are we doomed to a 'Build the Wall' narrative?
China Breach. So it's not a good week for Trudeau or his party now with competing investigations into alleged election interference involving the Liberal Party, key ridings, and the Chinese government. Media reports accuse the PM of ignoring the warning signs in 2019 and 2021, and the opposition parties are united in their demand for further investigation, but how long can Trudeau ignore the issue and are we seeing the cracks that will lead to another election?
The Passion Over Christine. Unless you're a fan of the Freedom Convoy or far-right European politics, you probably haven't heard of Christine Anderson. Essentially, her political party, the AfD, is the closest thing to the Nazis that Germany has seen in 80 years, and last week, Anderson did a tour of Canada that some politicians, including sitting Members of Parliament from the Conservative Party, are trying to live down. We'll talk about why this is a big deal.
Tik Tok... Boom! Back to China concerns, and it was a rough week for everyone's favourite new social media phenomenon. Tik Tok has now been banned on all Federal government devices, several provincial governments have made, or are thinking about making, the same move, and even the City of Guelph is taking a good, long look at the app. Security and privacy concerns are rank when it comes to Tik Tok, but is there a way to balance those concerns and its popularity and influence?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to talk about movie magic. Of course, that's essentially the basis of this show, but on this episode we're deconstructing some of that magic with the person more credited than most with creating it. We're going to review The Fabelmans and we're also going to turn a famous director's illustrious career into a game.
This Wednesday, March 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Spielberg Draft. We've talked a lot about Steven Spielberg on this show, and why wouldn't we because if you grew up anytime during the 70s and afterwards then Spielberg has been a pretty big part of your pop culture experience. This week, we will draft what we think is the best work for the director from each of the last five decades, or "Spielb-eras", and come up with another definitive list of the best from the Greatest of All Time (?).
The Fabelmans (2022). In Steven Spielberg's 34th movie, he finally turns the camera on himself. A lot of Spielberg's movies have been about some aspect of the director's inner-life, but The Fabelmans is very explicitly his story, and that of his family. In the 1950s, young Sammy Fabelman is taken to The Greatest Show on Earth, the Oscar-winning movie, and he's set on a course that will take him to the upper strata of Hollywood, but not before his family breaks up and apart, which would further inform Sammy's - Steven's - vision. So how does this one rank?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The weather has been pretty good reminding us this past week that winter is dangerous, especially when driving on snowy icy streets. That’s why we salt, but the evidence is building that we salt our roads too much and it’s had a profoundly negative impact on our rivers and streams. So are we sacrificing our water quality for winter road safety, and is there a way that we can have both?
It was about two years ago that a study was released in the journal Facets that found levels of salt in rivers and streams exceeded federal exposure guidelines in 89 per cent of samples from four different watersheds in the greater Toronto area, and that one-third of the studied sites showed that one-quarter of all species are impacted. The real concerning part though was these sample were taken in the proverbial dog days of summer, late July and August.
If salt levels are hitting dangerous levels in summer, what must they look like in the winter with all the winter maintenance? Or what happens in a winter like this, where we get a winter storm, lay down salt, and then watch it wash away with a rise in temperatures, melting and then rain before starting the process all over again? Lauren Lawson, who’s an ecologist, conservation scientist and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto, will try and answer those questions.
Lawson joins us on this week's podcast to talk about our history with road salt, why high salt levels are so dangerous to waterways and animal life, and why it’s so dangerous to human beings as well. She will also discuss why the salt levels are so surprisingly high in the summer, and whether or not the damage to the environment is reversible. And finally, she will talk about best salt management practices, and how Lawson made this problem her academic life’s work.
So let's talk about things getting too salty out there on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can watch a webinar Lawson hosted for Watershed Canada here, plus you can check out this info sheet with facts and information about proper and sustainable use of road salt. You can also find the City of Guelph’s own salt management plan on the City’s website, and you can follow Lawson on Twitter and through her 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we go back into the shadows. In the realm of extremism and conspiracy theories it was a rough week because one year after the Freedom Convoy it turns out that the government was right to use the Emergencies Act after all. That's okay though, because we're found the real cause of all our problems, and you will never guess what it is! For the interview, we're talking to a local city councillor about more down-to-Earth issues.
This Thursday, February 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Commission Complete. The Public Order Emergencies Commission delivered their final report last Friday, and their finding was that the Federal government met the “very high threshold” for using the Emergencies Act. That's not the end of the story because the report also pointed out that there were missed opportunities to stop the so-called "Freedom Convoy" before it got out of hand, and there were some especially harsh words for the inaction of the Ontario government. But did we learn anything new?
15-Minute Warning. The idea of 15-minute communities has been around for years. It's an urban planning concept that proposes that everything you need daily in a community - shopping, services, schools, and employment - should be a 15-minute walk or bike ride away, but now some people are calling 15-minute communities part of the global cabal's efforts to control your life, and some big names like Chris Sky and Jordan Peterson are running with it. We'll look at this latest silliness.
Dan With a Plan. It's only February, but it's been a very busy year so far at Guelph City Council. Lately, there have been some concerns about the proposed operations campus, renewed calls for affordable housing by leveraging private developments, and coming up next week is the Ontario government's housing pledge and the intricacies of expanding the Elliott. To look at these issues from his perch at one end of the horseshoe is Ward 1 Councillor Dan Gibson, who will share with us his thoughts on all these council developments.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we've got a little bit of a post-Valentine's Day treat for you, the listener. On the docket for this episode is a romantic comedy made by a husband-and-wife filmmaking team, which kind of makes it a Valentine for Valentine's. So we're reviewing Somebody I Used to Know and talking about other movies made by couples.
This Wednesday, February 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Power Couple Rankings. This week's movie is the combined effort of a director and star who are married in real-life, which is not an unusual condition in Hollywood where romantic partnerships are born of professional ones, and vice versa. So to kick off this week's show, we will talk about some our favourite movies that work (or not) thanks to the love match behind the scenes and the interpersonal dynamics of the filmmaker and their lead both in-front and behind the camera.
Somebody I Used to Know (2023). It's not an original story, a small town A-type personality sees their well-laid dreams come to a sudden halt, which forces them to reconsider their lives back home where a romantic reunion makes them rethink their future. This time, the star is Alison Brie, she co-wrote the script with her director and husband Dave Franco, and the story finds reality show producer Ally landing at home just in time for her old boyfriend's wedding weekend in her quaint little Washington State hometown. So how well do we know Somebody I Used to Know?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Thursday marks one-year since the official end of the “Freedom Convoy”, a series of protests against COVID protection measures, vaccine mandates and lockdowns that paralyzed downtown Ottawa and border crossings at Windsor and Coutts for weeks. Yes, the Convoy flamed out, but the complex web of thoughts and ideas behind the Convoy are still out there.
The images from the Freedom Convoy, especially in the Ottawa Capital Region around Parliament Hill, are pretty indelible. You might think about the appearance of Nazi regalia or the party atmosphere with people in hot tubs, or people moving around jerry cans filled with diesel, or trucks and vehicles running all hours of the day. Still, the average Canadian had no idea how the Freedom Convoy came about, or how online radicalization turned into full blown civil disturbance I.R.L.
This week, we're joined by a few of the people connecting those dots at the Canadian Institute for Far-Right Studies, an independent think tank dedicated to the critical study of the far-right in Canada. This panel includes Dr. Luc Cousineau, the co-director of research who studies gender and power; Dr. Amy Mack, the other co-director of research who focuses on how social media radicalizes people into entho-nationalism and white supremacy; and Kathleen Mah, a research fellow investigating critical public health and anti-mask groups.
This distinguished panel joins us to talk about their immediate academic reaction to the Convoy, and how they’ve been tracking the groups and leaders after the Convoy was broken up a year ago. They will also discuss how we can use education without being accused of indoctrination, and how real problems feed into far-right extremism without presenting any real solutions, And finally, they will talk about the responsibility that politicians have in spreading information whether they’re pro- or anti-Convoy.
So let's talk about the future of the Convoy, even if there is no Convoy, on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Canadian Institute for Far-Right Studies at their website, or on Twitter. You can read the report from the Public Inquiry into the 2022 Public Order Emergency at their website, and we will be discussing it on this week’s Open Sources Guelph on Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're feeling the love. Yes, it's two days after Valentine's Day technically, but the love for covering hot button issues and concerning political trends burns strong. On the menu today is a variety of topics including a new conflict of interest scandal for the premier, and a new sex scandal for the Mayor of Toronto. Abroad, we will look at the latest developments around a year-long war, and the same old same old from the death cult that now runs the American legislature.
This Thursday, February 16, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Wedding Spinner. More conflict of interest news in Doug World last week as it was revealed that developers were invited to the Stag and Doe Party for Premier Doug Ford's daughter and her then-future husband. For people who already smell a rat when it comes to the Ontario government's handling of the Greenbelt, it's another clue that the fix was in for people looking to make a profit on land that was supposedly protected. How much longer can Ford laugh off these allegations?
Mayor of Swingstown. It was a Friday night surprise when Toronto Mayor John Tory came out and announced that he's resigning his office after the Toronto Star exposed that Tory had an inappropriate relationship with a female staffer. It seems like a boneheaded move from the someone who was supposed to be the face of technocratic, business-like management at City Hall, so why did Tory screw up so badly, and does this provide Toronto a rare opportunity to examine what kind of mayor they want and need?
The Post Dangerous Year. February 24 will mark one-year since the start of the full Russian invasion of Ukraine, and many people have an eye on Moscow to see if their planning a commemoration of sorts. Of course, the first anniversary is paper, but no one's expecting Russia to sign any piece of paper saying that they're ending their war efforts. Quite the contrary. So while we wait and see what Russia's next move is going to be, we will talk about the year's lessons for Russia and Ukraine's resiliency.
Tech War. Last week, President Joe Biden gave the State of the Union, but the atmosphere screamed amateur night at Chuckle Hut. If this is your first encounter 118th Congress, you might be shocked, but the new team really showed their stuff at a series of hearings about the supposed bias against the right in big tech, which only ended up affirming that that no such bias exists and that platforms like Twitter went out of their way to not apply their own rules to GOP racists and conspiracy theorists. So does any of this matter?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're back at the end of the world. Again. Our tour guide is M. Night Shyamalan, a man with many hits and many misses and not much in between. So is Knock at the Cabin one of the hits or is one of the misses? We will make that determination, and we will also talk about other entries from the Shyamalan canon that definitely qualify as hits.
This Wednesday, February 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Night Carte. M. Night Shyamalan has been making movies for nearly 30 years, and it's hard to think of many filmmakers who've experienced both the highest highs and the lowest lows of box office success. Before digging into the latest Shyamalan joint, we will look at our favourite moments from the director's previous efforts; from his meditations on faith to his ghost stories and his recent efforts about a mysterious man with many personalities.
REVIEW: Knock at the Cabin (2023). Imagine you're enjoying a nice vacation with your family at a cabin in the woods and then somebody knocks at the door. Four strangers tell you the apocalypse is here, and the only way to stop it is that you, or another family member, has to die. What would you do? Based on a novel with the same name and premise, M. Night Shyamalan paints a moral conundrum where everything may not be as it seems. Or maybe it is. Dave Bautista leads a talent ensemble, but can they make you believe it's the end of the world?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It hasn't gotten any better. Last year about this time, the news was grim with stories about the banning of certain books, political influence on what's being taught in schools, and rhetorical fist fights on whether library material is appropriate given the subject matter. What little difference a year makes because Freedom to Read Week rises again with more threats against Free Expression.
You might have heard the news about some of the things going on in Florida with the passage of legislation like the "Stop Woke" Act, which has seen entire libraries boxed up at schools, or Gov. Ron DeSantis' conservative takeover of a small liberal arts college. But this is not a Florida phenomenon, or even an American one. Here in Canada several anti-woke politicians ran for school boards last fall, and the Government of Alberta's been recently accused of interference at Athabasca University.
So just in time for all this news is Freedom to Read Week, an annual endeavour from the Book and Periodical Council that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom, which is guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Last year, Shelagh Paterson, the executive director of the Ontario Library Association, joined us to contextualize some of these issues which are still ongoing 12 months later.
So this week we will revisit Paterson's appearance on the podcast in 2022, and you will hear her talk about the meaning of intellectual freedom and freedom of expression, as well as censorship, and how we can deal with the misinformation and disinformation landscape without censorship. Paterson will also talk about how not all libraries are created equally, the digital divide in terms of access to information, and the other kinds of barriers that should remind us that not everyone’s access to information is equal.
So let’s talk again about Freedom Read Week issues in this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Freedom to Read Week runs from February 19 to 25 this year, and you can find all sorts of materials here. You can also click here to learn more about the Ontario Library Association. If you want to cut out the proverbial middle man, you can visit your local branch of Guelph Public Library, and they can probably point you in the right direction of some challenging materials.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we look up. We look northeast-ward to Ottawa to see if there might finally be a new healthcare deal between levels of government, and then we look to the sky for more Chinese spy balloons because that's a thing now. After that, we go back to Ottawa to revisit the fallout from the "Freedom Convoy" exactly one year ago, and specifically the effect on the people living there, which has now been documented in a convenient new report.
This Thursday, February 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Premier Leagues. Canada's premiers finally got their chance to have a sit down with the Federal government to talk about healthcare spending and getting more money to deal with the crisis. It's long been a point of contention because the premiers want a blank cheque, and the Feds want a plan, including the Federal NDP and Greens who want to be sure that the increased funds will not go to further privatization. So were they able to overcome the impasse, and what do these talks mean for people caught in healthcare limbo?
99 Problems But a Red Balloon Ain't One. It was a situation so dumb it's actually surprising that there was no Simpsons precedent. Last week, a Chinese spy balloon slowly travelled over Alaska, Alberta and then entered mainland U.S. airspace passing near sensitive military installations in what's become the greatest national security failure since the Rosenbergs were caught. Right? We'll peel back the layers of right-wing hyperbole to talk about the implications for China at a time where both they and the U.S. were trying to cool tensions.
The People's Court. The report by the official inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act was delayed a couple of weeks, but the report by the Ottawa People's Commission was delivered right on time. Organized by Centretown Community Health Centre, the OPC aimed to document the human toll of the "Freedom Convoy", and this week, we'll talk to Alex Neve, an adjunct professor in international human rights law at the University of Ottawa, who served as one of the commissioners and will tell us about their findings and why the convoy was a human rights issue.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're once again on vacation vicariously. There have been a lot of movies about life-changing things happening at resorts while on vacation, and Aftersun is definitely one of them. In other news, we're returning to another favoured trope on this show: movies that don't exist yet, but we definitely want to see them when they are.
This Wednesday, February 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Paint it Blacklist. Despite all the complaints that there's nothing new under the sun, or in the movie theatre, screenwriters are still plugging away on original ideas, and many of them end up on the Blacklist, the list of the so-called best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood. This week, we're going to check out this year's Blacklist and talk about the scripts that we would like to see make it all the way to the finish line and into the cinema.
Aftersun (2022). You may not have heard of Aftersun until star Paul Mescal won an Oscar-nomination for Best Actor a couple of weeks now. Now part of the conversation, Aftersun is waiting on VOD to take you on a trip through time and memory. Based in part on writer and director Charlotte Wells' own life, the movie follows a father and daughter on vacation at a Turkish resort where the surface level fun in the sun hides a lot of complicated issues underneath the surface. So is this another subtext-filled vacation we need to take?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The story is familiar at this point: A Code Red is called, and there are no ambulances available to respond to an emergency. It’s a piece of the healthcare puzzle that doesn’t get a lot of attention; we sit up when we hear the words “Code Red”, or when we see those line-ups of ambulances on social media, but the problems are ongoing, and in many ways they’re the same problems affecting other aspects of our healthcare system.
A couple of weeks ago, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) local 231 posted a picture of a long line of ambulances on Delhi Street. The message was that the same sort of burnout previously discussed with doctors, nurses and other hospital workers are affecting paramedics. They burnout too! If you and your colleagues are doing 9,400 hours of overtime, it doesn’t seem so far-fetched to think that some paramedics might be wanting a career change.
You don’t hear about these issues as loudly from the paramedics point of view when compared to nurses or doctors though, so it takes some doing to get that first hand perspective. How are the people who man - so to speak - our ambulances dealing with this current healthcare crisis? Today we fix that by talking to Nick Di Ruzza, the president of the OPSEU Local 231, who take us behind the scenes of the Code Red state of emergency.
Di Ruzza will talk about what a day in the life of a paramedic looks like both before COVID-19 and today, and he will also talk about Paramedics Services’ success despite their challenges. He will tell us about the human resources issues his local is trying to overcome, and how paramedics approach standards of care beyond answering emergency calls. Later, he will discuss the problems around doing advocacy on behalf of paramedics, support from management and what the community can all do to help.
So let's make room for paramedics in the healthcare discussion on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can follow OPSEU Local 231 on Twitter. Guelph Wellington Paramedic Services Chief Stephen Dewar has been delivering a monthly report about the demands on the service at the Wellington County Social Services Committee Meeting, and the next one's in March. To learn more about our local paramedic service, you can find them under the “Living” section of the City of Guelph website or on Twitter.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's Groundhog Day! This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's Groundhog Day! Now that we've got that out of our system, let's talk about what we're doing on this week's show. First, we will talk about a recently passed Ontario politician and the parts of her career most people aren't talking about, and then we will talk about the very sad sequel to last year's biggest blockbuster protest. For the interview? We're going to have some municipal money talk.
This Thursday, February 1, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Hurricane. Former Mississauga Mayor "Hurricane" Hazel McCallion passed away last week at the age of 101, and given her accomplishments and longevity, the plaudits were immediate and they were many. But have we white-washed McCallion's legacy? Her conflicts of interest, the sprawl she rubberstamped, and the fact that she had Doug Ford's back on shaving the Greenbelt right up till the end are all concerning notes despite McCallion's accomplishments, so we will take a good hard look at her legacy.
Convoy the Silence. A comparatively smaller group got together last weekend in front of Parliament Hill to protest COVID mandates(?) and mark 365 days from the day the so-called "Freedom Convoy" arrived in Ottawa. Yes, we're still dealing with the fallout of the Convoy with the report on the Federal government's use of the Emergencies Act is coming later this month, and the Alberta government interfering with court cases around the Coutts blockade, so where are we one year later on "Freedom"?
Count Downer. Guelph City Council confirmed the 2023 budget last week after nine hours of shaving and padding that got the final levy increase down to 4.46 per cent for the year. That's not the end of the discussion though because the pressures on this year's budget are still going to be there when council debates the next multi-year budget at the end of 2023, and Ward 5 Councillor Cathy Downer joins us this week to look ahead, and behind, at the big fiscal picture at City Hall and the increasing challenges.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it's playtime! We're finally catching up with the biggest hit of 2023 (so far) by making friends with M3GAN (pronounced "Megan" if you're unaware), you're new best friend or worst enemy depending on what side of her programming you're on. And speaking of friends and enemies, we're going to talk about the Oscar nominations.
This Wednesday, February 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Oscars So Trite? The Oscar nominations were announced last week, and if you were a fan of Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Fabelmans, Elvis, and All Quiet on the Western Front, you had a good day. On the other hand, there were some definite snubs, and the most notable was a distinct lack of women nominees for Best Director after women have won the last two years in a row. We'll break down the categories with the hits, the misses, and the likely-to-wins.
REVIEW: M3GAN (2023). An early social media phenom for the year, M3GAN came out of the gates as the first must-see hit of 2023. That should hardly be surprising, every couple of months there's a new horror movie from Blumhouse eager to receive the warm embrace of the audience, but might there be something special about M3GAN? We've gotten killer robot movies before, and killer doll movies, but M3GAN combines the two thanks to an inspiration from Conjuring godfather James Wan so is M3GAN bigger than the hype and ready to be your friend till the end (credits)?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
For this first new podcast of 2023, let's clear the air. In the process of going non-stop 52 weeks a year on all the issues that come at us on a regular basis, how often do we just stop and take stock? How can we keep up with everything and not get caught in the undertow? How can we overcome that feeling that we’re not doing enough and stay hopeful in an ever changing world?
Let’s stop and think about where we are on Wednesday February 1, 2023. The pandemic isn’t over, even if we’re pretty much acting like it’s over. We have issues with homelessness and mental health, but despite a community-wide response it feels like we’re only making a drop in the bucket. We’re faced with economic inequality, social inequality, environmental degradation, and, oh yeah, the Nazis are back! No wonder we have a mental health crisis.
It’s easy to get stuck in this feeling of malaise. Public participation is down with pitifully low voter turnout and a dramatic decrease in the number of available volunteers. People are feeling tapped out after three years of being on their toes, always adapting to a shifting landscape that often pivots on a dime, so it shouldn’t be very surprising that people don’t have the energy for even paying attention to politics, let alone changing the world. If you’re somewhere between anger and exhaustion, you’re not alone.
To help us sort these conflicting feelings, we're joined by John Borthwick, who is the minister at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in downtown Guelph. He's going to talk about how to centre ourselves in the maelstrom of issues coming at us everyday, and why we should embrace the adaptability of human beings. He will also discuss the struggle to listen and understand each other despite our differences, and why nostalgia is both attractive and damaging. And finally, he will talk about his 20 years in Guelph, and how the community has changed for the better, and the worse, in that time.
Let's talk about starting fresh on this week's Guelph Politicast!
If you’re in need of spiritual guidance you can find Reverend Borthwick at the pulpit every Sunday morning at St. Andrew’s on Norfolk Street, which is also still broadcast on YouTube on the church's channel @standrewsguelph. For something a little more secular, you can follow him on Twitter.
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.
We're got none! Open Sources Guelph is taking the week off due to special programming on CFRU, the celebration of the station's birth many decades ago. What you can do instead is tune in between 5 to 8 pm where you can listen to some of your favourite programmers spin tunes and celebrate 50-something (Shhhhhhh!) years of your favourite campus and community station, which this time is broadcasting live from the Bullring! Tune in on the radio or brave the snow to be there in-person!! As for the OSG gang, we'll see you again next week!!!
This week on End Credits, it's time to eat! Although our show plays at mid-afternoon every Wednesday, perhaps you might enjoy a small snack while you listen because, this week, we're going to make you hungry. Along with our review, which is about The Menu now streaming on Disney+, we will talk about some food-based movies to tease the palette.
This Wednesday, January 25, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
More Eats. Movies centred around eating, or the business of eating, have provided so much rich fodder for numerous movies over the years that's it's almost its own subgenre. From a luscious drama about the transformative power of chocolate to the brutal history of betrayal behind the most famous fast food chain on Earth, we will look at some of our favourite movies about food and eating, and yes, there will be cannibalism!
REVIEW: The Menu (2022). Finally, a movie for foodies, about foodies! A dozen people head out to an exclusive restaurant on a secluded island for a meal they will never forget... Their last! That's what The Menu is about in a nutshell, but there are a lot of intricacies to this overlooked movie from last fall which features Ralph Fiennes as the famously eccentric chef and Anya Taylor-Joy as the mysterious dinner guest who throws a wrench into the chef's thoroughly planned out meal. The result? A meal of a movie with nourishing themes and acting!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Every year, the Mayor of Guelph is invited to an event called the State of the City where he or she gives a speech to the members of the Chamber of Commerce about the current issues facing Guelph and how city council plans on addressing them. It once was said that to understand the future, you have to look to the past, so what was on the mayor’s mind last year when he talked to the Chamber?
The 2022 State of the City took place on March 31, delayed from the usual late-January/early-February perch for the event due pandemic circumstances at the time. (Remember, there was another lockdown last January.) It was an election year, so Guthrie was going to be called on to set the stage for his then-undeclared re-election campaign, not to mention some advocacy and politicking that could be done in the then-upcoming provincial election too.
So how much has changed since the last State of the City? Guthrie was re-elected, and so was the Progressive Conservative government in Queen’s Park, and while COVID-19 has receded further into the background, the effects of the pandemic are still lingering. But cities have also been whammied by massive policy changes from the Province that don’t seem to address the problems and only create new headaches for municipalities like Guelph to deal with.
There’s an entire suite of issues that might make the final cut in this year’s State of the City, but on this edition of the podcast, we’re going back to 2022. Mayor Guthrie used the conceit of the then-internet phenom Wordle to lay out the City of Guelph’s priorities in five-letter word chunks, and you'll also hear from Medical Officer of Health Dr. Nicola Mercer who was honoured by Guthrie during the State of the City for her leadership during the pandemic.
So let's go back in time to last year's State of the City on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
The 2023 State of the City hosted by the Guelph Chamber of Commerce is Thursday February 2 at 7 am at the Delta Hotel and Conference Centre on Stone Road. Tickets are $50 for members and $70 for future members. To find out more information, call the Chamber office at 519-822-8081 or go to the Chamber’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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph it's Blue Thursday, the saddest Thursday of the week. To celebrate, we're going to talk about the Code Blue in our healthcare system that Ontario's inglorious premier thinks he's solved, and then we're going to talk about some issues around Toronto's men and women in blue, the members of its police service. But it's not all depressing because we've brought in an old friend to talk about all the math city council will be doing next week!
This Thursday, January 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Doug's Anatomy. Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced that the Ontario government will lean on private clinics to help clear the surgery backlog, which now sits at nearly one million procedures. Of course, Ford says that you will only ever have to "pay with your OHIP card and not with your credit card", but the whole province is understandably freaked out that Ford is opening the door to two-tier healthcare. Do we have to hit 9-1-1 on this policy direction?
The Money Split. Last month, Toronto Mayor John Tory announced that he was looking at a $48 million increase to the police budget. This comes after months of Tory warning about a budget crunch from legislative changes, and it comes after years of discussion about social justice reform. It also comes at a time of several funerals for officers killed in the line of duty, so maybe "Defund the Police" isn't as politically neutral as it once was. So how do we make sense of these conflicting issues and talk straight about policing?
The Allt in Our Stars. Next week, Guelph City Council will sit down to ratify the 2023 budget, but a lot has changed since last December when the City's first multi-year budget was passed. Ward 3 Councillor Phil Allt will join us to talk about those challenges including the financial fallout of Bill 23 and Mayor Cam Guthrie's proposed levy to raise funds to combat homelessness and mental health issues. We also talk about the varying definitions of affordability and the fate of big infrastructure projects like the library.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we have unfinished business. The calendar says 2023, but we've still got some work leftover from 2022 as we finally get back into the regular swing of things. First, we've got to talk about that list that got so many people up in arms before the holidays, and then we're going to talk about one of the last movies to be released in 2022.
This Wednesday, January 18, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Flack List. Before the break, Sight & Sound magazine released their decennial update to the 100 Greatest Films of All Time list, and we have some notes. Now critics and directors contribute to the list, and essentially the whole thing is done by ranked choice voting, so we aim to do some direct editing by talking about the movies that should still be on the list, the movie that's yet to make the list, and the new entry that might still be there for decades to come.
REVIEW: White Noise (2022). In 1985, Don DeDillo published a book that was popular, but widely considered unfilmable. At the beginning of the pandemic, Noah Baumbach accepted the challenge and started to develop this story about a Hitler studies professor and his family whose consumerist domestic bliss is assaulted by an "Airborne Toxic Event" from a nearby train crash. It's impossible not to see the pandemic allegory in White Noise, and maybe that's the point, but has Baumbach done the impossible and made the unfilmable filmable?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Next week, council will have their meeting to confirm the 2023 budget, which, on the surface, seems like a relatively ordinary and straightforward procedure, but it may be a pretty big hint at the challenges that are coming for the members of city council, old and new alike. In terms of the new, and the challenges they’ve already been facing, this seems like a good time to get to know a few more of the new council players.
So we kick off the second part of a two-part recap featuring recent interviews with the new councillors with Carly Klassen of Ward 2. She will talk about standing out in the very competitive Ward 2 race in last year’s election, and her first few weeks as the sitting councillor. She also talked about the emergence of Bill 23, how that’s impacted the job description and responsibilities of being a city councillor, and the recent renaissance of root cellars in the Ward.
We’ll then talk to Ward 4 Councillor Linda Busuttil, who will chat about transitioning from the school board, improving the representation of Ward 4 at City Hall, and the ways she wants to change the job. She also talks about her thoughts around Bill 23 and its impact on council business, how the legislation doesn’t tackle the affordability issue, and how it also undermines the proverbial toolbox for city council to solve problems.
And last, but not least, we’ve got Ward 6's Ken Yee Chew who will talk about the campaign strategy that led to him upsetting the near-certain re-election of an incumbent, and the political make-up of Ward 6. From there, he talks about Bill 23 from his perspective as a councillor and as a municipal planner, and why the legislation will create as much stress among City staff as it will in the community. Also, he'll talk about his concerns about the separation of South Guelph from the rest of town in the new Federal riding maps.
So let’s talk to some our new council friends – again – on this week’s edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can hear new interviews every week with Guelph councillors and other government newsmakers on Open Sources Guelph, Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca. Also, keep visiting Guelph Politico for all the latest coverage about all the latest city council meetings.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got déjà vu, or should we say, "déjà coup". A lot of people have made that joke, so let's talk about the very serious issues behind that with some concerning recent undemocratic events in Brazil. We will also talk about one of Scotty's favourite issues, rich people having too much money! In the back half of the show, we're going to talk to the man who might be the most obsessively environmental person in Ontario politics not named Mike.
This Thursday, January 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Breakin' 2: Electric Coup-aloo. A president unbound by reality or the rule of law, backed by rich and nefarious far-right forces, calls an election fraudulent and his followers storm the capital in a shocking act of political violence on a January afternoon. Sound familiar? The setting this time was Brazil, and though Jair Bolsonaro's been in self-imposed exile in Florida, the threat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on his behalf had a lot of echos from January 6, 2021 in Washington D.C. Are far-right insurrections now global?
All the Money in the World. Just after the start of the second work day of 2023, Canada's richest CEOs had already made as much as money as most of the workers will all year. A new report from the Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives fanned the flames by announcing that the 100 highest paid CEOs in Canada were paid a staggering 243 times what the average Canadian worker took home last year. As moneyed sources warn us constantly about a recession, we'll talk about the real sources of inequality.
50 Tirades of Gray. The Ontario Legislature won't be in session again until after Family Day, but the adversaries of Premier Doug Ford aren't taking a break. One of those adversaries, Environmental Defense executive director Tim Gray, joins us this week to talk about his group's push to investigate the Greenbelt deal with developers, their new lawsuit defending the council approved municipal boundaries in Hamilton and other environmental fights that Gray's group is taking right to Ford's front door.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to talk about the movies. Of course we do that every week, but in this week's special post-holiday edition of the show (sorry, we're still on an advanced winter break) we're going to talk about the movies about the movies that came out in 2022. From one actor's fake story, to a filmmaking story, to an embellished true Hollywood story.
This Wednesday, January 11, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Chew Hollywood Stories. As we continue our break, we turn our retrospective lens this week to tales from Hollywood. First, we will consider the not so true story of Nicolas Cage's hilariously action-packed overseas adventure in the improbably named The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Next, we will go out to 1970s Texas for another film massacre with X. And finally, we will go into Hollywood's past with the highly controversial yet strangely mesmerizing Marilyn Monroe bio-pic, Blonde. Hooray for Hollywood? Maybe.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
On Open Sources Guelph we talk to all members of city council regularly, so it seemed fitting to kick off this new council term last fall by talking first to the five new councillors. For the next couple of weeks on this podcast, we’re going to collect those initial interviews starting with the new reps from the odd number wards in Guelph as we get to know the new players at the council table.
Both Bob Bell and June Hofland, the previous Ward 1 and Ward 3 city councillors respectively, were elected in 2006 and they left some pretty big shoes to fill in terms of experience and longevity at City Hall. The new councillors for those wards, Erin Caton and Michele Richardson, join council at a time of unique challenges even before the provincial government really piled it on in the weeks between the election and the inaugural meetings of the new term.
So with that in mind, we talked to Caton last fall on Open Sources about the things that made a difference for her in the election campaign, developing working relationships with her fellow councillors and increasing representation for people with disabilities on council. She also talked about some of the initial moves she was planning for her first weeks on council and how provincial directives might interrupt the well laid plans she campaigned on.
We also talked to Richardson, who told us about how she, as the one woman running in Ward 3, was elected over several male challengers. She also talked about being thrown into the deep end with Bill 23, and whether the agenda she ran on as a candidate is in danger because of big provincial changes to council business. Also, Richardson discussed how she’ll manage her day job at Wellington County with her new duties plus she talked about some recent development news in her ward.
So let's talk to some our new council friends - again - on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can hear new interviews every week with Guelph councillors and other government newsmakers on Open Sources Guelph, Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca. Also, keep visiting Guelph Politico for all the latest coverage about all the latest city council meetings.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we're back at work! That was a nice holiday break but the news doesn't stop, even though we do (for a time). So on this show, we're catching up with the crazy politics of the United States, which did not take a holiday break, and we will catch up with the War in Ukraine because there was no holiday break there either. For the interview this week, we will finish up our round of interviews with the new city councillors by chatting with the new guy representing Ward 6.
This Thursday, January 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Kevin Can Wait. As dawn arrived on January 3 for the start of the new U.S. Congress, the odds were still long that Kevin McCarthy would achieve his life's goal and become the Speaker of the House, at least on the first vote. It's a big flashing red sign that House Republicans are not ready for prime time, including a holiday scandal about a new New York Congressman who apparently ran for office on an entirely imaginary CV. We will talk about the GOP drama in this first week of the new Congress.
300 Days of Longing. The Russian war in Ukraine, at least the full invasion portion, is rapidly approaching the end of its first year. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a successful visit to the United States before the break that resulted in more military support, but Vladimir Putin has been increasing the bombardment, started calling the war a war in public, and appears to be considering the launch of another invasion through Belarus. What's coming in 2023 for the people of Ukraine?
The Man Who Chew Too Much. Before the break we were working our way through the new Guelph City Councillors, and we finally come to the end of that list. Last, but certainly not least, we're talking to Ken Yee Chew, the new councillor from Ward 6, for this week's show. Chew is one of the youngest members of the new council, and he's going to talk to us about defeating an incumbent, the challenges coming in 2023, and the potential changes to the Federal riding maps that might split off the south end from the rest of Guelph.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're still recovering from some holiday cheer, so we're settling into the new year as we think about the challenges and movies ahead. In the meantime, we're going to bring you some of our insights from the year that just ended, including this episode that might well be a preview for this year's Best Animated Feature Oscar. Are these three in contention?
This Wednesday, January 4, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Animation Domination. To begin the new year, we're going to revisit some of the greatest hits from the last year, and we're lining them up by themes. This week, we're going to look at how 2022 was a great year for animation with some of the best examples, and they might even be up for Oscars. On this episode we will re-cover Pixar's Canada-set Turning Red, Richard Linklater's space age Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, and the charming stop-motion mockumentary Marcel the Shell With Shoes On. Let's have some fun to start 2023!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Here's the first episode of the podcast for the year, and what are we talking about? Stuff that happened in the year that just ended! Before we let 2022 go for good, we're going to go around the horseshoe, the one in the council chambers at 1 Carden Street, one more time. There weren't that many council meetings between September and December, but that doesn't mean nothing interesting happened.
There were exactly a dozen meetings at Guelph City Council between the time councillors breaked for summer and the time they adjourned for the year in December. Obviously, there was an election in between, which meant there was a mid-season cast shake-up. We said goodbye to five of our favourite council characters and we said hello to five new ones!
In terms of the substance (the storylines?) there were some surprises this fall, but not all of them came courtesy of the councillors themselves. The Government of Ontario cast a very big shadow on these last dozen council meetings with their rapid and massive changes to planning policy and the governing rules of council. There was also the spectre of ongoing internal friction when it comes to heritage matters.
Those are just two of themes that will stick out on this council recap episode of the podcast. We will re-visit pre-election conundrums around a massive redevelopment on the old Days Inn property and an emergency re-work of the single-use plastic policy. Post-election, we dive into the repercussions of Bill 23, the heritage versus homes debate around Fife Road, some big changes to a couple of key City advisory committees, and so much more!
So let's cover the small number of highly impactful council meetings from Fall 2022 in this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
The 2023 slate of council meetings begins on Tuesday January 11 with a workshop and a Committee of the Whole meeting. To see those previews, and to stay up to date with the latest developments, keep visiting 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we come to the final episode of the year. As fans of our show know, when the time comes for the last show of the year, then it's time for the awards. The campaign is completed, the votes are in, and the trophies have been polished and stamped. So put on your tux, book your limousine, and pop the champagne as we usher in the new year with the OSGenies (Thoughts on the name?).
This Thursday, December 29, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Worst Politician of 2022. The proverbial pickins are never slim in this category, and 2022 has once again been an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the worst people in politics. From across the ocean and a record setting tenure in terms of a premiership, to someone closer to home who just got hired to be as crazy as they want to be (it seems), our first award goes to the worst of the worst!
Good News Story of the Year. Good news? In 2022? Sure, you can find some if you look hard enough. Actually, you don't have to look that hard, and neither did we. It turns out that the bad news stories might be a source of good news depending on how people are reacting to them, and at the same time things didn't get as bad as they could have thanks to the most basic sort of activism: Voting! It's all good news!!
Dumpster Fire of the Year. Oh yeah! We didn't start the fire, but we certainly warm ourselves from the flames, and 2022 was no exception with this fan favourite category. Many dumpsters were set ablaze this year, and we have narrowed it down to two, whether that's the one that affects us everyday, or the one that got way out of control earlier this year in locations all around the country.
Best Politician of 2022. For everything, there is an equal and an opposite, and if there is a Worst Politician of the Year then there must also be a Best Politician of the Year. Yes, there are a few political people in this blessed world who appear to be as good as their word, and are putting some solid effort into trying to make the world a better place, from a leader literally in the middle of a war zone to some folks closer to home!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we come to the end... of the year! That was a close one, but so was the race to the number one spot in our 2022 Top 5 lists. Yes, since it is the last show of 2022, we will all be joining you this week to talk about our picks of the best films of the year, why they're the best, and why you should be checking them out over the new year!
This Wednesday, December 28, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Best of 2022. Like every year, the last show of 2022 is dedicated to not just one movie, and not just some movies, but the Best Movies of the Year! The entire panel is here, they have prepared their lists and checked them twice, and they are ready to lay out what - in their learned opinions - are the Top 5 movies of the year. From a Viking legend to a sci-fi western, from a tale of a shell to the tale of one of the most famous actresses of all time, we will run down the lists, which may also included an unexpected trip through the multiverse.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
There were good news stories, bad news stories, and some very bad news stories. Progress was made in some quarters, and there was regression in others. It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. It was a long 12 months in some ways, but they all seemed to pass by very, very quickly in the grand scheme of things, so what is there left to say about the year 2022? We’re going to find out!
So there were two elections this year, but both sets of elections were stymied with much lower voter turnout than our worst case scenarios had envisioned. And speaking of worst case, how about that Bill 23? It was announced the day after the municipal election, and probably caused worse hangovers than any of the celebrating done by the election’s winners - or losers - the night before.
Remember when we had another lockdown first thing in January? That was quickly added to the justification for the Freedom Convoy, and support for that was pretty strong locally. Those protests would peter out by the spring, but some people would try to turn their anti-mandate activism or other far-right ideology into electoral candidacy in the fall. In the end 2022 created a lot of concern for members of the community who are part of marginalized groups.
All of this is just the tip of the iceberg on this week’s edition of the podcast as Open Source's Guelph co-host Scotty Hertz joins us to offer some last words about this election year, and some opening thoughts about the new council term. We will also talk about why the homelessness issue became easier to see in the last year, plus cyber attacks, healthcare issues, local hate crimes, and the changing of the guard at various Guelph organizations in the last several months.
So let's talk about 2022 one more time on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Reminder: you can listen to Open Sources Guelph every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca. If you miss hearing the show on terrestrial radio, you will be able to catch it on the Guelph Politicast channel as usual on Monday. And stay tuned for more new episodes of this podcast and other shows as we kick off 2023 this Sunday.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's holiday time and you know what that means. For the last seven years, we've dedicated the last episode before Christmas to some of our favourite political movies, and year eight will be no different. Before you are four titles for your consideration, some of them are recent, some of them are very recent, and at least one title is from the tumultuous Sixties. Shall we stream?
This Thursday, December 22, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Scotty’s Pick #1: Judas and the Black Messiah (2021). "Offered a plea deal by the FBI, William O'Neal infiltrates the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party to gather intelligence on Chairman Fred Hampton." Directed by Shaka King. Starring LaKeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons and Daniel Kaluuya. You can now stream Judas and the Black Messiah on Netflix or rent it on VOD.
Adam’s Pick #1: In the Heat of the Night (1967). "A black Philadelphia police detective is mistakenly suspected of a local murder while passing through a racially hostile Mississippi town, and after being cleared is reluctantly asked by the police chief to investigate the case." Directed by Norman Jewinson. Starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. You can now stream In the Heat of the Night on Super Channel or rent it on VOD.
Scotty’s Pick #2: Freelancer on the Front Lines (2016). "This fast-paced documentary follows Canadian freelance reporter Jesse Rosenfeld’s journey across the Middle East. Having made the region his focus, Rosenfeld shows us the thorny geopolitical realities on the ground and explores how journalism practices have changed in the age of the Internet." Directed by Santiago Bertolino. You can now stream Freelancer... on the NFB app.
Adam’s Pick #2: The Purge: Anarchy (2014). "Three groups of people intertwine and are left stranded in the streets on Purge Night, trying to survive the chaos and violence that occurs." Written and directed by James DeMonaco. Starring Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo and Zach Gilford. You can now stream The Purge: Anarchy on Starz or rent it on VOD.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're on holiday break. While we're out there shopping, and celebrating, and making things merry and bright, our voices will still ring out across the airwaves along with some of your favourite Christmas songs that will remind you about your favourite Christmas movies. In case you forgot what we did last year at Christmas, we're doing it again!
This Wednesday, December 21, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Sounds of the Season. If it's the week before Christmas, then it's time for our annual Christmas movie music show. In a way, we've kind of been building up to his with recent feature reviews of A Christmas Story Christmas and Spirited, but those aren't the classics. This episode is about the classics, or rather music from the classics. Are you dreaming of White Christmas? Is the fire so delightful? Ready for a little Jungle Bell Rock? Well, this is the episode you've been waiting for because it means that Christmas is almost here! 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.
For the last couple of years, we’ve used the Christmas week episode of the podcast to sit down with an influential Guelphite and talk a little more broadly about life and politics while looking back at some of the year’s highlights. This week’s podcast interview comes to you via a Zoom call from the hallways of Parliament Hill, which was the site of what the Canadian Press calls the Biggest Story of the Year.
Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way: 2022 was the year of the Freedom Convoy. No question. For three weeks earlier this, Downtown Ottawa was ground to a standstill as hundreds of people and dozens of trucks set up residence to protest, well, pick your cause. Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield was one of the members who voted in favour of invoking the Emergencies Act, so how does he feel about that now?
Closer to home, Longfield is one of the members of Mayor Cam Guthrie’s special downtown advisory group, which was set up to find immediate to long-term solutions to homelessness and mental health issues in the core. Now, some major supportive housing projects in Guelph currently under construction have benefited from Federal investment, but just how much can the Federal government do about very local circumstances?
We’ll ask Longfield those and some other questions on this holiday edition of the pod. He will talk about his takeaways from the year that’s coming to an end and his personal experience with the Freedom Convoy earlier this year. He will also talk about working on Guelph issues and getting a new deal for Canada’s cities. Plus we will discuss what’s coming issues-wise in 2023, and what his Chamber of Commerce experience is telling him about the economic outlook in the next year.
So let's tuck in for Christmas with our local MP on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can reach out to our area MP at his website, or on social media @lloydlongfield on Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, or @lloyd.longfield on Facebook. Look for Longfield around town over the next month as the House of Commons will not sit again until January 30.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we start wrapping up the year in the same way we started it: political rancour and insurrection! We will briefly pause to consider the potential ramifications of the Federal Liberals winning a Liberal riding in a by-election, and then we will dive into the plot to overthrow Germany. In the back half of the show, we will talk to a fired up Green politician who has some end of the year thoughts.
This Thursday, December 15, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Mississauga Learning. The ballots are counted and to absolutely no one's surprise, former Ontario Minister of Finance Charles Sousa was elected the new Liberal MP of Mississauga-Lakeshore. One could make a story of Pierre Poilievre's first test of leadership , but isn't the more interesting story the fact that 40 people all ran for this seat. What are we to make of this rare two page ballot in this weirdly timed by-election?
They Coup Too Much. Out of Germany is the perhaps the worst instance of online misinformation leading to an attempted government coup since January 6, 2021. A group made up of German aristocracy, QAnon adherents, and (sigh) neo-Nazis were arrested for plotting to remove the German government and they were driven by very specious rationales. How worried should we be about these delusional attacks?
Mike Out. At the end of a very busy, and very consequential session at the Ontario Legislature, we're once again joined by Guelph MPP and Green Party leader Mike Schreiner. From misusing the Constitution to stop education workers from striking, to the move on the Greenbelt, to the changes to the municipal democratic order, there's a lot to talk about and Schreiner is definitely going to have a lot to say.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to believe in love again. Or, at the very least, we will believe that you can rediscover interesting movies on VOD even though they're not successful at the box office. Speaking of which, we're going to review the queer rom-com Bros, and we're also going to talk about movies that might be a success (or failure) in the new year.
This Wednesday, December 14, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
2023 and Me. It's almost the end of the year, and you know what that means? Yes, that means end of the year Best-of lists, and we'll get there in a couple of weeks, but for now we will do the other thing and look ahead to 2023. There are a lot of interesting movies in the proverbial oven being baked for the next 12 months including the return of a great boxer and a film about one of the world's most famous toys, plus a reprise by the world's great archaeologist/adventurer.
REVIEW: Bros (2022). Did someone actually tried to make the great American gay romantic comedy? That seemed to be the goal of Bros, a production of Judd Apatow from the director of Neighbours and The Five-Year Engagement. Billy Eichner, who co-wrote the script, stars as Bobby, a commitment-phobic gay man who doesn't believe in true love until he meets Aaron, a lawyer who's also emotionally unavailable. Can these two crazy kids get their act together and then get together? I'm sure you already know the answer, and we'll share our thoughts about it.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It was a big year for abortion after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June ended the universal right to a legal abortion in the United States. But why do we care up here in Canada? Protests in the U.S. this summer were echoed by ones here in Canada, including a gathering here in Guelph, and the reason why is pretty obvious: We have our own issues with abortion access.
If you’re a woman or pregnant person in Guelph and you want to get an abortion for whatever reason, what do you do? Where do you go? Is there anywhere inside the city limits of Guelph you can seek a surgical abortion? The answer is no, and that’s one of the reasons why the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court hit so close to home. Even though abortion laws are drastically different in Canada, we have many of the same problems of access.
You see, abortion services tend to be close to big cities, and our big cities tend to be concentrated in the southern most areas of the county. Getting to these cities is an issue because our regional and national transit networks are lacking, and what if you need more than a couple of hours of care, or time off work, or childcare? Phrased this way, you can understand why women’s rights and health advocates are worried and how restricting abortion access anywhere can impact us here in Canada.
On this week's podcast we're joined by TK Pritchard, who is the executive director of the SHORE Centre in Kitchener to about those impacts. They will tell us about what options people have accessing family planning services locally, and why not all options should be considered equal. They will also talk about how the U.S. Supreme Court embolden anti-choice actors here in Canada, and why we need to make abortion a part of the total healthcare conversation. And finally, Pritchard will talk about why family planning is about more than just abortion.
So let's talk about why issues of abortion access are a Canadian issue too on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the SHORE Centre in Kitchener including a list of their services and how you can access them at their website, and follow Pritchard on social media @TKPritchard. If you’re interested in advocacy to increase abortion access in Guelph and Canada, you can seek out the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, or the National Abortion Federation Canada.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph. we're coming home for Christmas (at least so far as the news is concerned). We're going to Alberta where there's some interesting new legislation to parse, and then we will catch-up with our old friends in the Green Party who also made some interesting choices. In Guelph though, we're going to sit down with another new city councillor to talk about local issues big and small.
This Thursday, December 8, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Alberta First. Despite the numerous problems they're facing, the first bill brought to the floor by the new(ish) Alberta government was the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act. Premier Danielle Smith says that the bill will give Alberta more control over its own destiny, and almost everyone else thinks it's an undemocratic power grab. Is a potential constitutional crisis a good move six months before an election?
Till You're Old and May... Elizabeth May has been returned to the head of the Green Party of Canada, but this time she has a young sidekick, Jonathan Pedneault. The co-leader arrangement is meant to buttress the charge that the party's looking backwards, especially after all the accusations and missteps during the leadership of Annamie Paul, but here's the real question: Does Canada still need a national Green Party?
Linda-gram. As we continue our journey around the new Guelph City Council table, we come to the new rep from the Quatro! This week, we're joined by Ward 4 City Councillor Linda Busuttil who will talk to us about her transition to council from the school board, transferring her community activism in the west end to her new role, and the big debates she's anticipating when council opens the budget in the new year.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're haunted. The spectre of death casts a long shadow on this week's show even as we review another Christmas movie, but since it's the end of the year, we have to start taking stock. So we kick off the show with a remembrance of some of the people who aren't with us anymore, and then we get right into Christmas with a review of Spirited on AppleTV+.
This Wednesday, December 7, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Death Notes. It's been a year, and December is a time to remember the things that happened during the previous 11 months. But what about the people? Well, to kick off this week's show (which coincidentally includes a review of a movie about ghosts), we will look back at some of the famous and talented people who passed away this year, remember why they were so entertaining and influential, and why we will miss them.
REVIEW: Spirited (2022). You know the story: three ghosts showed a miserable old miser the true spirit of Christmas, but Ebenezer Scrooge wasn't the first person to get the Christmas Carol treatment, and he wasn't the last. Ryan Reynolds plays a professional mudslinger who's lived a life of apathy and selfishness, he's irredeemable, but Will Ferrell's Ghost of Christmas Present accepts the challenge. A Christmas Carol plays out as a musical comedy with a twist, but can this team-up of Reynolds and Ferrell make things merry and bright this holiday?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It was about one year ago that Guelph City Council approved a slate of motions to accelerate the City’s shift to net zero and 100 per cent renewable. The meeting was especially notable for the number of young people who came out to delegate about their panic around the climate's future, and their concern that governments are not moving fast enough to act. So where do we sit on this Race to Zero?
The biggest takeaway from a report in June about the Race to Zero initiative was that corporate greenhouse emissions have been reduced from the 2018 baseline, but those corporate emissions only account for three per cent of Guelph’s total emissions. In other words, the City can lead, but it will be up to the people in Guelph to do their part too. But how do we do that?
Per the Environmental and Sustainability report, over 26 per cent of CO2 emissions in Guelph come from transportation. Making a dent in that load will require people driving less and take some of cars off the road, and that's where the City comes in because they could make it easier to take transit with more routes and more frequency while Guelph Transit converts their vehicles to EV. That's one-quarter of Guelph's carbon footprint, but what about the rest?
To answer that question, and others, we're joined by Byan Ho-Yan, the manager of Energy and Climate Change at the City of Guelph. He will talk to us about the limits of what the City can do to affect our climate change goals, and the ways that they can rally the community to take care of the other 97 per cent. He will also talk about the progress made so far, what’s coming up in 2023, and the one thing he wishes everyone knew about the City of Guelph’s fight against climate change.
So let's talking about fighting climate change at the city level on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the City of Guelph’s energy and climate change plans as well as the 2021 Environmental and Sustainability Report here. It seems appropriate here to remind everyone that Guelph’s ban on select single-use plastics including shopping bags, ring containers, and polystyrene foam containers and cups will be starting on January 1.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we catch up with old friends. Dinner with friends has gotten the former U.S. President into trouble again, and being a little too quick with the proverbial hickory stick has made a lot of people in China mad at their president-for-life. Guess we'll just have to make some new friends, and that's what we do this week as we interview another one of Guelph's new councillors.
This Thursday, December 1, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Yeezy Does It. On the weekend, Donald Trump entertained some diner guests at his fake-White House/country club in Florida, rapper Kayne West and his new friend the white supremacist hate monger Nick Fuentes. Naturally, Trump claims to have no idea how West and Fuentes ended up having dinner with him, but how will this further escalate the growing anti-Semitic sentiment in the U.S. and North America?
The Zero Effect. A fire at a residential building in northwest China sparked a string of nation-wide protests not seen in the Xi Jinping era, and likely not seen since the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989. Why? The "COVID Zero" policies that seem to have prevented firefighters from saving lives in the fire because after three years, the policy is as harsh as it ever was. How did China let their COVID fight go so wrong?
Saved By Michele. As we continue our formal introduction to the new Guelph city councillors, we come around to Ward 3 and it's interesting to note that this ward replaced their outgoing female councillor with the one female candidate who was running in the ward? We will also Michele Richardson about those great expectations, the new realities of Bill 23 and what to expect at her first planning meeting next week.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we return to the hole in the donut hole. If you know what that references, then you're going to have a good time as we tackle the new mysteries and intricacies in the Knives Out sequel, Glass Onion. And since we're in the mood for sequels, we will talk about some the sequels we will never see because they never got made in the first place.
This Wednesday, November 30, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The NeverEnding Stories. In our modern era of non-stop franchises, it's nice to remember that not all stories get a next chapter, even when they should, and even if they go to great pains to set it up. Before we dig into the Knives Out sequel, we will make a list of all the movies that could have, or should have, gotten a sequel including a certain Martin Scorsese crime story and a Guillermo del Toro series about the spawn of Hell.
REVIEW: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022). In 2019, Rian Johnson followed up his Star Wars adventure with a subversive whodunnit and ended up falling into a whole new franchise. Benoit Blanc, the world famous detective, breaks his pandemic pod to head to a Greek Island with a bunch of rich pricks to solve a mystery, but not the one you think. With a couple of days left in its theatrical run, and a few weeks before it debut on Netflix, we will talk about Glass Onion without tipping off any of the details, spoilers or reveals.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Tuesday marks the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, and it's the 33rd anniversary of what’s typically referred to as the Montreal Massacre. In terms of public displays of gender-based violence, it’s yet to be matched, but at least one woman is still killed every six days by an intimate partner. So how far have we come since December 6, 1989?
That stat above was produced in the annual report by Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice & Accountability, who also says that there’s been a 26 per cent increase in the number of women killed since before the pandemic. Why the increase? It’s a lot of the same pressures we’ve all been facing: pandemic stressors, economic uncertainty, and housing affordability. It’s become easier to ask for help, but it’s also become harder to give help.
So as we approach the 33rd anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, many community and advocacy organizations are looking for ways to turn the tide. Many groups are looking at ways to activate the community, and the White Ribbon campaign is focusing on men by asking them to look inward at toxic behaviours normalized in our society. This podcast? We're talking to Cindy McMann, the new public educator for Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis.
McMann joins us to talk about the lessons of the Montreal Massacre, and whether we’ve yet to develop the language to talk about acts of mass gender-based violence. She will also talk about the local factors that make a big difference, and how a perfect storm of issues are putting real pressure on services like Women in Crisis. And finally, McMann will discuss the need to focus on gender-based violence that happens in private, and what everyone, especially men, can do to make a safer world for everyone.
So let's talk about all of our December 6 thoughts on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can learn all about Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis and their services at their website. Follow Women in Crisis @gwwic on social media to take part in the “16 Days 16 Voices” campaign. To mark December 6 locally, you can go to the University of Guelph's ceremony at the Adams Atrium in the Thornbrough building at 2:30 pm, while Women in Crisis will host a vigil at Marianne’s Park at 6:30 pm.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to play the beautiful game: Amateur political punditry! In that context, we're also going to talk about all the issues around that other game being played on the world stage this week, and we're also going to talk about the national stage and the latest moves at a certain inquiry, plus the local stage with another new city councillor who'll talk about a very big first meeting.
This Thursday, November 24, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
It's All Been Leading to This. It's the last week of testimony for the public inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act, and it's probably the most consequential one. All your favourite cabinet ministers will be testifying - Bill Blair, Marco Mendicino, Dominic LeBlanc, David Lametti, Anita Anand, Omar Alghabra, Chrystia Freeland, and then on Friday, "Mr. Big" himself, Justin Trudeau. We'll talk about the latest developments.
¡FIFA la Revolución! The FIFA world Cup has begun in Qatar, but the first several days have been marked with completely predictable scandals: They promised beer, but there was no beer served. They promised to let up on some of their anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, but a man in a rainbow t-shirt was barred from entering a stadium. Even the ticket app crashed on one point this week. So why are we indulging this thing?
hiCarly! The first real city council meeting happened this week, and it had a some consequential implications about what the City of Guelph can do for the next four year. But it was nothing that council did, it was about the Government of Ontario's Bill 23. This week, we're joined by new Ward 2 Councillor Carly Klassen who will talk about her reaction to the implications of Bill 23 and other council business.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to play the beautiful game: Amateur political punditry! In that context, we're also going to talk about all the issues around that other game being played on the world stage this week, and we're also going to talk about the national stage and the latest moves at a certain inquiry, plus the local stage with another new city councillor who'll talk about a very big first meeting.
This Thursday, November 24, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
It's All Been Leading to This. It's the last week of testimony for the public inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act, and it's probably the most consequential one. All your favourite cabinet ministers will be testifying - Bill Blair, Marco Mendicino, Dominic LeBlanc, David Lametti, Anita Anand, Omar Alghabra, Chrystia Freeland, and then on Friday, "Mr. Big" himself, Justin Trudeau. We'll talk about the latest developments.
¡FIFA la Revolución! The FIFA world Cup has begun in Qatar, but the first several days have been marked with completely predictable scandals: They promised beer, but there was no beer served. They promised to let up on some of their anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, but a man in a rainbow t-shirt was barred from entering a stadium. Even the ticket app crashed on one point this week. So why are we indulging this thing?
hiCarly! The first real city council meeting happened this week, and it had a some consequential implications about what the City of Guelph can do for the next four year. But it was nothing that council did, it was about the Government of Ontario's Bill 23. This week, we're joined by new Ward 2 Councillor Carly Klassen who will talk about her reaction to the implications of Bill 23 and other council business.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we get into the holiday spirit! Let us officially begin the celebration of the pre-Christmas (and pre-Black Friday) season with a review of a movie that's a sequel to one of the all-time classic Christmas flcks. We're going to check out A Christmas Story Christmas, but we're also going to make a list, and check it twice, of all the new movies we hope are nice.
This Wednesday, November 23, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Must Sees to See. This show marks the start of a one-month countdown to the usual two-week slate of year end shows, including our annual Top 5 lists. There are always a lot of movies to see at the end of the year because that's when a lot of good ones are typically released, so we will spend the first part of this week's show looking forward to the movies we want to see before making those year-end lists, from bio-pics to Oscar-winning (?) comebacks.
REVIEW: A Christmas Story Christmas (2022). In 1983, the Canadian director of Black Christmas went another way with a new movie about the holiday. Based on a book by Jean Shepherd, A Christmas Story followed the lead character's remembrances of a particularly memorable Christmas when he was 9 years old. Forty years later, Peter Billingsley returns to Ralphie in another steaming legacy sequel that dares to capture the magic of a decades-old success (or at least capture the nostalgia). Can a second Story make this holiday bright?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
While the 13 members of the new city council will have the next four years to refine their ideas about the issues facing Guelph, it feels like we just forget the people who also ran for office just as soon as the results are called. In 2022, nearly 40 people felt like they had the right stuff to be one of Guelph’s civic leaders, so we’re dedicating this episode to the people that didn’t win.
There’s a lot of commentary about politics as blood sport, and we accept it as just part of the experience of running for office. Is that the way we should be thinking about politics? Maybe there should be some formal debrief post-election as some candidates might be traumatized by the experience when exposed to the very modern gauntlet of hate and vitriol during an election campaign.
You’re going to hear about that on this week's podcast, and you will hear about how our election system has remained the same even though the demographics of our community has changed remarkably in the last 20 years. Insights will come from mayoral candidate Danny Drew, Ward 1 candidate Chidi Nwene and Ward 2 candidate Morgan Dandie. These three candidates are going to share their election experiences, and you might find them pretty valuable even though they didn’t win.
Our panel will discuss in detail the lessons they learned on the campaign trail, and how the actual experience was different from their best laid plans. We will also talk about the role that money plays in a campaigning, the value of volunteers and support teams, and the pieces of advice they wish they had gotten in the beginning. Finally, they will talk about next moves, what they would tell other people interested in running for office, and whether they might consider running for office again.
So let's talk to the people who ran, but didn't quite make it, on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can follow Chidi Nwene on Twitter @chidex35, you can follow Danny on Instagram @for_a_socialist_guelph, and you follow Morgan on Instagram @morgan.dandie and check out the weekly Breezy Breakfast live on Thursday at 8 pm or on CFRU Mondays at 9 am.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we're going to undermine the show we've put so much time and energy into. All the kids are doing self-destruction these days, whether that's governments failing on climate action, or a certain billionaire failing with business management. We're going to talk about that, and then we'll talk to someone who isn't failing, one of the new Guelph city councillors.
This Thursday, November 17, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Little COP of Horrors. On the same week that the Earth crossed the 8 billion people mark (and just 12 years after we crossed 7 billion), world leaders gathered in Egypt for the annual conference to talk about the current state of the fight against climate change. There was a twist this time with a number of poorer countries demanding that richer ones pay for climate solutions, but is there any reason to expect real action?
Elon with the Wind. The biggest story in media right now involves the world's richest man buying one of the most influential social media platforms and essentially setting fire to it. Musk's exorbitant $44 billion purchase of Twitter resulted in numerous fumbles in his first few weeks of ownership, and some people are questioning whether Twitter will survive the experience. Is there a viable future for Musk?
Caton of the Union. The new city council was sworn in to office this week, and on this 401st episode of the show, we will talk to the new councillor from Guelph's first ward. Erin Caton joins us to talk about her first few days as a city councillor, the orientation experience, and making her agenda a reality. Plus, we will talk about the first piece of serious business for council: a unified City response to the Ontario government's Bill 23.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we get excited to remember. The long anticipated sequel to Black Panther arrives in theatres, and it carries with it a hint of sadness because of the death of its star. While a new Panther arises in Wakanda Forever, we will first talk about some of the latest film news that has gotten chins wagging recently around streaming issues and Oscar buzz.
This Wednesday, November 16, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Streaming of Consciousness. This week, we go back to our regular movie news segment to talk about some of the latest issues in the movie business. Is a holographic Tom Cruise the future of the movie business? Is Steven Spielberg flexible on what goes to theatres, and what goes to streaming? And are some of the best animated movies of the year eligible for the Oscar for technical reasons? For the first time in a long time, we cover The News!
REVIEW: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022). The untimely death of Chadwick Boseman affected many people, including fans of his his boundary breaking superhero alterego, the Black Panther. How would the Marvel sequel address the loss of its star? By acknowledging it. Wakanda Forever begins with the loss of its king and protector, and seques into the introduction of a major new Marvel character who represents a major threat to everyone's favourite high-tech African kingdom. So is this new Black Panther able to deliver on the promise of the original?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Last week, we covered the transition from the previous council to the new, and this week, we look far-ish into the future to the next election, the one in October 2026. You will hear in this podcast that planning for the next election begins almost immediately after the one that’s just completed, because there are a lot of complicated questions that need to be answered before the time comes to vote again.
Now you may not be really in a mood to think about voting again; we’ve had three elections in the last 13 months, but elections don’t grow on trees, so to speak. Thousands of hours go into planning, setting up, and executing an election, and in the case of municipal elections, it’s just one of the functions of the City department responsible for overseeing and executing the public meetings of council and committees.
There's a lot to consider before the next election, and only some of it is under the clerks' control. They're probably going to talk about internet voting as a way of encouraging anemic voter turnout, in addition to being a way to make the election generally more accessible. By the 2026 election, the list of electors should be moved from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation to Elections Ontario, so that's one problem solved, but what are the other issues?
Stephen O’Brien, who is the City Clerk for the City of Guelph, joins us again to answer that question and more. He will talk about internet voting, and the arguments for and against. O'Brien will also discuss how his staff examines the potential voting methods, and whether increasing voter turnout should be a consideration in decisions made by his office. And finally, he will talk about updating campaign rules, and the effect of misinformation and conspiracies on his job.
So let's talk about the 2026 election on this 2022 edition of the Guelph Politicast!
The Have Your Say survey for post-election feedback is now closed, but you can still get in touch with the clerks office at clerks [at] guelph.ca. The next council meeting is Tuesday November 22 at 10 am to discuss the City response to Bill 23, and that report will be posted on the City’s council calendar page on Friday. You can still sign up to delegate for that meeting any time before this Friday at 10 am 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we turn 400! The above image was posted with the very first show notes page for our very first episode, so get ready to enter the time capsule as we re-examine eight years and 399 episodes worth of material. At the same time, we will look at the months and years to come with our special 400th guest, the once and future mayor of the Royal City!
This Thursday, November 10, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The 400 Shows. They said we wouldn't make it to one hundred episodes! Actually, they never said that. But now we're here, 399 episodes from where we started from when the show began in January 2015. We will spend the first half of this very special episode talking about where we've been, how things have changed, and maybe even where things are going next. Spoiler Alert: The future is scary.
Guthrie in a Row. In the recent election, Mayor Cam Guthrie won handily with over 70 per cent support, which can be seen as a big vote of confidence from the general public about his last eight years as the head of council. But now the real work begins. Guthrie joins us to set the table for the new term by talking about how he'll work with the new council to answer the immediate and long-term challenges to Guelph.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to Netflix and chill. Well, we're going to Netflix anyway. The streamer has been through the maelstrom lately, so this week we will offer some Netflix appreciation by reviewing their latest underrated acquisition, the Australian crime thriller The Stronger. And speaking of Netflix's hidden gems, we'll find you some more.
This Wednesday, November 9, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Unglut Gems. There's a lot of stuff on Netflix. A lot of stuff. The model of Netflix is essentially to flood the zone with so much stuff that you never know what to pick, but what if someone told you where you can dig for gold? That's the goal for the first part of this show. We will talk about six overlooked flicks now available on Netflix that you should see including a tale of love and loss in Africa to a tale of love and loss in Australia, but with zombies!
REVIEW: The Stranger (2022). In 2002, a young boy went missing in the northeastern part of Australia and 10 years later the case was still unsolved. The police decided to throw a Hail Mary pass by running an undercover op on their prime suspect in order to illicit a confession, and it was successful, but at what cost? A true-life crime story is dramatized into a two-hander with Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris where the deserts and forests of the Australian wilderness become a foreboding neo-noir setting. Is The Stranger worth digging through your queue for?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
On November 15, five new city councillors are going to formally take their seat around the horseshoe, and they’re five people bringing a variety of skills and experiences to the table. Joining them are eight experienced councillors, so how do all these ingredients gel to immediately form a cohesive unit that will tackle some of the biggest challenges our local government has faced.
Our guest for the next two weeks is Stephen O’Brien, the City Clerk for the City of Guelph. Among his numerous duties, O’Brien is also the administrator of our municipal elections, and it's that specific work we're going to talk about beginning with this important question: What happens after the election is over? This week, we’re going to talk about what a council transition period looks like at Guelph City Hall.
Now there’s no such thing, really, as a transition period for local government, at least not in the way we understand it from the American example. Having said that, there’s a lot for an incoming councillor to get caught up on from the ongoing work of professional staff to learning the general instruction manual for council from learning about the Procedural Bylaw to what a point of order is.
That's a lot of stuff to cover, and this week O’Brien will cover some of that with us. He will talk about what essential reading and training new councillors have to receive, and what refreshers the incumbent councillors get before the new term begins. He will also talk about the limits of councillor power, and the rules that govern a councillor's role. Also, O'Brien will discuss the leftover paperwork from the election, and his personal advice is to the incoming council class.
So let's talk about the transition to a new term on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
The inaugural first meeting of city council is on Tuesday November 15 at 6:30 pm in the council chambers at 1 Carden Street. There’s also a mock meeting for the new council to get acquainted with procedure and technology at 9:30 am that same day. Come back here next week for part two of our discussion with O’Brien where we talk about planning for the 2026 municipal election.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to talk about some of our favourite characters. The latest hearings in the Emergencies Act inquiry brought out a lot of famous names from the Freedom Convoy, and they we'll dip south of the border to catch up with some long forgotten friends there. In the back half, we'll have to say a surprise goodbye to a frequent friend of the show who was just voted out.
This Thursday, November 3, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Failing Sloly. This week at the Public Order Emergency Commission, aka: the public inquiry into the Emergencies Act, we started with the ongoing testimony of former Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly, who further defined the route of dysfunction in the service, but the rest of the week promised a who's who of Convoy leaders like Chris Barber and Brigette Belton. What new have we learned?
What's the Frequency, Nancy? Last Friday's attack in the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the assault of her husband with a hammer, has dredged up new concerns about political violence, and just in time for the American midterm elections. We'll talk about the far-right extremism that might be about to gain power in the U.S. and whether or not the Democrats have enough juice left to stop them.
Raiders of the Lost Mark. In the only upset for Guelph on Election Night, two-term Ward 6 Councillor Mark MacKinnon fell in defeat to Ken Yee Chew by a little over 400 votes. Coming off his last city council meeting as a sitting councillor (for now?), MacKinnon joins us this week to talk about his council accomplishments, what he's learned from losing, what he's working on next, and his advice for the new kid.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we will go from black-and-white to colour, and back again. That's a reference to the filmmaking style of the latest Netflix attempt for awards' consideration, Blonde, which is all about the life of Marilyn Monroe. You might have heard of her, and you also might have heard about some of these other movies about Hollywood life.
This Wednesday, November2, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Movies Like Movies. If there's one thing that Hollywood likes to do, it's looking inward to find good story material. Blonde is not the first movie about the movie business, and the people that make movies, and it won't be last, so for the first part of our show this week, we will look at Hollywood looking at itself. From tales of Hollywood legends in their later years to a mockumentary about a lost star from the 90s, we will honour the movies... about movies.
REVIEW: Blonde (2022). When you think of Hollywood glamour, there's probably no better example than Marilyn Monroe. Although she died at the age of 36 over 60 years ago, she still casts a long shadow as an icon, and now her sad life's been captured on film again in the controversial bio-pic, Blonde. Acclaimed filmmaker Andrew Dominik deconstructs Monroe's story, and he gets rare talent in Ana de Armas who seems to captures Marilyn both physically and in spirt, but what about the movie itself? Is Blonde worthy of its larger than life subject?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Science, technology, engineering and math make up the four letters in "STEM", which is the subject of a new exhibit at the Guelph Civic Museum. In "Iron Willed: Women in STEM", you can travel through the history of science and engage with all the great women that have achieved big wins in science while overcoming tremendous social and societal barriers thrown in front of them, even in the 21st century.
From Marie Curie to Donna Strickland, the history of women in science has not just been a story about the advancement of scientific understanding and knowledge, but a story about social progress. Old-fashioned ideas about the role women can play in science can be seen in modern statistics, where only about 20 per cent of people receiving physics degrees are women, the lowest of all the physical sciences.
Now, we can all understand the struggle with the "Iron Willed" exhibit, which originated from Ingenium, a group of Ottawa museums, and was then adapted for Guelph with information about local scientists by Laura Coady, who is the Collections and Research Co-ordinator of Guelph Museums. Coady joins us this week, and so does University of Guelph physics prof Dr. Joanne O’Meara and U of G microbial ecologist Dr. Heather Slinn.
With all this brain power on this week’s edition of the podcast, we will talk about the highlights of the exhibit, how it was made Guelph-friendly, and some of the interesting things you will find when you visit. We will also talk about the difficulties in getting more women into scientific fields, why the struggle starts long before the first year of university, and we will discuss the best ways to support women in STEM with some personal messages from the guests to their younger selves.
So let's dig into the world of Women in STEM, and the challenges they face, on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about "Iron Willed: Women in STEM" at the Guelph Museums website, and you can also visit the exhibit in-person at the Guelph Civic Museum any time from now until February 20. You can learn more about Royal City Science and their efforts to build a science centre in Guelph at their website, and you can follow 500 Women Scientists Guelph on Twitter.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's back to normal. Or, at least, what passes for normal. With the election over, the format is getting back to normal at least with two news items and an interview. This week, we're talking about the inquiry into the Emergencies Act, and the still relatively new government in Queen's Park, plus we will have an interview with an outgoing member of city council about a job well done.
This Thursday, October 27, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Inquiry Minds Want to Know. For the past two weeks, officials have been probing the use of the Emergencies Act. Testimony so far has revealed a complete breakdown in planning and intelligence gathering during the so-called "Freedom Convoy", but we kind of knew that already. Also, Premier Doug Ford is of the opinion he doesn't have to testify even after other witnesses have thrown him under the bus. We'll catch up.
Fall Back to Queen's Park. The Government of Ontario took some time off to let the municipal elections unfold, but they were back in business in a big way Tuesday with new legislation meant to help with the housing crisis. The real dark cloud though is the gathering spectre of job action as CUPE educational workers are in a legal strike position a week from today. So how are things going in the House of Ford?
Done Hasslin' With the Hof'. She wasn't running for re-election on Monday, but this week we're going to talk to June Hofland, now the outgoing Ward 3 City Councillor. Hofland's been on council since 2006, so she's leaving with a wealth of experience and insight dealing with municipal matters, and we're going to pick her brain about some of those lessons, plus, we will ask her about her legacy and her unfinished business.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, this is Halloween! In our inevitable Halloween Week show, we will have the inevitable review as we follow up our shows about Halloween, and Halloween Kills with Halloween Ends. And since one good horror franchise deserves another, or all of them (?), we will finally, and scientifically, determine which horror franchise stands above all the others.
This Wednesday, October 26, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Simply the Best? When it comes to franchise building, no one does it better than the horror genre. There are so many different franchises in the world of horror, so many variances in creativity and quality, how could you possibly determine which one is the best one? Well, that's our mission on this week's show! We will debate the best horror franchise in film history; Is it zombies? Monsters? The guy with the machete? The guy with the chain saw? We'll find out.
REVIEW: Halloween Ends (2022). It's over! Or is it? The 13th movie in the Halloween franchise promises a definitive conclusion, but it also promises the ultimate confrontation between boogeyman Michael Myers and the finalest final woman Jamie Lee Curtis. On that second part, Halloween Ends shirks those expectations in favour of something entirely different, which has been a source of much consternation on Film Twitter. But what do we think? Does Halloween Ends deliver the goods, or is it just another Halloween sequel?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
You probably know who all the new members of city council and the school board are, but do you know how it all unfolded on Election Night? Preserved for posterity, and for the edification of those who might have otherwise been busy on Monday night, we're going to replay nearly two hours of non-stop political nerdiness as we counted all the votes as they rolled.
This week's episode of the podcast was recorded live-to-air on Election Night this past Monday. Starting when the polls closed at 8 pm you will be able to listen as Scotty Hertz and I followed all the ups and downs of the polls in Guelph, took a look at some of the key races around Ontario, and threw in a generous number of trademark non-sequiturs that have become your favourite part of live election coverage on CFRU!
So, let's flashback to Election Night, and remember how we got here on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To see the unofficial results click here. The City Clerks office will post the official results later this week. The new council will be sworn in on Tuesday November 15. In the meantime, stay tuned to Open Sources Guelph for interviews with the new members of council in the weeks to come.
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.
This week on End Credits, we cross the streams. Yes, that is a Ghostbusters reference, but it's also a reference to the stream from TV to the movies, or maybe just streaming VOD. Like this week's review, which is a movie based on a TV show. We're looking at the adaptation of The Munsters, and we will talk about other movies that got their start on the proverbial boob tube.
This Wednesday, October 19, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
TV at the Movies. When TV came around, the movies felt threatened by the idea that you can beam news and entertainment programming right into your home. Decades later though, TV shows became just another source of valuable I.P., the basis for studios to create new lucrative franchises, and sometimes it worked! Before the main review, we will talk about some of those projects, from a team of 1960s spies to some foul-mouthed kids looking to blame Canada.
REVIEW: The Munsters (2022). In the Fall of 1964, two different sitcoms premiered featuring families who were spooky and macabre; one was The Addams Family and the other was The Munsters. Generations of fans gathered around both shows, but one of The Munsters' biggest fans was Rob Zombie. Though known for the murder and mayhem of hits like The Devil's Rejects, Zombie goes decidedly PG with this tale of how Herman met Lily and made their way from gloomy Transylvania to sunny L.A. Does Zombie capture the magic of The Munsters?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, the election ends. Well, technically the election ends on Election Day, which is Monday October 24, but in terms of our own election coverage, this is the end. We've got three interviews with three mayoral candidates on this week's show, from the person who wants to be a very different mayor, to someone that wants to blow up the role of mayor, and last, but not least, the incumbent mayor.
This Thursday, October 20, at 4:30 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Rookie Drew. Danny Drew was the first person to plant their flag in the ground to challenge Cam Guthrie for the Mayor's chain in this election, and they're about as far away from Guthrie in terms of style, substance and influence that they can get. Scotty will talk to Guelph's official "non-binary communist" about taking Guelph in a very different direction, why housing is his priority, and how he's got a lot of out-of-the-box ideas to fix it.
The Far Side. What was that we just said about being the opposite of Cam? Shelagh McFarlane has been one of the pre-eminent voices of the local anti-mask, anti-mandate, and vaccine hesitancy movement, and she will be the first to tell you that she doesn't care about the minutia of zoning bylaws or community plans. Adam will talk to McFarlane about why she thinks the world is not what the rest of us think it is.
Third Time Around. Cam Guthrie has a lot of fans in Guelph, but he also has his share of critics, but whatever criticisms people have about Guthrie, they couldn't find a powerful opponent to rally behind. Perhaps Guthrie's real opponent is the challenges that the city is facing now and in the future. Adam will ask Guthrie about some of those challenges, his effectiveness as mayor, and how he might change things up in the next term.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
You may have heard that there may be a teachers’ strike coming. Another disruption to the learning of Ontario’s students is the last thing anyone - from parents to government to the teachers themselves - wants. Having said that though, it does feel like we’re on a path to inevitable job action as teachers' demand more resources and Queen's Park demands moderation. Is there a middle ground?
As it stands now, only around 55,000 education workers represented by CUPE including custodians, early childhood educators and admin staff will be in a legal strike position on November 3, but that doesn’t mean they will strike. It’s worth noting that in 2019, CUPE and the government reached a deal at the last minute before the strike, so could history repeat itself, but no one knows what’s going to happen.
In late-2019 and early-2020, there were a series of one-day walkouts by teachers, and they were having an effect, but then we got hit by COVID-19 and it poured a bucket of cold water on any job action. By the end of March 2020, all the teachers’ unions had a new agreement, but even with that unfinished business, it's probably safe to say that teachers' concerns have changed markedly since the pandemic. Will finding common ground be easier or harder this time around?
Speaking locally, we're joined on this week's podcast by Jennifer Hesch, the Vice-President and Chief Negotiator of the Upper Grand Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO), and David Del Duca, the Vice-President (Secondary) from the Wellington Unit of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA).
Hesch and Del Duca will tell us what the CUPE no board report means for local schools, and what it means for the negotiations with other unions. They will also talk about the issues that the unions are negotiating for, why compensation is fundamental, and why safety is such an important consideration whether it’s COVID-19 or threats of violence. And finally, we will discuss the search for positive signs from the government, and whether they feel hopeful about these current negotiations.
So let's talk about the local view on education in this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can keep up-to-date with the latest developments from the OECTA at their website, and you can get in touch with the local unit through their website here. For the ETFO, you can access the main union website here, and you can reach out to the local office through their own website here. Stay tuned for developments as they occur.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, the municipal election coverage continues, except this week we take it literally to the next level. Kicking off our slate of mayoral candidate interviews, we've got two of the political newcomers who are staking their claim for Guelph's highest political office. In the first half we've got a professor and in the second half we've got a private eye. Who will mayor best? You tell us on October 24 (and after next week's show)!
This Thursday, October 13, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Grill Bill. A lot of politicians say they're not a politician, but William Albabish is one of the three mayoral candidates who really has no previous experience running in a Guelph election. Albabish is a professor at the University of Guelph-Humber, but he's now seeking political office on an outsider ticket. Can he do it? Scotty will talk to Albabish about being the scholastic face of the local mayor's race, why he's focused on infrastructure, and why he decided to run a sign-less campaign?
John of the Spread. If you're a security conscious voter, perhaps a mayor with a background as a security consultant and private investigator might be of interest. Our second mayoral candidate on this week's show is John Edward Krusky, who traces his family back to the earliest days of Guelph, and he now wants to see us through to the city's 200th birthday. Adam will ask Krusky about his new political interest, how we reduce taxes per his platform, and balancing growth and the environment.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, the world is not what it appears to be. Don't worry (darling), we're not talking about politics - that's the other show - we're talking about the movies. For the review this week, we've got a movie that everyone knows everything about, except the mystery at the centre, and we're also talking about movies where the secret is the thing.
This Wednesday, October 12, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
They Made Us Watch Them. There's a mystery at the heart of the movie we're reviewing this week. Not just a mystery, but a conspiracy. The basis for a lot of good movies is that nefarious forces are trying to make people say or do things to cover up the fact that world isn't what they say it is, and so to begin this week's show, we'll talk about great conspiracy movies; from the ultimate story about authoritarian rule to a 60s classic about a secret assassin.
REVIEW: Don't Worry Darling (2022). So much was said about this movie before it was released, and almost none of it was about the movie itself. Did the director and the star get along? Was the director too focused on her new boyfriend, the male lead? Why did Olivia Wilde make Jordan Peterson cry? You would think that with all this crazy gossip talk, the movie it was attached to isn't that interesting, so while discussing Don't Worry Darling, the latest from director Wilde and stars Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, we'll focus on the film and not the follies.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
School board elections don’t normally get a lot of attention, and that’s exactly how some people like it, but what happens when parents organize and start advocating for the kind of school board they want? Will that have a visible impact on the chronically, and criminally, underlooked school board elections? One group of Halton Region parents certainly hope so.
You have have seen the news last summer when the Halton Catholic District School Board voted against flying the Pride flag. The motion to approve flying of the flag was the initiative of a Grade 12 student at Oakville's St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Secondary School, and she had the backing of 18,000 people who signed a petition supporting it. This was not a secular versus Catholic issue, but that's how it ended up phrased at the board.
On top of that, far-right groups like Campaign Life Coalition and Parents As First Educator were trying to influence the school board when the motion came up again in January. From candidates making ludicrous claims about schools putting litter boxes in classrooms for kids identifying as cast to local candidates supporting white replacement theory, can a political advocacy group make any kind of difference in a political realm where so few people pay attention?
Allison Kolch, who is one of the organizers of a political action group called Halton Parents for Change, has made that her project, and she will talk to us this week about how she's doing it. Kolch will talk about the especially problematic trustees, the friction between secular education and denominational rights, and what the young people themselves think of their trustee representatives. She will also discuss the issues of importance this election, and whether the group has had any impact on the campaign trail.
So let's talk about politics on the school board in this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Halton Parents For Change at their website, and you can find links there to some of the issues and articles that we’re talking about on this podcast. In terms of our own school board elections, early voting continues this weekend, and you can find all the information on how and when at vote.guelph.ca. You can also see school board candidate questionnaires 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, 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.
Photo Courtesy of the Halton Catholic District School Board.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're still talking to council candidates. For the last five weeks, we've gone up and down and around the Guelph electoral map to bring you some of the voices belonging to people who are running to form the next city council. Some of them you know, some of them you didn't know, and for our final slate, we're bringing you four people who've definitely never been interviewed by OSG before!
This Thursday, October 6, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Running Men and Women, Part 6. Yes, yes, it's October now, but like the Boxing Day sales that go on well into January, we've decided to extend our council candidate interviews one more week! Election Day is still Monday October 24, but the early voting starts this Thanksgiving weekend, so here is one last chance to hear from a quartet of people running to be a part of the next city council before we start breaking out the mayoral candidates for next week's show. It's make-or-break time in our local election.
- Craig DiSero, Ward 6
- Luc Cousineau, Ward 3
- Elia Morrison, Ward 2
- Sam Elmslie, Ward 3
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
For the last six weeks, the team at Open Sources Guelph has been chasing the nearly 40 candidates running for Guelph city council, and we caught almost 75 per cent of them. Presented here for the first time, we've organized all the interviews we've done according to the wards, and as we go into the first weekend of early voting, consider these special editions of the show as essential tools in decided who to vote for.
This Saturday, October 8, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Running Men and Women. The municipal election is on Monday October 24, and we’ve spent the last several weeks bringing you the voices of the people running to be a part of the next city council, from the new developments in the south end, to the ancient core of Guelph in Ward 2; from all parts west of the Hanlon in Ward 4 to all parts east of Victoria in the new Ward 1. And yeah, we're also got people from Ward 3 and Ward 5 too. Click 'play' on the special episode that most directly applies to you below.
Ward 6: Ken Yee Chew, Craig DiSero, Mark MacKinnon, Dominique O'Rourke, and Chetna Robinson.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
For the last six weeks, the team at Open Sources Guelph has been chasing the nearly 40 candidates running for Guelph city council, and we caught almost 75 per cent of them. Presented here for the first time, we've organized all the interviews we've done according to the wards, and as we go into the first weekend of early voting, consider these special editions of the show as essential tools in decided who to vote for.
This Saturday, October 8, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Running Men and Women. The municipal election is on Monday October 24, and we’ve spent the last several weeks bringing you the voices of the people running to be a part of the next city council, from the new developments in the south end, to the ancient core of Guelph in Ward 2; from all parts west of the Hanlon in Ward 4 to all parts east of Victoria in the new Ward 1. And yeah, we're also got people from Ward 3 and Ward 5 too. Click 'play' on the special episode that most directly applies to you below.
Ward 5: Leanne Caron, Cathy Downer, Hesham Genidy, and Denese Renaud.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
For the last six weeks, the team at Open Sources Guelph has been chasing the nearly 40 candidates running for Guelph city council, and we caught almost 75 per cent of them. Presented here for the first time, we've organized all the interviews we've done according to the wards, and as we go into the first weekend of early voting, consider these special editions of the show as essential tools in decided who to vote for.
This Saturday, October 8, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Running Men and Women. The municipal election is on Monday October 24, and we’ve spent the last several weeks bringing you the voices of the people running to be a part of the next city council, from the new developments in the south end, to the ancient core of Guelph in Ward 2; from all parts west of the Hanlon in Ward 4 to all parts east of Victoria in the new Ward 1. And yeah, we're also got people from Ward 3 and Ward 5 too. Click 'play' on the special episode that most directly applies to you below.
Ward 4: Linda Busuttil, Hitesh Jagad, Adrian Salvatore, and Justin Van Deale.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
For the last six weeks, the team at Open Sources Guelph has been chasing the nearly 40 candidates running for Guelph city council, and we caught almost 75 per cent of them. Presented here for the first time, we've organized all the interviews we've done according to the wards, and as we go into the first weekend of early voting, consider these special editions of the show as essential tools in decided who to vote for.
This Saturday, October 8, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Running Men and Women. The municipal election is on Monday October 24, and we’ve spent the last several weeks bringing you the voices of the people running to be a part of the next city council, from the new developments in the south end, to the ancient core of Guelph in Ward 2; from all parts west of the Hanlon in Ward 4 to all parts east of Victoria in the new Ward 1. And yeah, we're also got people from Ward 3 and Ward 5 too. Click 'play' on the special episode that most directly applies to you below.
Ward 3: Phil Allt, John Bertrand, Kevin Bowman, Luc Cousineau, Sam Elmslie, Dallas Green, and Michele Richardson.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
For the last six weeks, the team at Open Sources Guelph has been chasing the nearly 40 candidates running for Guelph city council, and we caught almost 75 per cent of them. Presented here for the first time, we've organized all the interviews we've done according to the wards, and as we go into the first weekend of early voting, consider these special editions of the show as essential tools in decided who to vote for.
This Saturday, October 8, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Running Men and Women. The municipal election is on Monday October 24, and we’ve spent the last several weeks bringing you the voices of the people running to be a part of the next city council, from the new developments in the south end, to the ancient core of Guelph in Ward 2; from all parts west of the Hanlon in Ward 4 to all parts east of Victoria in the new Ward 1. And yeah, we're also got people from Ward 3 and Ward 5 too. Click 'play' on the special episode that most directly applies to you below.
Ward 2: Morgan Dandie, Rodrigo Goller, Carly Klassen, Elia Morrison, and Raymond Sartor.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
For the last six weeks, the team at Open Sources Guelph has been chasing the nearly 40 candidates running for Guelph city council, and we caught almost 75 per cent of them. Presented here for the first time, we've organized all the interviews we've done according to the wards, and as we go into the first weekend of early voting, consider these special editions of the show as essential tools in decided who to vote for.
This Saturday, October 8, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Running Men and Women. The municipal election is on Monday October 24, and we’ve spent the last several weeks bringing you the voices of the people running to be a part of the next city council, from the new developments in the south end, to the ancient core of Guelph in Ward 2; from all parts west of the Hanlon in Ward 4 to all parts east of Victoria in the new Ward 1. And yeah, we're also got people from Ward 3 and Ward 5 too. Click 'play' on the special episode that most directly applies to you below.
Ward 1: Michelle Bowman, Erin Caton, Dan Gibson, and Chidi Newene.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it's the Mia Goth appreciation hour. Almost. We are going to talk about the latest entry in Ti West's unexpected horror trilogy about fame, sex, and sociopathy in Texas. and it's called Pearl. And since we're talking about one prequel as the main review of this week's show, we're going to make a point and talk about other prequels to kick things off.
This Wednesday, October 5, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Back to the Beginnings. This week we're reviewing Pearl, the unexpected prequel to a horror movie that was released earlier this year. Now prequels get a bad rap as inherently inferior films. After all, we know the fate of certain characters because we've already seen them in the previous movie that takes places chronologically after the prequel, so can there ever be such a thing as a good prequel? There can, and we will talk about some of them.
REVIEW: Pearl (2022). Earlier this year, a movie called X was released and it told the story about a group of young people that set up shop at an out-of-the-way farm in rural Texas to make a (good) dirty movie. That wasn't the beginning (or the end) of the story though. In Pearl, we rewind back to 1918 and see the origin of X's horny and homicidal villain as she struggles between her desire to be rich and famous in order to get off the hated family farm and her own murderous tendencies. X was a surprise in the spring, so will Pearl be a surprise of the fall?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
There was a Guelph man named Matthew Wozenilek who passed away in 2016. He was well-known for his “Stop Ableism” campaign, a one-man effort to make Guelph more accessible one fight at a time, including a case against Elections Canada at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. The awareness raised did make people more mindful of barriers to physical accessibility. So we all lived happily ever after, right?
This week we're joined by Lorelei Root and Mike Greer, who are the chair and vice-chair of the City of Guelph’s Accessibility Advisory Committee. It’s election time here in Guelph, and while accessibility probably doesn’t make the Top 5 election issues that are concerning to the general public, it probably should be, and this is the podcast that’s going to explain to you why.
Leading up to this election, we’ve seen the limits of accessibility at city council. Consider the lobbying done by the AAC to allow Guelph’s disabled community to be able to vote on their terms in this municipal election, or the recent debate about excluding straws from the single-use plastic ban. Those are two obvious recent examples of issues that matter to people with disabilities, but there’s so much more to consider, and it all still stems from a lack of awareness. Can we do better?
Greer and Root will talk all about that on this week's podcast. They will also discuss the complex series of barriers that need to be broken down, and why the path to accessibility needs to mean more than ticking off boxes on a checklist. They will also talk about the effectiveness of the AAC when it comes to changing minds at city hall, and whether or not that might be changing. They will also talk about making accessibility the minimum standard, and the one thing they wish everyone knew about accessibility issues here in Guelph.
Let's talk about rethinking accessibility in this episode of the Guelph Politicast!
You can follow Lorelei Root and Mike Greer on Twitter at @Squarest_Root and @Ol_Mike13, and you can learn more about the Accessibility Advisory Committee at the City’s website. Reminder, early voting starts this weekend, and you can find all the information on how and when at vote.guelph.ca.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're at the end of September. Well that went fast. Advanced voting starts next weekend, so you will finally be able to take advantage of all this work to get to know the council candidates, and in this episode you're going to get to know five more. For the past couple of weeks we've mostly focused on the even-numbered wards, and this week we're focusing on the odd... wards.
This Thursday, September 29, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Running Men and Women, Part 5. The municipal election is on Monday October 24, and we’re spending the weeks from now till Election Day bringing you the voices of the people running to be a part of the next city council, and, starting in October, the people who want to be mayor. So this week, we will hear from five more of the brave souls who want to be a part of local government, and, depending on where you live, they all want to get your vote. Here’s who we’re talking to this week:
- Michelle Bowman, Ward 1
- John Bertrand, Ward 3
- Dallas Green, Ward 3
- Michele Richardson, Ward 3
- Cathy Downer, Ward 5
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're not going anywhere. There aren't too many field trips on this show, so staying in one place is not that unusual, but there is something unusual about the movies not taking us too far beyond the same four walls. Our review this week, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is one of those, and we will also talk about other movies that never go anywhere.
This Wednesday, September 28, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Room for One. Considering how expansive the big screen can be, there are a lot of movies - and great movies at that - which are set almost exclusively in one location. Since Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is also a movie that's pretty much set in one location, we're going to dedicate the first part of our show to other movies set in one place, from a Hitchcock drama about the perfect murder, to a supernatural attack on a cabin in the woods.
REVIEW: Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022). A retired widow who's never had an orgasm goes into a hotel room with a sex worker... Sounds like a joke, and make no mistake, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is a comedy, but it's got a little more on its mind than sex and laughing about sex. Emma Thompson plays the widow, and Daryl McCormack plays the titular sex worker in this one room-set movie that asks some deep questions about romance, sex, pleasure, relationships, body positivity, and regret. And yes, it's also very funny too. We'll tell you about it.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This week on End Credits, we're not going anywhere. There aren't too many field trips on this show, so staying in one place is not that unusual, but there is something unusual about the movies not taking us too far beyond the same four walls. Our review this week, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is one of those, and we will also talk about other movies that never go anywhere.
This Wednesday, September 28, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Room for One. Considering how expansive the big screen can be, there are a lot of movies - and great movies at that - which are set almost exclusively in one location. Since Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is also a movie that's pretty much set in one location, we're going to dedicate the first part of our show to other movies set in one place, from a Hitchcock drama about the perfect murder, to a supernatural attack on a cabin in the woods.
REVIEW: Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022). A retired widow who's never had an orgasm goes into a hotel room with a sex worker... Sounds like a joke, and make no mistake, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is a comedy, but it's got a little more on its mind than sex and laughing about sex. Emma Thompson plays the widow, and Daryl McCormack plays the titular sex worker in this one room-set movie that asks some deep questions about romance, sex, pleasure, relationships, body positivity, and regret. And yes, it's also very funny too. We'll tell you about it.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This week, the Guelph Chamber of Commerce posts the recorded Q&As they’ve done with the candidates running in each of Guelph’s six wards, and the mayor’s race, deviating from the live format they’ve done in years past. But today, it’s the Chamber's CEO and President turn to answer the questions as we dive into the election issues at the intersection of government, business and community.
If you ask any 10 people in Guelph what they think the number one issue of the election is going to be, you will get some variation on affordability. As we’re reminded all the time in politics, and you will hear it again on this podcast, municipalities are creatures of the province, so when it comes to these big, systemic economic pressures, there’s only so much that City Hall, and those in it, can do.
So what can City Hall do? They can help set the scene and establish their town as a place that’s appealing to do business. Through this lens, a lack of affordable housing doesn’t really make living in Guelph seem inviting to anyone other than the ultra-wealthy, and a lack of regional transit options doesn’t make Guelph appealing to anyone that hates the car culture. So are the economic issues of this election bigger and more complicated than "affordability"?
Shakiba Shayani will help us analyze this and other questions as she talks about the role of affordable housing in encouraging business growth, and why the goals of business leaders and the rest of the community are not as different as you might think. She will also dig into regional transit, the number of hotel rooms in Guelph, and where our city stands in the great return-to-the-office or work-from-home debate. And finally, she will talk about the issue that she wants to get a full vetting before Election Day.
So let's talk about the economic issues this election on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can now watch the seven different municipal election debates hosted by the Guelph Chamber on their YouTube channel, and you learn all kinds of things about the Guelph Chamber of Commerce 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, 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.
This week, the Guelph Chamber of Commerce posts the recorded Q&As they’ve done with the candidates running in each of Guelph’s six wards, and the mayor’s race, deviating from the live format they’ve done in years past. But today, it’s the Chamber's CEO and President turn to answer the questions as we dive into the election issues at the intersection of government, business and community.
If you ask any 10 people in Guelph what they think the number one issue of the election is going to be, you will get some variation on affordability. As we’re reminded all the time in politics, and you will hear it again on this podcast, municipalities are creatures of the province, so when it comes to these big, systemic economic pressures, there’s only so much that City Hall, and those in it, can do.
So what can City Hall do? They can help set the scene and establish their town as a place that’s appealing to do business. Through this lens, a lack of affordable housing doesn’t really make living in Guelph seem inviting to anyone other than the ultra-wealthy, and a lack of regional transit options doesn’t make Guelph appealing to anyone that hates the car culture. So are the economic issues of this election bigger and more complicated than "affordability"?
Shakiba Shayani will help us analyze this and other questions as she talks about the role of affordable housing in encouraging business growth, and why the goals of business leaders and the rest of the community are not as different as you might think. She will also dig into regional transit, the number of hotel rooms in Guelph, and where our city stands in the great return-to-the-office or work-from-home debate. And finally, she will talk about the issue that she wants to get a full vetting before Election Day.
So let's talk about the economic issues this election on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can now watch the seven different municipal election debates hosted by the Guelph Chamber on their YouTube channel, and you learn all kinds of things about the Guelph Chamber of Commerce 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we continue our journey on the election trail with another trip around the ward map. It's been a long September (nor December like the Counting Crows song), but we've collected another quintet of candidates for this new episode of the show including a couple of people running Ward 2, a visitor from the west end, and a couple of runners from wards south of the river.
This Thursday, September 22, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Running Men and Women, Part 4. The municipal election is on Monday October 24, and we’re spending the weeks from now till Election Day bringing you the voices of the people running to be a part of the next city council, and, starting in October, the people who want to be mayor. So this week, we will hear from five more of the brave souls who want to be a part of local government, and, depending on where you live, they all want to get your vote. Here’s who we’re talking to this week:
- Rodrigo Goller, Ward 2
- Hersham Genidy, Ward 5
- Carly Klassen, Ward 2
- Chetna Robinson, Ward 6
- Justin Van Deale, Ward 4
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we continue our journey on the election trail with another trip around the ward map. It's been a long September (nor December like the Counting Crows song), but we've collected another quintet of candidates for this new episode of the show including a couple of people running Ward 2, a visitor from the west end, and a couple of runners from wards south of the river.
This Thursday, September 22, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Running Men and Women, Part 4. The municipal election is on Monday October 24, and we’re spending the weeks from now till Election Day bringing you the voices of the people running to be a part of the next city council, and, starting in October, the people who want to be mayor. So this week, we will hear from five more of the brave souls who want to be a part of local government, and, depending on where you live, they all want to get your vote. Here’s who we’re talking to this week:
- Rodrigo Goller, Ward 2
- Hersham Genidy, Ward 5
- Carly Klassen, Ward 2
- Chetna Robinson, Ward 6
- Justin Van Deale, Ward 4
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to take it easy. It's the first day of fall, and after the hustle and bustle of summer we can use something low key. The movie we're reviewing for this episode is so low key that you might not have noticed that it was even being released. We're talking about Confess, Fletch and some of the most exciting movies from that festival.
This Wednesday, September 21, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
TIFF Competition. The Toronto International Film Festival has wrapped for another year, and the winner of this year's audience choice prize was a first time TIFF filmmaker called Steven Spielberg, who's new film, The Fabelmans, was the toast of the festival. Does that make us want to see it more? Maybe. Before the review, we're going to talk about the movies we're excited about coming out of TIFF, from a doc about a robot to a cancelled movie about a clown.
REVIEW: Confess, Fletch (2022). Gregory McDonald's series of books about a misanthropic former reporter constantly stumbling into mystery was the subject of one successful movie starring Chevy Chase and one unsuccessful sequel. Now it's Jon Hamm's turn to slip into Fletch's reluctantly worn shoes as he embarks on a seedy trip into the art world to find stolen paintings, a missing tycoon, and the murderer of a young woman found in his Boston rental. Did we mention that Fletch is also a suspect? How's Fletch going to get out of this one, and do we care?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This week on End Credits, we're going to take it easy. It's the first day of fall, and after the hustle and bustle of summer we can use something low key. The movie we're reviewing for this episode is so low key that you might not have noticed that it was even being released. We're talking about Confess, Fletch and some of the most exciting movies from that festival.
This Wednesday, September 21, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
TIFF Competition. The Toronto International Film Festival has wrapped for another year, and the winner of this year's audience choice prize was a first time TIFF filmmaker called Steven Spielberg, who's new film, The Fabelmans, was the toast of the festival. Does that make us want to see it more? Maybe. Before the review, we're going to talk about the movies we're excited about coming out of TIFF, from a doc about a robot to a cancelled movie about a clown.
REVIEW: Confess, Fletch (2022). Gregory McDonald's series of books about a misanthropic former reporter constantly stumbling into mystery was the subject of one successful movie starring Chevy Chase and one unsuccessful sequel. Now it's Jon Hamm's turn to slip into Fletch's reluctantly worn shoes as he embarks on a seedy trip into the art world to find stolen paintings, a missing tycoon, and the murderer of a young woman found in his Boston rental. Did we mention that Fletch is also a suspect? How's Fletch going to get out of this one, and do we care?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Have you ever stopped to think about all the waste generated in the last 30 months since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic? How many masks, gloves, wipes, syringes and containers we’ve thrown away? It's an interesting question, and some scientists are trying to get answers about all this extra garbage we’ve created and the effect it’s having on our environment.
Even back in the earliest days of the pandemic, there was concern about how much more waste was going to be created in the name of keeping people safe. For instance, the Solid Waste Association of North America said that there was a 20 per cent increase in the amount of waste collected in U.S. cities between March and April 2020. Local universities were even doing research into ways to reuse plastic PPE.
Meanwhile, a University of Guelph researcher was part of a team keeping an eye on the extent of the problem. U of G Associate Professor of Integrative Biology Shoshanah Jacobs and Dalhousie University PhD Student in Resource and Environmental Studies Justine Ammendolia co-wrote a study on how, in the course of five weeks in spring 2020, they found 1,300 PPE pieces discarded across an area in Toronto about the equivalent size of 50 football fields. So this is a real problem, right?
It is, and Jacobs and Ammendolia appear on this week's podcast to talk about the findings of their research, how much plastic waste created during the pandemic there might be, and how the pandemic has affected the overall efforts to reduce plastic waste. They will also talk about the effects of PPE waste on animal populations, the longer term effects of plastic waste on animals and humans, and how we can balance public health protection and protecting the environment from PPE pollution.
So let's talk about the plastic pandemic (so to speak) on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The study around issues of pandemic plastic and waste continues, but you can read the piece Jacobs and Ammendolia co-authored called “The PPE used throughout the COVID-19 pandemic is getting tangled up in wildlife” at The Conversation. You can also follow them on social media @shoshanahjacobs and @JustineAmmendo1.
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.
Have you ever stopped to think about all the waste generated in the last 30 months since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic? How many masks, gloves, wipes, syringes and containers we’ve thrown away? It's an interesting question, and some scientists are trying to get answers about all this extra garbage we’ve created and the effect it’s having on our environment.
Even back in the earliest days of the pandemic, there was concern about how much more waste was going to be created in the name of keeping people safe. For instance, the Solid Waste Association of North America said that there was a 20 per cent increase in the amount of waste collected in U.S. cities between March and April 2020. Local universities were even doing research into ways to reuse plastic PPE.
Meanwhile, a University of Guelph researcher was part of a team keeping an eye on the extent of the problem. U of G Associate Professor of Integrative Biology Shoshanah Jacobs and Dalhousie University PhD Student in Resource and Environmental Studies Justine Ammendolia co-wrote a study on how, in the course of five weeks in spring 2020, they found 1,300 PPE pieces discarded across an area in Toronto about the equivalent size of 50 football fields. So this is a real problem, right?
It is, and Jacobs and Ammendolia appear on this week's podcast to talk about the findings of their research, how much plastic waste created during the pandemic there might be, and how the pandemic has affected the overall efforts to reduce plastic waste. They will also talk about the effects of PPE waste on animal populations, the longer term effects of plastic waste on animals and humans, and how we can balance public health protection and protecting the environment from PPE pollution.
So let's talk about the plastic pandemic (so to speak) on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The study around issues of pandemic plastic and waste continues, but you can read the piece Jacobs and Ammendolia co-authored called “The PPE used throughout the COVID-19 pandemic is getting tangled up in wildlife” at The Conversation. You can also follow them on social media @shoshanahjacobs and @JustineAmmendo1.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we're still on the campaign trail. In fact, we're pretty much living there. We come to you again with dispatches from across the city, mostly from the even number wards. We've got two incumbents and three challengers and two of the five guests this week are going head-to-head. The rest? They're going to work hard to use their 10 minutes to tell why they're worthy or your vote.
This Thursday, September 15, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Running Men and Women, Part 3. The municipal election is on Monday October 24, and we’re spending the weeks from now till Election Day bringing you the voices of the people running to be a part of the next city council, and, starting in October, the people who want to be mayor. So this week, we will hear from five more of the brave souls who want to be a part of local government, and, depending on where you live, they all want to get your vote. Here’s who we’re talking to this week:
- Mark MacKinnon, Ward 6
- Morgan Dandie, Ward 2
- Adrian Salvatore, Ward 4
- Ken Yee Chew, Ward 6
- Leanne Caron, Ward 5
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we're still on the campaign trail. In fact, we're pretty much living there. We come to you again with dispatches from across the city, mostly from the even number wards. We've got two incumbents and three challengers and two of the five guests this week are going head-to-head. The rest? They're going to work hard to use their 10 minutes to tell why they're worthy or your vote.
This Thursday, September 15, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Running Men and Women, Part 3. The municipal election is on Monday October 24, and we’re spending the weeks from now till Election Day bringing you the voices of the people running to be a part of the next city council, and, starting in October, the people who want to be mayor. So this week, we will hear from five more of the brave souls who want to be a part of local government, and, depending on where you live, they all want to get your vote. Here’s who we’re talking to this week:
- Mark MacKinnon, Ward 6
- Morgan Dandie, Ward 2
- Adrian Salvatore, Ward 4
- Ken Yee Chew, Ward 6
- Leanne Caron, Ward 5
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits it's about to get spooky. Yes, we're about half-a-month early when it comes to the official start of Halloween season, but we're jumping the proverbial gun with a little end of summer tribute to horror and scary things. We're talking about some of our favourite (recent) scary movies, and then we will see if Glorious is worthy of that list.
This Wednesday, September 14, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Scared So Good. In the last 10 years, the horror genre has gone from something enjoyed by a small but very dedicated group of film fanatics to one of the most well received genres that constantly delivers both in quality and box office. To begin this week's show, we're going to count off a few of our favourite horror movies from the last 10 years. If it was made good and scary between 2013 and today, we just might talk about it.
REVIEW: Glorious (2022). So you're heading down the highway, you're getting tired, and you need a pit stop. You pull into some out of the way truck stop in order to use the bathroom, and - BOOM! - you're confronted by an non-corporeal god-like entity that enlists you in a game to determine the fate of all humanity. Those Lovecraftian vibes are apparent in Glorious, a new horror film streaming on Shudder starring True Blood's Ryan Kwanten and Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons, but are those good vibrations or bad vibrations? This review will tell.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This week on End Credits it's about to get spooky. Yes, we're about half-a-month early when it comes to the official start of Halloween season, but we're jumping the proverbial gun with a little end of summer tribute to horror and scary things. We're talking about some of our favourite (recent) scary movies, and then we will see if Glorious is worthy of that list.
This Wednesday, September 14, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Scared So Good. In the last 10 years, the horror genre has gone from something enjoyed by a small but very dedicated group of film fanatics to one of the most well received genres that constantly delivers both in quality and box office. To begin this week's show, we're going to count off a few of our favourite horror movies from the last 10 years. If it was made good and scary between 2013 and today, we just might talk about it.
REVIEW: Glorious (2022). So you're heading down the highway, you're getting tired, and you need a pit stop. You pull into some out of the way truck stop in order to use the bathroom, and - BOOM! - you're confronted by an non-corporeal god-like entity that enlists you in a game to determine the fate of all humanity. Those Lovecraftian vibes are apparent in Glorious, a new horror film streaming on Shudder starring True Blood's Ryan Kwanten and Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons, but are those good vibrations or bad vibrations? This review will tell.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
For 20 years, the fate of the old Ontario Reformatory Lands have been a matter of some question, and the answer to that question is complicated by the tangled web of ownership. As successive governments have worked to untangle that web, all that residents and history buffs have been able to do is plan, advocate and educate, but what happens now that we’re so close to revealing the final fate of the OR Lands?
In 1909, Provincial Secretary for Ontario William Hanna began a progressive program for prison reform in Ontario, and the Ontario Reformatory in Guelph was perhaps the finest example of his idealism. There is a certain irony in one of the most beautiful places in Guelph being a prison site, but that’s only because the inmates of the time made it so; from the prison building to the landscaping and the man-made lake.
But the OR closed in 2002, all the inmates were moved to other accommodations, and aside from the occasional film or TV production, the OR lands have largely been reclaimed by the people. It’s a great place that you can almost never stop exploring, but it’s about to change in very big ways with almost 600 acres sold to Fusion Homes and a Heritage District study currently underway. What's next for the Ontario Reformatory Lands, and whose vision will be better represented?
On this week's podcast we're joined by Alex Smith, who is on the board of directors of the Yorklands Green Hub, to talk about the goals of the Hub, and the reasons he's involved. He will also talk about the ownership of the property, and whether all the stakeholders are on the same page in terms of the efforts to preserve the OR Lands’ heritage value. And finally, he will talk about encouraging public access to the lands right now, and whether or not they're getting the right amount of attention this election.
So let's go back to the OR Lands, maybe for the first time, on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Yorklands Green Hub at their website. The Hub will be holding a Tree Festival on the OR lands on Saturday September 24 from 1 to 3 pm and you can find that information at the YGH website. For something more formal, there will be an in-person open house about the Heritage Conservation District (HCD) Study on Thursday September 29 at 6:30 pm at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #234. The City also collecting your feedback on the review until October 13.
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.
For 20 years, the fate of the old Ontario Reformatory Lands have been a matter of some question, and the answer to that question is complicated by the tangled web of ownership. As successive governments have worked to untangle that web, all that residents and history buffs have been able to do is plan, advocate and educate, but what happens now that we’re so close to revealing the final fate of the OR Lands?
In 1909, Provincial Secretary for Ontario William Hanna began a progressive program for prison reform in Ontario, and the Ontario Reformatory in Guelph was perhaps the finest example of his idealism. There is a certain irony in one of the most beautiful places in Guelph being a prison site, but that’s only because the inmates of the time made it so; from the prison building to the landscaping and the man-made lake.
But the OR closed in 2002, all the inmates were moved to other accommodations, and aside from the occasional film or TV production, the OR lands have largely been reclaimed by the people. It’s a great place that you can almost never stop exploring, but it’s about to change in very big ways with almost 600 acres sold to Fusion Homes and a Heritage District study currently underway. What's next for the Ontario Reformatory Lands, and whose vision will be better represented?
On this week's podcast we're joined by Alex Smith, who is on the board of directors of the Yorklands Green Hub, to talk about the goals of the Hub, and the reasons he's involved. He will also talk about the ownership of the property, and whether all the stakeholders are on the same page in terms of the efforts to preserve the OR Lands’ heritage value. And finally, he will talk about encouraging public access to the lands right now, and whether or not they're getting the right amount of attention this election.
So let's go back to the OR Lands, maybe for the first time, on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Yorklands Green Hub at their website. The Hub will be holding a Tree Festival on the OR lands on Saturday September 24 from 1 to 3 pm and you can find that information at the YGH website. For something more formal, there will be an in-person open house about the Heritage Conservation District (HCD) Study on Thursday September 29 at 6:30 pm at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #234. The City also collecting your feedback on the review until October 13.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're heading back to the campaign trail, which is essentially where we're living for the next several weeks. So we've lined up another quintet of municipal election candidates; five down and a great many more to go. So join us once again as we put politically active people in the spotlight and ask them to tell us - and you - why they want to be a city councillor working out of 1 Carden Street.
This Thursday, September 8, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Running Men and Women, Part 2. The municipal election is on Monday October 24, and we’re spending the weeks from now till Election Day bringing you the voices of the people running to be a part of the next city council, and, starting in October, the people who want to be mayor. So this week, we will hear from five more of the brave souls who want to be a part of local government, and, depending on where you live, they all want to get your vote. Here’s who we’re talking to this week:
- Linda Busuttil, Ward 4
- Chidi Nwene, Ward 1
- Raymond Sartor, Ward 2
- Hitesh Jagad, Ward 4
- Phil Allt, Ward 3
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're heading back to the campaign trail, which is essentially where we're living for the next several weeks. So we've lined up another quintet of municipal election candidates; five down and a great many more to go. So join us once again as we put politically active people in the spotlight and ask them to tell us - and you - why they want to be a city councillor working out of 1 Carden Street.
This Thursday, September 8, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Running Men and Women, Part 2. The municipal election is on Monday October 24, and we’re spending the weeks from now till Election Day bringing you the voices of the people running to be a part of the next city council, and, starting in October, the people who want to be mayor. So this week, we will hear from five more of the brave souls who want to be a part of local government, and, depending on where you live, they all want to get your vote. Here’s who we’re talking to this week:
- Linda Busuttil, Ward 4
- Chidi Nwene, Ward 1
- Raymond Sartor, Ward 2
- Hitesh Jagad, Ward 4
- Phil Allt, Ward 3
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're all about the movies. Seriously though, when are we not about the movies? But this week, we're reviewing a movie that's about movies, a good old fashioned comedy about the absurdities of the film business. On this show, we're reviewing the satire Official Competition, and we're also talking about some of the movies that never happened.
This Wednesday, September 7, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Never Wases. The movie business can be hard and fickle, and for every movie that does somehow make it to the light of the movie screen, there are tons of movies that were never meant to be. Before this week's review, we're going to scour all the lost scripts, urban legends, and crazy production rumours to talk about the greatest movies never made, from an action star's turn as a famous poet, to a famous ghost's tropical adventure.
REVIEW: Official Competition (2022). From Toronto to Venice, film festival season is upon us. It's the time of the year that we start getting all the important movies, even if they're just self-important. In this spirit, we're introduced to the three main characters of Official Competition: A movie star trying to be taken seriously, a serious actor trying to find some mainstream acclaim, the avant garde director that's brought them both together to adapt a popular novel and feed the ego of a rich producer. It's a Hollywood story ripe for satire, so just how ripe is it?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This week on End Credits, we're all about the movies. Seriously though, when are we not about the movies? But this week, we're reviewing a movie that's about movies, a good old fashioned comedy about the absurdities of the film business. On this show, we're reviewing the satire Official Competition, and we're also talking about some of the movies that never happened.
This Wednesday, September 7, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Never Wases. The movie business can be hard and fickle, and for every movie that does somehow make it to the light of the movie screen, there are tons of movies that were never meant to be. Before this week's review, we're going to scour all the lost scripts, urban legends, and crazy production rumours to talk about the greatest movies never made, from an action star's turn as a famous poet, to a famous ghost's tropical adventure.
REVIEW: Official Competition (2022). From Toronto to Venice, film festival season is upon us. It's the time of the year that we start getting all the important movies, even if they're just self-important. In this spirit, we're introduced to the three main characters of Official Competition: A movie star trying to be taken seriously, a serious actor trying to find some mainstream acclaim, the avant garde director that's brought them both together to adapt a popular novel and feed the ego of a rich producer. It's a Hollywood story ripe for satire, so just how ripe is it?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Young people across the country are heading back to school this week, and there’s going to be a lot of pressure; pressure to get back to normal, pressure to catch up on lessons after pandemic hiccups, pressure to succeed in a world full of uncertainty… It’s no wonder that four out of five local young people between the ages of 12 and 26 say they’re in need of mental health assistance.
The Grove has quickly emerged as an authoritative voice for advocacy and support in the growing realm of youth mental health. According to the Grove, as of June 2022, the demand for child psychology services has increased 96 per cent, the need for counselling and treatment services has increased 146 per cent, and family support has increased 56 per cent since the start of the pandemic.
You can’t really ignore those numbers, right? Our young people are still living in a pandemic world, there’s also issues of equity from economic concerns to social justice, and there’s the pending existential crisis of climate change, which is definitely going to change their world. Clearly, young people across our region need a hand, and sometimes it’s not a clinical hand, but that’s where the Grove comes in. They're trying to catch mental health crises before they become full blown emergencies.
With all that in mind, Cyndy Moffat Forsyth, the executive director of the Grove youth wellness hub, joins us to talk about the outreach the Grove is doing right now, how they’re trying to make mental health an important issue in this election with the #GetReal campaign, and what she hopes to get out of the youth mental health forum next week. She will also talk about the growth of the Grove, their track record for success, and how people of all ages can help out with the Grove and its initiatives.
So let's dig into the concerns around youth mental health on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Grove at its website. The Grove will also be taking part in the Youth Mental Health Forum on Tuesday September 13 at 8 am at the Frank Hasenfratz Centre of Excellence in Manufacturing and you can buy tickets at Eventbrite, and you can learn more about the #GetReal campaign 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, 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.
Young people across the country are heading back to school this week, and there’s going to be a lot of pressure; pressure to get back to normal, pressure to catch up on lessons after pandemic hiccups, pressure to succeed in a world full of uncertainty… It’s no wonder that four out of five local young people between the ages of 12 and 26 say they’re in need of mental health assistance.
The Grove has quickly emerged as an authoritative voice for advocacy and support in the growing realm of youth mental health. According to the Grove, as of June 2022, the demand for child psychology services has increased 96 per cent, the need for counselling and treatment services has increased 146 per cent, and family support has increased 56 per cent since the start of the pandemic.
You can’t really ignore those numbers, right? Our young people are still living in a pandemic world, there’s also issues of equity from economic concerns to social justice, and there’s the pending existential crisis of climate change, which is definitely going to change their world. Clearly, young people across our region need a hand, and sometimes it’s not a clinical hand, but that’s where the Grove comes in. They're trying to catch mental health crises before they become full blown emergencies.
With all that in mind, Cyndy Moffat Forsyth, the executive director of the Grove youth wellness hub, joins us to talk about the outreach the Grove is doing right now, how they’re trying to make mental health an important issue in this election with the #GetReal campaign, and what she hopes to get out of the youth mental health forum next week. She will also talk about the growth of the Grove, their track record for success, and how people of all ages can help out with the Grove and its initiatives.
So let's dig into the concerns around youth mental health on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Grove at its website. The Grove will also be taking part in the Youth Mental Health Forum on Tuesday September 13 at 8 am at the Frank Hasenfratz Centre of Excellence in Manufacturing and you can buy tickets at Eventbrite, and you can learn more about the #GetReal campaign 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we start September with a countdown to another Election Day. For the next several weeks, we will be highlighting the people running for office locally, which is good news for you, the listener, because you're going to hear less from Adam and Scotty. Joking aside, there are some serious questions this election, and we hope to get some serious answers starting... Right. Now.
This Thursday, September 1, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Running Men and Women, Part 1. The municipal election is on Monday October 24, and we're going to spend the weeks from now till Election Day bringing you the voices of the people running to be a part of the next city council, and, starting in October, the people who want to be mayor. So this week, we will hear from five of the brave souls who want to be a part of local government, and, depending on where you live, they all want to get your vote. Here's who we're talking to this week:
- Dan Gibson, Ward 1
- Kevin Bowman, Ward 3
- Denese Renaud, Ward 5
- Erin Caton, Ward 1
- Dominique O'Rourke, Ward 6
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're back! We barely made it out our summer camp excursion, but it's right out of the frying pan and into the fire considering the first movie back is about a monster from space. So this week we're reviewing the new movie Prey on Disney+, and to take our nerves down a notch, we're going to talk about some of the different movies coming this fall.
This Wednesday, August 31, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Better Call Fall. It may be the last week of (unofficial) summer, but this week, we're already looking ahead to the fall. Traditionally, it's a time when movie studios and streamers start rolling out the award-ready movies, but fall brings a lot of different movies to our various screens, from blockbusters to the art house and everything in-between. We will look ahead to some our most anticipated picks, from a murder mystery to two different films about the same puppet.
REVIEW: Prey (2022). The setting is 1719 in the Great Plains of North America, and Comanche warriors hunt to feed the tribe and protect it from area predators like bears and mountain lions. Enter a very different kind of hunter. One from the sky. Prey is the fifth movie in the Predator series (seventh if you count the Alien Vs Predator films), but it does something entirely different by focusing on one Comanche woman who has to outwit, outplay and outlast the Predator in an 18th century battle of wills. So is Prey an answer to our prayers for a good Predator movie?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
While there will be council business to discuss in a couple of weeks, the main thrust of local political issues lately can be summed up in one word: “Election.” The municipal election takes place here, and in municipalities across Ontario, on October 24. Nominations closed nearly two weeks ago, so the ballots are set, and all that’s left is the vetting, which begins with this week’s episode of this podcast.
This episode doesn’t really need a lot of set-up as we're just just going to go over the ballot and talk about who’s running in each of the wards and then who’s running for mayor. Guelph is at a crossroads. We're rapidly approaching 150,000 people and we've been directed by the Province to grow to over 200,000 by the halfway point of the century. The challenges are substantial, and the solutions are difficult to find.
Into this political climate are 40 candidates running for the 12 council seats and six people looking to be the new mayor. Three of the four councillors retiring this term have been on council for 12 years or more, and while that may be a loss of institutional knowledge, it does open council up to new ideas and new experiences. Frankly, if you’re interested in local politics and the future of Guelph, then this might be a good moment to get involved.
You can consider this an election primer: Who is running, who has an interesting story to tell, and who has an inside track to be a part of the next council? Graeme McNaughton, the city hall reporter for the Guelph Mercury Tribune, will joins us to go down the ballot from Ward 1 through Ward 6, and then look at the mayor’s race to see if any of the five challengers have any hope to unseat Mayor Cam Guthrie.
So let's consider the odds on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can follow Graeme McNaughton's election coverage and other city news at the Guelph Mercury Tribune website. You can obvious go to Guelph Politico for my election coverage, including the candidate questionnaires, and we’re airing short interviews with all the council candidates starting this Thursday on Open Sources Guelph. Finally, for all official election information, including important dates, go to the City of Guelph’s election 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph things get extreme. What's more extreme than war? On Wednesday, it was the six-month anniversary of the start of Russia's war in Ukraine, how's that going? Closer to home though, trans people are almost fighting a war of their own and we will talk about one victim from London. And finally, our guest chased the not-Queen of Canada out of Peterborough on her scooter and she'll talk about it.
This Thursday, August 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Deep Six Months. Ukraine Independence Day is this week, and so is the six-month mark of Russia's invasion of the county. For both these reasons, plus the mysterious death of the daughter of a key Putin ally, the expectation is that the Russians will launch a vicious attack on Ukrainian targets. Who would have guess back in February the war would have gone this long, but where's it going now?
Some Like It SWAT. It was just a normal Saturday morning when there was knock at the door belonging to Clara Sorrenti and her fiancé. Sorrenti, a transwoman who is the Twitch streamer known as Keffals, had been swatted by anti-trans bigots, and they're not done yet, but it does raise a few questions: How did London Police miss the clues that a death threat against city councillors was fake, and what's next for Keffals?
The Fake Queen and I. A couple of weekends ago, the so-called Queen of Canada rolled into Peterborough with her official RV and her entourage to help some local followers arrest members of the Peterborough Police Service, and then turn them over to military custody. It did not go as planned. This week, we're joined by Toronto lawyer and Romana Didulo chronicler Caryma Sa'd, who has been following the not-Queen for a while (but not like that), including her recent appearance in Peterborough.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're on vacation. For the next two weeks, actually. We're getting back to nature, you see. We found this charming little summer camp in New Jersey with a sterling name. Sure, there's some local legend about a boogeyman living in the woods, but what are the odds any of that stuff is true? Now where did I leave my hockey mask?
Camping Out! There's a legend around here. A movie review show on community radio buried, but not dead. A curse on CFRU, a silly curse. End Credits' curse. They say the show died in the pandemic (along with theatrical presentation), but it keeps coming back. Few have seen it and lived. Some have even tried to stop it... No one can. People forget it's down there, waiting... for the end of their annual August break. We'll see you in a couple of weeks after a much needed summer vacation, so for the time being, enjoy some End Credits' classics!
*Programming Note: End Credits will return with new episodes on Wednesday August 31.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
A year ago this coming Friday, the people of Wheatley, Ontario, part of the municipality of Chatham-Kent in the south west corner of the province, were just sitting there minding their own business around diner time when - BOOM! - two downtown buildings blew up. It feels like we don't talk enough about how a small town in Ontario exploded last summer, so for our second of two repeats, let's talk about it again.
Last summer, the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry installed gas monitor's in downtown Wheatley after residents had repeated smelled the unmistakable scent of hydrogen sulphide gas. The monitors went off on the afternoon of August 26, and 90 minutes later two buildings were destroyed, several more were damaged, and 100 people living in the area around the core were evacuated.
Life in Wheatley has slowly gotten back to normal. Clean up work at the site is done and it was a process that took a very long time because work crews had to avoid setting off a spark. Three old natural gas wells, which are believed to have been the source of the gas that caused the explosion, are nearly all capped and a pressure relief well has now been installed, but the events of last summer are still affecting some residents, and one of them is my sister, Stephanie Charbonneau.
Last December, I interviewed Stephanie for an episode of the podcast, and we will re-visit that conversation this week. We talked about what happened before, during and after August 26, and we also talked about the information void, and whether the Wheatley disaster got enough attention. We also discussed how residents had to be proactive to stay informed about when they might be able to go home, and for the record, while Stephanie does finally have access to her house, she and her family still can't live there due to the damage and the fact that they weren't able to winterize their home.
So let's go back to Wheatley on this repeat edition of the Guelph Politicast!
If you want to see the latest information about what's going on in Wheatley, at least in terms of how the government is working to prevent another gas leak, check out this August 11 article from the CBC, plus this July 20 article and this August 9 article from Chatham-Kent News Today.
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.
Photo courtesy of Ellwood Shreve from the Chatham Daily News
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're back! After enjoying some bee-free time outdoors, we're back in our respective bunkers and ready to get down to business as unusual. To wit, Ontario's premier had some bee troubles to go with all the other troubles he's bee'n facing lately, which are nothing compared to the troubles facing a certain Florida man. What else? How about a talk with a doctor and a politician?
This Thursday, August 18, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Bee Positive. At least he could laugh about it. Yes, last Friday a bee flew into Premier Doug Ford's mouth, but solving the challenges facing Ontario right now is a bit more difficult, especially when some of the government's solutions get a less than warm reception when mentioned to Ontario's mayors at the AMO conference this week. We'll talk about the buzz around the provincial government. (Sorry.)
Mar-a-Law & Order. Last week, FBI agents went to a Florida resort, but they weren't interested in a vacation. The search warrant executed on Mar-a-Logo, the permanent home of former U.S. President Donald Trump, was one of a number of legal developments that affected Trump and his associates in the last two weeks, so we will break down the latest news, and the concerning fallout from his followers.
Doctor Change. Before we went on break, we interviewed a nurse, so for our first show back we're going to interview a doctor! Liberal MPP for Don Valley East, Dr. Adil Shamji will join us this week to talk about Ontario's healthcare crisis while wearing his two hats, one as a politician and the other as an emergency physician and the medical director of 11 different homeless shelters in Toronto. He'll talk about his experience, and what changes he thinks we need to make to improve our healthcare system.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're on vacation. For the next two weeks, actually. We're getting back to nature, you see. We found this charming little summer camp in New Jersey with a sterling name. Sure, there's some local legend about a boogeyman living in the woods, but what are the odds any of that stuff is true? Now where did I leave my hockey mask?
Camping Out! There's a legend around here. A movie review show on community radio buried, but not dead. A curse on CFRU, a silly curse. End Credits' curse. They say the show died in the pandemic (along with theatrical presentation), but it keeps coming back. Few have seen it and lived. Some have even tried to stop it... No one can. People forget it's down there, waiting... for the end of their annual August break. We'll see you in a couple of weeks after a much needed summer vacation, so for the time being, enjoy some End Credits' classics!
*Programming Note: End Credits will return with new episodes on Wednesday August 31.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The "official" end of the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa was Wednesday February 23, but it was a long road to get there, and it wasn't really the end. Although the COVID-19 mandates that sparked the convoy have long since lifted, the anger and disinformation generated by the movement are still with us, and so is the fallout the Federal government's call to use the Emergencies Act. Let's look back at how it started...
On this week's first of two repeat episodes of the podcast, we revisit the February 9 episode with Kurt Phillips. He's been hunting Nazis online since before it was cool as the founder and former lead writer for Anti-Racism Canada and as one of the current board members of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network. This conversation took place shortly after the convoy arrived in Ottawa at the end of January.
Of course, the convoy is still making news. Last week, the Toronto Star published a report about how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet were told about a "potential breakthrough" with the convoy the night before the Emergencies Act was invoked. Sounds bad, but you only need to look at last weekend's events in Peterborough where followers of the so-called “Queen of Canada” Romana Didulo were arrested in the course of trying to do a citizen's arrest on the local police.
For now though, let's flashback to February when Phillips joined us to offer his analysis of what happened in Ottawa. He talked about how we got here, some of the marquee players in the movement, and how you can tell the grifters from the true believers. He also discussed how he thought the convoy was going to end, where the movement is going next, and whether the mainstream media is up to the task of understanding what the convoy is really about and who’s driving it (pun intended).
So let's revisit the halcyon days of the Freedom Convoy on this week's repeat of the Guelph Politicast!
You can follow Kurt Phillips @ARCCollective on Twitter to get coverage of Canada's far right from his unique perspective. You can also see insight and analysis from the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, and another good resource is Friend of the Politicast Dan Collen, and you can find his reporting @SpinelessL on Twitter.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we’re saying ‘goodbye’. Wait! No, you did not miss the sudden cancellation of our show. Your dedicated local newsies are still very much in the game, but like many games there’s a half-time, and we’ve entered ours. For the next couple of weeks, we’re going into the OSG archives with some our recent insights and interviews. Soon, we shall return with so much newness, you won’t know what hit you!
Vacation Days. In case it wasn’t clear in the previous paragraph, we’re hitting snooze on producing new shows these next two weeks. When we come back in the latter half of August, we’ll have a new sitting of the Ontario Legislature to cover, a new session on Parliament Hill, a midterm election in the United States, an ongoing war in Ukraine, a myriad of international issues, the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, and, obviously, a municipal election campaign. See you in two weeks!!!
*Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will return with new episodes on Thursday August 18.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're doing one last show before a summer vacation*. Yes, it's summer, and that means it's a time for rock concerts and road trips, and by sheer coincidence, that's what this week's show is about. In a rare double review, we will talk about the new Netflix doc about Woodstock '99 and the best homage to Texas Chainsaw Massacre you'll ever see!
This Wednesday, August 10, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
REVIEW: Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 (2022). In July 1999, the organizer behind the original Woodstock had the brilliant idea to do it all again for the festival's 30th anniversary. Contrary to the lofty ambitions set out though, the '99 redux was not remembered for peace, love and togetherness. It's more like the exact opposite. A new three-part documentary on Netflix tackles what went wrong at Woodstock '99 with behind the scenes insights from many of the festival's acts and organizers. We'll talk about whether it succeeds as an explainer.
REVIEW: X (2022). In 1974, Tobe Hooper took a bunch of unknown actors out into the middle of no where Texas to film one of the most seminal horror movies of all time on a nearly non-existent budget. Ti West's X is chasing the long half-century influence of the Hooper classic, but its also doing something very different. Again, we follow a van full of young people through the back roads of Texas where a horrible fate awaits them. It's not your typical horror movie, but it's firmly baked in a lot of old favourites but does X catch us with all its twists and turns?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
*Programming Note: End Credits will return with new episodes on Wednesday August 31.
We’ve talked about a lot of heavy stuff on the podcast this year - the pandemic, sexual violence, trans healthcare, mental health and reconciliation all to name a few. So before we take a summer break* it felt like we needed a safe space, somewhere serene where we can get back to nature and just talk like two people. In other words, we just need someone to tell us a story.
This week's guest is Jay Wilson who's an actor, puppeteer, elocutionist, vaudevillian, writer, producer, and director. You or a friend may have been on one of his Jaywalking tours, a storytelling series where Jay almost literally takes you on a walk through Guelph’s history. Wilson had a long and varied career in live theatre before he retired and started Jaywalking in 2019, and becoming one of Guelph's premier storytellers. Even the pandemic couldn't keep Jaywalking down!
On this podcast, Wilson will talk about how he got into storytelling, and how he crafts his set list depending on the crowd. He will also discuss what makes a good story and what makes a bad story, and Wilson will talk about how the pandemic affected the storytelling business, and his preference for performing in-person. Wilson will tell a couple of stories; something for the parents with “Strickland’s Storm”, and something for the kids with “Francis O’Feline”.
Let’s set the scene: This podcast was recorded live at Riverside Park, which is the first time in two years that an episode of this show was recorded with two people in the same space. The choice of location is very particular because the enabling garden inside Riverside Park is often a stage for storytelling with Tea ‘n’ Tales, and Wilson has often performed there. Tea ‘n’ Tales is coming back to the garden on September 2, and Wilson will be there, so this week’s podcast might best be seen as a kind of warm-up act.
So let's get into story time on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about Jaywalking, or to book a private show for your event, you can visit Jay’s website here. It’s not too late to still get on the waitlist of the “Gwelf Early Days” performances for the Guelph Public Library on August 16.
*Programming Note: Guelph Politicast will return with new episodes on Wednesday August 31.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we’re saying ‘goodbye’. Wait! No, you did not miss the sudden cancellation of our show. Your dedicated local newsies are still very much in the game, but like many games there’s a half-time, and we’ve entered ours. For the next couple of weeks, we’re going into the OSG archives with some our recent insights and interviews. Soon, we shall return with so much newness, you won’t know what hit you!
Vacation Days. In case it wasn’t clear in the previous paragraph, we’re hitting snooze on producing new shows these next two weeks. When we come back in the latter half of August, we’ll have a new sitting of the Ontario Legislature to cover, a new session on Parliament Hill, a midterm election in the United States, an ongoing war in Ukraine, a myriad of international issues, the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, and, obviously, a municipal election campaign. See you in two weeks!!!
*Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will return with new episodes on Thursday August 18.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're searching for meaning. It's a big, complicated world out there, and it's sometimes hard to make sense the craziest in it, so why not let a little shell show us the way? Marcel the Shell With Shoes On will try and fill us with hope and charm this week, and along the way, we will also talk about some of our favourite flicks from the year so far.
This Wednesday, August 3, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
So Far So Good. The year 2022 is now more than half over, so we've got to ask the question: Have we seen anything good? When September arrives, so does the busy festival and awards season, so in the interest of not missing anything good in the first part of the year, we will open the show by looking back at some of our '22 favourites; from an anthology by the maker of Drive My Car to another trip to Gotham City with a new caped crusader!
REVIEW: Marcel the Shell With Shoes On (2022). About 10 years ago, Dean Fleischer Camp made a viral video about a one-inch shell named Marcel just going about his life. Camp and his collaborator, then-wife Jenny Slate, decided to give Marcel the feature-length treatment, and seven years later we get Marcel the Shell With Shoes On. This charming and hilarious mockumentary about a shell's search for his lost shell family has been getting positive reviews for its voice work, humour, and warm outlook on life, but how do we feel about it?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
What kind of year has it been at Guelph city council? A busy one. Things have been pretty much nonstop at city hall so far as council business was concerned, which makes sense because this is an election year, and there was a lot of business to finish. In these very consequential seven months of 2022, what were the highlights and lowlights of the work around the horseshoe? What happened, how did it happen, and why?
These are the questions we deal with on this week's podcast as we recap hours and hours of council business in about 60 minutes. Remember the Clair-Maltby Secondary Plan? That was finally passed earlier this year. Ban on single-use plastics? Yup, that happened this year too, and it starts on New Year's Day 2023. The Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw review? Well, it's not done, but it's pretty close to being done!
This will also be known as the year that council took a step back to business as usual. In March, council returned to in-person meetings with some councillors appearing in the chambers, and others beaming in on the big screen. One month later, council meetings were open again to members of the public and while many people welcomed that opportunity it seems like hybrid meetings are here to stay. How hybrid? We'll find out.
Those are sort of the top line things that happened this year at council, the really noticeable stuff. There were a lot of planning meetings with a lot of new units, and not a lot of people were openly happy about this trend. There was also a lot of discussion about homelessness issues, some pretty big issues around inflationary pressures, and heritage was still very much a thing on a lot of files. There's lots to cover and not much time to cover it in, so let's go!
We will now review the last seven months at city council on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The next meeting of city council is September’s planning meeting on Monday September 12 at 6:30 om, and then there’s a special meeting on Wednesday September 14 at 6 pm. Then there’s are no more meetings because of the October 24 election and the last meeting of the term will be on November 1 at 6 pm.You can see all the meeting recaps 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we’re thinking about summer vacation.* Before we take a couple of weeks off though, we’ve got a few news items to discuss and an interview to do. In the first half of the show, we will catch up with the battle for Ukraine, and the battle against conspiracy believers right here at home. In the second half, a discussion about healthcare issues with someone who’s in the business.
This Thursday, July 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Raising Ukraine. It’s been a while since we talked about it, but the Russian war in Ukraine is still going, and it’s now been going on for nearly six months now. This week, the European Union has tried again to reduce their dependence on Russian oil, and while there was a new agreement to allow grain shipments from the region again, Russia bombed areas around the ports in Odesa and Mykolaiv. We will talk about the latest.
The Lich of It. Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich is once again free on bail even though she violated the conditions when she was free on bail the first time. Her fellow Freedomer Pat King is also out on bail now, finally free from jail after five straight months behind bars. On Sunday, a Freedom Convoy live-streamer draped an American flag on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Sorry, we’re not done with the Convoy yet…
For Better or Nurse. You may have heard about staffing issues in Ontario’s hospitals. You may have also seen the line-up of ambulances up and down Delhi Street waiting to offload patients at the hospital. But do you know how the hospital’s nursing staff is feeling being overworked in these tough times? This week, Ontario Nurses Association elected president Cathryn Hoy will join us to talk about the pressures on nurses and the changes they need.
*Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will return with new episodes on Thursday August 18.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're looking up. He raise our eyes to the skies, but failing that, we will raise them to the big screen again as we go back to theatres for the latest movie from horror maestro Jordan Peele. Yes, we're reviewing Nope, Peele's third movie, and speaking of third movies we'll hit IMDb to look at how other directors tackled their number threes.
This Wednesday, July 27, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Big Threes. This week we're reviewing the third movie from Jordan Peele, and that got us thinking about other third movies. By the time a director gets to their third movie, they're either on a course for long-term creative success or that they've maybe found a groove that points to where their career is going in the future. This week, we will look at famous threes, from a Quebec filmmaker's take on a real-life tragedy to a little seen doc from the director of Shaft.
REVIEW: Nope (2022). Another Jordan Peele mystery box? Yes, please! In Nope, Peele takes us to a California horse ranch where two siblings are trying to keep the family business going. The serenity of the ranch though is interrupted by something in the skies, something not of this world, and something that everyone in the area wants a piece of in order to achieve fame and/or glory. Peele, maker of other elevated horror head-scratchers like Get Out and Us now takes us to another close encounter, but does the director still have it for his biggest movie yet?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
When you think about helping Guelph’s most vulnerable downtown, you think of Chalmers. They’ve been doing it for decades, and they’ve continued to do it though good economic times and bad. While the politicians look for policy and funding remedies, the good people at Chalmers are on the frontlines of the issue every day, so how do they see issues of poverty, homelessness, and mental health as they currently stand downtown?
What do you think about when you hear the words “Downtown Guelph”? Is it the picture of a thriving historic district with lots of shopping and restaurants, or is it a cesspool filled with desperate people panhandling, doing drugs and sleeping on benches? There are no easy solutions to the problems downtown is facing, and there are huge gaps being filled by several individual service agencies.
This week we're joined by the head of one of those agencies: Vicki Olatundun, the executive director of the Chalmers Community Service Centre. Olatundun grew up in England, studied law in Nigeria, and worked for various social services in Winnipeg where she launched a gym and an eye care clinic for people affected by homelessness there. She arrived at Chalmers in the middle of the COVID crisis in January 2021, and it’s hard to think of someone better qualified to talk about our present situation here in Guelph.
Olatundun will talk about the current state of downtown and inside Chalmers, and why we need to keep in mind that the people they help are still loved by somebody. She will also talk about currents needs, and the type of assistance Chalmers needs right now in the form of donations and volunteer efforts. And finally, Olatundun will discuss what assistance service organizations need from the government, and why we need to address people’s economic needs before they becomes a crisis.
Let's talk about moving the needle on downtown's issues in this week's Guelph Politicast!
If you want to learn more about all the services offered by Chalmers, and how you can help out, go to their website, or looking them up @chalmerscentre on Facebook and Twitter. If you have donations from Chalmers and want to know when and how to drop them off, call them at 519-822-8778 for directions.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're thinking charitably. The Pope is coming, so we're going to put away our sinful ways and talk about his visit, plus the pressing need to take desperate action on housing in Canada. In the back half of the show, we will talk about the local effects of the housing crisis, and other matters, with the head of Guelph's city council, none other than Mayor Cam Guthrie!
This Thursday, July 21, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Pope Goes the World. Next week, Pope Francis arrives in Canada for what he's calling a "Penitential Pilgrimage", a chance for himself, the Church and Canada's Indigenous community to find solace for the disastrous history of residential schools. But what happens after the Pope's visit? An apology from the Catholic Church has been long-demanded, but it's a pretty easy checkmark, so what comes next on reconciliation?
Housing of Cards. The combined housing and homeless crisis, plus the accompanying mental health and addictions crises, have created a lot of news lately, but not much in the way of solutions. Progress on developing social housing has been fairly positive, but the market itself is exorbitantly priced and creating difficulty for people who might otherwise be able to afford a home. How hard is it to get everyone housed?
Term Limits. Guelph City Council rose for summer vacation, and with a couple of exceptions, council is largely in recess until after the municipal election on October 24. So what better time to bring on Guelph's mayor, Cam Guthrie, to talk about this consequential term of council, plus the contentious debate at this week's meeting about acting on homelessness and mental health, plus the rising friction about the rate of development in town?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we summon the lightening! We're back, and so is the God of Thunder for our first deep dive into a Marvel movie in literally years. Yes, we're reviewing Thor: Love and Thunder on this week's show, and since we're going back into the Marvel Universe, we'll spend the first part of our show talking about our thoughts about the MCU's future.
This Wednesday, July 20, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Matters of the Universe. By the end of the year, we will have reached 30 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, plus over 10 Disney+ series, and there will be more to come in 2023. Is the franchise becoming over-saturated? Is it lacking focus? Is there too much inter-connectedness? Not enough? And what characters do they introduce next, and how should they be worked into the universe? This week, we'll offer our notes for the MCU (not that they asked for our advice).
REVIEW: Thor: Love and Thunder (2022). The Space Viking returns! In the 29th Marvel Cinematic Universe film, OG Avenger Thor returns to fight a truly frightening villain, and confront his post-Endgame fate in the universal pecking order. Adding some complication to this adventure is The Mighty Thor! Natalie Portman returns to the franchise with new thunder god powers as New Zealand's favourite son, Taika Waititi, takes us on another cosmic trip with laughs and pathos. But can this movie stand up to Waititi's last Thor, Ragnarok?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
On Monday, Patrick Brown announced that he would be running for re-election as the Mayor of Brampton. It was a no-brainer because it seemed pretty unlikely that he's going to get back in the Conservative leadership race, but it’s far from certain that Brown has the political juice to even get his old (current) job back. This week, we look at Brown’s controversies through the eyes of someone that knows them best.
If you don’t follow Brampton City Hall closely, Brown had a great story going until his July 5 ouster from the Conservative leadership race, but the ones watching Brampton City Hall have been noting a different Patrick Brown. It's a Brown with legal issues, who broke pandemic restrictions, who has City staff support his extracurricular political activities and hands out posh contracts to friends that get specious results.
One of those watchers is San Grewal, who is the founder and publisher of The Pointer, an independent media outlet covering news and politics out of Brampton and Mississauga. By sheer coincidence, The Pointer was launched the same year that Brown was first elected as mayor, and it’s goal is to do a deep dive on issues and policy at city hall and they've been fairly successful. So did the national media miss the more important story about Brown by not covering his record at Brampton’s City Hall?
Grewal certainly thinks so, and he’s going to talk about all that and more on this week’s podcast along with why he started The Pointer, and why it’s mission is different from a lot of the usual coverage of municipal governments, especially in Peel Region. He will also talk about how the Brampton's rapid growth is having an effect on its politics, the role that the city’s diverse communities play in who gets elected mayor, and why he was hoping that Brown would run for re-election.
So let's talk about the ones that watch Brampton city hall on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can stay up-to-date with local political news from Brampton and Mississauga at The Pointer, and you can follow San Grewal on social media on Twitter.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're throwing ourselves out of the party. It's a busy week for Conservative leadership drama between recent developments here in Canada, and on the other side of the pond in the United Kingdom. In between all this drama, we will talk about the challenges facing our healthcare system, and that thing that happened last Friday, which reminded everyone that we're much more connected online than we think...
This Thursday, July 14, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Rogers Rabbited. It's hard to find anyone that wasn't touched by the nation-wide Rogers service outage, even if you weren't a Rogers customer. So what now? Rogers' proposed merger with Shaw seems less likely to happen now, but despite that, we still live in a country where three companies control 90 per cent of the access points to the internet for some of the most expensive prices in the free world. Will the Rogers outage finally prompt the Federal government to step in and break the monopoly?
Falling Brown. Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown was supposed to be the Red Tory hope for a future free of the populist impulse control of Pierre Poilievre, but those hopes were dashed when some creative accounting resulted in Brown getting bounced from the race last week. Brown thinks he can make a comeback, but even in his safe space inside Brampton City Hall the knives are out over spending scandals and the inability to fill a vacant council seat, so is this officially the end of Brown's comeback?
Care Game. Canada's first ministers met in British Columbia this week and they all agreed that the nation's healthcare system is on the brink of collapse. We see it all around our area, from the line-up of ambulances at Guelph General Hospital to this weekend's overnight closure of the ER in Mount Forest, it's clear that there are some very big challenges in healthcare, but what there's not is anything resembling an innovative solution. What will it take to break the healthcare log jam?
Hard Core Bojo. He finally did it! Boris Johnson finally generated a scandal so big that his caucus had to force him out as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It would be wrong to say that Johnson is out because of the Pincher affair alone, but rather it's the cumulative effect of numerous scandals from "party-gate" to the fumbling of the post-Brexit plan, and after months of trying, Johnson is now finally almost gone. Good job! But where does the U.K.'s venerable Tory party go from here?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we will summon our shamanic instincts to better understand our movie of the week. That's a joke from The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, a new movie where Nic Cage plays Nic Cage in a Nic Cage movie inside a Nic Cage movie. If that isn't confusing enough, we will spend the other part of the show talking about other Nic Cage movies.
This Wednesday, July 13, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Cage Match. This week's movie review deals with Nicolas Cage, his career, his well-documented ticks and his out-sized persona. True, while Cage is genuine Hollywood character, he's also a genuinely gifted actor with a long and varied 40-year resume in the film business. Before getting into his new movie, we will talk about some of our favourite Cage roles including vampire yuppies, corrupt cops, and a neurotic screenwriter plus his twin brother.
REVIEW: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022). What if actor Nicolas Cage was out just living his life and a full-on Nicolas Cage action movie decided to break out? That's the conceit of this movie with an unnecessary long title: Nicolas Cage, frustrated with acting and deeply in debt, is forced to take a gig appearing at some Spanish billionaire's birthday party. That's where the fun begins. Cage teams up with The Mandelorian Pedro Pascal as they find themselves in the next, great Nic Cage movie but with real (?) bullets. Does it work though?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
While every city council term brings its own unique challenges, it’s safe to say that no one's seen challenges quite as unique as the ones experienced over the last two-and-a-half years. As we head into summer break for council, and as we head toward the final month of nominations to run in the October 24 municipal election, we're sitting down with Guelph’s newest city councillors to talk about their experiences.
The Strategic Plan, the Community Plan, COVID-19, homelessness, mental health and addiction, the South End Community Centre, the Baker Street Redevelopment, the new main library, multi-year budgeting, the ward boundary and council compensation review, the comprehensive zoning bylaw review, the Official Plan review, the Clair-Maltby Secondary Plan… Those are just a handful of the initiatives tackled by city council in the last term, and that’s not small potatoes.
Even without COVID and the issues created by it, this was going to be a highly consequential four years on council. When you look at all that’s been accomplished, it’s no wonder that so many long-serving members of council have decided to tap out, but there were two members of council for whom this was a baptism by fire. Ward 2 City Councillor Rodrigo Goller and Ward 6 City Councillor Dominique O’Rourke are the guests this week for a look back at a term unlike any other.
On this week's podcast, O'Rourke and Goller will talk about the last four years, whether the experience was everything they hoped it would be, and how they feel the pandemic tested their leadership skills. We will also ask Goller about his community engagement efforts and how his game has changed running in the new Ward 2, and we will ask O’Rourke managing short-term and long-term endeavours and whether Guelph’s south end is better represented now than it was when she ran in 2018.
So let's talk about the last four years on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Dominique O’Rourke and Rodrigo Goller are both running for re-election, and you can see the complete list of candidates here. You can get in touch with O’Rourke through her campaign email address at orourke_ward6 [at] rogers.com, and you can find Goller’s campaign website here. You can also reach them on Twitter @orourke_ward6 and @ward2rodrigo.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going back to the swamp. It's been a pretty consequential week for anyone that wants to see You-Know-Who held to account, and speaking of losers, we will talk about all the ways that some people are making life harder for all our LGBTQ2+ friends. In the second half of the show, we will go out into Wellington County to make new friends... who will soon retire from politics.
This Thursday, July 7, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Donald, Take the Wheel. By far, Donald Trump's attempted carjacking of his own presidential limo was the most famous anecdote to come out of last week's special session of the January 6th commission, but there were more darkly disturbing details about witness intimidation, the frantic race for pardons, and Trump's seeming fore knowledge that there were armed insurrections in his corner. We'll talk about the latest.
Pride and Prejudice. We just finished Pride Month, but the rising tide of homophobic and transphobic sentiment looks likely to continue for the rest of the year. From legislative attacks like "Don't Say Gay" in Florida to Proud Boys invading a Drag Queen Story Hour at a California library, there are some serious smudges on the old rainbow flag, and this is not a uniquely American phenomenon. We'll air those concerns.
Kelly's Laurels. This week, we go to the final frontier: Wellington County! Wellington County Warden and Centre Wellington Mayor Kelly Linton joins us this week to talk about his past eight years in politics. Linton is retiring in the fall, so he will share with us his insights in running two levels of government, managing his municipality through the pandemic, and why Guelph still needs Wellington County and vice versa.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're going to drop the needle. Even though we're a movie show, our focus this week is music, or rather movies about music. We talk about the now in theatres story about the one and only Elvis, and to match it, we're going to spend the first part of the show talking about movies we like where music and musicians are the star.
This Wednesday, July 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Sing for the Movie. Since the addition of recorded sound to movies, there's been a long-time, mutual benefit agreement between movie makers and musicians; they provide the sounds, and they later provide their life story as inspiration for other movies. Before getting into the big screen recap of Presley's life, we will talk about some of our favourite musician bio-pics, from other icons of the 50s to punk rockers in the 80s and a couple of points in-between.
REVIEW: Elvis (2022). Elvis Presley was the King of Rock 'n' Roll, so it is probably appropriate that the movie that bears his name is out-sized, over the top, and larger than life. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, his first film in nearly 10 years, Elvis covers Presley's career from state fairs to the Vegas stage, and all under the watchful eye of Col. Parker who is not what he seems. Anchored by Austin Butler as Elvis and Tom Hanks as Parker, Luhrmann's trip through music's past is infinitely fascinating, but is the movie as good as the music that spawned it?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The rail crossing on Edinburgh Road has been the site of some controversy lately. The City of Guelph initiated the study of seven different street level rail crossings along the Metrolinx line across town, and they determined that there was one crossing that they had to look at a lot more closely. The implications could be big, so this week, we're going to sit down and talk things out.
Back in 2020, just a couple of weeks before you-know-what, the City of Guelph announced that they were closing the intersection at the Metrolinx train tracks near Kent Street along Dublin. The surrounding neighbourhood was angry about such a sweeping decision, but the issue was safety; the increased frequency of two-way GO trains through Guelph, and the increased speeds by which they travel, required a more cautious approach across the whole line.
That’s why the City’s transportation department started that public engagement on the seven crossings earlier this year, and why they wanted to take a closer look at Edinburgh Road. The potential options range from “do nothing” to constructing an overpass or underpass, which would mean properties in the area might have to be expropriated. That’s when the proverbial stuff hit the fan. People are concerned about their homes and businesses in the area, and they're not sure what to think about any of this.
That's where this week's podcast comes in. Jennifer Juste, Transportation Planning Manager at City Of Guelph, is the guest, and she's going to tell us step-by-step how we got here, and where we go next. She will talk about the all the players' roles, the changes coming to the Metrolinx line because of the expansion of service, and why the focus has landed on Edinburgh Road. She will also explain why this is the beginning of the process, not the end, and how you can stay informed as things develop.
So let's explain what's happening on Edinburgh on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can stay up to date about the Environmental Assessment of the train tracks on Edinburgh by visiting the City's Have Your Say site. It’s too late to provide comments, but you can still subscribe to receive updates about the project. If you want to stay in touch with the Metrolinx side of things, they put out a monthly newsletter about the latest developments in Guelph and area.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we end the month by catching up with the news, and boy there was a lot of it. From the United States will talk about the inevitable and closer to home we will talk about the new front bench at Queen's Park. In the second half of the show, we'll look at the UCP leadership race out west before tracing our way back home and the potential reprise of everyone's favourite convoy.
This Thursday, June 30, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Roe Out. They finally did it. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, voted to overturn Roe V. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that made abortion a constitutionally protected right. As a result, a patchwork of laws around abortion have taken effect across the United States, some places have completely outlawed abortion, and in others it's much, much more complicated. So what happens next and why should we care?
All in the Family. Premier Doug Ford announced his new cabinet last week, and it was mostly made up of returning favourites in the roles they played before the election. But one of the new faces is none other than Michael Ford, who is the new Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism, and he says he definitely didn't get the job because his uncle's the premier. We'll talk about this and other developments.
Eight is Enough. Oh yeah, there's a leadership race happening in Alberta right now. Since Premier Jason Kenney announced his intention to step down last month, there have been eight different people who have stepped up to succeed him, and while they all agree that Kenney has to go, and that the NDP can't win in 2023, they all have some very different ideas about Alberta's future, but are any of them a winner?
Convoy BeBack. This weekend is Canada Day, and the perfect way to celebrate is to demand the end of government tyranny caused by mandates that no longer exist. The Freedom Convoy and its supporters, are planning a return to Parliament Hill on Friday, but they may find a less tolerant Ottawa Police. Still, organizers met with Conservative MPs last week, so this ain't over and we must talk about it. Did we mention that Tamara Lich was also re-arrested?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we recognize that this is only one version of the show. In the unlimited spectrum of the multiverse, we may have reviewed Everything Everywhere All at Once already, or we may not have reviewed it at all. But we did review it this week, and along with that, we will take a look at other movies dealing with multiple realities.
This Wednesday, June 29, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Altered Slates. There are an infinite number of alternative universes out there, each one created by slight variations from this reality; whenever you zigged instead of zagged, you zagged in at least one other universe. That's the multiverse in a nutshell, which is one kind of alternative reality, and that's what we're talking about this week. From time travel, to virtual reality, to the butterfly effect, we will talk about some movies with a different level of what's real (or not).
REVIEW: Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). There's been a lot of talk about the multiverse lately courtesy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it was always going to be up to the guys who made Swiss Army Man to take the narrative to its illogical conclusion. Michelle Yoeh plays all possible versions of herself in a technobabble-filled sci-fi action movie that's the candy coated shell for a deeply emotional comedy-drama about one immigrant family's struggles in modern day America. Do you dare to press play on something this audacious?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It was at the beginning of March 2020 when Dr. Mercer first appeared on the Guelph Politicast to talk about COVID-19: What would happen if, and when, COVID-19 came to Canada? A few weeks later, COVID was here. After that, Dr. Mercer became a regular guest on this podcast, stopping by once every quarter to talk about the pandemic, and now we have arrived at this, the final edition of "Still COVID."
Since the last "Still COVID" in mid-March, we’ve seen a lot of the mandates rolled back, and even holdouts like the University of Guelph have announced that they will be ending their masking mandate on July 1. Still, mask mandates at the Guelph General Hospital remain, and they also remain at most medical settings, which may speak to this current conundrum: Is the pandemic over? Because we’re sure acting like it is.
We’re also not seeing the cases go down as far as we’re used to, there are still around 100 active cases in this region, and we don't have the same testing capacity we did this time last year. Is it because we’re going maskless? Is it because the new COVID strains are so potent? Is it because our vaccines’ potency is waning? Is it all three? And what happens in the fall when we starting going back inside, and hanging out together maskless?
That is one of the questions we will put to Dr. Nicola Mercer this week, along with whether the pandemic is over, and if being the only one in the room wearing a mask really makes a difference. She will also discuss public health’s COVID plans for the fall, rolling out the next phase of vaccines, and the best strategy to avoid getting COVID now. And finally, Dr. Mercer will tell you why you don’t really need to worry too much about monkeypox with some very limited exceptions.
So, for the last time, let's talk about why we're "Still COVID" on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can stay up to date with all the latest information concerning the pandemic, as well as the now weekly case count, at the Public Health 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we consider change. Out of Toronto there was a report about policing that proved the worst case scenario, but will those numbers make a distance? Also, might this be the last session of the Canadian government led by the current prime minister? Some people think it's possible. In the back half? We will work through some change of our own by talking to some local Indigenous voices.
This Thursday, June 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Police Story. Last week, the Toronto Police Service released a report into racial discrimination in law enforcement, and to no one's surprise, especially the Black community of Toronto, racialized people are more like to get the harsher end of law enforcement whether that's guns drawn, use of force, and strip searches once in custody. So are the police now finally going to address systemic racism in their ranks?
Tru-done? The latest session of the House of Commons is scheduled to come to an end this week, and not a moment too soon because a lot of pundits are saying that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is checked out, disengaged, and other non-superlatives. Unfortunately, inflation and a new scandal involving the RCMP have captured the media and the opposition's attention, so is this summer going to be Trudeau's big goodbye?
Live, Sort of, From the Park. Tuesday was National Indigenous People's Day across Canada, but the Guelph festivities were in Riverside Park, the first in-person event for this occasion in two years. In lieu of a guest this week, we will play some of the audio from the event along with interviews with an Inuit artist, an Ojibwe drummer and drum maker, and the local president of the Métis Nation of Ontario.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we will get into sports, or as we like to call it, "the final frontier." (Film nerd joke.) We're reviewing the new sports drama Hustle on this edition of the show, and of course we're here for the acting, and not the ball throwing. And since we're already here for the acting, we're going to talk about comedic actors who can make you laugh, and make you cry.
This Wednesday, June 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Why So Serious? This week's movie features a normally comedic actor doing abnormally good dramatic acting. Adam Sandler has shown those acting chops on a couple of different occasions, most recently with the excellent Uncut Gems (also on Netflix), but he's not the only funny man that has tried to show he can do more than deliver jokes. To kick things off, we will talk about some of the funny people that could do more than make us laugh.
REVIEW: Hustle (2022). What makes a good basketball player? Is it the ability to fling a ball at a hoop from mid-court? Is it the speed? Is it the shoes? Maybe it's all in the eyes of the scout. Adam Sandler puts on a serious face, and a serious beard, to play a talent scout for the Philadelphia 76ers, and when he finds a street baller in Spain (played by real-life NBA player Juancho Hernangómez), no one else sees the raw talent that Sandler's scout does. So Sandler gets serious in this straightforward sports movie, but does it work for him and us?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
With this being National Indigenous History Month it seems appropriate to look at how our local government is adapting to make Indigenous communities a more active part of governance at City Hall. How can we acknowledge the history of the land and then refuse to give the traditional landholders more of a say in what happens upon it? We can't, and staff members at the City of Guelph are working on that.
It was this time last year when we were all reckoning with our thoughts and feelings about the discovery of unmarked graves at former residential school sites. The City of Guelph has had an official land acknowledgement for almost six years now, but there was a pressing need to do more. A new position called the Intergovernmental Advisor Specializing in Indigenous Relations was created with the goal of leading the City’s relationship-building with key First Nation and Métis government partners.
Earlier this year, it was announced that Trevor Bomberry from the Mohawk Nation and a member of Six Nations of the Grand River was hired to fill the part, but in an example of just how in-demand smart, talented, and forward-looking Indigenous leaders really are, he's already moved on. Instead, we will address questions on this topic to Guelph Museums manager Tammy Adkin, and the City’s manager of policy and intergovernmental relations Leslie Muñoz.
In this edition of the podcast, Adkin will talk about how perceptions of the past are changing, how the museum staff are changing with the times, and how we can celebrate the existence of Guelph and Canada while acknowledging our difficult past. With Muñoz we will talk about the mechanics of engaging with the various Indigenous groups represented in Guelph, encouraging more participation, and the ongoing difficulties in trying to fill the new City's position meant to facilitate some of those changes
So let's talk about Reconciliation out of City Hall on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The City of Guelph is currently in the process of hiring a new Intergovernmental Advisor Specializing in Indigenous Relations and that job posting can be found on all the major job sites if you know someone highly qualified and looking for work. If you missed this year’s National Celebration of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples in Guelph, we will have some audio from the event on this week’s 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we get back into the swamp. We go back south of the border to talk again about the long corruptible coattails of Donald Trump, and we will also take some time to catch up with the latest from the Conservative leadership race here in Canada. For the second half of the show, we will say an official goodbye to another Friend of OSG who's decided to retire from politics.
This Thursday, June 16, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
"It's Bullsh*t." After over a year of in-camera investigation, the January 6th Select Congressional Committee has started to release their findings, and the word "damning" doesn't quite say it. Essentially, everyone told former U.S. President Donald Trump that his claims of election fraud were you-know-what for two months leading up to the insurrection. Now the big question: Will any of this matter to voters this fall?
Deep Blue, See? Summer is here, so that means a lot of travelling to community events and barbeques for the six people that want to be the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. The race still seems to be Pierre Poilievre's to lose, even though he's gotten dinged over his cryto-dreams this week, and Patrick Brown is started to wonder if he's made a huge mistake (or the media is). We'll have an update from the trail.
Theory of James. A couple of weeks ago, Ward 2 City Councillor James Gordon announced that he would not be seeking a third-term at Guelph City Hall. He's going back to being a full time rockstar, but before he does, he's going to spend a couple of minutes talking to us about his time on city council, the things he's proud of, where he wishes he did a little better, and why he wants to foster new and different representation.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits it's din-o-mania! If it's summer, then it's time to start running and screaming from CGI dinosaurs, and that's what will happen again with our review of Jurassic World Dominion, the sixth in the series. Before that we will go back to the summer of 1993 and talk not about the original Jurassic Park, but other non-dinosaur movies from that year.
This Wednesday, June 15, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Class of '93. Famously, the original Jurassic Park cam out in the summer of 1993, and it easily won the box office. Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg released a second movie that year, the Holocaust drama Schindler's List, which secured the director's place as both a commercial and an artistic filmmaker. That's one way that 1993 was a consequential year for movies, and we will pull a couple of other titles that are worth a revisit.
REVIEW: Jurassic World: Dominion (2022). In a world where humans and dinosaurs have been thrown together in the same spaces, only one thing can save us: Nostalgia for a 30-year-old movie! All your favourite (?) Jurassic World characters team up with the stars of the original Jurassic Park for a globe-trotting adventure through a world turned upside down now that dinosaurs (and giant killer locusts) are back in the mix. The film is guaranteed to be a massive box office hit, but is this a movie worthy of all that cash, or even worth seeing at all?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
In his first book, Learning to Live: From the Loss of My Parents to Mental Health Advocate, Noah Irvine writes his memoirs. It might seem a bit weird for a 21-year-old kid from Guelph to put down his life story for posterity, but it's a story that's as remarkable as it is recognizable. Noah might have become a statistic, but instead he became an advocate. Now he wants to tell you why.
You’ve probably heard of Noah because he’s been featured in a lot of different local and national media outlets (and this podcast) for his letter writing campaign demanding better mental health support. For Noah, mental health was always front of mind, so to speak, his mother died by suicide when he was five, and his father overdosed when he was 15. So Learning to Live is aptly named as Noah chronicles the struggles of his youth and how his personal tragedy made him feel different from other kids.
In his book, Noah questions how he remembers the things he remembers, how he carries around guilt for what happened to his parents (even while realizing how irrational that is), and how he had to struggle with his own issues, including a learning disability that might have kept him from pursuing a university education. Noah will tell you that he had a lot of support, but he will also tell you that he’s one of the lucky ones, which is why he wanted to write his book, to remember the unlucky ones, like his parents.
So Noah Irvine joins us on this week’s podcast to talk about luck, why he wanted to write his life story down in a book, and the everyday struggles of being a survivor and trying to relate. He will also talk about his efforts to try and understand his parents and their issues, and how his now famous letter writing campaign, which started as a school project, helped him overcome. And finally, Noah will tell us about the limits of his political action, and why he’s now leaning towards a career in law instead of politics.
So let's let Noah tell his story on this week's edition of the Guelph Politiciast!
You can buy a copy of Learning to Live downtown at the Bookshelf, Guelph’s independent bookstore, or you can buy it through the book’s website. Noah also has a blog on that site and you can sign up for email updates while you're there.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's time to get back to normal. Following Election Day (and our Election Night special) we will take a broader look at the provincial results and talk about where we go from here, and then we will catch up with recent developments in Ukraine, where there is still a battle for control of the country. In the back half of the show: You know him, you love him, and you just re-elected him!
This Thursday, June 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Ford More Years. In a surprising non-surprise, Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives won 83 seats to hold the majority in the Ontario Legislature. The overwhelming endorsement of Ford, combined with the incredibly low voter turnout, leaves us with many questions, including who will lead both the NDP and the Liberal Party against the Ford juggernaut. We will wrap up our election coverage with some final thoughts.
105 Days Later. While we weren't looking these last few weeks, the Russian war in Ukraine has been pressing on now for over 100 days, which is about 100 days longer than a lot of people expected. The fog of war makes it difficult to see who has the advantage, but Volodymyr Zelenskyy's been visiting the front, and Vladimir Putin's been rattling the sabre so the optics are definitely telling one story. We'll talk about the latest developments.
Mike Back! For Guelphites looking for a silver lining in Thursday's election, it came in the form of Mike Schreiner's overwhelming re-election to Queen's Park for a second term. While he's still the only Green member in the Legislature, Schreiner will return as essentially the only opposition leader to survive the election, so does that give him more power? And how is he going to keep doing politics differently with a now stronger Ford in government?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we didn't start the fire. That line is from a song, and not from the remake of the movie based on the book written by Stephen King. That's the long-winded way of saying that this week we're reviewing the new version of Firestarter, and since King is on the menu, we will tee up the review with a look at some all time King Klassics.
This Wednesday, June 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Three Kings. In the annals of publishing, there's probably been no one like Stephen King. His books become near instantaneous best sellers, and then they become, more often than not, popular movies that can sometimes achieve both critical and commercial acclaim. Whether or not the new Firestarter is good will be determined, but for the first part of the show, we will talk about three of our favourite King adaptations, from dead bodies to evil cars.
REVIEW: Firestarter (2022). Nearly 40 years ago, Drew Barrymore played a young girl with pyrokenetic powers. She could start fires. The movie, which was based on a Stephen King best-seller, became something of a cult classic, and because everything old is new again, even Firestarter had to be remade. In this version, Zac Efron plays the dad, and an actual Indigenous actor plays the Indigenous role, but it's still about a girl that can set fires with her mind and the dangerous government group that wants her. So, is this one of those good remakes?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Much of the hate and vitriol aimed at the LGBTQ+ people comes from religious communities still promoting ideas in the 21st century that being anything other than straight and cisgender is a violation of centuries of religious dogma. How can you find a faith space where you can be respected and accepted as openly queer? That's a good question for the “Rainbow Papa-Bear”!
There’s a certain term you’ll hear used in this conversation: “The Clobber Passages.” This is from a book by Reverend Doctor Mel While called, Clobber the Passages: Seven Deadly Verses, which looks at how, “For centuries, evangelicals who read the Bible literally have misused seven verses to convince the world that homosexuality is a sin and homosexuals sinners.” Scholars like White argue that these passages are not only out of pace in a modern world, but they've been widely misinterpreted over the centuries.
Having said that, people of faith sometimes still have to treat their spiritual life, and their queer identity, as mutually exclusive things. We've made great progress on LGBTQ+ rights, but that progress often struggles in the areas around faith-based institutions. Can those institutions truly say they are welcoming to all people if you can't see yourself reflected as a part of it? How can you worship when you're not sure your fellow parishioners welcome you for who you are and who you love?
These are some of the big questions we ask Reverence Ryk Brown for this week's podcast. He's the the minister of St. James United Church in Waterdown, the self-styled “Rainbow Papa-Bear” and he joins us to talk about how faith-based institutions need to change to be relevant, and why the onus is on the faith to meet people where they are. He will also talk about why faith leaders need to be activists, the meaning of compassion, and the differences between talking about safe spaces and creating real safe spaces.
So let's talk about being queer as faith for this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Brown and the many pies he has fingers in at his website, and you can learn more about his anti-bullying efforts at Voices Against Bullying. In terms of Pride Month events here in Guelph, Pride in the Park takes place this Saturday at Riverside Park from 10 am to 2 pm, and you can learn more about Guelph Pride events 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, 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.
You know it, you love it, it's Election Night in Ontario!!!! Open Sources Guelph proper takes the week off after a very busy campaign season and instead your favourite local news and politics hosts will be on the air later in the evening with all the results, insights, trivia and Simpsons references that you've come to both love and dread with CFRU's election night coverage. Join us, and the University Centre irregulars, for a night of politics!
This Thursday, June 2, at 8 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
PROVINCIAL ELECTION NIGHT 2022! After 31 days of campaigning, both in-person and virtual, we finally arrive at decision day! Will Doug Ford be dealing with a minority or a majority government? Can Andrea Horwath pull off an upset, or does her political career come to an end? Will Steven Del Duca finally be seen, even if it's not in his home riding? And does Guelph still like Mike Schreiner enough to send him back to Queen's Park? We will talk about all these questions and more with numbers man Christopher Currie and a series of surprise guests, each one more surprising than the last!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, summer is here, so we're heading north! And back in time! Our trip to the north is a thousand years in the past when men ruled with swift, brutal efficiency in the name of their old gods like Odin and Freya. Yes, it's time for the viking revenge tale The Northman, and we will talk about that movie's director, and some other great, new directors.
This Wednesday, June 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The New Class. Filmmaking is a cutthroat business, and behind every accomplished and successfully director is a new batch of upstarts looking to make their celluloid dreams a movie reality. Before digging into the third film from one of those post-millennial movie makers, we will talk about some of the other directors to keep an eye on, from a man who makes flicks for pennies on the dollar in Michigan, to France's new queen of taboo-breaking body horror.
REVIEW: The Northman (2022). A movie about vikings? It's been done, but it's probably never been done as brutally, as bloodily or with the strict observance of proper viking mythology or cultural practices before. Robert Eggers follows up the folk horror of The Witch, and the isolation lunacy of The Lighthouse with his highly ambitious, and ultra-violent take on the ancient tale of Amleth, a Viking prince seeking revenge for his slain father and kidnapped mother. Can we keep our eyes open long enough to see if it's any good?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Affordability has kind of hijacked the priorities this election, but once it would have been possible to see healthcare being the number one issue of the 2022 campaign. From more funding for our overburdened hospitals, getting for-profit companies out of long-term care, and expanding coverage to mental, dental and pharma coverage, nothing throws issues of healthcare under a microscope like a global pandemic!
Since the start of the pandemic, the inadequacies of our current public healthcare system have been rubbed in our face. ERs and ICUs were pushed to the limit, critical procedures were delayed, waitlists and wait times increased in size, and, the most critical shortfall, long-term care homes became petri dishes for COVID exposure and among a population who were some of the most vulnerable to the virus.
This is where the Guelph & District Health Coalition, a branch of the Ontario Health Coalition, comes in, except no one was driving local healthcare advocacy efforts for some time. Barb Hogg and Brit Hancock decided to step up organizing public protests, virtual information sessions, and they formed a sort of welcoming committee for Minister of Long-Term Care Paul Calandra when he came to Guelph back in April. As we head into Election Day tomorrow, are they feeling confident that they’ve made an impact?
That’s one of the questions for Hogg and Hancock on this week’s edition of the podcast! They will talk about why they wanted to restart the local GDHC, and the difficulty in trying to cover three different ridings with three different sets of priorities. They also talk about their concerns about privatization in healthcare, and how people should be demanding better than just “Okay” from the government. And finally, they will discuss the future of healthcare policy, and what happens after June 2.
So let's talk about fighting for more public healthcare on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Guelph & District Health Coalition on Facebook, and you can learn more about the group’s umbrella organization at the Ontario Health Coalition website. On Election Night, you can listen to live results starting at 8 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca!
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we start the final countdown to Election Day. In our last (but not least) batch of Ontario election issues, we will talk to the woman looking to turn her vast community health experience into political action as the next Liberal MPP for Guelph, and then we will talk to a workers' rights advocate looking to shake up the system and make a case for real change at Queen's Park.
This Thursday, May 26, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Turning Back Red? The Liberal Party's goal this election is to get back into government, or at least official party status, and candidates like Raechelle Devereaux is a big part of that plan. She's been the CEO of Guelph Community Health Centre for years, and is well versed about life at the intersection of health and social justice, and she joins us this week to talk about turning that experience into political action.
Taylor Made. There's been a lot of discussion about workers and the rights of workers this election, but the fight for injured workers was well underway long before COVID, and one of Guelph's front line fighters is Paul Taylor. Running again for the None of the Above Party, Taylor will talk about how he's been affected by Guelph's housing crisis and why direct democracy is the answer to an improved Ontario government.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it's a post-long weekend solo round. Fewer co-hosts means time for more movies, and this week, you're getting a review of three very different flicks. Cartoon chipmunks will kick-off the show with more meta references than you can stand, and then we will get serious with a three-letter word. To wrap up, a trip through the multiverse to the MCU!
This Wednesday, May 25, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
REVIEW: Chip N' Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022). In the 1990s, two cartoon chipmunks were riding high with an eponymous TV adventure about a group of rodents that save the world. But nothing lasts forever, except nostalgia! Chip and Dale are reunited in a quest to save Monterey Jack, their fellow Rescue Ranger, from a horrible fate in the hands of crime lord [checks notes] Peter Pan. So is Rescue Rangers a movie, or is it a 90-minute ad for Disney+?
REVIEW: Men (2022). Alex Garland, maker of Ex Machina and Annihilation, returns to theatre screens with another atmospheric head scratcher. Harper (played by the always excellent Jessie Buckley) retreats to the English countryside to escape her own grief and regret for a few days, but the small town has some unsettling dark corners, and Harper may be forced to confront all that she left behind. So on a scale of 9 to 10, just how unsettling is Men?
REVIEW: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). When we last saw Doctor Strange, we has helping Spider-Man out of a multiverse-related jam, but the multiverse isn't finished with Marvel's favourite wizard just yet. Benedict Cumberbatch returns as surgeon turned sorcerer for his first solo adventure in six years, joined by Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Witch and new hero Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez. So does the movie put a spell on us?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
May is Sexual Violence Prevention Month, but he haven't really had much time to talk about that because these last few weeks have been pretty bad for anyone concerned about equal rights. domestic abuse, gender-based violence, and the lack of balanced media coverage to give these issues the proper context. A news cycle like this demands an entire episode of this podcast to makes sense of it.
A few weeks ago, an American media outlet published details from a leaked Supreme Court decision that would effectively end the right to a legal abortion in the United States. The vulnerability of such an important women’s right just south of border had a striking effect on people here in Canada, where abortion is legal but access is far from equal. The ads on every other bus might make you think that there’s as many abortion clinics as microbreweries in Guelph, but there isn't.
But it’s not just abortion that’s making the news. The Supreme Court of Canada released a decision affirming the self-induced extreme intoxication defense. The Johnny Depp defamation case brought against his ex-wife Amber Heard has leaned on excessive and negative scrutiny of Heard. Former Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard is now finally on trail for two counts of sexual assault causing bodily harm. And isn't there an election on right now? Who's talking about these issues, and enhancing women's rights?
Enter: Jensen Williams, who is the public educator at Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis. She joins us this week to talk about why pro-choice Canadians can’t rest on their laurels, and why all sides of the abortion debate have been galvanized by the leaked U.S. Supreme Court decision. She also talks about the tangled mess of issues around the Depp trial, how the media is covering it in both good and bad ways, and what any us can do to create real space for discussion and change when it comes to gender-based violence.
Before diving into the discussion though a note of listener discretion because we're talking about some very difficult subject matter. If you feel like you might need some help, consult the numbers below.
So let's get into the news on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can learn all about the great and important things that Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis does at their website. If you are in immediate need of support, you can call the Women in Crisis line at 519-836-5710 or 1-800-265-7233. This Friday, check out the Celebrations of Survivorship: An Afternoon of Solidarity Against Sexual Violence hosted by Women in Crisis from 12 to 2 pm at the Red Pavilion at Riverside Park.
If you’re interested in hearing from the candidates, we’re hosting all the Guelph candidates over the next couple of weeks on Open Sources Guelph, and we will also be hosting the candidates in the riding next door in the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast on Saturdays.
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 courtesy of Drew Angerer of Getty Images.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's all election all the time! As we enter the last few weeks of the Ontario Provincial Election, we're really going to have to step up our game in getting candidates on the air, so we have two back-to-back interviews. In one corner, we've got the returning champion in green trunks, and in the other corner, we've got a young challenger wearing orange.
This Thursday, May 19, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Still Like Mike? That's the question that Guelphites will be asked on June 2. In 2018, Guelph sent the first Green MPP to Queen's Park with over 46 per cent of the vote, and though Mike Schreiner spent four years as a "caucus of one" at the legislature, it's hard to say that he hasn't been effective on the local and provincial stage. Schreiner will join us to make a case for a re-election, and why he's not done trying to turn Ontario Green.
Parr and Away. If Andrea Horwath is the Premier-in-waiting, then she may be waiting for the election of people like James Parr. The youngest person in the local race, Parr is running for the New Democrats on a slate of issues important to millennials like him: climate change, housing and mental health. Parr will join us to talk about why he thinks an NDP is the only vote for real change in Ontario, and why the youths will save us.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
It’s not easy being Green, the song says, and for the longest time running as the Green Party candidate in any election was seen as kind of a long shot. Mike Schreiner proved Greens can win in Ontario in 2018, and while a Green wave seems unlikely in this provincial election, Ryan Kahro thinks she can beat the odds, and more obviously, beat Ted Arnott!
It’s been said many times in this podcast already that Arnott is a formidable opponent, he won 54 per cent of the vote in 2018, his eighth election. As for the Greens, they’ve always had a tough row to hoe in Wellington-Halton Hills, with the best Green performance in 2007 when Martin Lavictoire finished third with 10.25 per cent of the vote, 20 points behind the second place Liberal candidate.
Kahro represents a new wave of environmentally-conscious leadership among people who are young and new to politics: Her birthday is Earth Day, and as a single mother she’s very conscious of the existential crises being faced by her children, from the climate crisis to the affordability crisis. If you look at her website, her team is mostly young, mostly female, and she’s also got proximity to Mike Schreiner, which is something that’s almost certainly going to come up on this edition of the podcast.
Along with that, Kahro will talk about why she decided to run for office now, and why “Green” is more than a political party, but a strategy. She also discusses Ted Arnott’s potential vulnerabilities, and the lack of discussion about climate change in this election. Also, she we will talk about bringing some fresh thinking into government, her immediate priorities if she should win the election, and why we need to keep in mind that “we are not in the same boat” post-pandemic.
So let's talk about a potential Green rally in this edition of the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast!
To learn more about Ryan Kahro or her campaign, you can visit her website here.
NOTE: You will be able to hear interviews with all of the Provincial election candidates running in Guelph every Monday on the podcast version of Open Sources Guelph, and every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca!
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.
This week on End Credits, we get into Father's Day a little early with a pick that might well be classified as a "Dad Movie." From the less-than-well-known annals of the Second World War, we'll be reviewing the new spy drama Operation: Mincemeat. Along with that, we're going to talk about some other good war movies with our very special crossover guest host.
This Wednesday, May 18, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and guest co-host Scotty Hertz will discuss:
War! What is it Good For? Movies!! This week's movie pick takes us back to World War II, a time and place that science tells us is the setting for 18 per cent of all movies released every year. Before talking about this war movie, we're going to talk about our other favourite war movies including a submarine tale, a heist in the middle of the first Gulf War, and two star-studded vintage "Dad Movies" from the 60s that you can probably already guess the titles of.
REVIEW: Operation: Mincemeat (2022). Sicily was the "soft underbelly" of Europe, and everyone knew it. The Nazis would be ready for any attempt by the Allies to land on its shores, and the causalities would be immense. The effort to take back Europe may well have been over before it started. So what did British Intelligence do? They made up battle plans to invade Greece, and they made up an officer to "accidentally" deliver them to the Hitler. The story is retold again in Netflix's Operation: Mincemeat, but is this a mission that you should accept?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Back in the early days of the Ontario government under Doug Ford it looked like their autism policy might sink them. Their initial approach to funding and support for kids with autism had the effect of uniting the entire autism lobby against them, and then the pandemic happened, and all of healthcare - from emergency to long-term care - was thrown under the microscope. So where are we on the autism file?
Back in 2019, Ontario’s new PC government had a very PC idea: Give parents a lump sum annually and let them find the care they need. The problem is that some children on the spectrum need a lot more care than a small annual stipend can provide, and that fact riled up parents who were already used to years of struggle and toil to get government assistance. They were angry.
Meanwhile at Queen's park, there have been three different government ministers tasked to manage the autism file in the last four years, forcing the parents of children with autism to constantly start again. And then as the Province was mostly pre-occupied with the pandemic, the wait list for autism therapy grew to 53,000 people. So it's no wonder why parents like Angela Brandt, president of the Ontario Autism Coalition, want change this election.
Brandt joins us on this week's podcast to talk about the fight for autism funding, and how the pandemic affected both the kids and the advocacy on their behalf. We also talk about whether any of the parties have a good autism policy in their platform, and how candidates can best earn the vote of people worried about autism spending. Also, Brandt will discuss the difficulty of raising awareness during a pandemic, and how the coalition is hoping to change minds and make autism a priority before June 2.
So let's give autism some attention on this week's Guelph Politicast!
If you want to learn more about the Ontario Autism Coalition, you can visit their website. If you want to follow their advocacy, or lend your support to the cause, use the hashtag #50KisNotOK on social media.
If you’re interested in hearing from the candidates, we’re hosting all the Guelph candidates over the next couple of weeks on Open Sources Guelph, and we will also be hosting the candidates in the riding next door in the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast on Saturdays.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's almost all election, all the time. In the first part of the show, we're going to talk about the latest Ontario election news from around the provincial campaign trail, and in the back half we will have our first local candidate interview. In between through, we're heading back to the U.S. where they're got a whole new calamity if you're a fan of reproductive rights for women.
This Thursday, May 12, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Men Who Stare at Votes. We're now in the second week of the election campaign, the opening moves are done and it's time for the middle game. The party leaders are spread out around our massive province with Steven Del Duca releasing the Liberal's platform, Andrea Horwath and Mike Schreiner doing swings through the north, and Doug Ford feeling so confident that he took Monday off. We'll talk about the latest.
Roe in the Dark. A (not Guelph) Politico story revealed a leaked draft from the U.S. Supreme Court effectively repealing Roe V. Wade, the landmark case that made abortion legal in the United States. Pro-Choice advocates have been galvanized the last week as America's anti-abortion wing has been more concerned about the leak than the fact that their 50-year mission has finally come to fruition. So what happens next?
Burnett What You Know. Finally, we start to hear from the local candidates running in this provincial election! Perhaps fittingly given the party's history in Guelph, we kick things off with Communist candidate Juanita Burnett, who will talk to us about her party's platform, "A people's alternative for Ontario", and why a Communist voice is an important one to hear in this very busy campaign field.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
What is the Consensus Party? In short, they want to get rid of the party-based political system because they think partisan politics are making it hard to pass meaningful, representational democratic change. Yes, you heard that right, they want to get rid of all political parties, and yes, they understand the irony of forming a political party to get rid of political parties.
The exact mechanics of how government will work without political parties will be left for Consensus Party candidate Ron Patava to explain. His party first took those ideas for a test spin in 2018 with 10 candidates across Ontario, and in this election they have 18 in all, so they must be on to something, right? We bemoan partisan politics, and the way they divide us, so it might makes sense to people to just get rid of it all. Patava's banking on that kind of thinking!
The candidate himself is a retired businessman who's held management roles with CIBC, Rogers Communication and Manulife, and when he’s not pursuing his continued education at York University, he’s playing hockey or doing some curling. He’s also been concerned about top down leadership in politics, and has been looking for alternative proposals. He wanted something more flexible, more grassroots, and definitely outside the box, and now, he’s running on it.
On this edition of the podcast, Potava will talk us about why the Consensus Party made sense to him, how a Consensus government would work, and why it doesn’t sound as chaotic as you might think. And since there's no platform per se, Patava will talk about the issues that matter to him, and why supporting municipalities and strengthening local democracy is the other important part of the Consensus Party’s platform. Last, but not least, does Patava think he has a shot of winning in Ted Arnott country?
So let's talk about consensus on this edition of the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast!
To learn more about Ron Patava and the Consensus Party, you can visit their website here.
NOTE: You will be able to hear interviews with all of the Provincial election candidates running in Guelph every Monday on the podcast version of Open Sources Guelph, and every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca!
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.
This week on End Credits, love is in the air. It doesn't sound like a romantic comedy of any sort, but we will be reviewing The Worst Person in the World, which is about as unconventional as conventions get in the realm of romantic comedies. Along similar lines, we will also be talking about some of our favourite unconventional romantic comedies.
This Wednesday, May 11, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Un-Con-Rom-Coms. This week's pick fits comfortably in the sub-subgenre of unconventional romantic comedies, meaning movies that are funny, and are about romance, but don't fit well in the basic set-up of a couple meets, they fall in love, they encounter some kind of barrier that keeps them apart, and then they overcome it in the end. Real-life isn't so simple, and neither are the movies we choose for our un-con-rom-com picks.
REVIEW: The Worst Person in the World (2021). The final part of Joachim Trier's Oslo Trilogy got a lot of interest from critics and award shows earlier this year, but is it well earned? In the film, we follow Julie (Renate Reinsve), a twenty-something single woman who suffers the slings and arrows of two relationships with two very different men while she struggles to figure herself out. Told in 12 different chapters, plus a prologue and an epilogue, is The Worst Person in the World a story of millennial angst, or is it a story of brazen selfishness? Does it matter?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
If we talked about Ontario public schools last week, then it should follow that we talk about Ontario post-secondary issues this week. The pandemic generation, if we can coin such a phrase, are coming of age, and they’re bringing with them the scars and accomplishments of surviving the experience, but are they feeling seen in this provincial election? We’re going to ask one of their representatives.
Let’s consider the last four years for post-secondary students in Ontario: Pre-pandemic there were the usual concerns about increasing tuition fees, a renewed push for action on climate change, and a burgeoning mental health crisis (see this piece on Narcity). Then there was the Student Choice Initiative, which allowed students to opt out of funding a long list of campus groups from student governments to the student press to student clubs.
The court would later decide that the Student Choice Initiative was unconstitutional, but by the time the Ontario government finally abandoned the matter, there were other, bigger fish to fry. COVID-19 not only created new challenges for post-secondary students, it exacerbated the old problems, things like housing, mental health, cost of living, food insecurity, and the cost of education itself. Students' interests reflect a wide diversity of issues, so let’s talk to someone who knows students.
This week on the podcast, we’re joined by Mitra Yakubi, the recently elected chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students - Ontario. She will talk about why it feels like students are being ignored on the campaign trail, and why climate change is the most important issue for students this election. She also discusses the resiliency and mental health challenges of young people during and after COVID-19, and how food insecurity may be the underappreciated issue of the campaign.
So let's talk about student life on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Canadian Federation of Students - Ontario at their website. You can also follow the CFS’ advocacy efforts on their social media feed @CFSON, and by following the hashtag #DemandOutFuture.
If you’re interested in hearing from the candidates, we’re hosting all the Guelph candidates over the next couple of weeks on Open Sources Guelph, and we will also be hosting the candidates in the riding next door in the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast on Saturdays.
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 Queen's Park student protest in March 2019 courtesy of Eli Ridder.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we get to finally unleash our pent up election frustration. The Ontario campaign is finally underway, and we will talk about the stakes before we get a chance to talk to the candidates. We will also, for obvious reasons, have an update about the war in Ukraine. In the back half of the show, a Guelph city councillor might be making his final appearance as a Friend of OSG.
This Thursday, May 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
This Means [Declaring] War. Proving again that things are not going his way, there's rumblings out of the Kremlin that Russian President Vladimir Putin will declare war on Ukraine next week on Victory Day. But wait, hasn't Russia been fighting a war in Ukraine for almost three months? Not according to them, it's a "special operation." Anyway, we'll talk about this, plus Mariupol's last stand in this week's Ukraine update.
The Writ and the Pendulum. At almost the 11th hour, Premier Doug Ford shuffled over see Ontario's Lieutenant Governor and asked her to dissolve the legislature to start the provincial election. Unofficially, the election's been underway for weeks, if not months, but the campaign buses are now on the road, and the 30-day countdown is on to E-Day and whatever results there will be. We'll talk about all the news from Day #1.
Salisbury's Stake. The nominations for the 2022 Municipal Election opened this week, but one current councillor used the occasion to announce his intention not to run. Ward 4 will say goodbye to Mike Salisbury later this year, but for this week, we will talk to the esteemed west end councillor about his career highlights, his thoughts on this week's council debates, and his recent success as an international multimedia artist.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
Wellington-Halton Hills is a big riding, extending from Puslinch to Centre Wellington and out east all the way to Erin and Halton Hills, so experience counts, and it's hard to get more experience than Ted Arnott who's represented the area since 1990. Can anyone challenge 32 years of longevity in what's a fairly safe Conservative riding? Diane Ballantyne would like to volunteer.
Make no mistake, this is an uphill climb for the NDP candidate, who's running for the second time to represent Wellington-Halton Hills at Queen's Park. In 2018, Ballantyne finished in second place, and increased the share of the NDP vote in the riding by nearly 10 per cent. Not too shabby, but Arnott secured 54 per cent of the vote. Arnott would go on to become Speaker of the House, and Ballantyne would go one to win election as the Ward 6 councillor on Wellington County council.
Now it's time for the rematch, but is Wellington-Halton Hills in the market for a change? It's hard to have a better NDP-friendly resume than Ballantyne, who, aside from her position on County Council, is also a teacher at Centre Wellington District High School, sits on a committee with the College of Nurses of Ontario, and is a board member of the United Way of Guelph-Wellington-Dufferin. And on this first edition of the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast, Ballantyne will make her case to cap Arnott's run at eight terms.
Ballantyne joins us to talk about why she's running again for this office, why Arnott offers such stiff competition, and what it will take for NDP leader Andrea Horwath to become the next Premier. She will also talk about the issues facing Wellington-Halton Hills, and how they compare with the issues facing other parts of the province. Also, she'll discuss whether or not COVID-19 will be a factor in the campaign, and how she intends to make a winning impression on the campaign trail.
So let's head back to that riding next door on this premiere edition of the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast!
To learn more about Diane Ballantyne and her campaign, you can visit her website here.
NOTE: You will be able to hear interviews with all of the Provincial election candidates running in Guelph every Monday on the podcast version of Open Sources Guelph, and every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca!
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.
This week on End Credits, we're watching the clock. Just in time for the start of the summer movie season, we're staying at home to watch the new Netflix time travel adventure The Adam Project. And time travel sounds like magic, right? Well, speaking of magic, we will spend the first part of the show talking about our favourite wizards another other magic-users.
This Wednesday, May 4, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The Wizards and Us. This week, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness opens in theatres everywhere, which got us thinking about all our favourite movie wizards. It turns out that the term "wizard" is tough to define, are witches wizards? Are magicians? Are Jedis? For our purposes today, let's say "yes" and as we recount our favourite wizards, we will look to the realms of fantasy, animation, superheroes, and evil stepmothers.
REVIEW: The Adam Project (2022). You may have heard that Netflix has been having a hard time of it lately. The streamer might have 99 problems right now, but The Adam Project ain't one. The latest film from Shawn Levy and starring Ryan Reynolds (the team behind Free Guy), tells the story of a time traveller who runs into his younger self while on a rescue mission to save his wife whose stuck in the past. The film looks slick and fun, but it's also got the immeasurable appeal of Reynolds, Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo, so it's a winner, right?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Covering education issues has been weird the last couple of years during the pandemic; while keeping schools open for in-person learning was a priority, teachers felt that their concerns weren't being heard. Now, education is struggling to be made an election priority, and education workers have been trying to put their concerns back on the frontburner since March 2020, so this seems like an interesting place to begin a provincial campaign.
Ironically, education issues were very front of mind on the provincial agenda just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. All of Ontario’s education unions were undertaking job action with rotating strikes, but then COVID-19 arrived on our shores and schools were shut down, along with the job action. Questions about schools moved away from resources and jobs to making schools safe for in-person learning.
Oddly enough, the concerns about keeping schools safe from COVID, and just making our education system better, are not mutually exclusive goals. What is the effort to improve ventilation and air quality in school buildings but an admission that those facilities need billions of dollars in infrastructure improvements? Going into an election season, teachers are concerned that they're long-standing issues won't get air time, so we're going to give them some.
This week we're joined by Karen Littlewood, the president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Association (OSSTF) to talk about what might have happened with the teachers’ strike if there was no COVID-19 pandemic, and how education is in danger of not being treated as a priority in this election. She will also talk about the rural/urban divide in education issues, the infrastructure backlog for schools that has nothing to do with COVID, and what education workers are looking for in a candidate and a party.
So let's do some online learning about education issues on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can see the OSSTF’s 2022 education platform, “Strengthen Public Education - Rebuild Ontario" at their website. If you’re interested in hearing from the candidates themselves, we will be hosting all of the Guelph candidates over on Open Sources Guelph in the weeks to come, and we will also be marking the return of the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast starting this Saturday.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're anxious. It's like, when are we going to get to the fireworks factory Ontario Election?! That's going to be one of our topics this week, and we will also talk about the "OK Groomer" push on the far-right, and we'll have the latest from Ukraine. Interview? We've got one of those too, and this week we sit down with a Federal cabinet minister.
This Thursday, April 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
All the Money in the World. By the time the show airs this week, you will know what's in 2022 Ontario Budget, but we will not. Of course, the budget specifics are secondary to the fact that all the major provincial parties spent the week making big campaign-style announcements in a dress rehearsal for the official start of the election sometime next week. So how are the leaders lining things up for the voters?
Groom Raider. You may have heard about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' war on Disney, an overreaction to a tepid negative response by the media conglomerate to the Florida government's "Don't Say Gay" bill. Well, Canada is not immune to this right-wing laundering of inclusivity as a gateway to grooming kids for pedophiles, a trope that's as old as any anti-gay, anti-trans rhetoric. How can we stop it?
Innovate and See. As we continue through this post-COVID economic recovery, people are looking for great new innovations like green tech opportunities, or Guelph and Wellington's push to create a circular food economy. Generating support for these innovations is the portfolio of Helena Jaczek, the minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, and she joins us this week.
United We Fail. In a strong show of support, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken went to Ukraine and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in-person. Austin later met with over 40 U.S. allies at the American base in Ramstein, Germany where the leaders, including non-NATO countries like Japan and Israel, all pledged ongoing support for Ukraine. So can Russia be dissuaded?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we would really like to know what exactly a cliff beast is? If you're already laughing, then you know that we're reviewing the new Netflix comedy The Bubble on this week's show. And since The Bubble is (in-part) a movie about Hollywood franchises, we will also look ahead to all the franchise movies coming out this summer.
This Wednesday, April 27, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Box Office Mucho. For the first time in two years, we're going to get a real summer box office season. The theatres are open and ready to receive all the hits from superhero tales about wizards and gods, to fighter jocks and spacemen, dinosaurs, and little yellow pill-shaped creatures with googly eyes. This week, we will look at the players, and predict which ones will be the winners of the Summer of 2022!
REVIEW: The Bubble (2022). The sixth chapter of a big Hollywood franchise is put in danger as its egocentric cast of Hollywood all-stars must face their greatest challenge: Surviving COVID-19 quarantine. Legendary comedy director Judd Apatow assembles and all-star cast, (and a first-rate list of cameos) to send up the pandemic, Hollywood franchise filmmaking, social media celebrity, and the slings and arrows of fame and fortune, but is The Bubble too absorbed in its own world to be inviting to the casual viewer?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
If there’s one thing we can agree on, it’s that people shouldn’t be forced out of their home after a minor dispute with their landlord. Yes, that happens, and it happens often, but it’s been happening a lot more since the Landlord and Tenant Board went virtual, and that made access to the internet another barrier to housing. This seems like something worth talking about.
Just last week, there was an item from Global News noting that the five-month freeze in evictions from March to July 2020 is still having an impact on the caseload of the LTB. While there was a significant drop in the number of new cases last year, half of the 48,000 applications sent to the board were eviction requests based on non-payment of rent, and that doesn’t necessarily mean several months of back-rent either. Often, someone misses one payment and they find themselves faced with eviction.
The other part of this is logistical. In the pandemic, meetings of the LTB have been held virtually and that’s come with a variety of problems, some of which were laid out in an Ottawa Citizen article last summer. Yes, there are people who don’t have physical access to technology, but as we’re all aware, connections on virtual presence apps are not infallible. and it’s making the job of advocates like Britney Rodgers even more difficult.
This week on the podcast, we're joined by Rodgers, who is a paralegal at the Legal Clinic of Guelph & Wellington County, will tell us about what life was like at the Landlord and Tenant Board in the days before COVID-19, and how the pandemic has changed the course of normal business. She will also talk about the technological barriers doing virtual board hearings, the barriers to proper legal representation, and whether most tenants are even aware of their rights as renters.
Let's talk about the challenges at the Landlord and Tenant Board on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To get in touch with the Legal Clinic of Guelph & Wellington County you can visit their website, or you can send them an email at gwlegalclinic [at] lao.on.ca. There’s a list of resources for tenants on the Legal Clinic’s housing webpage, so if you think you might be having an issue with your landlord that you might need legal services to resolve, don’t hesitate to reach out.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got rights! In the second half of the show we will celebrate 40 years of having rights thanks to Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and we'll talk about that guy picture above who thinks he's the Free Speech man with a plan. For the first half though, we've still got a war in Ukraine to talk about, and there are still questions about a massacre closer to home.
This Thursday, April 21, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Eastern Promises. After the Ukrainians apparently sunk the Russian flag ship in the Black Sea last week, the Russians started turning up the pressure on the Donbas, the eastern most area of the country that's been in dispute for nine years now. Meanwhile, Austria's PM reports that Vladimir Putin is convinced he's winning, while Volodymyr Zelenskyy continues to say that survival is his only goal. We'll discuss the latest.
Commission: Impossible. Almost exactly two years after the mass casualty event in the area of Portapique, Nova Scotia, the commission investigating the incident is facing repeated critiques about its administration, the reliance on reports and the limited witness participation in the hearings. On top that, there are still a lot of unanswered questions about the RCMP response that night, so might we still get those answers?
From Musk Till Dawn. Tesla and SpaceX owner Elon Musk is making a play to buy Twitter. Why? Musk says he's a "free speech absolutist" looking to create an open platform free of the scourge of "cancel culture." Twitter, of course, is anxious to avoid letting the firebrand Musk from taking over the platform, especially since free speech warrior Musk has a long history of silencing people he doesn't like. We'll tweet about it.
This is 40. This week, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms hits midlife. The document is now 40 years old, so what better time to look back and re-examine the intent and the effectiveness of the Charter, especially when you have people like the organizers of the Freedom Convoy saying that the Charter gives them the right to shut down the capital. So on this occasion, do we really know and appreciate the Charter like we should?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're running. Our movie of the week almost literally has "run" in the title as it tells the story of man who spent almost the entirety of his youth trying to escape. For the review this week, we're watching the three-time Academy Award-nominated movie Flee, and before that we're going to run through some other movies about escape.
This Wednesday, April 20, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Escape Fan. This week's movie is about one man's struggle to escape, which made us think about other movies where someone or some people are trying to escape, whether that's a physical escape or a mental one. So to kick off the show, we're going to talk about some of the best escape movies, including flights from prison, captivity in a small enclosed space, and getting off the post-apocalyptic penal colony that's the island of Los Angeles.
REVIEW: Flee (2021). Never before has there been one movie nominated as the Best Documentary Feature, Best Animated Feature, and Best International Film, but Flee did it. The hat trick was received for a film that tells the story of a man named Amin Nawabi, who, as a kid, escapes the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, and then has to escape Russia in the last, corruption-filled days of Communism. Can you tell the deeply personal true story of escape and solitude using animation? It turns out you can, but is Flee as good as its three big Oscar noms?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Historically, women played a pretty big role in the brewing of beer. Starting in ancient times, brewing was fairly female-dominated, but that changed in western culture around the same time the brewing process became industrialized 150 years ago. In 2022, women are trying to reclaim their place atop the brewing world thanks to the proliferation of craft breweries, and one local woman is helping to lead the way.
If you’ve ever seen a beer commercial, they make it pretty obvious that women are not the intended audience for the product. It’s silly because obviously women like beer, and it doesn’t make much sense to cut off half the prospective audience for your product. Of course, making room for women in brewing is one thing, making them feel comfortable in a predominately male atmosphere is another.
Nine years ago, Karyn Boscariol launched the first ever Queen of Craft, and its purpose was twofold: To acquaint beer-curious women with the art and craft of making and tasting beer, and to raise money for charity, specifically Guelph Wellington Women in Crisis who've received over $50,000 from the event. So, on the brink of the returning to a face-to-face Queen of Craft, we’re going to ask the Queen herself to tell us all about the secret to her success.
On this week's podcast, Boscariol will tell us about the origins of Queen of Craft, and how she got interested in beer. She will also talk about how the Queen of Craft events change every year (at least with one exception), and how it’s changed forever now that Queen of Craft is going back to in-person events. And finally, she discuss the importance of the fundraising Queen of Craft does, and whether or not there’s such a thing as too much craft beer.
So let's talk about creating more Queens of the Craft on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The first Queen of Craft event for 2022 is this coming Saturday at 10C Shared Space, and it will continue for the next four Saturdays. You can see the schedule and find links to tickets at the Wellington Brewery website. You can also follow Queen of Craft on Facebook.
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 courtesy of Queen of Craft.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, the Easter Bunny's bringing a basket full of issues. Before taking a nice, leisurely long weekend off, we're diving again into the Ukrainian War (now in it's eighth great week), and the latest in terms of Ontario's sixth wave (non) response. In the back half of the show, we're talking to our local Federal representative about that big to-do pictured above, last week's Federal budget.
This Thursday, April 14, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Back to Donbas. This week in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has installed the man called "the Butcher of Syria" to lead his war effort, which now seems concentrated on seizing the Donbas and securing a land bridge from Crimea. Meanwhile, the call for war crimes charges is growing louder with more and more reporting about Russian soldiers using sexual violence against civilians. We'll cover the latest developments.
The Moore You Know. Since everyone's now calling it a sixth wave, Dr. Kieran Moore finally emerged from his office a personal trip to address a province full of people concerned about the rising number of COVID-19 cases. Mask mandates? Nope, not going to do that. The provincial policy of white knuckling through the sixth wave is firmly in place, so what is left for the people still worried about the pandemic to do?
Mo' Money Talk. Last week around this time, the Federal government delivered the budget for the next fiscal year, and there was a lot of new spending. From defense, to home-buying, to expanded dental care, to the fight against climate change, there was a lot of money on the table, and to help us sort that out is Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield. Longfield will talk about that and other recent developments on Parliament Hill.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we look to the sky! Ever notice how the Moon's just hanging up their daring us to visit? Well, there was a time humans went to the moon, and this week's featured movie is a loving remembrance of that particular era. We're reviewing the latest Netflix hit, Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood and we're talking about other trips to the Moon.
This Wednesday, April 13, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
To the Moon! Taking a jaunty trip to the Moon is literally the plot of one of the oldest surviving movies, which also makes it one of the most influential in the history of cinema. Before getting into this week's movie, which has its own trip to the Moon, we will talk about some of our favourite previous trips out in space, from spy adventures, to documentaries, to found footage movies about lost Moon missions, it's a moon-a-palooza!
REVIEW: Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood (2022). In July 1969, men from the Earth first set foot upon the Moon, but before that NASA sent a kid because they built the cabin of the lunar lander too small. This is the idea behind Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, the new film from Richard Linklater that's part nostalgia trip, part sci-fi fantasy, and part coming-of-age story. Watch as a young man named Stan watches the Moon landing on TV, and experiences it for himself, but what about the experience of watching this film?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
*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.
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.
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.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, contrarian opinions are welcome, and they always will be. Wish we could say that was true in Russia, which is doing everything it can to convince its people that they are not in an aggressive war against Ukraine. We have to talk about that again, and we will also talk about the race to be Canada's next Federal Conservative leader, plus, a city councillor stops by for another chat.
This Thursday, March 17, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
"No War." We're now three weeks into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and things are not improving. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a desperate plea for a no-fly zone to the Canadian Parliament on Tuesday, while journalists covering the war have been killed, and the scuttlebutt now says that Vladimir Putin is giving his soldiers permission to commit crimes. Is there really no end in sight for this disastrous war?
Pierre's Routine. Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown announced his bid to lead the Conservative Party of Canada last weekend, which officially makes this Conservative leadership race bigger than the last one. Still, with Brown, Jean Charest, Leslyn Lewis and Roman Baber all in the race, it still looks like it's Pierre Poilievre's to lose, as reflected in Brown's first political attack on Monday, but does he or anyone else have a chance?
Allt-ered States. Guelph City Council has returned to (hybrid) in-person meetings, and one of the people that was actually there in-person was Ward 3 Councillor Phil Allt. This week, Allt goes virtual again to talk with us about the latest doings at Guelph City Hall, the fallout of the the council compensation debate, and whether or not certain City of Guelph capital projects are being put on pause again due to inflation.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're growing up! Not really. In fact you could say that we're embracing the kid stuff given the fact that this week's review is fresh out of the Disney/Pixar myth-making machine. We're going to review Turning Red on Disney+, and along with that we will talk about some of our favourite coming-of-age movies that you can stream in other places.
This Wednesday, March 16, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Growing Up is Hard to Do! No, seriously. The coming-of-age story is a universal trope in literature and film, but since we're a movie show, we're going to focus on the latter. Before diving into Turning Red, we'll talk about other movies about the pains of growing up, from tales of loss and heartbreak to drug dealing and bloodletting, and from trips out west to starting your own band at home, we will consider the perils (and rewards?) of becoming an adult.
REVIEW: Turning Red (2022). Growing up can be rough, but at least you didn't turn into a giant red panda! This is the family curse (gift?) that affects young Mei Lee in Turning Red, the new Toronto-set Pixar movie from Oscar-winner Domee Shi. The film plays into the universal, and universally painful, experience of transitioning from childhood to teenager, but it does so through the specific point of view of a Chinese-Canadian girl in the 6ix and with a lot of great humour and pathos. But seriously, how good is Pixar's latest entry in the coming of age genre?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
We have come to know what it’s like to live with COVID-19, even if we don't like, but almost exactly two years ago today, we were freaking out. Remember wiping down your groceries with anti-bacterial wipes? Remember the run on toilet paper? Remember when we thought we could stamp this out in two weeks? Times sure have changed, but are we really at the end of COVID considering how it began?
On this day in 2020, March 16, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health announced the region’s first case of COVID-19. The anonymously famous person was a man in his 40s who just returned from a trip to Atlanta, Georgia and then tested positive at the Headwaters Health Care Centre in Orangeville. Meanwhile, the list of shutdowns, closures and cancellations got longer and longer.
Those were weird, wild, and crazy days. News was coming fast and furiously, and no one knew what what was going to happen next. Two years later, we’re still being affected by COVID even though we’re trying to make a case to ourselves that the pandemic is over. Meanwhile, only 14 per cent of people in low income countries have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and in South Africa, where the especially virulent Omicron variant was first detected, less than 30 per cent of people have been fully vaccinated.
So on this edition of the podcast we are going back to where it all began. On the week of March 16, 2020 Open Sources Guelph co-host Scotty Hertz produced an hour-long daily newscast to bring people the latest news and information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, and its impact on the people of Guelph. As we listen, let's remember just how far we’ve come in the last two years. Yes, it’s felt like we’ve been spinning in place for the last 24 months, but let us also recognize the progress we’ve made.
So let's go back to beginning on this week’s Guelph Politicast.
Looking two years later, the Government of Ontario has announced the end of mask mandates on March 21, but some people are trying to keep the mandates in place for schools Check out those details here and here. The government also has an eye to end all COVID restrictions at the end of April, but we will keep you posted with all the latest developments here 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're flying the yellow and blue. We're heading back to Ukraine to talk about the latest war developments and the refugee crisis, and we're going to talk about the local response with the head of Guelph's Ukrainian Catholic Church. Down at Queen's Park meanwhile, it was a week of saying a pre-election "goodbye" to some our favourite and least-favourite MPPs.
This Thursday, March 3, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Not Another Refugee Crisis. Things are heating up with the war effort in Ukraine. Russia is intensifying their efforts, but they still haven't taken the country even two weeks after the start of the war. As usual, the real cost of war is on the human scale. The number of refugees fleeing Ukraine is nearly two million, but as we've seen, not all refugees are created equal. Will the Ukraine crisis change how we treat refugees from other parts?
The New Adventures of Old Christine. In a surprise revelation last Friday, Health Minister Christine Elliott announced that she will not be seeking re-election in June. On the one hand that shouldn't be a surprise, it's been a long two years for the Health Minister, but on the other hand, she's joining a dozen other Progressive Conservative MPPs in not running. We'll talk about that, and we'll talk about another high-profile resignation too.
Father Andrij Knows Best. Last Sunday, the Guelph community rallied to support the people of Ukraine with their voices and with their pocket books. The event was organized by parishioners with the Holy Protection of the Mother of God Ukrainian Catholic Church, and this week we're joined by Father Andrij Figol who will talk about the human costs of war, and how his church is working to rally support with the Guelph community.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're going back to a time of social tumult and high gas prices. History comes around again in Licorice Pizza, the Academy Award-nominated new film from acclaimed director Paul Thomas Anderson. Before that, staying in the worlds of the man called PTA, we will consider some of the greatest characters he's ever created.
This Wednesday, March 2, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
PTA's People. Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the most acclaimed American filmmakers of the last 25 years. Each one of his nine films have been fairly perfect on their own, so ranking them would almost be a moot point, but those movies are filled with completely unique and compelling characters. So this week, we talk about the oil men, professional gamblers, adult film stars, and wayward young people that make up PTA's best characters.
REVIEW: Licorice Pizza (2021). For his ninth film, Paul Thomas Anderson returns to the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s, where child star Gary is making the transition to ambitious entrepreneur at the age of 15. Then he meets Alana, a direction-less young woman in her mid-20s who strikes up a friendship with Gary, although she insists that it can never, never, ever get romantic. Anderson's new movie tests the limits of good taste and appropriateness by 2022 standards, but how does it stand as a film, and in the PTA pantheon?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Just in time for this podcast, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released another report last week, which was described by UN Secretary-General as "an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership." So what's the current provincial government’s record on fighting climate change, and with an election that's now less than three months away?
The Provincial government under Premier Doug Ford has been very active on the environmental file, from dismantling the province’s clean energy initiatives to MZOs, but is any of that going to matter when it's time to vote? The provincial response to the COVID-19 pandemic will undoubtedly be the issue of the 2022 Provincial Election, but that doesn’t mean that environmental issues should be ignored.
Of course, these issues have been discussed in the media, and among environmental activism groups, not to mention inside the halls of Queen's Park. The Auditor General reported back in November that in two years the Ontario government had only completed six of 22 recommendations to improve climate outcomes, so if you feel like the Ford government is not committed to fighting climate change, you’re not alone. This week we’re joined by one of the people who’s very concerned about that lack of action.
Keith Brooks, Programs Director for Environmental Defence, will join us to talk about what grade he’s giving the Ford government and whether climate change is going to be a big enough issue in the coming election. He will also talk about the the different topics under the environmental file and where the Ford government is most vulnerable. And finally, he will discuss lessons learned from the pandemic about fighting climate change, and what Environmental Defense will be doing before June 2.
So let's talk about the Ontario government's report card on environmental issues in this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about Environmental Defence and their various programs and advocacy efforts, you can find them online. To learn more about environmental issues, and their bearing on the upcoming provincial election, Guelph Wellington Coalition for Social Justice will be dedicating one of their Informed Democracy town halls to that topic, and it will be on Wednesday April 20.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's a lot of bad news. Internationally circumstances force us to go back to Ukraine where the war still rages and shows no sign of stopping. More locally, we go back to Nova Scotia to talk about the inquiry into one of Canada's worst crimes, if not the worst crime. In more positive news, we will happily welcome another one of our local upcoming provincial election candidates to the show.
This Thursday, March 3, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Putin His Place. The War in Ukraine is not going the way Vladimir Putin wanted it to as Ukraine has held up surprisingly well against the onslaught, and almost one week later, Russia had still not take the capital city. But while the west has been united in support, and in sanctions, it seems to have not deterred Putin from a destructive course that will, at the very least, see thousands of Ukrainians dead. So what happens next?
The Inquiry. Almost two years ago next month, a lone gunman raced around rural Nova Scotia on a 13-hour killing spree that resulted in 23 dead (including the shooter) and three others injuried. So what went wrong, and what failures in law enforcement led to the worst mass shooting in Canadian history? That's exactly what an inquiry is now looking into, but are they going to find the answers everyone wants?
Peter Plan. If you listen to this show, then you probably know that there's a provincial election in a couple of months. The candidates are getting ready to make their case that they're Queen's Park ready, and one of those people in Guelph is Progressive Conservative candidate Peter McSherry. We'll talk to McSherry about why he's running, what his issues are, and what he's looking forward to out on the campaign trail.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, the horror continues. We pass from Ghostface to Leatherface as we warm up the Netflix machine to check out another horror legacy-sequel in the form of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (no The). Before getting into that, we will head back to Gotham City on this Batman eve to talk about all the other movies that bear his name, and rank them!
This Wednesday, March 2, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Run the Series: The Batmen. This Friday, Matt Reeves' take on the Dark Knight will be released in theatres in the highly-anticipated (and three-hour long) The Batman. In anticipation of the emergence of this Batman, we spend the first part of the show ranking the other movie Batmen. There have been 10 other named Batman movies released in cinemas over the last 60 years, and we will run the series on which Batman is best, and which one is worst.
REVIEW: Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022). In 1974, director Tobe Hooper took a small cast and crew into the middle-of-nowhere Texas and for a few thousand dollars created one of the most frightening, visceral and influential horror movies ever: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Forty-eight years later, the ninth movie in the franchise aims to re-launch the series again as a bunch of hapless influencers move to a Texas ghost town where a certain chainsaw-wielding butcher still lurks looking for fresh meat. Does he find it? Do we?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
As you click play on this episode, we’re officially in a new phase of the pandemic. More restrictions were lifted on March 1, and Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health is assuring us that it's only a matter of time now till our masking days are behind us. So it’s good news, right? Maybe. Let's ask the local expect if the reason for optimism is real!
In our last edition of “Still COVID” back in November, “Omicron” was just another Greek letter. That changed pretty rapidly just a couple of weeks later when that variant started ripping through the population, prompting another brief lockdown in January. Our hospital had three different outbreaks since December, most public health workers spent their Christmas vacation handing out boosters, and let’s not forget those long line-ups for rapid tests.
But now things are looking up. Case counts are going down in general, and so are the number of patients in hospital and in the ICU. As of March 1, all proof of vaccine mandates were lifted here in Ontario, and the state of emergency in Guelph was declared over. On top of that, spring is almost here, and that means a seasonal decrease in COVID cases. So can we now look at COVID-19 as just another seasonal illness?
That’s definitely one of the things we want to talk to Dr. Mercer about. She will also talk about what we learned from the Omicron wave, and her thinking about when her public health order about masking might be revoked. She will also discuss whether the most vulnerable in our population are getting enough consideration as we’re re-opening, when school restrictions might be rolled back, and what the future of COVID might look like going forward.
So, for the eighth time in two years, let's talk COVID with Dr. Mercer on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can stay on top of all the latest COVID-19 precautions and statistics at the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health website here. If you're interested, there's a (still virtual) Board of Health meeting on Wednesday March 2 at 2 pm, and you can see the agenda 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're in search of peace. There's some of that in Ottawa now, but it's by no means a guarantee that it's going to last, which is why we're dedicating the first half to the show to the Freedom Convoy fallout. Elsewhere, we're looking at Schrödinger's war in Ukraine, plus the unofficial kick-off of the 2022 Ontario Provincial Election (though it's really just the start of the new legislative session).
This Thursday, February 24, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Truck Hunt. In a sometimes difficult to watch police action over the weekend, the Freedom Convoy was cleared out of Ottawa at the same time Members of Parliament were debating the use of the Emergencies Act. Now, we're in the aftermath. Some truckers are standing by outside Ottawa city limits waiting for an opportunity to return while many of the organizers are staying in prison for a while. So what comes next?
Apt Putin. Any hope that Russian President Vladimir Putin would back down from invading Ukraine was all but lost this week as Putin signed an order sending Russian forces into separatist areas of the country and declaring them independent, except Putin doesn't have that authority. Western nations are now scrambling to put new sanctions on Russia, but at this point does Putin even care, and what does he really want?
Licence Sticker to Kill. The Ontario Legislature open its last session before the election on Tuesday, and while opposition members in Queen's Park wanted to talk about the last few weeks of excitement in Ottawa and Windsor, Premier Doug Ford took a powder and instead announced the end of license plate sticker renewal fees. Good election move if you want to win the GTA again, but can Ford win playing politics as usual?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, things are getting stabby. Get the popcorn ready, sharpen your knife, and slip on your Ghostface mask, because this week we're heading back to horror town for some more meta-textual movie commentary with Scream 5, or rather just Scream. Unfortunately, there's also some real-life death to talk about, in this case a famous Canadian director.
This Wednesday, February 23, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
For Ivan. There was sad news for movie fans following the Super Bowl last week, the death of preeminent filmmaker Ivan Reitman. A comedy legend, Reitman brought many great films to the big screen as both a director and a producer including Meatballs, Animal House, Kindergarten Cop, and, of course, Ghostbusters. To kick off this week's show, we will look at some of Reitman's career highlights, or at least the highlights that have nothing to do with bustin' ghosts.
REVIEW: Scream (2022). Just over 25 years ago, the original Scream movie became a worldwide sensation, and it launched a franchise that's still chugging along with this, its fifth chapter. The residents of Woodsboro are plunged into another slasher mystery, and the knife is pointing at a woman with a dark secret that ties her back to the original murders in 1996. The new killer (or killers) are trying to create a legacy-sequel, a new generation of victims must figure out who they can trust and how they can survive, and we must figure out if the movie is worthwhile.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The University of Guelph has been one of the leaders in COVID-19 research, and in the wake of Omicron, one specific area research took on new importance as the regular channels of COVID testing were overwhelmed. The future of monitoring COVID-19’s prevalence and resilience may be in wastewater testing, and we have the man that could write book on it if he weren't so busy.
This week, we're joined by Dr. Lawrence Goodridge, who holds the Leung Family Professorship in Food Safety in the Department of Food Science and is the director of the Canadian Research Institute for Food Safety. His research has focused on food-borne pathogens, antibiotic resistance and food fraud, but it turned out that his work was transferable to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thanks to the work of Dr. Goodridge and his colleagues, wastewater testing has become a fairly reliable indicator of how bad COVID-19 has spread in our community, and finding where the new cases are, which has been very important due to a lack of PCR testing and the surge in the number of new Omicron cases. More than that, wastewater testing could be key to stopping future waves of the virus' and protecting public health in other areas.
Dr. Goodridge will talk to us about how wastewater testing of COVID-19 works, why it works, and how the global pandemic managed to accelerate the development of the science around it. He also talks about how wastewater testing is being used in public health reporting, and the challenges and limitations when it comes to scale. He will also discuss how this research can continue to be used as we work to the end of this pandemic, and how wastewater testing can be used to prevent the next pandemic.
So let's go behind the science on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can read about Professor Goodridge’s work with wastewater testing at the University of Guelph’s website. You can also see the results of regular wastewater COVID-19 testing on both the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health website and the University of Guelph website, and those numbers are update every day Monday through Friday.
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.
Photo courtesy of the University of Guelph
This week, Open Sources Guelph is going back to the convoy. Brace yourselves. A lot has changed since we last talked about the politics of these anti-mandate protests, and all levels of government have given us a lot to chew on these last few days. So there's that, plus we will talk about the hate and scorn cast against the Canadian media. For the second half of the show, Mike Schreiner's back just as you knew he would be.
This Thursday, February 17, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Truck the Police. For the third week in a row, so-called truckers are occupying Ottawa around Parliament Hill, but the end may be in sight. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the invoking of the Emergencies Act, the Ambassador Bridge was cleared, and Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly is out. But what about those cops we've seen in viral videos showing support for the convoy? Can we trust they're working to a solution?
The Hate They Give. The Canadian Association of Journalists last week released a report called "Poisoned Well", a roundup of the online hate and abuse being heaped upon Canadian journalists, and the news is especially bad if you're a woman or racialized. Criticism is fine, but there's a real threat against the health and safety of journalists who are just trying to do their jobs, so what needs to change?
The Green Plight. As noted above, the landscape has changed quickly when it comes to the Freedom Convoys in Ottawa and Windsor, and at the same time, Premier Doug Ford has announced a rollback of public health restrictions starting today. Guelph MPP and Green Party leader Mike Schreiner will join us today to talk about fighting misinformation, whether Ford's being reactive, and what comes next in the pandemic recovery.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we've got gold on the mind. Oscar gold. This year's nominations were announced last week, and in a timely bit of synchronicity we're reviewing one of the nominees. We're checking out Netflix's excellent new drama The Lost Daughter, and before that we're talking about the movies that did, and did not, get nominations.
This Wednesday, February 16, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Of Dogs and Dune. The nominations for the 94th Academy Awards were announced last week, and the winner so far, at least in terms of the most nominations, is The Power of the Dog. Jane Campion's post-modern cowboy story is the front-runner with 12 nods, while Denis Villenauvre's sci-fi epic Dune is a close second with 11. We'll talk about what the nominations mean, and we will also talk a little about this year's Golden Razzie nominations too.
REVIEW: The Lost Daughter (2021). Speaking of Oscar nominees, Maggie Gyllenhaal's directorial debut scored three nominations, but did it deserve more? Based on Elena Ferrante's novel of the same name, The Lost Daughter tells the story of Leda, a professor on holiday in Greece who encounters a young mother that reminds Leda of her younger self. This leads to a fascinating story of self-reflection and recrimination featuring award-nominated performances from Olivia Coleman and Jessie Buckley, but is it fascinating for the audience?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Freedom to Read Week is a chance to talk about issues of censorship and free expression, especially in the context of what we can read and access at our local and school libraries. There's been a lot of back and forth in the news lately about what young people should be allowed to read, or not, in their school library, so for this podcast, we got the biggest librarian we could find.
To mark Freedom to Read Week 2022, we're joined by Shelagh Paterson, the executive director of the Ontario Library Association. In the last month, there have been two big stories in the news about the content of school libraries. The first was about a graphic novel removed by a Tennessee school board for reasons not related to the narrative. The other was closer to home, with allegations of transphobia for a school board delegation about appropriate books for kids.
These are the ideal conditions for this year’s commemoration of Freedom to Read Week. A project from the Book and Periodical Council, Freedom to Read Week is an annual event that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom, which is guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That’s the logline, but what about the practical reality when it comes to what books go into libraries, and who gets to make the decision?
Paterson will join us to talk answer that, and other questions. She will talk about the meaning of intellectual freedom and freedom of expression, as well as censorship, and how we can deal with the misinformation and disinformation landscape without censorship. Paterson will also talk about how not all libraries are created equally, the digital divide in terms of access to information, and the other kinds of barriers that should remind us that not everyone’s access to information is equal.
So let's talk about Freedom Read Week issues in this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Freedom to Read Week runs all next week from February 20 to 26, and you can find all sorts of materials here. You can also click here to learn more about the Ontario Library Association. If you want to cut out the proverbial middle man, you can visit your local branch of Guelph Public Library, and they can probably point you in the right direction of some challenging materials.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're relieved to longer hear the honking of the horns. Not that we really heard them, but the thought of it kept us up all night. You know what else is keeping us up? How about the thought of a bilateral meeting with Pierre Poilievre and Boris Johnson? We will talk about those two in the first half of the show, and in the second half we'll talk Guelph business with the man from the (Ward) 6ix.
This Thursday, February 10, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Pierre Up There. It didn't take long for Pierre Poilievre to do what many Canadian politicos expected him to do and become the first person to enter the new Conservative leadership race. We'll talk about that, plus Candice Bergen's not-great first week as the interim leader of the party, and the politics of ending the pandemic with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.
Chuck Boris? Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, their Conservative leader (and Prime Minister) Boris Johnson is under pressure from all sides, including his own, to offer answers, or, at worst, his neck, for a number of parties at 10 Downing Street that broke COVID lockdown protocols, including a social gathering that took place at the same time Queen Elizabeth sat alone at her husband's funeral. Is this the end of Boris?
Mark Tank. It was a busy week at Guelph City Hall, as Committee of the Whole talked about licensing short-term rentals like AirBnBs, initiating a Municipal Accommodation Tax to support the promotion of tourism, and a new program to get people interest-free loans so they can make green improvements on their homes. That's a lot to unpack, and this week Ward 6 Councillor Mark MacKinnon will give us a hand moving it.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, are you ready for some good, old fashioned fun? Jackass, and the comedy there in, may not be to your taste (emphasis on "taste|), but it is a verifiable phenomenon, and now its back in a theatre near you with Jackass Forever. Before that, one of our co-hosts will choose what he thinks are the quintessential Jackass gags (emphasis on "gags").
This Wednesday, February 9, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Best (?) of Jackass. At the turn of the century, a new reality show emerged on American MTV. It featured a bunch of guys doing dangerous stunts that tested their strength, endurance, resiliency, and their gag reflex. Though it only lasted three seasons and 25 episodes, Jackass had long coattails and has become a certifiable brand, and it's latest chapter is now in theatres. Before we talk about that though, we're going to look at Peter's favourite bits.
REVIEW: Jackass Forever (2022). More than two decades after they first got together to test the limits of flesh and good taste, much of the Jackass gang, and some very brave newcomers, have gotten together to relive glory days and push themselves through all manner of stunts, both punishing and disgusting. It's no secret that the current movie business is obsessed with franchises, but Jackass?! Last weekend's box office winner fits the trend, but what does the success of Jackass tells us about life in 2022? Is Jackass the answer we're been looking for?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Canadaland once said of Kurt Phillips that he was hunting Nazis online before it was cool. Experts in online hate like Phillips have been very busy lately following the developments of the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa, which has now launched several branch convoy protests, including the most recent one on the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor. How did it get this far?
For the people covering Canada's far-right the last couple of years, recent events are not that surprising. People angry about COVID-19 restrictions often become the willing pawns of neo-Nazis, Proud Boys, antisemites, and other far-right groups who see disaffection with the government as a gateway to their hateful ideology. If you see what’s happening in Ottawa and think it's a bunch of ill-informed yahoos making noise, you’re only partially right.
No one knows that better than Phillips, who has been scouring the dark corners of the internet uncovering the Nazis and other far-right hate mongers since 2007. He was the founder and former lead writer for Anti-Racism Canada and he’s currently a board member of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, but when he’s not working humbly as a history and social sciences teacher in Alberta, he’s still a keyboard warrior exposing Canada’s far-right.
Phillips joins us this week to offer his analysis of what we are seeing in Ottawa and beyond. He will talk about how we got here, and why we should not be surprised about current events. He will also talk about some of the marquee players in the movement, and how you can tell the grifters from the true believers. And finally, he will discuss what happens next, and whether the mainstream media is up to the task of understanding what the convoy is really about and who’s driving it (pun intended).
So let's compare notes about Canada's far-right politics on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can follow Kurt Phillips @ARCCollective on Twitter to get up-to-date coverage and insight about the Freedom Convoy from his unique perspective. You can also see insight and analysis about Canada’s far-right movement at the Canadian Anti-Hate Network. Another good resource is Friend of the Politicast Dan Collen, who’s actually on the ground in Ottawa, and you can find his reporting @SpinelessL on Twitter.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're occupying the airwaves starting at 5 pm, but we promise to give them up at 6 pm. Unlike some people, we know how to not wear out our welcome, but we also known Nazis are bad. We're going to talk about you-know-what in Ottawa, and the surprisingly fast and destructive effect on the Conservative Party, plus we'll have an interview with a provincial party leader.
This Thursday, February 3, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
You Nazi-n Seen the Last of Us. A weekend of protest turned into a week of protests not just in Ottawa, but on the border in Coutts, AB where people claiming to be fighting for truckers are doing them harm with delays. There were Nazi symbols, the desecration of national monuments, stealing food from homeless people, and lots of threats of death and rape for those following the rules. How did it come to this?
O'Toole of Denial. While the protestors came to Ottawa for the resignation of Justin Trudeau, it looks like they will have to settle for Erin O'Toole instead. The Conservative leader's support seemed to completely collapse in caucus after he (reluctantly?) met with members of the Freedom Convoy, displeasing the hard right and disappointing the centre. Is the real political winner this past weekend PM Trudeau?
Something to Drew On. There was another protest this past weekend in downtown Toronto that got significantly less attention, a protest against a war between the West and Russia over the Ukraine. Communist Party of Ontario leader Drew Garvie was there, and this week the reformed Guelphite will talk about the stakes of this spring's provincial election, pandemic changes to society, and why peace is not just a Federal issue.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we don't talk about Bruno. It's like Fight Club, but in this case it's a guy in a new movie. If you get it, you already know, because there's a famous song about Bruno, and it's from the new movie Encanto. We're reviewing it this week. and before that, we will talk about some other animated movies worth checking out on the internet.
This Wednesday, February 2, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Drawn Together. In 1937, the first feature length animated movie was released. Now, 85 years later, there have been many different animated movies, and some of them end up being more popular than others. So before this week's feature review, we will talk about some of those. From a search for treasure to a superhero send-up, and from a trip to New Orleans to a trip to the distant future, we will talk about some underappreciated animated movies.
REVIEW: Encanto (2021). In their 60th feature length animated film, Disney goes somewhere they've never done before: South America. In Encanto, we meet the Madrigal family, a close knit, multi-generational clan living in an idyllic village. Each member of the Madrigal family has a special power except for Mirabel, who's trying to come to terms with her life as the non-special Madrigal, but is she about to get a chance to prove herself? If you've ever seen a Disney movie before, then you already know that the answer is yes!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This month, there are Winter Pride events in Guelph, and Pride events are all about promoting visibility and acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community. But while the Pride movement’s come a long way, there’s still a long way to go for complete equality. Consider healthcare. We like to think our healthcare system in Canada is barrier-free here, but the barriers for trans people can be immense.
According to a report from TransPulse Canada last summer, 1-in-3 non-binary people said that their primary healthcare provider had no knowledge about trans or non-binary health needs. On top of that, 1-in-4 reported that they do not have access to in-person spaces specifically for non-binary people, only 47 per cent said they were comfortable discussing non-binary health concerns with their doctor, and 59 per cent said they were misgendered daily. And that's just the beginning of the struggle.
It’s one of the reasons why New Democrat MPP Suze Morrison brought forward a private members bill called the Gender Affirming Healthcare Advisory Committee Act to Queen's Park. It directs the Minister of Health to create an advisory committee to review gender-affirming healthcare in Ontario, and come up with a list of recommendations to improve access and coverage for trans people. It's in committee now after passing unanimously at second reading, but time's running out because of the pending election.
This week, we're joined by Fae Johnstone, executive director of Wisdom2Action, to talk about the gaps in health coverage for trans people in Ontario, and why they need Bill 17 to become law now. Johnstone will talk about the specific barriers to healthcare that trans people are facing, and the places in Canada doing trans healthcare better than Ontario. They will also discuss the economic barriers to healthcare that many trans people face, and whether there’s such a thing as systemic transphobia in healthcare.
So let's dig into how we can do trans healthcare better in this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Bill 17, the Gender Affirming Health Care Advisory Committee Act, is presently in committee at the Ontario Legislature. You can learn more about Johnstone’s organization Wisdom2Action by clicking here. You can also see the bi-annual updates the health and well-being amoung non-binary people by visiting the TransPulse Canada 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're talking about international matters, and then we will bring things back to the local. First, we will look abroad at a pair of growing crises in Ukraine and Afghanistan and the fallout of a future war and a past one respectively. In the back half of the show, we will have an interview with one of Guelph's Ward 2 city councillors about the month that's passed and the year that's ahead.
This Thursday, January 27, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Vlad the Invader. Since we last talked about the military build up on the Ukrainian border, things seem to have only gotten worse. American forces are now on high alert, European powers are sabre-rattling, diplomat's families are now being withdrawn from Kyiv, and Vladimir Putin shows no sign that he's going to de-escalate the situation. So is a war for Ukraine inevitable at this point?
Another Predictable Humanitarian Crisis. Meanwhile, a little to the east, things are also getting worse in Afghanistan. There's a humanitarian crisis due to unrelenting poverty under the Taliban, and the wide-spread possibility of starvation putting pressure on the people of Afghanistan, and all while the Taliban are up to old tricks limiting women's rights, stopping their education, and telling them what to wear. What can be done?
Do Not Pass Rodrigo! Our first guest from Guelph city council for 2022 is Ward 2's Rodrigo Goller. It's been a surprisingly busy month at city council so far, and we will ask Councillor Goller about the passing of the Transportation Master Plan, whether he will back Mayor Cam Guthrie's motion to oppose Quebec's Bill 21, what he's looking forward to this year, and yes, whether or not he intends to stand for re-election.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we've got a lot things going on. The movie choice this week, The House on Netflix, combines three different stories under one banner, so we're basically doing three movies in one. And speaking of movies that have more than one movie, we're going to run down a list of other movies that have several different movies in them.
This Wednesday, January 26, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
A Segment in 6 Parts. This week's pick is an anthology, which is kind of a rarity in the movie business; a movie that's made up of different short movies, sometimes with a different director for each segment. Before we get into The House, we will talk about some of the other anthologies you can find across the streaming sites, from stories about love in Paris, to Halloween tales, and several fun conversations around coffee and cigarettes.
REVIEW: The House (2022). This is a movie with three different stories about the same house, lovingly crafted in the nearly lost art of stop motion animation. London's Nexus Studios produced The House, which contains three tales that span different styles, different time periods, and different anthropomorphized animals or humans. Featuring the voice talents of Matthew Goode, Helena Bonham Carter, Mia Goth, and Jarvis Cocker, The House can be spooky, it can be funny, and it can be strange, but is the movie any good? We'll see.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Think about this for a second: Where can you go in Guelph if you want to use your French language skills? Seriously. This is a bilingual country, and unless you have friends or family that speak French or live in an area with a lot of French speakers, where do you go, and who do you talk to, if you want to speak French? That maybe about to change.
Thomas Gallezot is originally from France but he's made his home in Canada, first in Toronto, but more recently in Guelph, which are two places not exactly notable for their local French culture. Of course, there are francophone people in the Royal City, but where can you go to hang out with other French people? For that matter, where can you go to flex those French language skills you spent so much time honing in school? Gallezot had a similar thought.
There are actually a lot of different French houses in Canada, including one in Ottawa, where you think it would be easy to find French speakers since Quebec is literally just across the river. La maison de la francophonie d'Ottawa is a cultural centre with sports and rec activities, health services, cultural events, language courses, childcare, employment help, and services for newcomers, which all sounds pretty good, right? So what would it take to create a maison de la francophonie in Guelph?
The person best suited to answer those questions is Thomas Gallezot, and he will talk about coming to Canada, and whether he was surprised by the lack of French facilities here. He will also discuss what a French house in Guelph might look like, and how it’s essentially about tearing down walls between Canada’s two solitudes. And finally, Gallezot will discuss the potential fundraising avenues, how the old Drill Hall might make a nice location, and what he hopes to get out of the project personally.
So let's talk about speaking French on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
If you want to help out with the cause of getting Une maison de la francophonie à Guelph, or if you want to learn more about the mission, you can go to the Facebook page set up for the project and join.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's a "Blue Thursday" and we will tackle all kinds of issues making the rounds in what might be the saddest week of the year. Back to School was messed up by a snow day, and then we will memorialize a Canadian political legend who passed away last weekend. In the back half of the show, we will cover some sports news (?), and then we will take a frightening look at the immediate future.
This Thursday, January 20, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Backtrack to School. Monday's re-opening of schools in Ontario and Quebec was delayed by a snow day, or two, but otherwise things proceeded exactly as predicted: messily. After spending Monday playing Mr. Plow, Premier Doug Ford started teasing good news for Ontario businesses on Tuesday, even though the Chief Medical Officer of Health kind of hedge the good news pledge on Wednesday. So what happens next?
Bye Alexa. When Alex McDonough went to the Nova Scotia Legislature as an MLA for Halifax and the provincial leader of the NDP, there was no women's washroom for female representatives, because at the time, 1980, she was the only woman serving in the Legislature. That's one of the glass ceilings McDonough broke through in her political career, and this week we will remember her, and talk about her legacy.
Sports Uncentred. Actual tennis was overshadowed this week by the drama around one tennis player. Novak Djokovic says he didn't want to become a anti-vaccine celebrity, but his attempts to evade Australia's rules about being vaccinated to gain entry has made him one. We will talk about that, and we will also talk about the coming potential (and likely) disaster of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing next month.
How Deep is This Rally? This weekend, there will be several Freedom Rally demonstrations across Canada. People who are anti-mask, anti-vax, and anti-lockdown will be gathering in Guelph, Waterloo, Ottawa and all points in between, to air grievances and spread more misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories about the pandemic. So is this getting enough coverage in the media, and how should we cover it?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, something wicked this way comes. Because call it "The Tragedy of the Scottish Play" doesn't really sound right, we will break form and say this week, we're reviewing the new Shakespeare movie, The Tragedy of MacBeth. Before that, we will talk about other Shakespeare movies and try to limit the available options to just five or six.
This Wednesday, January 19, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Play's [Adaptation] is the Thing. It's hard to think if there's been an author more adapted for cinema than William Shakespeare; in fact, the first adaption of one of his works is believed to be the four-minute King John, filmed on stage in London in 1899. Before getting into this week's review, we will look back at some of the other Shakespeare adaptations that you can stream now around the internet, including the ones that don't scream, "English Lit class"
REVIEW: The Tragedy of MacBeth (2021). MacBeth has been adapted, and re-adapted, on stage and screen for decades, including a very recent, much-seen version by Australian director Justin Kurzel. This version though comes from one of the Coen Brothers, and it stars acting titans Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, so you know this might deliver something new and special, and perhaps something never seen in any version of "The Scottish Play" before. So was Joel Coen able to make much ado about something with Shakespeare instead of brother Ethan?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
As of January 1, 10C Shared Space took over the management of the Guelph Farmers' Market. The goal is simple: turn an underperforming asset that’s only open five hours a week into a new economic hub and accelerator that ties together food security, sustainability, local markets, and opportunity development. Getting there is an ideal challenge for Guelph’s community changemaker.
According to the Farmers’ Market website, the property was home to Guelph’s first building, which was a market house, a central place where area farmers could sell their produce and goods. Essentially, this is was the beginning of downtown Guelph, and while the market house didn’t last, the area that became Market Square became a centre of local commerce by the middle of the 19th century.
Fast forward to last November when city council approved a plan for 10C to take over management of the market. It’s hard to think of a better partner to run the market, and 10C’s plan includes more hours, different vendors like a weekly arts and crafts market, culinary events to promote food tourism and education, and a common community space that can be used for a variety of different events. It’s a bold plan, so how does it begin?
10C co-founder and executive director Julia Grady joins us on this edition of the podcast to talk about why 10C is a good match for the Farmers’ Market, and what some of the plans are for the space. She will also discuss the importance of a thriving Farmers’ Market to downtown Guelph, and the mandate to create a profitable market in the next five years. And finally, she will talk about how the pandemic has changed the market, and when people might start to see some of the changes 10C is initiating.
So let's talk about the Farmers' Market of the future on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about 10C, go to their website here, and to learn more about the Guelph Farmers’ Market, including a list of vendors and the current capacity limits, click here. To find out more about the potential changes coming to the Farmers’ Market, check out the highlights from November’s Committee of the Whole meeting 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we will demonstrate for some under-reported news stories. For instance, are we putting too much on the back of the vaccine hesitancy movement, and why haven't we heard more about the far-right contenders in this year's provincial election? Speaking of the coming vote, our guest this week is one of the candidates in Guelph, and she has a lot of healthcare expertise.
This Thursday, January 13, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Med of the Class. The Omicron wave of the pandemic has replaced feelings of togetherness and fortitude with feelings of resentment and bitterness, and a lot of that is directed at people who are not vaccinated yet. But are all these people making a political stand? How many are facing barriers to the vaccine that have nothing to do with being an "anti-vaxxer"? We'll talk about the role of class in this pandemic.
All the Right's Moves. Ontarians will be going to the polls this year, and while there's always some vote-splitting on the left-hand side of the spectrum, this year will be marked with new options on the right. For the 2022 election, there will be a number of far-right challengers to the PCs, and they're being led by some of our favourite anti-vax/anti-mask/anti-lockdown politicians. We'll talk about the new contenders.
Raechelle! Raechelle! Speaking of the coming election, we will have one of the local contenders on this week's show. Raechelle Devereaux is the CEO of the Guelph Community Health Centre, so she's a busy woman already, but now she's the Liberal Party of Ontario candidate for Guelph. Devereaux will talk about her pandemic experience working in local public health, and why she wants to help Ontario do better as Guelph's next MPP.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we unofficially kick off the new year by getting into some new movie reviews. Our pick this week hails from Mexico, but it has some surprisingly familiar themes if you're a big fan of stories about teenage romance. Speaking of teenage-based drama, let's just say this week's show is a boon if you're looking for something to watch in that genre!
This Wednesday, January 12, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Naught Another Teen Movie. Before we dive into this week's movie, which is a teen romance melodrama on Netflix, we will spend the first part of this week's show talking about other teen drama you can find on various streamers. From a gender-switch take on a turn of a century classic to a west coast answer to Degrassi High, from a franchise we've visited before on this show to the seedy underbelly of Palm Springs (?), we're teen crazy this week.
REVIEW: Anonymously Yours (2021). You ever get a text from someone you don't know who thinks they're texting with someone else? Did it ever end with you finding true love? Well this is the movie for you! Two Mexican teens - Vale and Alex - are you're average, everyday high school seniors both anticipating and dreading the end of school, but then a case of mistaken textual identity brings them into each other's orbit. Will Vale and Alex figure out that they're secretly texting each other while also falling in love IRL? What do you think, and what do we think?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
With all things COVID back on the front burner, it’s easy to temporarily forget everything that happened in the last few years around fighting systemic racism and embracing social justice. The City of Guelph is trying to make progress towards a more equitable and representative system seriously, but let’s ask the person who knows best: Is the City of Guelph making real progress on tackling issues of systemic racism?
This week, we talk to Sara Sayyed, the senior advisor of Equity, Anti-Racism and Indigenous Initiatives at the City of Guelph. Her job is to look at ways to dismantle systemic racism and promote racial equity in all manners of City business from policy, to planning, to the delivery services. No one wants to think that they’re a participant in a racist system, but understanding how our systems might influence society's lack of equity is an important step forward.
For a job this big, you need someone plugged into the community, someone like Sara Sayyed. She's been the community services director of the Guelph Muslim Society, and she’s served on a number of local boards including the Guelph General Hospital Board, and the Guelph Community Foundation. She’s had her finger in a lot of proverbial pies, which is why she was able to hit the ground running since being hired by the City of Guelph last summer.
Now, Sayyed joins us on the podcast to talk about what systemic racism looks like in Guelph, and whether the City of Guelph is keeping up with the pace of demand for change. Then, she discusses the 2022 Municipal Election and getting more People of Colour into local politics and running for local office. Sayyed also talks about issues of trust, the importance of having uncomfortable conversations, and how she's made the transition from being a community activist to being part of the proverbial machine.
So let's talk about the mission to end systemic racism on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can see the latest corporate update on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the November 26 council information report, and the next update will be coming up this June. The City is also in the process of updating the Community Plan to include a community standard for the elimination of systemic racism, and you can follow along with updates 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're back after a holiday break. Did we miss anything? I know, we'll tell you. Let's see, we took a sudden U-turn back to lockdown this week in Ontario, but we did make some some progress on Truth and Reconciliation. On the other hand, it's the first anniversary of that time a bunch of people tried to overthrow America for a game show host, and has anyone heard from Putin lately?
This Thursday, January 6, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Ford Have Mercy. Well, he said it wasn't going to happen again, but what a difference a couple of weeks make. On Monday, after being largely missing for nearly three weeks, Premier Doug Ford announced a soft and time limited lockdown for Ontario to make it through the Omicron surge. So was it the right call, and could have any of this been avoided if there had been some different leadership at Queen's Park?
Care Tactics. On Tuesday, the Federal government announced that they had reached a deal with Canada's First Nations people to provide compensation for the inadequacies of the childcare system. The deal was a bit more generous than the one originally mandated in the original human rights challenge. So why did the government work so hard to avoid paying the original tab if they ended up paying more?
The 6th. Exactly one week ago today, a mob of over 3,000 people invaded Capitol Hill in Washington in the name of an alternative reality where Donald Trump had won a stolen election and they were going to "fight like hell" to get their country back. But looking back 365 days later we see that the danger has not passed, and that this coup was likely a dress rehearsal for the next. We'll ask again: Can America be saved?
Ukraine, You Saw, You Conquered? Half a world away, the man that Trump admires the most, Russian President Vladimir Putin, is looking like he's going to unleash his military might on the Ukraine. Almost eight years after seizing the Crimea, Putin's forces have descended on the Ukrainian border, so is he getting ready to invade, and if he's not, just what the heck is he doing and what does he hope to get out of it?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we welcome you to the new year. Technically, we're still on a little post-holiday break, but this is also still technically a new episode of the show. So start off 2022 with a new/old journey through the decades and adventures of Britain's greatest super spy, from Dr. No to No Time to Die, this week is the perfect time to catch up with the 007. It's a licence to thrill!
This Wednesday, January 5, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Bond. James Bond Movies. This year is the 60th birthday of James Bond, the movie version anyway. By coincidence, the most recent Bond adventure has hit home video and video on demand, and in the lead up to its theatrical release last fall, End Credits ran a ranking of the first 24 Bond movies. So for our first show of 2022, we will not only run the complete ranking of the first two-dozen Bond movies, we will also have a brief review of the latest hit No Time to Die. This week's episode comes complete with some James Bond musical cues, so get ready to be shaken, and stirred.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
City council gets back to business next week, but before we open the book on 2022 we need to sign off on what happened in 2021. Picking up where we left off in episode #286 of the Guelph Politicast, and the last meeting of council before summer break, we start in September and follow the blow-by-blow of every fight around the horseshoe. There were even some non-fights.
What will the last four months of 2021 be known for? There was a big decision to invest millions of dollars in new transit services over the next decade, which was really great. Council also reaffirmed its commitment to fighting climate change with 10 recommendations to accelerate the Race to Zero, and they passed the draft update to the Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw as well as the draft secondary plan for Clair-Maltby.
But there was a dark side too. Some of the debates around the 2022-2023 Guelph Budget were pretty contentious. There was a call to review the governance of the Downtown Business Improvement Area, but a lot of the debate seemed to be built around misunderstandings. Speaking of misunderstandings, there was a solid week there in October where council was stuck on the demolition of an old farmhouse.
So this week on the podcast, the first of 2022, we will dive into the last four months of city council and take you through them meeting by meeting, subject by subject, touching on all decisions from the major to the minor. From an optimistic view of the pandemic landscape in the late summer, to being confronted with the pessimism of Guelph's young people when it comes to climate change, these were the last moves around the virtual horseshoe in 2021.
So let's recap September, October, November and December at city council on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can check out the previews, recaps, and post-views for all of last year’s council meetings under the city council tab, and you can also get Politico’s city council post-views sent directly to your inbox by subscribing to the Tip Sheet. The next meeting of city council is the Committee of the Whole on Monday January 10 at 2 pm, and you can click here to see the preview of the meeting.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we will leave behind a year that introduced us to this guy, the Q Shaman, who broke into the U.S. Capitol with a few thousand of his friends, and then complained about not getting served organic food while in prison post-break-in. The Q Shaman was the mascot for an otherwise terrible 52 weeks of high-octane political and pandemic drama. As usual, we end the year with some awards.
This Thursday, December 30, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Worst Politician of 2021. Sadly, the number of candidates for this category were overwhelming this year. Sadly, we don't have Donald Trump to kick around anymore, but he's left an awful lot of bad actors in his wake to take up the cause. But don't think we're any better up here in Canada, because we've got a lot of duds on this side of the border too. From pandemic inaction to bad messaging, who is the worst of the worst in 2021?
Good News Story of the Year. You may be surprised to learn that there was good news in 2021. There were some diamonds in the rough, even though that roughness was very extra this year, but we did the hard work to dig deep and find that good news we so desperately need. For the most part, it's about people. The ones whose hard work and perseverance gave us hope, and reminded us that we can still do great things.
Dumpster Fire of the Year. Like the Worst Politician of the Year, this category offered an embarrassment of riches, emphasis on the "embarrassment." From the deluge of anti-lockdown/ant-mask/anti-COVID political action, to an election that no one wanted and fewer seemed to care about, to that mess in the U.S. Capitol on January 6 that now half the country wants ignore. We're going to need a bigger dumpster!
Best Politician of 2021. Yes, the arc of the universe bent towards awfulness this year, but all that darkness did make the few candidates that shine appear brighter in comparison. As usual, we will end the year end awards show by highlighting the ones who are doing good works, and usually not making a lot of noise about it, but as we enter 2022, we will note again for the record that "Politician" is not always a four-letter word.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits is the last week of the year, and you know what that means... New Year's Party!!! For our show, the party takes the form of a list, a Best Movies of the Year list. Once again, the whole gang has come together with their carefully considered lists, and as a group we will all reveal the nearly 20 movies that sum up the cinematic story of 2021.
This Wednesday, December 29, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Best of 2021. It's the most wonderful time of the year, the week after Christmas when we release out Top 5 lists for what we think are the best movies released in the last 12 months. This year's line-up offers a diverse slate of some excellent musicals, plus an epic journey across the desert for a space chosen one. There's also a weird gender-bending French horror movie, and a weird genre-bending tribute to the lost art of magazine writing. But wait, there's also some powerful dramas, and at least one tale about a stolen pig. Spider-men? Maybe next year.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This is the last episode of the podcast for 2021, and in the spirit of the season we’re going to access our memories from the last 12 months. This was a long hard year, nothing went the way it was supposed to, and it threw a lot of roadblocks in our way, but now, at the end of the year, we will take stock of all that’s happened, and how it might affect us in the new year.
Where do we begin talking about the news in 2021, and what’s the number one story of the past year? Is there anyway that it isn’t COVID-19? Guelph may be one of the most vaccinated communities in the country, but we've been feeling the heat from a new COVID variant these last few weeks and we’re ending the year with the same feeling that we had at the beginning of the year: Will this ever be over?
But the pandemic was not the only story this year. Social justice issues were still in the news with multiple marches in the summer. There was also a Federal Election this year, not that it changed much of anything. Housing was a big issue, we finally sold the Guelph Innovation District lands, and then there was that one-week period where Guelph City Council couldn’t decide if they actually approved the action they thought they did.
Richard Vivian, the city hall reporter at Guelph Today, joins us this week to review this year of Guelph Stuff. We will discuss what the number one news story of the year is, and how we practically come full circle in fighting COVID. We will also talk about what’s coming in the new year, including election talk and whether, at this point, Cam Guthrie is mayor for life. And finally, we will remember some of the local political leaders we lost in 2021, and if we have any new year’s resolutions.
So let's talk about a year in Guelph Stuff on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can check out Richard Vivians' news and politics coverage over on GuelphToday.com, and you can check out some year end insights here on Guelph Politico, and in this past Saturday’s Market Squared column on Guelph Today as well.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's the most wonderful time of the year... Time for our year end specials!! As our Christmas gift to you, we're sharing our annual political movie picks in the seventh annual round of this not-festive, but definitely fun holiday tradition. This year's slate features a probing documentary, two true-life stories, and a silly drama that thinks it's a serious social commentary. Hang up your stockings, and then sit back with some hot coco as we talk about the movies. And politics.
This Thursday, December 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Adam's Pick #1: Falling Down (1993). "A middle-aged man dealing with both unemployment and divorce, William Foster is having a bad day. When his car breaks down on a Los Angeles highway, he leaves his vehicle and begins a trek across the city to attend his daughter's birthday party. As he makes his way through the urban landscape, William's frustration and bitterness become more evident, resulting in violent encounters with various people, including a vengeful gang and a dutiful veteran cop."
Scotty's Pick #1: On the Basis of Sex (2018). "Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a struggling attorney and new mother who faces adversity and numerous obstacles in her fight for equal rights. When Ruth takes on a groundbreaking tax case with her husband, attorney Martin Ginsburg, she knows it could change the direction of her career and the way the courts view gender discrimination."
Adam's Pick #2: White Squall (1996). "In 1960, a hardy group of prep school students boards an old-fashioned sailing ship. With Capt. Christopher Sheldon at the helm, the oceangoing voyage is intended to teach the boys fortitude and discipline. But the youthful crew -- among them confident Chuck Gieg, timid Gil Martin and self-satisfied Frank Beaumont - are about to get some unexpected instruction in survival when they get caught in the clutches of a white squall storm."
Scotty's Pick #2: What is Democracy? (2018). "This reflection on democracy spans millennia and continents, from ancient Athens' groundbreaking experiment in self-government to capitalism's roots in medieval Italy, and from modern-day Greece grappling the with its financial collapse and mounting refugee crisis to the United States reckoning with its past and the growing gap between rich and poor."
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
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 22, 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.
In less than two weeks, we enter the year 2022, and that’s an election year in Ontario. In the spring, Premier Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives will aim to make a case that they should be re-elected for a second term, but the knives will almost certainly be out for them. But what about the one Green MPP in the legislature? What kind of year will 2022 be for him?
Three-and-a-half years ago, Mike Schreiner made history winning a remarkable 46 per cent stake of the vote and becoming the first sitting member of the Green Party in the Ontario Legislature. Some saw it as a sign of the Green Party’s growing relevance in Canada’s political picture; others saw Guelph voters sending a caucus of one to the provincial parliament, but even the most cynical would have a tough time saying that Schreiner hasn't been effective.
Re-election though many not be easy. The Liberals have been seriously rebuilding themselves for the last few years to be back in fighting shape, and the NDP will be looking to breakthrough and seize government power for the first time since 1995. Meanwhile, the PCs will be playing defense, but Ford himself has made repeated visits to Guelph this year, and has said out loud that he thinks he can win Guelph in 2022. In a way, this is going to be a tougher election for Schreiner than 2018.
On this holiday edition of the podcast, Schreiner will talk about this term at the Ontario Legislature, and whether he thinks that he’s silenced the doubters who thought one person couldn’t make a difference at Queen’s Park. He will also talk about how the pandemic changed things politically, and the unique challenges of running for re-election next year, plus the weight of expectations to create a bigger footprint for the Greens in the legislature. And does Schreiner have any regrets this Christmas?
So let's have a nice holiday visit with Guelph's MPP on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can find Mike Schreiner’s constituency website here, and you can learn more about Green Party policy and direction here. He is also active on social media, and you can find him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Bookmark this for later, but the Ontario Provincial Election will happen on or before Thursday June 2, 2022.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're concerned with a matter of mayors. In our interview segment this week, we will talk to Guelph's Mayor for a year-end chat, and before that we will talk about the passing of another mayor, one of Toronto's most historic and colourful. Before that, we will cover a little philosophical ground by asking if the time has come for Canada to seek a trial separation from the U.S.
This Thursday, December 16, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Yankee Doodle Cranky. Human rights advocate and Green Party leadership runner-up Dimitri Lascaris published an op-ed suggesting that the time has come to undo Canada's long-standing, multifaceted relationship with the U.S. Why? America's slide into authoritarianism, their refusal to enact democratic reforms, and they're unwillingness to pass policy in the greater public interest (like gun control). Do we agree?
Nooobody! He was the founder of a chain of furniture stores built with great advertising and a memorable tag line, he was the long-running mayor of North York, he was the first mayor of the "Mega City" Toronto, and he famously called the army to deal with a snow storm that one time. On the occasion of Mel Lastman's passing, we will dig deep into Mega City Mel's legacy and look at how his mayoralty still influences today.
Cam As You Are. It's the end of another busy year at city council, so we invited Mayor Cam Guthrie on the show for a little year-in-review, and a little where-are-we-going-next. Mayor Guthrie will cover with us a variety of topics from the COVID-19 state of emergency, in-person council meetings, this year's budget, downtown drama, expanding autonomy for cities, and how he deals with online conspiracy theorists.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're getting ready for the holidays, and to kick things off we're going to review a movie where the main character is a thoroughly reprehensible cowboy that psychologically tortures his family. For this episode we will check out The Power of the Dog, and before that, we will talk about the year's Top 10 pop culture news stories according to us.
This Wednesday, December 15, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
News of the Whirled. It was a busy year for Hollywood, so we will look at some of the biggest pop culture stories in 2021. There were a lot of potential nominees for our Top 10 stores including how Knives Out is now a major franchise. Also, Hollywood narrowly avoided their biggest strike in decades, and a Marvel superhero decided to sue her business daddy. We'll likely talk about some of that, plus is Armie Hammer a cannibal?
REVIEW: The Power of the Dog (2021). In one of the most acclaimed movies of the year, Benedict Cumberbatch plays a Montana rancher in the 1920s whose gruff and unlikeable demeanour casts a long shadow over his new sister-in-law and her teenage son. Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee round out the cast in Jane Campion's beautifully realized dark drama that will test your conventions about who the bad guy is and why, and we will try and convince you to watch what might be the feel-bad movie of 2021.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
One of the first episodes of the Politicast this year was a conversation with Councillor Leanne Caron about heritage issues in the City. It would kick- off a year with a lot of heritage issues on making the front page, from discussion about inadequate communications to the controversy around the demolition of 797 Victoria Road North. So the year ends how it began, with a discussion about Guelph’s heritage issues.
Here in Guelph, we really love our heritage buildings. It’s an interesting character quirk, perhaps born in the 1960s when a big portions of the historic downtown was torn down and replaced with modern buildings. Heritage loving Guelphites are always worried about history repeating itself, and there are many heritage buildings falling into disrepair due to “demolition by neglect.” That concern was a recurring theme this year.
But there was also some good heritage news in 2021. The Drill Hall downtown is in the process of being reclaimed, the Cultural Heritage Action Plan was passed by city council despite some controversy, and the old Ontario Reformatory property was endorsed as a potential heritage district with the backing of the Provincial government. So it was a consequential year for heritage, but how does the head of the heritage committee feel about it?
P. Brian Skerrett, the chair of Heritage Guelph, will join us to answer these and other questions on this week's podcast. Skerrett will talk about how this year has seen a change in the dynamics between his committee and the City staff, and the multiple pressures on local heritage buildings. He will also discuss how neighbourhoods can evolve and change while still protecting heritage assets, and whether Guelph has turned a corner in protecting its own history.
So let's talk about this year in heritage on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can stay on top of the latest meeting information for Heritage Guelph by clicking here, and you can learn more about the City’s heritage plans the City of Guelph website 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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're getting serious. Once again, December 6 was marked by the nation, but are we doing enough to think about gender-based violence everyday? Can we really get China to start changing course by refusing to play winter sports with them? And, because we're also locally sourced, we will take a look at the ledgers at City Hall with someone who knows them very well.
This Thursday, December 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
More Than One Day a Year. On the same week we marked the 32nd anniversary of Canada's deadliest instance of gender-based violence at L'École Polytechnique in Montreal, it's important to note that women live under threat of violence everyday. From a Vancouver woman attacked on vacation in Mexico, to the sad milestone commemorated in Renfrew, ON, we will look at the everyday violence beyond December 6.
The Crying Games. President Joe Biden announced this week that the U.S. will be diplomatically boycotting the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The U.K., Australia and Canada all followed suit, but is it going to prompt China to change it's mind on anti-democratic activities in Hong Kong, or the Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang? We'll talk about that, and whether this will really hit the Olympics and the IOC where it hurts: the wallet.
'22 For the Money. Last week, Guelph city council approved the 2022-2023 budgets. It was a first for the city, a multiyear budget, and it set a levy increase of 4.21 per cent for next year. Not everyone on council voted in favour of it, and we will be joined by one of those 'no' votes his week. Ward 6 Councillor Dominique O'Rourke will join us to talk about the budget process, the result, and the challenges coming in the years to come.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we've got style! We're going to put on our best designer duds and head back out to the movie theatre to watch another Ridley Scott movie. House of Gucci is the review this week, and before that we're going to cross our fingers and look further ahead to the future (well, one-month in the future) and talk about the potential great movies of 2022.
This Wednesday, December 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
On to 2022! Hopefully, next year we will see 12 months of open movie theatres, and there will be some great movies to check out assuming the doors stay open. This week, we will look ahead to the movies of 2022, but not the sequels, re-quels, remakes, franchises, or extended universes. So what does that leave? Well, Elvis is back and so is Jordan Peele, J.Lo's randomly marrying Owen Wilson, Ethan Hawke is evil, and the Moon wants us dead!
REVIEW: House of Gucci (2021). Lady Gaga is a great musician, a style icon, and a pop culture phenom, so it kind of makes sense that she's the star of a movie called House of Gucci. The new film from Sir Ridley Scott is not so much about style as it is about power, money and murder. The true-life tale about how a small boutique Italian fashion house became a mutli-billion dollar brand is paved with blood and betrayal, perfect fodder for the man behind Gladiator, Hannibal and Thelma & Louise, but is it a story worth seeing, especially in theatres?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It’s not often you pick up a copy of the Globe & Mail and see your sister and her family on the front page, but it’s also not everyday that a town somewhere in Ontario almost blows up. Around dinner time on August 26, two buildings in Wheatley’s downtown area exploded. The source, apparently, is a gas leak, but nobody's sure and dozens of residents were relocated for safety. One of them was my sister.
Let's rewind. In June, people in the downtown area of Wheatley had to be evacuated when area businesses detected a whiff of hydrogen sulphide gas, but residents were allowed to go back home even though they didn't find the source of the smell. The process was repeated again late in July when a gas monitor detected another leak, but the hazmat crews said that the source of the gas was “deep within the earth. A thermogenic gas response.”
The monitors went off again on August 26, and 90 minutes later, while in the process of getting people clear of the area, at least two buildings were destroyed, several more were damaged, and people living in the area around the core were evacuated again, but this time, they haven't been allowed to go back. One of them is Stephanie Charbonneau who is a school teacher, mother of two, and a resident of Wheatley, Ontario. She’s also my younger sister.
It’s rare that you have a personal connection to a story like this, so I invited Stephanie to pop onto Zoom with me and talk about Wheatley's problems on this week’s podcast. We talk about what happened before, during and after August 26, and we also talk about the information void, and whether the Wheatley disaster has gotten enough attention. We will also discuss the political reaction to the disaster, and how residents are being proactive to stay informed about when they might be able to go home.
So let's talk about what happened in Wheatley this week on the Guelph Politicast!
The Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry is currently exploring the cause of the explosion, and they will likely be the source of any update about what happened last summer. There is a GoFundMe page raising money for people affected, and for a pretty good tick-tock about what happened in Wheatley, check out this piece by Matthew Trevithick, a reporter for 980 CFPL in London.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're taking a dive into the deep end. We've got a new COVID variant and a lot of unanswered questions, and with that sad news, we're also seeing a new wave of COVID skepticism and conspiracy-making, and it's unfortunately coming from Canada's Queen (?). Also, we will talk to some Guelph royalty, the Ward 2 city councillor and local rock star whose got some important issues to discuss.
This Thursday, December 2, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Omicron My Wayward Son. Late last week, we got the worst possible Christmas present, news about a possible more virulent strain of COVID-19 called Omicron, presumably named for maximum scariness. Doctors are advising patience, we still don't know a lot about Omicron, but the world still took immediate steps to lock out South Africa where the new variant was first identified. We talk about the politics of this pandemic hiccup.
Qaribbean Queen. Speaking of the pandemic, it was received as universal good news when Health Canada approved COVID-19 vaccines for children, but there was one person who hated the idea. Romana Didulo, who claims to be the Queen of Canada and is an adherent of QAnon, called for violence on parents and public health officials, and she's 100 per cent serious. How dangerous is Canada's "Queen"?
The Brawler of Money. As you're listening to this week's show, Guelph City Council will be debating the 2022-2023 budget. No easy task given the pressures that council is facing this year. Ward 2 Councillor James Gordon will join us to talk about those pressures, and he will also discus the motion he's co-sponsoring to move the goal posts on the City's climate change mitigation goals and switch to 100 per cent renewable energy.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're in the mood for love. And Christmas. For a bit of fun, we will look at some of the best offerings from that holiday movie subgenre that combines love and Christmas in one delectable package. After that, we will talk about another feel good movie new to Netflix, a musical about the difficult process to make a musical.
This Wednesday, December 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Deck the Hallmark. The U.S. Hallmark Channel cranks out more Christmas movies in a year than all the movies released by all the major studio combined. Who can survive that much saccharine holiday sweetness? Why our own Candice Lepage, of course! This week, she will walk us through her top five Christmas Hallmark movies, from falling in love while designing Christmas window decor, to falling in love with the brother of your ex's new girlfriend.
REVIEW: Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021). Before writing Rent, Jonathan Larson was a struggling composer and he wrote a one-man performance piece about trying to become a Broadway success before he's 30. Tick, Tick... Boom! is the latest version of that story, brought to the screen by someone who knows something about being a Broadway success, Lin-Manuel Miranda. Andrew Garfield leads an impressive cast of young talent, plus an endless parade of cameos by theatre luminaries, but does the musical fun translate over your Netflix app?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
For the 300th episode of the Guelph Politicast, there were some grand plans afoot. How about a live show?! With special guests!! Each one more surprising than the last! But who would you invite? How live can you be in the nth stage of a global pandemic? What's the difference between a virtual event and just another Zoom meeting anyway? Well then, forget it! For episode #300, Guelph Politico turns the microphone on itself!
As you may or may not be aware, Guelph Politico started as the "Guelph By-Election Blog '08" in the summer of 2008 when there was a Federal by-election and a lot of special (political) guests coming to Guelph. A six-week campaign, became a 12-week campaign when a full general election was called on the last day of campaigning, and the rest, as they say, is history. Thirteen years later, we're now up to the 300th episode of the podcast.
To play a little "This is Your Life" (ask your grandparents), we're joined by Open Sources Guelph co-host Scotty Hertz for this week's show. In fact, Scotty is technically this week's host asking all the tough questions about the humble origins of Politico, it's naturally random evolution over the years, the fate of local media over the last decade, the challenges of covering Guelph, and the dream guest who might appear sometime in the podcast's future.
So let's talk about the Guelph Politicast on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Obviously, stay tuned for more episodes of the Guelph Politicast. Be here for the 600th episode of the show sometime in fall 2027.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're looking cross country, and mostly about environmental stuff. We will head back to British Columbia where talk about Truth and Reconciliation has hit the proverbial fan again, and speaking of things hitting the fan, WE is back in the news too. For the back half of the show, we welcome back our local MPP to talk about the Ontario government's very bad week on the environment file.
This Thursday, November 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Round Up the Usual Suspects. For the third time in three years, the RCMP raided a blockade set up by land defenders in the traditional territory of the Wet'suwet'an arresting, among others, two elders, three legal observers, and two journalists. The police action re-heated the debate at the intersection of Indigenous rights and the abuse of police powers, but is there any appetite to act on either of those issues right now?
Here WE Go Again. A report by CBC's The Fifth Estate has backed up allegations from several people who donated to WE Charities thinking that they were building schools in Africa, but the donations seemed to go to schools that were already built. WE Charities has hit back hard against the press, which is kind of weird because weren't they supposedly out of the charity business last year? We'll talk about the recent developments.
Green Shook. This week, the Ontario Auditor General released a scathing report about the Ford government's commitment to environmental protection and public transparency on matters around the environment. This sounds like a good week to have the Green Party leader of Ontario on the show! We'll talk to Mike Schreiner about the AG report, the fight against Highway #413, and re-introducing his Paris Galt Moraine Bill.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week's episode of End Credits has at least 75 per cent new material. Speaking of that new material, we will review a new and interesting documentary on Netflix about what it takes to be a police officer in Mexico, and it's also a love story. We're going to review the aptly named, A Cop Movie, and we will also walk down memory lane by re-running the series on Aaron Sorkin.
This Wednesday, November 24, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Re-Run the Series: The Films of Aaron Sorkin. We were going to do something else for the first part of the show, but it fell through, so let's revisit one of our Run the Series entries from last year. Next month, Amazon releases Meet the Ricardos, Aaron Sorkin's behind the scenes look at the making of I Love Lucy, so before that happens, we will look again at the films written and/or directed by Sorkin, and we will reconsider how his series should be run.
REVIEW: A Cop Movie (2021). The Mexican Police have long been played in American films and TV as endlessly corrupt and ineffective in the face of uncorruptible hero cops from north of the border, but that can't be the truth, right? Director Alonso Ruizpalacios' new documentary aims to re-frame how we look at police officers in Mexico in a unique mix of interviews, re-creation, and immersion as two actors take on the role of two different police officers, and by doing so they're not only telling the story, they're also living it. So does it work for the audience?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Despite the wealth of healthcare resources in our city, there’s one group that has been dedicated to helping those who have fallen through the cracks for more than three decades now, and their business has continued to boom because of the COVID-19 pandemic. So here, on the eve of this year’s World AIDS Day, we’ll look at how HIV is only where ARCH’s story begins.
We’ve been insanely focused on healthcare for the last 20 months, talking about COVID-19 and its effects, but did you know that ARCH has been doing all sexual health testing and treatment for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph since the start of the pandemic? This is on top of a laundry list of services that ARCH offers including their core mission: Education, outreach, support and clinical services for those living with and affected by HIV/AIDS, and those who are at-risk for HIV.
Under the best of circumstances, ARCH is doing a lot of vital work and they have to find much of that funding for themselves, but in the midst of lockdowns and COVID precautions, much of their normal fundraising activities had to be cancelled. Still, ARCH has persevered, as they have for 31 years, assisting clients in Guelph and Wellington County, plus Dufferin, Grey and Bruce Counties, all thanks to a dedicated staff who cover a wide-range of disciplines and talents.
This week, we’re joined by one of those people, Communications & Fund Development Co-ordinator Sonia Preisler. She will talk about the long list of ARCH’s services, and how the pandemic has changed the way they deliver those services. She will also talk about the little discussed pandemic impact on sexual health, and how it's fallen on ARCH to pick up a lot of the work not covered by other other healthcare orgs. And finally, she will talk about ARCH’s future, and what the significance of World AIDS Day is in the year 2021.
So let's wrap our Countdown to Giving on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Today is the start of AIDS Awareness Week, and to learn more about all the events, the Red Scarf Project, and to interact with any of ARCH’s multitude of services, you can go to their website here. If you want to take part in the in-person 100 Candles event for World AIDS Day, you register to attend on Eventbrite.
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, 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.
Photo: ARCH staff members Mindy and Nic from December 2020 courtesy of ARCH's Facebook Page.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to talk about the disturbing state of politics. On the environment, the world's major climate action conference had only minor action. South of the border, it looks likely that a kid who shot people will get off Scott free while a rightwing troublemaker looks like he might be finally paying the price. Before all that though, look, we have a picture of bipartisan co-operation in 2021!
This Thursday, November 18, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Commons Home. About a month after the formation of a new cabinet, and more than two months after an urgent election, the House of Commons will sit again on Monday with Justin Trudeau coming off a big win reaching a childcare agreement with the Alberta government, and Erin O'Toole now facing a rebellion in the ranks of his own party. So what can we expect when Parliament Hill re-opens for business next week?
Coal Miner's Dither. COP26 has come to an end, and we have a deal to definitively overcome global climate change! that kinda, sorta does something. A lot of the great ambitions about this being a transformative COP went down the drain with no ban on coal and little help for non-wealthy countries to get protection from the worst effects of climate change. Did this COP do anything but create more cynicism?
Have Gun, Will Trial. By the time you're reading this, you may know the fate of Kyle Rittenhouse, an Illinois teen who allegedly shot and killed two people while, for some reason, "assisting" responders during Black Lives Matter protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The trial has been ugly to watch, and people have been making assumptions of the judge's politics and the sincerity of Rittehouse's regret, but what happens after the verdict?
Bag of Jones. Family members of the victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 have won a defamation suit against Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist and internet host who posited that the mass shooting in Connecticut almost 10 years ago was a so-called "false flag." Will paying a literal price for his misinformation force Jones and his acolytes to think twice or is it too late to close Pandora's Box?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're all about the movies. Of course, we're all about the movies every week, but after taking several weeks to talk to some filmmakers, we're going spend our extra time on this episode packing in as much movie talk as possible, and then, for our super-long review this week, we will travel to a fake French town for the equally made up French Dispatch.
This Wednesday, November 17, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
What We've Been Missing. For the last few weeks, we've been covering the Guelph Film Festival, and since we can only review one movie per week, it's really put us behind on the non-stop new releases in theatres and on streaming. Is No Time to Die the right way to end Daniel Craig's Bond tenure? Is The Eternals really Marvel's worst entry so far? And what about Netflix's Red Notice, did it pull a red card? We will talk about about those other movies before...
REVIEW: The French Dispatch (2021). In another forced delay because of the pandemic, the latest Wes Anderson movie has finally been revealed. Like past efforts it features well-known Anderson stringers like Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Willem Dafoe, and also like past Anderson efforts, it's heavily influenced by French cinema and the music of the 1960s. The French Dispatch is a loving salute to the salad days of The New Yorker and when being a journalist was an exotic and influential job, but is Anderson's latest film all that, or just more of the same?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
There are a lot of groups and organizations in Guelph that are dedicated to helping the poor, the homeless and the disenfranchised, but there are maybe only one or two groups that are doing that work without the formal or financial backing of governments, non-profits or institutions. One of them is Your Downtown Guelph Friends, and they're now crowdfunding for assistance, so what makes this group of young people so dedicated?
Your Downtown Guelph Friends helps supply meals to people in need downtown, it helps get them essentials like socks or toothbrushes, it helps raise awareness about the needs of people struggling with economic disparity in Guelph, and. perhaps most importantly, they offer friendship. Your Downtown Guelph Friends is not just a name, it’s a state of being. But it’s also worth noting that Your Downtown Guelph Friends is youth driven.
Kate Nixon, who is the spokesperson and one of the founders of YDGF, was already an experienced high school activist when she helped start the group. She teamed up with other like-minded young people and started giving out sandwiches to people in need on days of the week when the other formal aid agencies downtown weren’t providing a meal. YDGF quickly established itself as not just a helping hand for people in Guelph living in poverty, but an advocate for them too. So what’s driving Nixon and her fellow friends?
Nixon and her colleague Jamie Gibson join us this week to talk about the origins of Your Downtown Guelph Friends, all the things they do, and how they’re different from the more formal agencies and non-profits that help people downtown. They also talk about their efforts to destigmatize the people they’re assisting, and how stigma can lead to criminalization. Also they discuss how the pandemic has changed issues around poverty, and how they’re trying to answer the increase in need through crowdfunding.
So let's talk about your friends, downtown, on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about Your Downtown Guelph Friends, to follow their efforts, or to connect with them about volunteering and donation opportunities, you can look them up on Facebook, and on Instagram. You can also donate to their Patreon.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got some very big things to talk about. Obviously, we always have big things to talk about, but this week, we take a trip into realms more ethereal. Is there a real shift underway giving more power to the workers? Is there really a pandemic of wokeness in the discourse right now? Looking locally though, we're going to talk about something more tangible, the budget.
This Thursday, November 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Living Wage Daylights. There's been a lot written about "Striketober" and "the Great Resignation", but beyond the hype all this points to a potential shift where the power is now with workers. We're seeing that in Ontario with a strike at CAA's southwestern Ontario branches, and the Ford government's approval of an increase to the minimum wage. So are workers finally seeing a shift in their favour or is this a moment in time?
Woke and Dagger. The greatest danger in current western politics is not the slide to authoritarianism, climate change denial, or vaccine hesitancy, it's wokeness. At least, that's how some people see it. While questions about how equality movements may be moving too fast for some people with still old-fashioned thinking, is it really the fault of progressives fighting for social justice that there's a growing right-wing blowback?
The Way Downer. Last week, the City of Guelph released the 2022-2023 budget, the first multi-year budget in the city's history, and a complex document that will struggle to balance the demands of a growing city while being affordable for its people. Questions this big require major expertise, and its hard to find more expertise on this council than Ward 5 Councillor Cathy Downer. She will join us for some more budget talk.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we've got tales to astonish, and they're both real! In the back half of the show, we will review Summer of Soul, a massive music event you've probably never heard of. Before that though, we will talk about another new documentary about someone who may have been one of the greatest Canadian athletes of all time, and you haven't hard of her either.
This Wednesday, November 10, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
INTERVIEW: Julia Morgan, director of Undeniably Young: Nora Young & the Six Day Race. In the 1930s, a Toronto woman named Nora Young proved herself quite the savant when it came to sports, but her ultimate sporting accomplishment was a famous six-day marathon bike race in Maple Leaf Gardens that made American Gladiators look like a game of hopscotch. Former CFRU volunteer Julia Morgan captured Young's story in a new short doc appearing next week at the Guelph Film Festival, and she will talk to us about it for this episode.
REVIEW: Summer of Soul (2021). Speaking of documentaries, our feature review this week will focus on a music and cultural event in the summer of 1969 that shaped history and left a lasting impression on everyone who was there to see it in person. Woodstock? No, think 100 miles to the southeast. The Harlem Cultural Festival was held over six weekends in the Summer of '69, and 40 hours of performances by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone and the 5th Dimension were all captured on film and then lost for five decades. So was it worth the wait?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
We’re picking up where we left off a couple of weeks ago with our countdown to Giving Tuesday, and we’re going to talk to a community group that’s focused on a very specific aspect of environmental protection. Guelph has its share of so-called "tree huggers", but there’s only one group that’s trying to make this a better place for pollinating insects.
When talking about pollinators, most people think of bees, but some species of beetles, flies, moths and butterflies are also pollinating insects. We need pollen for things to grow, and we need insects to help move the pollen, so you can imagine why it was a pretty big deal when scientists started noticing that there weren’t as many pollinating insects as there used to be. In terms of committing to local action, that’s when Pollination Guelph was born.
Pollination Guelph is an incorporated non-profit that’s dedicated to promoting awareness and understanding about pollinators. Their success is kind of easy to see as they’ve helped establish pollinator gardens at Hospice Wellington, Alectra’s Guelph office, and, most notably, the large pollinator garden in Eastview Park. It’s an impressive feat for an all volunteer group co-ordinating their efforts, but like everyone else, COVID-19 has had an impact on their activities and fundraising.
This week, we're joined by Clare Irwin, the Co-Chair of the Pollination Guelph Board of Directors. Irwin takes us through the science of pollination, and how it relates to bigger environmental issues like the fight against climate change. She will also talk about how to create a more general insect-friendly environment, and why not all plants are pollinators and not all gardens are welcoming to pollinators. And finally, she will answer the question about what gardening groups do in the winter months.
So let's talk about helping the pollen flow on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
If you're looking for an opportunity to help out with Pollination Guelph, or if you're looking for resources and advice about planting pollinator gardens, and you can find all that at their website. You can also follow Pollination Guelph on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we think globally and act locally. We will talk about that gathering of world leaders in Scotland trying to solve climate change, or at least that's what they say, and closer to home, the Canadian government is still taking Indigenous people to court. In terms of acting locally, we will talk to the head of Guelph Campaign School about running for something next year.
This Thursday, November 4, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
COP Show. Called the "last best chance" for world leaders to take decisive action on climate change, almost all the power players descended on Glasgow this week for COP26. There were a lot of pretty words inside the conference, but outside there was a lot of skepticism and outright anger as key polluters like Russia and China both took a powder on this COP. So was their progress, or are we still on the march to doomsday?
Fight Court. If the lesson of this most recent election was that the government's not doing enough to support First Nations people, it seems to have been lost on the Federal Liberals. The government is appealing a ruling from an Ottawa court to compensate Indigenous people taken from their homes and families as children, even though the new Indigenous Services minister says she wants a resolution. But seriously, does she?
Rock 'n' Roll Try School. Speaking of elections, there will be a Municipal Election next year, so local advocate are probably thinking about the stakes, their commitment, and the odds if they choose to run. Those decisions are even harder for people from under-represented communities, which is where the Guelph Campaign School is hoping to help out. Teresa McKeeman will join us this week to talk about her efforts.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're being racked with guilt. For the review this week, we're going to watch the new Netflix movie, The Guilty, and all the unexpected timely thoughts it promotes. Before that, we will have another pre-Guelph Film Fest interview with a filmmaker who's trying to wrap her head around another 'G' word emotion, "grief."
This Wednesday, November 3, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
INTERVIEW: Jennifer Abbot, director of The Magnitude of All Things. When filmmaker Jennifer Abbott's sister passed away from cancer, she starting looking for an outlet for her grief, and her thoughts went back to growing up around Georgian Bay. The Magnitude of All Things chronicles Abbott's struggles with personal and planetary loss, and it's screening this week at the Guelph Film Festival, but she joins us here first to talk about the film and her journey.
REVIEW: The Guilty (2021). Jake Gyllenhaal's had a lot of wacky adventures in L.A. as a writer (Nocturnal Animals), as a news videographer (Nightcrawler), and as a cop (End of Watch). Strung out LAPD cop Gyllenhaal returns in The Guilty, which is based on a Danish film of the same name, and follows Gyllenhaal as he awaits his fate for a police involved shooting while answering phones at the 911 call centre, and then he gets the emergency call that changes everything. So will you be guilty of having a good time watching The Guilty?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
We’re about halfway through fall, we’ve overcome the big hurdles like Back to School and Thanksgiving, and the new daily case count both in Guelph and across Ontario remains relatively steady. We’re still giving out vaccines, with a few thousand eligible people left to get their jabs, and then, a few weeks ago, we had our first case of the flu this year. What are we to make of all this? Let's call a doctor!
We’re now more than 19 months into COVID-19 pandemic, and Guelph has outpaced a lot of communities by reaching nearly 91 per cent total vaccination for eligible people, and there were less than three dozen active cases last weekend in the whole region. Pretty much all that’s left to do now is get the young kids vaccinated, which is something that may actually happen soon. Does this mean were can start putting an end date on COVID restrictions?
The future is what all anybody can think about in this surprisingly multifaceted phase of the pandemic. Most people are vaccinated, but is it enough to create herd immunity? We seem to have avoided the worst case scenario for fall, but is that luck, or is it the effectiveness of vaccinations and COVID precautions? Will we see cases shoot up again as the holidays approach like they did last year? And what about the kids? How quick can we start getting them vaccinated?
These questions require medical expertise, so let’s bring on Medical Officer of Health Dr. Nicola Mercer! She will talk about the plan for getting kids vaccinated, and how quickly that might happen once those vaccines are approved. We will also talk about the lessons learned this fall, and what precautions people should be taking as we look to the Christmas and holiday season. And finally, we talk about what to expect from the coming flu season, and why getting back to normal is more complicated than we think.
So let's talk about how we're still COVID, for a while anyway, on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
If you’re listening to this on Wednesday November 3, there is a Board of Health meeting later today. For all things COVID-19, including the pending announcement about vaccines for children under 12, or to learn more about when and how you can get a flu shot, go to the Public Health website, or you can follow them on Twitter.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, the times they are a-changin'. We have a new cabinet for the Federal government, and there were actually a few surprises. We will also talk about how things never really seem to change at the Provincial level, at least on battling COVID. In the back half of the show, we will talk to a Guelph city councillor, who will be looking over a new kind of City of Guelph budget next month.
This Thursday, October 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Shuffle Pieces. More than a month after the very urgent election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finally named his new cabinet. Chrystia Freeland continues her apparent ascendancy to the PMO, Anita Anand gets a new mess to clean up at the Ministry of Defence, and former Greenpeace provocateur Steven Guilbeault is now the Environment Minister. What messages can we take from the cabinet appointments?
Ford of the Flies. It was the best of times, it was the most confusing of times. While the Ontario government did something bold this week by announcing legislation to limit the amount of hours you can be on-call for work, they're lagging on vaccine mandates for health workers, education workers, the nursing shortage, and perhaps an overly optimistic end date for COVID precautions. So what's next at Queen's Park?
Dan with a Plan. Next week, the 2022-2023 Guelph Budget will be released for public consumption. It's the first multi-year budget that the City's every done, and there will be a lot of competing interests and a lot of pressure on keeping things affordable. On top of all that, it's the last budget before the next election. Ward 1 Councillor Dan Gibson will join us this week to preview this year's budget dilemmas.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we've got some big movies. For the review, we're looking at a big space opera that might just demand the big screen treatment if you haven't been back to the theatre yet. Before that, we will talk to the director of an expansive new documentary that touches on matters of social justice, health and welfare that's coming to the Guelph Film Festival.
This Wednesday, October 27, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
INTERVIEW: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, director of Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy. This summer, the demands for action on Truth and Reconciliation with Indigenous peoples reached a fever pitch after the discovery of unmarked graves at residential schools. But what about the living? The Kainai First Nation in Alberta has been hit hard by the overdose crisis, and community leaders have been trying to find innovative ways to help. Actor and director Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers joins us to talk about chronicling those sometimes personal struggles.
REVIEW: Dune (2021). Frank Herbert's science fiction epic has been called unfilmable, but they also once said that you can't make sequel to Blade Runner, and Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve conquered that challenge too. Timothée Chalamet leads a dream cast into the deserts of the far off planet Arrakis, home to the most profitable substance in the universe, spice, which makes interstellar space travel possible. Paul Atreides has a great destiny in front of him, and a potential part two for his story, but is this movie good enough to secure a sequel?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
A group of transit workers and advocates have done the impossible, they’ve put on the table a regional transit plan that doesn't involve Metrolinx, the Ministry of Transportation, or new private carriers. The need for regional connections is more pressing than ever since Greyhound stopped all Canadian service earlier this year, but is that finally about to change?
After Greyhound ceased operations this past summer, several Guelph leaders, including the mayor, wrote a letter to the Minister of Transportation to demand action. Caroline Mulroney wrote back, and her two-page letter could essentially be boiled down to four words: “We’re working on it.” It’s clear that provincial partners will not prioritize the missing transit links in this region, so it’s up to us to find the solutions.
That’s where the Link the Watershed plan comes in. The idea is to combine the efforts of Guelph Transit, Grand River Transit, and Brantford Transit to improve connectivity between the three municipalities. It will create direct links to other transit services, it’s easy to set up, and even without provincial funding, it would cost the three municipalities just $7.5 million per year. So can it be sold to politicians, and, more importantly, the people?
Warren Schnurr, chair of the union and politics committee of Unifor Local 4304, which represents the workers of Grand River Transit, will answer those and other questions. He will talk about the origins of the plan, the hurdles to making it a reality, why it’s been so hard to develop a plan like this, and how big it could get once launched. Plus, he will also discuss the opportunity for provincial funding, the challenges trying to sell this plan to local governments, and what the people can do to help promote it.
Let's talk about acting on regional transit on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can see coverage of the Link the Watershed launch on Guelph Politico. You can also visit the website here, and you can show your support for the plan by spreading the word on social media at Link the Watershed's Twitter page.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got a potpourri. "Potpourri" is the category on Jeopardy! where they've got a lot of great answers that don't fit into other categories, so this week's show is a potpourri as we discuss the Alberta municipal elections, and the murder of another British Member of Parliament. In the back half of the show, we're going to interview a Kitchener man who made history in last month's Federal election.
This Thursday, October 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
La Vie en Wildrose. History was made in Alberta this week with former Liberal cabinet minister Amarjeet Sohi being elected the mayor of Edmonton, and former Calgary city councillor Jyoti Gondek elected as her city's first female mayor. Alberta also had two province-wide referendums on equalization payments and daylight savings time, so there's a lot of political stuff to talk about. What do the results tells us?
David Amess. Southend West MP Sir David Amess was stabbed to death at a constituency event last Friday, and a British citizen of Somali heritage was taken into custody for the crime. The incident brought comparison to the murder of MP Jo Cox just five years ago, and re-ignited a debate about whether U.K. politicians need more security. But where's the fine line between security and access?
A Morrice Line. Kitchener Centre MP-designate Mike Morrice made history last month when he became the first Green Party candidate elected to the House of Commons from Ontario. Morrice will tackle another first this week, appearing on Open Sources Guelph, to talk about the secret to his success, what he's looking forward to doing in the House, and how he's now in prime position to help shape the future of Canada's Greens.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to deal with horrors both real and imagined. On the real side, we'll have another interview with a Guelph Film Festival participant whose film deals with violence against Indigenous people. In terms of the imaginary, we go back to a fictional American town that has been plagued by a masked killer for nearly 50 years for another grisly entry.
This Wednesday, October 20, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
INTERVIEW: Jolene Banning from Spirit to Soar. Journalist Tanya Talaga wrote a book called Seven Fallen Feathers, which was about the mysterious deaths of seven Indigenous students who were found along the river in Thunder Bay. Talaga turned the themes and ideas of her book into a documentary called Spirit to Soar, which is running at this year's Guelph Film Festival. Journalist Jolene Banning did research on the film and produced an accompanying podcast, and she joins us to talk about life in Thunder Bay for Indigenous people.
REVIEW: Halloween Kills (2021). Michael Myers has been haunting Halloween for 43 years and in a dozen movies, and the 13th entry in the Halloween franchise is now in theatres. In this chapter, a direct follow-up to the 2018 Halloween reset, Michael terrorizes again the small Illinois town of Haddonfield, but this time Haddonfield fights back as the townfolk rise up to beat their literal boogeyman. From the same creative team as the 2018 film, Halloween Kills tries to follow up on some of the same themes, but is it a good sequel or is it just another slasher?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Continuing our countdown to Giving Tuesday on November 30 we're putting a spotlight on the North End Harvest Market, which fits nicely under the broad topic of food insecurity. There are many reasons why someone might be food insecure, but it’s fallen to many different small neighbourhood groups in our city to take direct action on it, especially during the pandemic.
According to Guelph Wellbeing, a project meant to find ways to enhance the wellbeing of Guelph residents, 16.4 per cent of Guelph households are food insecure. That’s in line with the Canada-wide statistics that say 15 per cent, or 1-in-7, Canadian households are food insecure. That's on top of the growing increase in food bank use since 2005 so the need for help is overwhelming, which is why many neighbourhood groups now have their own food insecurity remedies.
But food insecurity doesn’t just mean the cost of food, it means the ease of access to food, and how far you have to travel to get fresh meat and produce. In other words, fighting food deserts, and the north east end of Guelph is one of them. The North End Harvest Market has been directly addressing access to fresh food since 2014, and they've been doing great work with small donations, personal gifts and community grants. So what's the secret to their success?
Barb McPhee, the person behind the North End Harvest Market, will tell you all about it on this week's podcast. She will discuss the market's beginnings, how it works, and how many people are helped on a weekly basis with their fresh food. She will also talk about the issues around food deserts, and how the need goes far beyond the Grant Hill area. And finally, McPhee will discuss how the pandemic has changed the way that the market has had to deliver their services, and how you can help out if you would like.
So let's talk about fighting food insecurity on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the North End Harvest Market at its page at the Grange Hill East Neighbourhood Group website, which you can find here. You can also find the market on social media here. Come back next week to hear from another great Guelph non-profit or charity.
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, 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.
Photo courtesy of the North End Harvest Market's Facebook page.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we deal again with some heavy issues without any easy answers. In the medical field, we have hospital laying people off who won't get vaccinated, and in Afghanistan we have people in need but they live under the yoke of some dangerous authoritarians. Meanwhile, here in Guelph, we have a heritage building that was a fire trap. So many issues, and only one hour to cover them.
This Thursday, October 14, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Goodbye Doctor. A number of hospitals, including Guelph General Hospital, may be facing a staffing crunch as vaccine mandates are resulting in staff members being put on mandatory leave for not getting their jabs. How is this possible? How is there vaccine hesitancy among medical professionals? We will talk about that question, and how we balance the need for mandates, and the need to have a functioning staff.
The Humanitarian Factor. For nearly two months now, Afghanistan has been firmly in the hands of the re-entrenched Taliban, but as they've been consolidating their grip on power, the Afghan people have been suffering under an economic crisis with scarce resources, and inflated prices. The world's governments are now working to get Afghanistan that aid, but what about the politics of co-ordinating with the Taliban?
I Caron A Lot. For the last few weeks, there's been a lot of confusion and debate around a heritage property at 797 Victoria Road North. Council decided in a closed session that the building had to be demolished before it was destroyed in fire like other buildings on the property, and that's when things got interesting... and more complicated. Ward 5 Councillor Leanne Caron will join us to talk about all the concerns she still has.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it's going to be a serious (ish) affair. In the first half of the show we're going to go local and talk about the upcoming Guelph-based documentary film festival with one of the featured filmmakers. In the second half of the show, we're going to review a new movie that has a very specific title that is not a hint about what this movie is actually about.
This Wednesday, October 13, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
INTERVIEW: Everett Bumstead, director of One Million Trees. The Guelph Film Festival begins on November 5, so for the next several weeks we will highlight some of the films and filmmakers. We begin by having a conversation with Everett Bumstead, who's film One Million Trees chronicles the characters who make their living planting trees in parts of northern B.C. and Alberta. What kind of people are they, and how did Bumstead get to know them?
REVIEW: The Card Counter (2021). There are a lot of great movies about playing cards, but this is not one of them. That's not to say that the new film from Taxi Driver screenwriter Paul Schrader isn't a good movie, it's just not a movie about playing cards like the name implies. Oscar Isaac plays a former U.S. Army soldier who took the fall for the torture of detainees during the Iraq War. When he meets a kindred spirit, he tries to show the kid a path to the zen-like experience of professional gambling, but can playing cards quell one's desire for revenge?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
We just had Thanksgiving, but we’re now entering a whole season of giving including the November 30 commemoration of Giving Tuesday. That's still about a month-and-a-half away, but for the next several weeks on this podcast we will highlight some of the organizations working locally to give back, and how you, as the generous person you are, might be able to help out.
This week, we go to the Onward Willow neighbourhood, which is one of the most diverse areas of Guelph thanks to the large number of new Canadians that settle in the area. About 20 per cent of households fall below the Low Income Measure, and is often subject to higher levels of unemployment than other areas of the city, but Onward Willow has a built in advantage: the Shelldale Family Gateway, which celebrates 30 years of community service this year.
Established in 1991, Shelldale has had a couple of different names over the years, but the mission has always been the same. It’s a community hub using an integrated services model, which is a fancy way of saying it's a one-stop shop for services a growing and vital community needs including EarlyON childcare programs, summer camps, a breakfast club, and a community garden. The term “essential” comes to mind, which is why the Shelldale Family Gateway is going to start our countdown to giving.
Shelldale's executive director Diana Boal joins us this week to be your gateway to the Shelldale Family Gateway. Boal will talk about the Shelldale she knows, and how its programs help this diverse neighbourhood. She will also talk about the ongoing issues to secure more funding, and what kinds of things that neighbourhood groups can do that other non-profits can’t. And finally, she will discuss the effect of the pandemic on Shelldale programs, and how they’re recovering with some normalcy this fall.
So let's start the countdown to Giving Tuesday on this week’s Guelph Politicast.
You can learn more about the Shelldale Family Gateway, it’s various services and programs, and how you can help out with your time or your resources by visiting their website here. Our “Countdown to Giving” miniseries on the podcast will continue next week with a conversation with Barb McPhee from the North End Harvest Market.
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, 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.
Photo courtesy of Shelldale's Facebook page.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's back to business! Our theme this week is getting back to work, take the Ontario government for instance, they got back to work with the Speech from the Throne, and there was a lot of PR work to do this week at Facebook HQ in the middle of their terrible news week. In the back half of the show, Guelph's MP is going to talk about why he's eager to get back to work in Ottawa.
This Thursday, October 7, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Throne Heads. The Government of Ontario tried to reset things for the fall session (and the 2022 election) with a Speech from the Throne, and it left a lot of people disappointed because the new session sounds very much like the old session. As the Doug Ford government looks ahead to the end of the pandemic, Ontarians are struggling to live in the here and now with COVID testing in schools and other concerns. What's next?
Facebook/Off. The name Frances Haugen may go down in history next to Jeff Wigand as a consequential corporate whistleblower that blew the lid off an industry that very much understood the harm they were doing. Haugen's expose of Facebook on 60 Minutes is one of several crises facing the social media giant including an hours-long blackout of all Facebook-owned apps. Is this the beginning of the end for Zuckerberg et al?
Longfield of Dreams. A few weeks ago, Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield secured his seat in the House of Commons with an overwhelming election victory. So now what? Longfield will join us this week for his first, full-length interview post-election to talk about his priorities for the new parliament, the roles he might play in the new Liberal government, and what's on his own personal mandate letter he writes to himself.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we dive again into the world of celebrity scandal, but this one is also a true crime story and a social justice case. We're going to talk about the issues raised in the new Netflix documentary Britney Vs Spears, and we're going to cover the back half of the James Bond movie series in our ultimate ranking of the films featuring Britain's greatest spy.
This Wednesday, October 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Run the Series: Jams Bond Part 2 of 2. This weekend, No Time to Die opens in theatres everywhere, the 25th in the series of canon James Bond movies. Some have been good, some have been bad, most have been okay, but this week, we're going to get into the Top 12. There's a lot of Sean Connery here, and so is the reboot that brought us Daniel Craig, the last real Cold War centric Bond, and the iconic one-off where 007 was played by an Australian male model.
REVIEW: Britney Vs Spears (2021). There's been a cottage industry of documentaries about Britney Spears and the conservancy she's been under for the last 13 years; the "Free Britney" movement has been well represented on a lot of streaming platforms. In this new Netflix doc, filmmaker Erin Lee Carr focuses not on Britney, but the messed up legal circumstances that effectively put the Princess of Pop under the thumb of her father, and, allegedly, his abuses. So does "Free Britney" benefit from her story getting the Netflix true crime treatment?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This year is the 30th season of the Guelph Storm, the local OHL hockey franchise who won the J. Ross Robertson Cup in 2019, and are technically still the undefeated champions of the Ontario Hockey League. But 18 months in this league is a life time, and as we enter the first OHL regular season play in over 18 months, we ask a Storm expert to talk about what it's all going to look like.
When the Guelph Storm joined the rest of the world in lockdown in mid-March 2020, they had a record of 32 wins and 23 loses. They were third in the Midwest division, and were assured a playoff spot, but they were in sixth place in the Western conference. The possibility of another Storm championship was not impossible, and indeed they came from fourth place in the West to take the championship in 2019, but it was probably going to be an uphill climb for the team.
Winning an OHL championship is relatively easy when compared to the hoops in front of the league to return to play during the pandemic era. Every time the OHL got close to a deal, the COVID case count got worse, and the start of the season was delayed again until it was ultimately cancelled altogether. But now the time has come for the Storm to take to the ice again for their first regular season game this weekend. So what are the team's chances? If you’re interested, then this is the podcast for you.
This week, we're joined by Guelph Today's Tony Saxon who has covered the Guelph Storm for more than 15 years. He will talk about how the team has changed in the last 18 months, the changes in the back office in the last few weeks, and, most importantly, their odds for the coming season. Saxon will also talk about his history covering the Storm, staying in touch with players despite COVID restrictions, and how he keeps his journalistic objectivity when covering the hometown team.
So let's get into some Storm tracking on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can read Saxon’s coverage of the Guelph Storm on Guelph Today, and you can also follow him on Twitter. The first home game of the season is this weekend, Saturday October 9 at 7 pm, the second part of a two-part season opening face-off against the Kitchener Rangers. You can find the full schedule for the Guelph Storm and links to tickets 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, Stitcher, Google, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we thought we were done with Federal politics for at least a week, but the news doesn't care about our own bright ideas. In the last week, we've seen the sudden and surprising end to the saga of the Two Michaels, and the sudden and not-so-surprising end of Annamie Paul's Green Party leadership. In the back half of the show, we go back to 1 Carden Street to talk about Guelph stuff!
This Thursday, September 30, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Trading Places. After months and months of diplomacy and legal machinations, Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou went home to China, and the two Michaels, Kovrig and Spavor, came back home to Canada. So it was a hostage situation, after all? China says no, and the U.S. foreign service also says no, but it's hard to deny the freakish coincidence of the situation. So where do Canada-Chinese relations go from here?
Walking Paul. The Green Party of Canada is looking for a new leader today. Less than a week after the election results were tabulated, Annamie Paul is walking away from her hard-fought leadership saying that she "just don’t have the heart for it" anymore. Paul's history making tenure was as brief as it was contentious, but is she really to blame for the Green Party's poor showing, or did the party blow itself up this election?
The Haunting of Phil House. Now that the election's over, we can turn our eye to a real source of unending political controversy: Guelph City Hall. What's going on? Well, there was Homecoming shenanigans, an emergency demo for an old stone farmhouse, and a new policy about petitions. Exciting stuff, and we'll get Ward 3 Councillor Phil Allt to tell us all about it, as well as some discussion about Truth and Reconciliation Day.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we remember the 90s. For some of us, the 90s are not so easy to forget having lived there, and nostalgia comes to stay in the second half of this week's show with Kid 90. Speaking of nostalgia, the first part of the show is dedicated to one of Hollywood's most bankable players with 25 movies over 60 years, and counting: Bond, James Bond.
This Wednesday, September 29, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Run the Series: Jams Bond Part 1 of 2. The 25th James Bond movie, No Time to Die, comes out next month. It's the latest entry in the longest running ongoing film series in Hollywood history, and that means it's had a lot of ups and downs along the way. So let's separate the ups from the downs in this two-part "Run the Series" entry. In part one, we'll cover voodoo, diamonds, Nick Nack, most of the Brosnan oeuvre, and, most consequentially, Bond! In! Space!
REVIEW: Kid 90 (2021). In the 80s, Soleil Moon Frye starred in a sitcom called Punky Brewster but the real show happened in the 90s as a teenage Soleil filmed her famous friends as they struggled to grow up against the bright lights of Hollywood. Not all of them made it. Some 30 years later, Soleil opened her time capsule, which featured hours of raw footage, saved voice mail messages, and deeply candid diary entries, and put together a documentary that speaks to not just 90s teen pop culture, but the freedom in coming of age in pre-internet times.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This year’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation comes on the coattails of a Federal Election, and before that almost weekly news about unmarked graves being discovered on the property of old residential schools. Like a lot of communities across Canada, Guelph promised to do better, and thousands came out to march to show their commitment. So how are we doing this September 30?
The last day of September has been known for years as Orange Shirt Day. The name comes from Phyllis Webstad, a member of the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation who wore a nice, new orange shirt on her first day at St. Joseph’s Residential School. The shirt was promptly taken away and never returned, a metaphor for the treatment of Indigenous people at all residential schools where kids were stripped of their language, their culture, their identity, and, in many cases, their lives.
The story itself though is terribly personal, and it makes you wonder: While we struggle with the huge weight of history, are each of us, on a personal level, doing everything we can to be a good friend and ally to Indigenous communities? The podcast host puts himself to the test this week with the help of Bruce Weaver, a Mohawk elder and valued member of the Guelph community who’s always helping to guide the local discussion about Truth and Reconciliation.
Bruce Weaver actually suggested the various topics we discuss on this week's podcast, and we cover them the best we can including the proper protocols when a reporter is asking an Indigenous person for comment, and how some Indigenous customs are weary of the deadlines of modern journalism. We also talk about how even good natured attempts at outreach can fall into colonialist patterns, and how we can keep territorial acknowledgments meaningful.
So let's have a more personal conversation about Truth and Reconciliation on this week's Guelph Politicast!
There will be a number of activities and events on Thursday to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation including a ceremony on Johnston Green, a demonstration of Anishinaabe oral traditions at the Guelph Civic Museum, and activities hosted by the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre in Royal City Park. You can get all those details 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, Stitcher, Google, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we still have a lot to say about the 2021 Federal Election. We will dedicate the first half of the show to talking about all the election news we didn't cover on Monday night, and what the results mean going forward. In the second half of the show, we will talk about the return of a certain Alberta Premier to the national stage, and the latest from a certain angry Florida retiree.
This Thursday, September 16, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Déjà Vote. So the votes have been mostly counted, and it turns out that Canadians like the way Parliament was working just fine. We'll dedicate the first half of the show to the fallout from Election Day including the low turnout, the long lines, and the fate of key leaders like Justin Trudeau, Erin O'Toole and Annamie Paul. Also, is the People's Party, and their concerning politics, here to stay? We will talk about all of that, and more.
Jason Lives. Perhaps predictably, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney emerged from self-imposed exile the day after Election Day to toss his Health Minister. With the provincial health system on the brink of collapse, the Alberta government is looking for help to deal with the fourth wave, while people across the province are just angry about the lack of leadership from Edmonton. Is this the last straw for Kenney?
Woodward and Burn-stein. A new book from Bob Woodward called Peril has recalled the old spectres from the final days of the Donald Trump administration. It turns out that even the supposed heroes in the administration were not as brave as we thought they were, and it turns out that the Trump team knew all along that the alleged fraud was non-existent. So why is America still falling further towards authoritarianism?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're going to talk about accounting. Now, this is not a new kind of podcast about bean counting, taxation, and stuff, but all that's at the heart of the film this week, which is the new true life tale, Worth. Along with that review, we will talk about the works of a very accomplished Canadian filmmaker who's got a brand new movie coming out soon.
This Wednesday, September 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Run the Series: Les films de Denis Villeneuve. Quebec-born director Denis Villeneuve has risen through the ranks from being the darling of homegrown Canadian cinema to being one of the few Hollywood filmmakers that can call his own shots outside extended universe franchises. Before Vileleneuve's next film, the sci-fi epic Dune, hits theatres, we will "Run the Series" on his filmography from aliens, to replicants, to a kidnap plot, and two French people lost in the desert.
REVIEW: Worth (2021). A couple of weeks ago we marked the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. A lot of movies have been made that touch on the events of the day, or have used the real-life horrors to inspire acts of fictional terror, but Worth is the first one to deal with the literal price of the attacks. How much was the life of each victim worth, and how was that determined? Michael Keaton leads an ensemble cast in the little-seen heroic acts around actuary tables and insurance policy, but does Worth the movie have value?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It came and went, and now it's over. The 2021 Federal Election belongs to the ages now, history was made with Canada's pandemic election, and the decision of the Canadian people was that the government they elected in 2019 is the government they want to remain in charge, at least for now. All of this unfolded in four hours of completely unrehearsed radio madness on your campus and community radio station.
For this week's podcast, we're going to break the format and play some highlights from this past Monday's Federal Election Night coverage on CFRU. Open Sources Guelph co-host Scotty Hertz, CFRU Programming Director Christopher Currie, freelance writer Jack Fisher, and me, Adam A. Donaldson, were the fantastic four leading the coverage from the CFRU (virtual) decision desk.
Along with the night's panelists, you will also hear from our special guests. We were joined by Lidia Rajcan, a political reporter for The Ontarion and recent University of Guelph grad who gave us some colour commentary from campus and the student vote. We were also joined by reporter, podcaster and author Nora Loreto who talked about her view of the campaign, how there was surprisingly little pandemic coverage, and her upcoming book.
It terms of the rest of this 105 minutes of outtakes and highlights, we talked about the line-ups at polling places, the best of the fringe parties, and Guelph's history with the man who's run for office in Canada 102 times. There's also a tonne of Canadian political trivia to stump even the most esoteric minds, razor sharp analysis about what the results mean for the long-term prospects of certain party leaders, and where the election leaves us politically speaking.
So let's relive some Election Night action on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
If you're so willing, you can listen to all four hours of Election Night coverage in the CFRU archives. We will have election follow-up this week on the regular episode of Open Sources Guelph, Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca. And stay tuned to Guelph Politico, the Guelph Politicast, Open Sources Guelph and the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet newsletter for all the latest political developments where it's local, provincial or federal.
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, 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.
This week on End Credits, we wonder, "Where's our pig?" We're all looking for our own "pig" whether it's a literal swine or whether it's a metaphor for a pet election issue. Speaking of elections, we will talk about some of the good and great political campaign movies, and will also be reviewing the new drama simply called, Pig (which is literally about a missing pig).
This Wednesday, September 15, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
A Movie Campaign. In case you didn't know, there's an election on in Canada right now. As Federal candidates make their last moves before Election Day, we will look, as we always do, to the movies. A lot of movies have been made about elections and political campaigns, and we will recap some of the great ones, and okay ones, including tales inspired by real-life, satirical and dark comedies, and even some supernatural machinations.
REVIEW: Pig (2021). In John Wick, a man mourning the loss of his wife is forced to return to the city and his old life when a prized pet is taken from him. Pig brings that same energy, but instead of a dog, it's a pig, And instead of the east coast, it's the west coast. And instead of Keanu Reeves, it's Nicolas Cage. In Pig, Cage plays a former high-end chef who returns to his old stomping grounds in Portland to find his stolen truffle pig, a Homeric quest that leads to a journey of renewal and self-discovery, but does it lead to a good movie?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we reach the epic conclusion of this brief, but fascinating Federal Election campaign. In this last show before Election Day, we are hosting the two candidates from the two parties that will likely form the next government. In the top half, from the red team, we will have Lloyd Longfield, and getting the last word, from the blue team, is Dr. Ashish Sachan.
This Thursday, September 16, at 1 pm*, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Enter the Lloyd. Guelph's incumbent MP, Liberal Lloyd Longfield, has been in office for six years, but a Liberal has been serving as our Member of Parliament for almost 30 years now. Is it time for a change up? Longfield hopes not, and this week he will talk about the work he still wants to do for Guelph in Ottawa, and why he thinks the Trudeau Liberals can be trusted to be active on climate change and the COVID recovery.
From Dusk Till Sachan. Conservative candidate Dr. Ashish Sachan ran to represent Guelph in 2019, and he had so much fun interacting with the community that he wanted to do it again. No, really. That's what he's going to tell you in his election interview this week, and he will also talk about why he feels serving as an MP is a sacred trust, why he chose Canada, and why this is not the Conservative Party you remember.
*Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph is airing at this special time due to Guelph Jazz Festival programming on CFRU. This episode of the show will be available at 6 pm on the Guelph Politicast channel and various podcasts apps.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 1 pm on Thursday.
At an event hosted by the Guelph Chamber of Commerce next week, a new documentary film project will be screened called Celebrating Guelph. It's a love letter to the Royal City, it’s homegrown businesses, and their perseverance in the wake of the greatest financial and societal test since the Great Depression. This week, we go behind the scenes with the director.
Hard and fast numbers about the effects of the pandemic on the local economy are still being developed, but we can see with our eyes just how much things have changed in the last 18 months. We also know the stories, media reports about how businesses have had to pivot like Danby’s production of freezers for vaccine storage, and Linamar’s manufacturing of ventilator parts.
But Celebrating Guelph isn’t just about the big companies making big swings. Think about a small clothing retailer like Sidonio’s and the Art of Denim downtown, who were sometimes open to the public a few people at a time, but with long stretches where they were closed. It’s the story of a lifetime, but the story isn’t over yet, and Alex Vander Vlugt, the post-production manager of Ward 1 Studios, has caught it all on film, and it will be revealed to the public for the first time next week.
So on this week's podcast, Vander Vlugt will talk about the logistics of shooting a documentary with all the health and safety rules, and shooting a movie with the ever changing conditions of an ongoing pandemic. He will also talk about how the various businesses featured in the film were selected, and the type of story he wanted to tell with the documentary. And finally, Vander Vlungt will talk about how Ward 1 Studios has compiled a pandemic record, and what he hopes people leave the movie with.
So let's talk about putting Guelph business on film in this week’s edition of the Guelph Politicast.
To learn more about the work of Ward 1 Studios, and to see some of their work, you can go to their website here. Enbridge Presents: Celebration Guelph will screen next Thursday, September 23, at 7 pm at the Bingemans Drive In at 425 Bingemans Centre Dr. Admission is $40 per car, and that includes movie snacks and drinks, and to learn more click here.
NOTE: You can hear interviews with all of the Federal election candidates running in Guelph every Monday on the podcast version of Open Sources Guelph, and every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca!
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got a great election interview double-header. In this corner, we have a returning champion, the NDP candidate Aisha Jahangir, who wants to be Guelph's first NDP Member of Parliament. And in this corner, we have the new kid, Green Party candidate Michelle Bowman, who will try and make this riding fully Green and not just half-Green. Election Day is almost here!
This Thursday, September 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Nurse Jahangir. In the 2019 Federal Election, NDP candidate Aisha Jahangir finished in fourth place here in Guelph. Obviously, she hopes to do better in 2021. Riding the now-seasoned coattails of Jagmeet Singh, and a general feeling that government needs to be more proactive, the labour leader and experienced nurse hopes that she and her party will be a spoiler this election? We'll ask Jahangir how she intends to do it.
Bowman Holiday. Green Party candidate Michelle Bowman has a lot going on. She's an environment scientist, member of the Green shadow cabinet, and her party placed a strong second here in the last Federal Election. On the other had, she's a new face in local politics, and the Green Party has been through the ringer this summer, so how can Bowman and the Guelph Greens bounce back and paint the town you-know-what?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're trying to get some buzz going. Yes, that's a bee pun, which is fitting because bees are all over the movie we're reviewing this week, and while we hesitate to join a hive mind, we're pretty excited about it. This week, we're reviewing the new horror movie called Candyman, and we're getting into the second part of our fall movie preview.
This Wednesday, September 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Fall Preview Part 2. Since we've published the first part of the Fall Movie Preview last week, there's actually already been some changes on calendar, and they won't likely be the last either. Having said that, we will persevere by talking about what's going to be released this November and December, from Nightmare Alley to the House of Gucci, from King Richard to Diana Princess of Wales (that's a reference to Spencer btw), we will talk about the hits to come.
REVIEW: Candyman (2021). Based on a Clive Barker short story (but also not really), the first Candyman movie came out in 1992, and although it was basically about a White woman's problems, the movie stood out with the creepy and enigmatic titular boogeyman played by the legendary Tony Todd. Now, under the supervision of Jordan Peele, Candyman has been realized the way it was meant to be, a story about Black violence and the big 's' Struggle for social equality. Is there room in this space for a horror reboot made with big ideas? Let's find out!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It was just a few weeks ago that the Joint Waterloo-Guelph Human Trafficking team, which is staffed by members of both police services, arrested a Guelph man for both both trafficking the victim, and assaulting them himself. It’s a good reminder that human trafficking happens in our backyard, and it's not what pop culture and conspiracy theories make you think it is.
According to Statistics Canada there was a 44 per cent increase in human trafficking incidents over one-year from 2018 to 2019. It’s why this summer the Government of Ontario made $2.4 million available for necessary training and resources so that every school board in the province can create a new curriculum that will educate children about the dangers of trafficking, and to create new anti-trafficking protocols.
Having said that, some people have been critical of the Provincial government’s direction to educate young people about the dangers of human trafficking because they say it focuses on one small aspect of gender-based violence. There’s also the elephant in the room, QAnon conspiracy theories that focus on imaginary boogeymen instead of real victims, which not only hurts the cause, but ironically hurts the people they supposedly want to help.
We're joined this week by Jensen Williams, who is the public educator at Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis. She will tell us how human trafficking works, and where our region sits in the the human trafficking criminal ecosytem. She will also talk about the way that trafficking issues get sensationalized, and the impact of QAnon on the real efforts to end trafficking. And finally, she will discuss what trafficking curriculum in schools should look like, and what kind of help the victims of trafficking need.
WARNING: Since we're talking about issues of human trafficking and sexual and gender-based violence, listener discretion is advised.
So let's talk about the real issue of human trafficking on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can get in touch with Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis, and their Anti-Human Trafficking Program at their website, or by calling the 24-hour crisis line at 519-836-5710, or 1-800-265-7233 (SAFE). Also, this year’s virtual Take Back the Night event, hosted by Women in Crisis, will be held on Facebook Live on Thursday September 16 at 6:30 pm.
NOTE: You can hear interviews with all of the Federal election candidates running in Guelph every Monday on the podcast version of Open Sources Guelph, and every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca! For interviews with candidates from Wellington-Halton Hills, tune into special editions of the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast here on Saturdays.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we go election crazy by dedicating three-quarters of the show to the Federal Election, which you may or may not know is going on right now. In fact, the 2021 Federal Election is officially half-over now, so let's talk about the events to far, the latest news about Ontario's vaccine passport program, and then we'll welcome our special guest from the newly re-named Animal Protection Party!
This Thursday, September 2, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Half-Baked. Congratulations, you made it to the second half of the election. In the last week, Conservative leader Erin O'Toole has managed to stay on message, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has become the first party leader to get chased out of Bolton, and everyone else is trying to figure out how to spin third place. We'll talk about the events of the election so far, and why it's possible that no matter who wins, we lose.
Paper Fighter. He didn't want to do it, but Premier Doug Ford announced Wednesday that Ontario will have its own vaccine certification program. With all the enthusiasm of a kid presenting his homework, Ford shared details about how and where all Ontarians will now be required to show they've gotten their shots. We'll talk about the politics of reluctance, and if there are any holes in the government plan. (Hint: There are.)
Takin' Karen Business. This week Erin O'Toole made his message of the day about animal welfare, so at least for a day it was a pretty big election issue. Karen Levenson though wants to make it an issue everyday, which is why she's running to represent Guelph for the Animal Protection Party. Levenson will join us to talk about her love of animals, why the environmental polices of the major parties don't go far enough, and more!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
Wellington-Halton Hills, as a riding, was created in 2004 out of parts from four different ridings. In that first election, Conservative Michael Chong beat Liberal candidate Bruce Hood by a little over four points, but since then Chong has enjoyed double-digit victories including his 2011 general election victory with 63.7 per cent of the vote. So he’s invulnerable, right?
Not so fast. The demographics in Wellington-Halton Hills have been changing in recent years. Exurban areas like Georgetown, Acton, and perhaps even Fergus are seeing an influx of people from Toronto and the areas that immediately around Toronto, people who lean more small ‘L’ liberal than voters in the rural areas of the riding, but is it enough to block Chong from his seventh straight victory?
Melanie Lang hopes so. She’s the Liberal candidate this time for Wellington-Halton Hills. Like Chong she’s a Fergus resident, and like Chong she’s spent years working in the business world but in marketing and consumer studies. Her consultancy business focuses on rural economic development and regional innovation systems, and she's also been a board member for the Centre Wellington Community Foundation, 4-H Ontario, and the Guelph Chamber of Commerce. Can she add MP to her CV?
On this week's podcast, Lang will talk about why she will be a good fit for the area, and why she thinks Michael Chong is vulnerable in this election. She will also talk about her family’s political past, and how the pandemic has changed the way she wanted to campaign. And finally, she will discuss the casual misogyny she’s encountered on the campaign trail, the anger being directed at her and her party, and how she can defend a government she had no part in creating.
So let's talk about Lang the Liberal on this this edition of the Wellington Halton-Hills Politicast!
To learn more about Melanie Lang’s campaign, you can visit his website here.
NOTE: You will be able to hear interviews with all of the Federal election candidates running in Guelph every Monday on the podcast version of Open Sources Guelph, and every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca!
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, 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.
...And we're back! This week on End Credits, we're rested and refreshed from our summer vacation, and ready to get back to talking about the latest in pop culture and reviewing the newest movies (see what we did there), which this week will be the new Amazon Prime offering Annette. Before that, we're going to talk about some of the other movies coming soon.
This Wednesday, September 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Fall Preview Part 1. Fall is here! Sort of. The unofficial beginning of fall is just after the Labour Day weekend, but we will start things off post-summer break with a look at all the movies coming out in the next few months (COVID permitting). In part one, we will look at the movies coming out in September and October, from the rise of a new Marvel hero, to the return of Bond, and another lavish adaptation about that sci-fi book no one really understands.
REVIEW: Annette (2021). As this year's opening movie at the Cannes Film Festival, Annette seemed to be practically spoofing the idea of the hot, eccentric art house film festival darling. Starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, Annette is a rock opera featuring the music of Sparks, and follows a celebrity couple who's perfect world starts to fray with the birth of their titular daughter, who's played by a haunting marionette. It's got great music, great actors, and it looks great on screen, but does it hit all the highnotes for the audience (and our critics)?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Jim Estill has been a successful entrepreneur, innovator and investor building a number of successful businesses around Guelph, but the thing that made Estill a national figure had nothing to do with business. Through Estill’s generosity, hundreds of Syrian refugees have made a new home in Canada, and now he wants to do it again for 50 families fleeing the resurgent Tabliban in Afghanistan.
Flashback to 2015 for a moment. It was also the time of a Federal election, and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau made a bold promise: If elected prime minister, he would welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada. One of those people prompted to act was Jim Estill who was watching the humanitarian situation half-a-world away and felt he could do something. He put up $1.5 million of his own money and pledged to sponsor 50 Syrian families.
Estill rallied aid organizations in Guelph including numerous churches, social service organizations, and businesses, and with their help nearly 500 Syrians were resettled in Guelph and area, and that, as they say, was that. Or it was until the Americans announced that they were pulling out of Afghanistan and a new refugee crisis was created in the wake of the Taliban retaking the country. Last week, Estill announced that he now wants to help bring 50 Afghan families to Canada.
This week on the podcast, Jim Estill joins us to talk about when he decided to help more refugees, what the process looks like, and how COVID-19 has changed things. He will also talk about his experiences with the new Canadian he’s sponsored, and what he thinks about people who push anti-immigrant sentiments. And finally, he will discuss his ethics as a businessman, how he feels about all the positive press he’s received, and what sort of help he’ll be looking for when people start arriving from Afghanistan.
So let's talk about the refugee assisting business on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Stay tuned for a call out for assistance as the Afghan refugees begin arriving again. For now, you can check out to Estill’s blog here, and you can follow him on Twitter @jimestill.
NOTE: You can hear interviews with all of the Federal election candidates running in Guelph every Monday on the podcast version of Open Sources Guelph, and every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca! For interviews with candidates from Wellington-Halton Hills, tune into special editions of the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast here on Saturdays.
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're back! Did anything happen last week while we were gone? JK. We will play catch-up this week by talking about the fall of Afghanistan and what comes next, plus the current state of COVID in Ontario and what comes next there. As for that election, we will begin our regular series of candidate interviews this week with a familiar face for both the show, and for local activism.
This Thursday, August 26, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Withdrawal Remorse. The last time we talked about Afghanistan, the government there was still holding on to some territory, but the Taliban have now retaken the whole county, and time is running out to get western allies and other people threatened by the Taliban's return out of the country. Still, political knives are out, and they're out for U.S. President Joe Biden for ending a war that no one wanted to fight anymore. Seriously?
Mile Pry Club. This week, the Government of Ontario released it "last mile" strategy to reach the last 20 per cent of eligible people in Ontario who have yet to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Still, with the increasing number of cases driven by the Delta variant and that fact that it's just over a week until school starts, people are concerned that the government isn't doing all it can to protect us from a fourth wave. What's the latest?
Commie Dearest. Kicking off our 2021 Federal Election coverage, we're pleased to begin our candidate interview series with the Communist Party's Tristan Dineen. It's the centenary year for his party, and Dineen is going to talk about that history (which started in Guelph), his party's platform on education and the environment, and trying to navigate identity politics when you're running as the local Communist candidate.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
Michael Chong won Wellington Halton-Hills in the 2019 election with 47.4 per cent of the vote. The only way he could have been defeated was if the combined Liberal, NDP, and Green Party vote had gotten behind one candidate. The word "untouchable" would not be an overstatement, but there's a new kid in town that hopes to catch everyone, and Chong, by surprise.
We kick-off this new (election season) of the Wellington Halton-Hills Politicast with Ran Zhu. If you’ve interacted with provincial politics in the last few years in Guelph then you’ve likely met or talked to Zhu who has been the constituency co-ordinator for Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner. Now, Zhu wants to be an elected representative for the Green Party himself, but he's got to beat Chong, who's running in his seventh election, to do it.
In 2019 election, with another easy Chong victory, the election story in Wellington Halton-Hills was the rise of the Green Party. In 2019, Ralph Martin increased the Green Party's share of the vote locally by nearly nine per cent to finish third with 12.7 per cent. The watch word is “momentum”, and it looks like the Greens have got some in this riding. The question is, can Zhu capitalize on Martin’s success in 2019, or has the moment passed?
Zhu will talk about all that and more on this week's podcast. We will discuss running in an election as a young person, running as a Green, and running in a riding with a very tough incumbent candidate. He also talk about how climate change can be made a priority in this election, and whether it's the sleeper issue among the electorate during this campaign. And finally, he will discuss why he’s excited about Annamie Paul’s leadership, what he’s learned working for Mike Schreiner.
So let’s talk about Ran's run on this edition of the Wellington Halton-Hills Politicast!
To learn more about Ran Zhu's campaign, you can visit his website here.
NOTE: You will be able to hear interviews with all of the Federal election candidates running in Guelph every Monday on the podcast version of Open Sources Guelph, and every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca!
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, 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.
For the next few weeks on End Credits, we're on a break. While we get the most out of the last few weeks of summer, we're going to dig some stuff out of the archive to keep you occupied. In ye olden days, these were called reruns, a way for people in the time before streaming to catch up on episodes they may have missed, or episodes they previously enjoyed. Here's hoping that you enjoy hearing again these old episodes of your favourite local movie show!
This Wednesday, August 18 and 25, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Top Five of the First 199. Earlier this year, we celebrated the 200th episode of End Credits! It’s all down hill from here. For the second repeat in our summer vacation break, we will stop again and take account of the first 199 episodes with our Top 5 of the show so far. Each panelist, choosing only from the movies they’ve reviewed on the show, will reveal again their Top 5 of End Credits. From Adam Sandler’s Oscar-worthy acting to a killer clown in the sewer, from art and romance in 17th century France to art and romance in 20th century Atlantic Canada, let’s toast our favourites from the first four years of the show!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Before we unlock the future we must first find the keys to the past. As we await the return of city council in their first meeting of the fall after Labour Day, we're going to take a few moments to remember all the work that council did in the first seven months this year. There were some laughs, some friction, and more than a couple of marathon meetings. In this new edition of the podcast we go back in time!
If you're a regular reader of Guelph Politico, then you are probably in the loop about much of what went down around the virtual horseshoe in the last seven months, but on this week's podcast, we're going to give it all to you in 45 minutes or less. From the controversy around the Cultural Heritage Action Plan, to the controversy around the Baker District Urban Master Plan, it's been a very contentious few months, but it's also been a very consequential few months too.
So let's together recap the year at city council so far on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The next meeting of city council is the Committee of the Whole Meeting on Tuesday September 7, and the agenda for that meeting will be posted on the City’s website on Thursday August 26. You can find the full recaps for these meetings in the city council section on this site, and you can get council recaps directly into your inbox when you subscribe to the Guelph Politico newsletter.
NOTE: You will be able to hear interviews with all of the Federal election candidates running in Guelph every Monday on the podcast version of Open Sources Guelph, and every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca!
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, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we were so overcome by the vapors, and this past Sunday’s election, that we needed to take a week off and regroup. Well, actually, we had planned to take this week off, and we decided to anyway despite the last minute interference from Justin and his majority dreams. This week, it’s a re-run! Two news topics, and an interview with Guelph’s mayor, which we’re replaying from last month.
This Thursday, August 19, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will re-discuss:
Intolerable Cruelty. Last week, the Toronto Police Service and City staff cleared a couple of homeless encampments from parks with, well, let’s call it “extreme severity.” For added authoritarian shades, the police tried to keep protestors and media out of the area, and a Canadian Press photographer was even among the people arrested. Why the use of force, and is this really how John Tory wants to handle homelessness?
Iron Mandate. As the Delta Variant ravages unvaccinated populations in the United States and around the world, governments are now flirting with vaccine mandates. It’s the same thing here in Canada. Even though the rate of people who are fully vaccinated continues to grow, there are certain areas where politicians and advocates want 100 per cent of people to be vaccinated, and they have to mandate to do it. So why not?
Summer of Cam. Guelph City Council went on summer break last week, which means that the mayor now has nothing better to do then appear on this show. Joking aside, there are some serious issues to discuss with Mayor Cam Guthrie, including the development of social housing, the use of MZOs, and the upcoming conference of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO). We’ll talk about all that, and how the mayor feels about being called a tyrant over COVID measures.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
For the next few weeks on End Credits, we're on a break. While we get the most out of the last few weeks of summer, we're going to dig some stuff out of the archive to keep you occupied. In ye olden days, these were called reruns, a way for people in the time before streaming to catch up on episodes they may have missed, or episodes they previously enjoyed. Here's hoping that you enjoy hearing again these old episodes of your favourite local movie show!
This Wednesday, August 18, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Uneven Stevens (The Whole List). Last summer, we produced a multi-part list where we organized all 33 films of Steven Spielberg's films from worst to best, and it's no mean feat covering nearly 50 years of one of the most successful and influential filmmakers of all time. With his next film, the remake of West Side Story, coming out later this fall, we will use this week’s repeat of the show to put every Spielberg film, from Duel to Ready Player One, in its proper place.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
For the second part of our two-week break here on the Guelph Politicast, we're going to reach back to this past spring. Since the start of the pandemic, the local medical officer of health has been regular guest on the podcast with six different appearances, but there has been someone else whose contributions to the local COVID fight needs to be acknowledged, and he appeared on the podcast in March.
On the one-year anniversary for the start of the pandemic locally, it seemed right to mark the contributions of the Guelph Family Health Team. They were the ones that quickly set-up and managed Guelph's COVID-19 testing site, and when the vaccine started rolling out, they helped establish clinics at the University of Guelph and the Linamar/Skyjack facility on Woodlawn Road.
Basically, the success of the local vaccination has had a lot to do with the Guelph Family Health Team, and in the last few weeks they've been standing down those vaccination efforts with the closure of the two mass vaccination clinics they were running. While the threat of the Delta Variant is real, Guelph and area have been almost supernaturally successful at the quick distribution of vaccines. But how did we get here?
This repeat of the podcast features Ross Kirkconnell, the executive director of the Family Health Team, 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 again about pandemic management on this week’s repeat 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. Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health is winding down their mass vaccination clinics this month, and the remaining clinics including the West End Recreation Centre, will close on August 20. If you still need a first or second shot, you can show up at any one of those sites without an appointment.
***The Guelph Politicast will return with new episodes on August 24.
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.
Photo Credit: The Guelph Family Health Team's Twitter.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're still waiting for the writs, but that doesn't mean there isn't any news. It's another four-topic week as we mark the passing of an Ontario political giant and more dire warnings about climate change in the first half, and then, in the second half, we're going to look internationally with the new authoritarian superstar, and more Olympic politics as we switch from summer to winter.
This Thursday, August 12, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Bill Davis. Former Ontario Premier Bill Davis passed away on the weekend at the age of 92. He was one of Ontario's longest-serving Premiers, and when he stepped down in 1984, he was still exceedingly popular. Davis governed over a highly consequential period of Canadian history, and we'll talk about his long list of accomplishments from the expansion of GO, the creation of the Ontario Science Centre, and the launch of TVO.
Your Final Warning. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their latest, and most damning report about the current state of climate change, and the prognosis is not good. Phrased as a "Code Red", the report affirms that climate change is human caused, affecting us now, and it's not a matter of stopping climate change, but how bad it will get. We'll talk about whether here, at the end, people will listen.
Hungary Man Dinner. There's something rotten in the state of Western democracy, and it's Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary. For certain right-wingers in the West, Hungary is where it's at, and by "it" we mean authoritarianism grounded in white supremacy, and it's catching especially after a full week infomercial on Fox N*ws with Tucker Carlson. How concerned should we be?
30 Seconds and We're Over Tokyo. The 2020 Olympic are finally over, and while the circumstances weren't great, there was no great COVID disaster movie. So instead we'll look ahead to the next disaster, the 2022 Winter Olympics in China. Will COVID still be as pervasive when February rolls around? And what about the politics? The call is out for Canada to boycott the Winter Olympics, so should we do it?
***Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will be taking next week off but return with new episodes on Thursday August 26. This may change if/when there's an election call in the next week.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're getting ready to go on vacation. Before leaving though, we've got one more movie to review, and in order to do it, we have to go back to the movie theatre for the first time in a year. This week, we're reviewing the new superhero flick The Suicide Squad, and we will wrap up our summer movie season revival by going back to 1995.
This Wednesday, August 11, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Summer Lovin’ Part 12: 1995. In the last part (for now) of our look back at summer movie seasons of the past, we go to the Summer of 1995, which was kind of a weird one. Batman came back with nipples, Clint Eastwood embraced romance, and the internet was the bad guy in no less than three movies. There was also a friendly ghost, a water world, and we died hard again but with a vengeance. Was there anything better than the Summer of '95? I guess we'll see.
REVIEW: The Suicide Squad (2021). A strange confluence of events in the universe sent the director of Guardians of the Galaxy to cross-town rival DC, and they gave James Gunn carte blanche to revamp an underperforming asset. This week, we go back to the movie theatre for The Suicide Squad, the bloodier, funnier, and more profane reboot/sequel to the 2016 David Ayer film of the same same (sans the "The"). If you're familiar with Gunn's pre-Marvel work then you're likely to enjoy his take on DC's supervillain team of reluctant heroes, but did we enjoy it? Tune in and find out.
Programming Note: End Credits is going on a brief summer break for the next two weeks. We'll be back with new episodes on Wednesday September 1!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Your regularly scheduled Guelph Politicast is taking a few weeks off, so in lieu of two weeks of dead air, we'll be playing some Politicast repeats. You see kids, a repeat is when an episode that's previously aired is re-played, or re-run, instead of airing an entirely new episode. For this first week, we're going to back in time to the end of last year for an issue that matters to all us: blood.
This episode originally aired during the holiday season, a time period where a lot of people have time off, and the increase in blood need goes up. Can you guess what other time of year where people take a lot of days off? August. The summer offers no shortage of opportunities for people to get hurt so bad that they need blood, and let's not forget the regularly scheduled surgeries and transfusions that require the constant flow of fresh blood.
Presently, the Guelph-office of Canadian Blood Services is putting out a repeated and urgent call for O-negative blood. Apparently, only seven per cent of Canadians have O-negative blood, but these select people are universal donors, meaning their blood can be given to anyone with any other blood type in an emergency. Canadian Blood Services is still collecting blood safely in the midst of COVID-19, and there are a lot of reasons why you should give. Let's discuss. Again.
On this rerun 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.
So let's talk again about blood, and needing blood, on this week's rerun of the Guelph Politicast!
Canadian Blood Services in their Guelph location at 130 Silvercreek Parkway North is open and ready to take your blood, 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 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's a Canadian affair. We're digging into matters of provincial interest with the a new plan for a favourite old school tourist attraction, and the potential courting of COVID disaster in the Wildrose province. In national matters, we'll consider the latest rumours around the possibility of a fall election, and that cold chill you're feeling might be connected to Trudeau's immediate predecessor.
This Thursday, August 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Warn to Run. August is here, and that means we're getting down to the wire in terms of a potential fall election call. There's a Governor General in place ready to receive the PM's request to dissolve Parliament, the Liberals have been giving out money from one coast to the other and the other, and the number of pieces about opposition parties in shambles has gone up precipitously. So what about it, are we close to an election call?
A Place in the Stun. Last week, Premier Doug Ford took up a matter of major importance beyond the fourth wave and re-opening schools: the future of Ontario Place. Predictably, critical mass was less than enthusiastic about the Ford government's ambitions, and among their concerns are the loss of valuable public space, and the privatization of Ontario Place facilities and attractions. But Ford wouldn't do that, would he?
Typhoid Kenney? While the rest of the country is working to avoid a fourth wave, it feels like Alberta is wholeheartedly embracing it. Alberta is lifting all COVID restrictions in the next few weeks, and that's a concern because the Delta variant is making the rounds, while at the same time the Alberta government is cutting the salaries of healthcare workers and losing doctors and nurses. Is this the perfect storm for Alberta?
Don't Call it a Comeback. From just beyond the black gates of Mordor, something is stirring... Look, former-Prime Minister Stephen Harper is not the most popular guy in the world, or Canada for that matter, but he's been back in the news lately criticizing the current government's COVID response, while a poll shows Conservative Party members would be more excited about Harper's return as leader than voting for their current leader. Is this Harper's time to shine?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we feel the chills. This August day, we will shut ourselves indoors, turn off the lights, and binge an entire new horror trilogy on Netflix. This week, we are tackling each and every entry of the Fear Street trilogy! Will Fear Street offer the spine-tingling delights we want? Let's hope so, we're throwing a whole episode at it.
This Wednesday, August 4, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
REVIEW: The Fear Street Trilogy (2021). Summer is a great time for horror movies,so why not take in three of them back-to-back. Netflix had an unusual weekly release schedule for this ambitious horror trilogy set in three different time periods. We meet the disadvantaged teens of Shadyside in 1994, then flashback to Camp Nightwing in 1978, and then go all the way back to the village of Union in 1666. Can our 90s heroes overcome the ancient evil that's ravaged their unfortunately named town for over 300 years? Let's binge the trilogy and find out!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
There's still a lot of summer left, so what are we supposed to do with some of our extra down time? How about enjoying some local paths and trails for a nice hike? It’s never not a good time to take a walk and enjoy the natural splendor of the Guelph area, but a warm day, a cool breeze, a clear trail, and a sensible pair of shoes is not a bad way to pass some time, and no one knows that better than the current head of the local hiking club.
The trails of Guelph have been the subject of a lot of discussion lately as walking and hiking, like a lot of outdoor activities, have seen an increase in interest during the pandemic. At the same time, the City of Guelph was putting the finishing touches on the Trails Master Plan, an ambitious program to make local trails more accessible, and improve their connectivity across the city. One of the community groups at the forefront of pushing the City on those improvements is the Guelph Hiking Trail Club.
In their own words, the Guelph Hiking Trail Club is a non-profit organization established in 1970 dedicated to stimulating an interest in hiking, establishing and maintaining trails, and encouraging conservation and awareness of the natural environment. They organize group hikes, promote social connections between local hikers, and advocate for a better hiking experience, like they did earlier this year when they successfully raised $50,000 for a bridge over the river along the James Street Trail.
John Fisher, current president of the Guelph Hiking Trail Club, is the guest on this week's podcast, and he will talk about how he got involved, and where the good hiking is for beginners and more advanced people. He also discusses the need to have good hiking etiquette, and whether or not the pandemic has had an impact on the number of hikers on area trails. And finally, Fisher will talk about what kind of work that the local trail network needs, and how City Hall can help make the most out of the Trails Master Plan.
So let's take a hike on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about the Guelph Hiking Trail Club, you can go to their website, or connect with them on social media through Facebook and Twitter. To find the location of different trails in the city, you can visit City of Guelph website here, and to look at the Trails Master Plan on the City's website, click here.
***The Guelph Politicast will return with new episodes on August 24.
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. .
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we wonder about going too far. In Toronto, if could be argued that they definitely went too far "helping" homeless people get out of the park, and some people will say that it could be going too far to demand vaccine mandates. Some people are also saying that our city's mayor has gone too far, and we'll ask him about that and other stuff as we joins us for this week's show.
This Thursday, July 29, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Intolerable Cruelty. Last week, the Toronto Police Service and City staff cleared a couple of homeless encampments from parks with, well, let's call it "extreme severity." For added authoritarian shades, the police tried to keep protestors and media out of the area, and a Canadian Press photographer was even among the people arrested. Why the use of force, and is this really how John Tory wants to handle homelessness?
Iron Mandate. As the Delta Variant ravages unvaccinated populations in the United States and around the world, governments are now flirting with vaccine mandates. It's the same thing here in Canada. Even though the rate of people who are fully vaccinated continues to grow, there are certain areas where politicians and advocates want 100 per cent of people to be vaccinated, and they have to mandate to do it. So why not?
Summer of Cam. Guelph City Council went on summer break last week, which means that the mayor now has nothing better to do then appear on this show. Joking aside, there are some serious issues to discuss with Mayor Cam Guthrie, including the development of social housing, the use of MZOs, and the upcoming conference of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO). We'll talk about all that, and how the mayor feels about being called a tyrant over COVID measures.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to try and keep the noise down. Summer is here, COVID cases are down, and people are feeling like celebrating, but those pesky aliens with super-sensitive hearing are back in A Quiet Place Part II, and we're going to review on this episode. Before that, it's another trip to a summer of the past, this time around the mid-90s!
This Wednesday, July 28, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Summer Lovin’ Part 11: 1994. As we enter the mid-90s, we see the annual summer movie season begins to looking like something we're very family with 25 years later. From unnecessary sequels, to potential superhero franchises, and some genuine surprising hits, we will re-live the Summer of 1994 in the same way that one movie character from that summer re-lived the greatest hits of the 50s, 60s, and 70s like it were a whole box of chocolates!
REVIEW: A Quiet Place Part II (2021). In 2019, that smirking guy from The Office proved that he had the horror chops of a seasoned pro when he directed a movie about a family living in silence on an isolated farm to avoid aliens with super-sensitive hearing. Could John Krasinski catch lightening in a bottle? In the second Quiet Place, Emily Blunt leads her family to find salvation. even while possessing a powerful new weapon that can be used against the alien creatures. The elements are there to make something cool, but is Krasinski able to deliver?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Last week, ground was broken for the future Centre for Children’s Mental Health and Developmental Services Building, which will come to be known as the Grove. When it opens in 2023, the Grove will offer 30 service providers across three floors helping 9,000 local children, youth and their families needing mental health and developmental services, support and treatment each year, and all courtesy of a unique and generous partnership.
The idea of Integrated Youth Services Network has been covered on this podcast before. The concept involves the creation of a safe space for youth aged 12 to 26, and offering a “one-stop shop” service hub to address the mental health, community and social services needs of young people. Over two dozen different community groups led by the Rotary Club of Guelph helped get things this far, and there are already three smaller hubs in business across Wellington County in Erin, Fergus, and Palmerston.
Aside from the advancement in the cause of mental health, this project is notable because of a $50 million donation to make it possible, which is the largest private donation to mental health services in Canadian history. The person writing that proverbial cheque is Robert Eilers, president and director of the Vesterra Group of Companies. Eilers joins us on this week's show along with Helen Fishburn, the CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo Wellington, who will be the new building's biggest tenant.
In their joint appearance on this week's podcast, Fishburn and Eilers will each talk about the Grove project from their own unique perspectives. Fishburn will discuss how we’re now entering the mental health surge of the pandemic, and how the new building will improve the local delivery of mental health services. And Eilers will share his very personal story about his own struggles with mental health as a young person, and how he got the help he needed to become the successful business person he is today.
So let's talk about building up mental health services on this episode of the Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about The Grove and integrated youth wellness hubs in Ontario and throughout our region, you can go the Grove's website here. To learn more about mental health services in the region, go to the CMHA Waterloo Wellington website, and to learn more about the Vesterra Group of Companies, you can visit their website 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 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.
Photo of Robert Eilers and Helen Fishburn courtesy of CMHA Waterloo Wellington's Facebook page.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got leadership issues. We'll head to Manitoba where the effort to right the ship on Indigenous affairs blew up spectacularly on live TV (see above), and then we'll go to the Federal level where there's actually some good news for one beleaguered national leader. In the back half, we welcome, perhaps, our most prestigious guest yet, Ontario's Official Opposition leader!
This Thursday, July 22, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Kicking it Old School. It was supposed to be a reset after a week of bad stories, but Alan Lagimodiere, a Métis MLA in Manitoba, only went 10 minutes as thew new Indigenous Affairs minister without creating controversy. Lagimodiere misspoke about the intentions of residential school administrators, and NDP leader Wab Kinew was not having it (see above). What the heck is going on in Manitoba on Indigenous issues?
Scenes from A. Paul. After a month of upheaval in the upper echelons, Annamie Paul status as leader of the Green Party seems safe for now, but there are a lot of lingering questions about what's going on behind the scenes. Is there some truck to Paul's assertion that attacks on her are rooted in misogyny and racism? Can the Green Party pretend that nothing happened in order to make it through the next Federal Election?
It Was Andrea All Along. Last week, Official Opposition leader Andrea Horwath came to the University of Guelph to announce the NDP's plan for electric vehicles and supporting transit. While she was in the neighbourhood, Horwath talked to Open Sources about those future election plans, plus the current status of the Provincial government's COVID response, and what she would be doing right now if she were the Premier of Ontario.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to get some more action. After checking out all the ladies kicking butt last week in Black Widow, we found some more women that know how to kick butt, and know how to do it well. This week, we're reviewing Gunpowder Milkshake, and we're going back to the summer movie well by revisiting the flicks from 1993!
This Wednesday, July 21, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Summer Lovin’ Part 10: 1993. Climbing back onboard the wayback machine to the summer movie seasons of the past, we come to the year 1993, which was mostly about Jurassic Park. Steven Spielberg's dinosaur fantasy broke most, if not all, box office records that summer, but there were lots of different hits, more than a few misses, and there were definitely some bunker busting bombs! Let's take a trip back to the Summer of '93.
REVIEW: Gunpowder Milkshake (2021). In The Expendables, Sylvester Stallone brought together a team of the toughest tough guys from the 80s, 90s, and today. There was once an idea to do a female version called The Expendabelles, but the closest we'll probably get to that now is Gunpowder Milkshake, a new movie that features Karen Gillan as a hired assassin that crosses the line. When she gets into trouble, it's her mom Lena Headey that saves the day, along with her mentors Angela Bassett, Carla Gugino, and Michelle Yeoh. So does the movie kick ass?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It is time again for another in-depth look at the local pandemic picture: how are we doing, where are we going, and what can we expect next? We’re now almost 18 months into the pandemic, and while normal still sometimes seems far away, there is a perceptible feeling that the worst is over, and there are better days ahead. But are there really better days ahead?
Back in May when we had the last "Still COVID" podcast, those brighter days still seemed so far away. We had yet to even enter phase one of the economic re-opening, case counts were coming down slowly, concern about COVID variants were everywhere, and so were concerns that Canada was lagging behind in vaccine distribution. It’s strange what a difference about 10 weeks can make because we're re-open now, and those vaccines are getting into arms pretty darn fast.
Still, about 20 per cent of the eligible population that has yet to receive their first dose. Students will be going back to school in a little over a month, and there are still a lot of questions about what that will look like. And while we revel in the re-opening and having a rare restaurant meal indoors again, we have to wonder if COVID will come roaring back with fall and winter? Questions like these require the input of a public health authority, and we’ve got one!
This week, we’re joined again by medical officer of health Dr. Nicola Mercer, who will talk to us about the current state of the vaccine rollout, and how we get first shots to the last 20 per cent. She will also talk about getting ready for back to school, and what the campaign to vaccinate kids under 12 might look like. And finally, Dr. Mercer will discuss the potential impact of COVID this winter, the debate around a third booster shot, and how it might be harder to get back to normal than we think.
So let's talk about our current place in the pandemic with Dr. Mercer on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can stay up-to-date on the latest COVID case numbers and the vaccine rollout at the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health website. Remember, if you haven’t received you first dose of vaccine, you can now go to any public health clinic and get taken in right away. And if you need to get your second shot, you can now book directly at the Public Health 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This week on End Credits, we will try and lift spirits. How? Through the transformative power of song and dance, of course! We're going to review the [theoretically] big screen adaptation of the Broadway musical In the Heights, and we will also talk about the movies from the summer of 1990, where there were hardly any musical numbers at all (save for a horrid Leonard Cohen cover.)
This Wednesday, June 23, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Summer Lovin’ Part 7: 1990. As we proceed with our review of summer movies seasons of the past, we leave the 80s and we enter the 90s. As we discussed last week, 1989 changed the game with more emphasis on sequels and franchises, and 1990 tried to move that ball upfield, but there were some hiccups. So this week, we will talk about how Dick Tracy wasn't Batman, the existence of RoboCop 2 and Another 48 Hrs., plus two movies with "Ghost" in the title.
REVIEW: In the Heights (2021). In 2015, Lin-Manual Miranda blew up when he launched a new musical Off-Broadway about American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. About a decade before that though, Miranda made his first Broadway splash with a musical about his New York City neighbourhood. It was called In the Heights, and after a stint in Development Hell and a release delay caused by COVID-19, the movie version directed by Crazy Rich Asians helmer Jon M. Chu is finally ready for release, but does this musical have what it takes to raise spirits?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
We’ve heard a lot about the City of Guelph’s intention to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. That is the corporate goal of the City of Guelph, and while it's a laudible, City Hall doesn't generate power. So isn’t there a key partner they need to bring on board to reach net zero by 2050? Like the company that provides all our electricity? Well, there was recently some good news on that account.
Last month, the largest municipally-owned energy company in Canada, who just so happens to be co-owned by the City of Guelph, announced their intention to cut their own emissions to net zero by 2050. Alectra joins countries like South Korea, Japan and Canada, and companies like BP, Ford, American Airlines, and Facebook in drawing that red line to go net zero by 2050. Of course, setting lofty goals is easy, actually achieving them is the hard part.
Not only is Alectra working to get to net zero by 2050, and they’re aiming to reduce corporate emissions by 38 per cent of their 2016 baseline by 2025. That translates to an annual reduction of greenhouse gases by just 4.2 per cent every year, which sounds easy, but most of that is Alectra's vehicle use. If you want to replace your family vehicle with an electric car, it’s no big deal, but can you buy an electric version of one of those big work trucks with the cherry picker?
That’s one of the challenges we explore on this week’s podcast with Caroline Karvonen, the Manager of Sustainability at Alectra Utilities. She will talk about how Alectra’s efforts intersect with Guelph's, and how they’re also co-ordinating with other electricity-providers in Ontario. She will also take us through the process to reach net zero, how Alectra came up with their targets, and what they have to do in order to reach them. And finally, she will discuss how all these changes might affect your energy bill.
Let's talk about the work to go greener on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about Alectra Utilities and their sustainability efforts, you can visit their website. You can also stay on top of the City of Guelph’s own efforts to get to 100 per cent renewable and net zero emissions by 2050 at the City’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 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, there's friction. In this province, the friction is around the use of constitutional tools for legislation ruled unconstitutional, but on Parliament Hill, the friction is between members, and former members, of the Green Party. Local friction? Got that too! We will talk to a member of city council about the latest business around the horseshoe involving two controversial topics.
This Thursday, June 17, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Clause: The Revenge. On Monday, after a long weekend of debate, the Government of Ontario passed legislation limiting third party election spending for the second time. They use the notwithstanding clause of the Constitution to do it, which prompts all kinds of questions about the authoritarian leanings of Doug Ford, and the priorities of the government who recalled the legislature to make it happen. Will Ford pay a price?
Better Not Call Paul. Last week, Jenica Atwin crossed the floor and joined the Liberals, which instantly reduced the Green Party caucus in the House of Commons by a third. Atwin's victory in 2019 was seen as big breakthrough for the Greens, and a potential beachhead for future east coast expansion, so what happened? In two words: Annamie Paul. What is behind this schism in the Federal Greens, and is it really Paul's fault?
Return of the MacKinnon. On Monday, Guelph City Council approved a part V heritage designation for the Ontario Reformatory lands. Next Monday, council will decide what it's going to look like in the 2022 Municipal Election and beyond. So that's two pretty big issues in the span of two weeks. We need to talk to a member of city council about these important issues, so this week we're joined by Ward 6's Mark MacKinnon.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it's summer, and that means we're off to the deep end, but the movie this week is no afternoon at the neighbourhood pool. We're going on a ocean dive in this episode with the award-winning doc My Octopus Teacher, and before that, it's another look back at the days when we could whittle away the summer in an air-conditioned movie theatre.
This Wednesday, June 10, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Summer Lovin’ Part 6: 1989. By the time we got to the end of the eighties, the summer movie season had been more or less set as the time for ambitious (and not-so-ambitious) blockbusters. Still, the Summer of 1989 represented its own shift as Hollywood saw the big bucks and benefits in exploiting pre-existing I.P. and even bigger tentpole projects, and it all started with a man dressed in rubber bat suit fighting a clown.
REVIEW: My Octopus Teacher (2020). This year's Oscar-winner for Best Documentary is a story about a diver and the octopus that he loves. It's just that simple. My Octopus Garden had a 10-year journey to the big (and small) screens, a romantic journey in the classical sense of the word. It's about how one man came to rethink his life above the surface by taking in the peace and serenity below the surface and living vicariously through his new eight-tentacled friend. Still, is this movie a sweet nature doc, or is it just too sweet?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The discovery of 215 young Indigenous people buried on the property of the old Kamloops Indian Residential School re-opened a great many old wounds in this country, and just in time for National Indigenous History Month. Nation-wide, there may be between 11,000 and 15,000 missing children unaccounted for, which means this story is only going to get worse before it gets better.
It's safe to say that no John A. Macdonald statue or effigy in the country will be safe, but the destruction and beheading of statues is an expression of anger by Indigenous people and their allies. It’s anger directed at government inaction, the Catholic Church's indifference, and those who say that this is the distant past, and that Indigenous people just need to “get over it.” This is an emotional issue, and it requires someone that can look at it with an analytical perspective.
Fortunately, such expertise is readily available at the University of Guelph with Dr. David MacDonald. His book, The Sleeping Giant Awakens: Genocide, Indian Residential Schools, and the Challenge of Conciliation, came out in 2019 and made a case for calling the Indian Residential School system a genocide in Canada. It’s hard to think of a more essential topic for this National Indigenous History Month, so let's talk about it on this week's edition of the podcast.
MacDonald joins us to talk about how Canadian education is lacking when it comes to Indigenous history, and how we need to be able to talk about Canada’s darker chapters, He will also talk about how he became interested in residential schools, and why he’s comfortably calling it a genocide despite hesitation to do so in other quarters. And finally, he will discuss what the government and church should be doing right now in regards to residential schools, and how we can find the many missing Indigenous kids.
So let's talk about the study of Canada's dark history on this week's episode of the Guelph Politicast!
You can read MacDonald’s most recent commentary at The Conversation, and you can still buy his book, The Sleeping Giant Awakens: Genocide, Indian Residential Schools, and the Challenge of Conciliation, in paperback and e-reader wherever you buy your books. National Indigenous Peoples Day is Monday June 21, and if you’re a survivor of a residential school, or a family member of a survivor, and need to talk, call the crisis line at 1-866-925-4419.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we tackle complexity. Even though everybody apparently agrees that we need more action on Indigenous issues, there hasn't been much, and then we will have a personal health moment to talk about all our vaccine options. Then, we fill focus on simpler things, like the friction between the government and teachers, with the head of one of the province's four teachers' unions.
This Thursday, June 10, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Egerton of Tomorrow. After over 130 years, Egerton Ryerson no longer stands on the campus of the university that bears his name. The statue was torn down this week as the latest example of growing frustration about inaction on systemic racism against Indigenous people, and there's a promise of more to come. We will recap this week's inaction and also talk about the latest in hate crimes from London, Ontario.
Two Dose For Comfort. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) released their advice on vaccine second doses, and while they said that it's probably okay to mix and match different vaccine types, for now they're recommending to stick to the vaccine you got for the second dose. We will talk about the great inner monologue most of us are having: Get two vaccines of a kind or wait for that data about different doses?
Mad Teachers. It's the end of the school year, and despite a last minute invite from Doug Ford (and Arthur) to hold outdoor, in-person graduation events, Ontario's students are still going to finish the year at home. Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation president Harvey Bischof will join us this week to talk about the pressure on teachers this past 15 months, and the help they need when schools hopefully re-open in the fall.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we come back to reality. The movie this week will feel very familiar to everyone paying attention to the news, or just familiar with long term issues of systemic racism in the criminal justice system. We will get into all the messaging with this week's review, Monster, and we will also talk about the hits and (many) misses in the Summer of 1987.
This Wednesday, June 9, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Summer Lovin’ Part 5: 1987. The movies released in the summer of 1987 didn't exactly represent big money, and it didn't exactly represent a lot in the way of consistency. This was the summer of Ishtar, and Jaws: The Revenge, but it was also the summer of Robocop, Predator, The Untouchables, and The Lost Boys. It was also the summer of the most consequential Bigfoot movie ever made, and did the Care Bears go to Wonderland? They did...
REVIEW: Monster (2021). Sitting on the shelf for over three years since it premiered at Sundance, time has caught up with Monster. This drama, based on a novel of the same name, follows 17-year-old film student Steve, who is accused of being the lookout in bodega robbery-turned-murder, and finds himself a pinball in the criminal justice system despite his status as a sheltered kid of upper class parents. So it's timely, but is it any good? Can a good cast and a talented director make this more than another ripped-from-the-headlines courtroom drama?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
We used to have these quarterly check ups about transit issues, but the pandemic hit last March, and suddenly transit service was limited. Buses are still running on a reduced schedule, but now the City of Guelph is looking to the future, first with the Transportation Master Plan, and now with the review of a new 10-year plan for transit expansion. But how is all this sitting with transit fans?
Last time we had a Transit Pass, it was about this time last year and buses were still operating with only 10 people at a time. In the weeks that followed, masking allowed more people to get back on the bus, but the almost non-existent number of in-person classes at the University of Guelph drove a big whole in ridership and revenue. Staff has said that it could take Transit about two to three years to recover ridership post-pandemic.
Having said that, the City and Guelph Transit are looking to the future. There was the revelation of the draft Transportation Master Plan a few weeks ago at council, and now the City is collecting feedback about a proposed multi-year expansion and realignment of transit routes. The City wants 19 per cent more trips on modes of transportation other than single-occupancy vehicles, which sounds easy enough, but are these plans the best way to get more people on the bus?
Steve Petric, chair of the Transit Action Alliance of Guelph or TAAG, will join us to pursue this, and many other pressing transit questions. He will also talk about the the good news in the 10-year plan, the parts of the plan that still present challenges, and whether city council is going to be willing to proceed with all the ambitious changes. Also Petric will talk about what it’s like to take the bus these days, and whether we’ll need those two-to-three years to get ridership back on the proverbial track.
So let's strap in for the latest edition of the Transit Pass on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about the Transit Action Alliance of Guelph, go to their website. The City of Guelph is collecting feedback about the proposed changes to transit routes, and you can see those maps and documents at the City’s Have Your Say page. There’s also a town hall about the changes next Wednesday June 16 at 7 pm and you can follow along on the City’s Facebook page.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're at the anger stage of grief. The anger is directed at our bloody, complex past and the discovery of more crimes against Canada's Indigenous peoples, but it's also directed at some politicians in the United States who want to forget the recent past. After working through our grief, we will talk to Ontario's Liberal leader, and the fight he's getting ready for one year from today!
This Thursday, June 3, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Uncover Story. The news that a mass grave of Indigenous youths was discovered on the property of the old Kamloops Indian Residential School shocked the nation, and put Truth and Reconciliation back on the proverbial front burner. Now, more than six years after the TRC delivered its 94 recommendations, we're still lagging dangerously behind in creating equity with out Indigenous communities. So what happens next?
Court Authority. Last week, a vote to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate the Capitol insurrection on January 6 failed in the U.S. Senate. It's just one of several signs over the last few months that the American right isn't just moving towards authoritarianism, but are wholeheartedly embracing it. Can American democracy be salvaged, or are we doomed to watch the slow-motion coup from afar?
All About Steve. Wednesday marked the official one-year countdown to the 2022 Provincial Election, and although all the parties have a lot on the line, the real test will be for our special guest this week, Liberal leader Steven Del Duca. On the show this week, Del Duca will talk about what's at stake with the next election, his opinion of the government's latest pandemic moves, and his enthusiasm to win Guelph again for the red team.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we start the next two hundred episodes. Appropriately enough, our first movie back with #201 is a zombie movie, and the author is our old friend Zack Snyder. This week, we're going to enlist in the Army of the Dead, and before that, we will get back to re-living summer movie seasons of the past with a blast back to the 1980s.
This Wednesday, June 2, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Summer Lovin’ Part 4: 1986. After taking a break, we're back to re-visting the great summer movies of the past by traveling back in time 35 years to the Summer of 1986. It was a jam-packed four months at the box office with fighter jocks, alien attacks, rogue robots, serial killers, a surprising amount of martial arts mayhem, and don't forget the sequels. Once again, we will live vicariously in the multiplexes of yore and revisit happier summer memories.
REVIEW: Army of the Dead (2021). Zack Snyder's been a busy man, not only did he re-assemble his edit of Justice League this year, but he finished his next magnum opus, a return trip to the end of the world. The man who launched his movie career with the remake of Dawn of the Dead, rallies the zombies again for Army of the Dead. It's part gore-fest/part heist movie starring Dave Bautista as a soldier of fortune leading his team into zombified Vegas searching for $200 million in cash. So is this a return to form for Snyder, or is it just the cinematic living dead?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
We’ve kind of forgotten about paramedics, haven’t we? We’ve venerated the doctors and nurses in our hospitals, hailed the overworked and underpaid staff at long-term care homes, and made celebrities out of medical officers of health. In those terms, our paramedics have been the forgotten spoke in the wheel of healthcare this pandemic, so it’s a good thing that they have a whole week dedicated to their work.
Technically, Paramedic Services Week just wrapped up this past Saturday, but under the theory that it’s never too late to pay tribute to our heroes, we're going to talk to Chief Stephen Dewar from Guelph Wellington Paramedic Services on this week's podcast. In a time of pandemic, who else voluntarily walks into multiple homes and residential settings to perform medical services with the knowledge that they might be exposing themselves to a deadly virus?
Next week at Committee of the Whole, council will receive the 2020 performance statistics and information for Paramedic Services, and it turns out that they managed to meet their targets and even exceeded them in a couple of categories last year. That’s not surprising news, but it might be more surprising when you consider all the additional work that paramedics have been called upon to perform during the pandemic, not to mention the demands of the pandemic itself.
On this podcast, Chief Dewar will talk about how the service has maintained its response times, their new procedures because of COVID, and the mental health stresses caused by the pandemic. He will also talk about servicing a rapidly growing community like ours, and whether Paramedic Services is getting all the help it needs. And finally, he will talk about how the pandemic might have changed the delivery of emergency services forever, and what Dewar has learned about his job in the last year.
So let's talk about delivering emergency services on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Next week’s Committee of the Whole will receive the updated performance statistics for Paramedic Services. You can learn more about Guelph Wellington Pandemic Services at their page on the City’s website, and you can visit some of the great information from Paramedic Services Week at the Ontario Association of Paramedic Chiefs 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, you mark some momentous events. On the one hand, there's the first anniversary of the event that kicked off the greatest shift in Civil Rights in 50 years, and on the other there's Schrödinger's Summer Olympics, will they happen or won't they? In the back half of the show, we will mark the achievement of a tepid peace by hearing about the issues from those who know them best.
This Thursday, May 27, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
9 Minutes, 29 Seconds, and 1 Year Later. On Tuesday, it was the first anniversary of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. There's been a lot of protest, a lot of promises made, and while Chauvin was convicted, it still seems like there's a new story every week about police brutality against someone who's BIPOC. So what kind of year has it been since George Floyd died?
No-lympics? The countdown is on for the delayed Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but there's a growing sense among many Japanese people that this is a very bad idea. In the middle of a fourth wave of COVID-19, lagging in vaccine distribution, and forced to preemptively cancel in-person events, there's sufficient reason to rethink the start of the games in July, but is anyone going to listen to the voices of caution?
Voices for Palestine. Things are quiet in the Middle East now, a ceasefire has been arrange between Israel and Hamas, but things are still incendiary and the long-standing issues that led to the recent outburst of violence remain unsolved. A few weeks ago, a group of Guelphites gathered in Market Square to talk about some of those issues and concerns, and this week, we will lend our platform to those voices.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it's a cause for celebration. As you may have noticed above, this is the 200th episode of the show, a momentous event almost four years in the making. There have been a lot of changes on the show, some people have come and gone over the years, but the draw has always been the movies, and this week we remember the best of the best.
This Wednesday, May 26, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Top Five of the First 199. Congratulations, you lived long enough to hear the 200th episode of End Credits! It's all down hill from here. Before moving on to the future, we will stop and take account of the first 199 episodes with our Top 5 of the show so far. Each panelist, choosing only from the movies they've reviewed on the show, will reveal their Top 5 of End Credits. From Adam Sandler's Oscar-worthy acting to a killer clown in the sewer, from art and romance in 17th century France to art and romance in 20th century Atlantic Canada, let's toast our favourites from the first four years of the show!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
On Monday May 23, 1921, a small group of people gathered in a barn on the outskirts of Guelph to found the Communist Party of Canada. It was three years after the Russian Revolution, and there was already widespread concern about the spread of Marxist ideas, but economic stagnation, a global pandemic, and societal disillusionment post World War I made people hungry for some kind of change to the status quo. Sound familiar?
True, some things have not changed in the last century, but a hundred years ago 257 Metcalfe Street was the boonies, instead of the heart of Ward 2. On that day, lot of the people that came to Guelph for the founding of the Communist Party were already accustomed to being targeted by police and arrested for their political activism, but locals like Alderman Lorne Cunningham and Guelph Workingman’s Association member Fred Farley were there as well.
In the last century, it’s been hard to separate communism from the atrocities of Stalin, the anti-democratic actions of Castro in Cuba, and the still growing authoritarian tendencies in modern China. It makes running as the Communist Party candidate hard in the handful of ridings their candidates try to represent in Federal and Provincial elections, including Guelph. One person who knows that all too well is Tristan Dineen, a community activist, and the Communist Party candidate for Guelph in the 2015 election.
Dineen joins us this week to talk about why working with the Communist Party of Canada appealed to him, and why he’s running again in the next Federal Election. He will also talk about the misconceptions of the Communist Party, and how people currently working with the party have to answer for history. Plus, Dineen will discuss Guelph’s place in the history of the Communist Party, and whether there should be some form of official commemoration on this, the 100th anniversary of the party’s founding.
So let's talk about Guelph’s communist past, present and future (?) on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
The Communist Party of Canada will mark their 100th birthday in a virtual event they’re live streaming online at 1:30 pm on Sunday May 30 at their YouTube channel. You can read Terry Pender’s article about the founding of the Communist Party in Guelph at the Waterloo Region Record’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 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we've got repeats. We have some new developments on previously covered stories from conflict in the Middle East to conflict inside our own Canadian Forces that keeps getting more concerning. In the back half of the show, we're going to cover transportation, housing, and municipal budgeting in a tight 22 minutes with our guest from Guelph City Hall.
This Thursday, May 20, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Something's Gaza Give. The violence in Israel and the occupied territories has not gotten better since we talked about it last week. On Saturday, a building housing foreign media was bombed to get at a supposed Hamas hideout inside, but in front of the eyes of the world, it was another example of the disproportional power dynamic that's seen hundreds of Palestinians killed, injured or displaced. So what now?
Fortin the Road. The twin crises of the COVID-19 pandemic and misconduct in the Canadian Forces combined this week as Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, the head of Canada's vaccine rollout, stepped aside aside after the media uncovered an allegation of sexual misconduct against Fortin, and it turns out that he might have a long history of misconduct that the Forces was sitting on. Is their no bottom to the debauchery?
Mike & Volley. It's been a busy time at Guelph City Council, and there's a lot to catch up on. Helping us sort out current events this week is Ward 4 City Councillor Mike Salisbury, who will join us to talk about the City's latest efforts to address homelessness in our community, Monday's workshop about the move to multi-year budgeting, and the meeting coming up next week about Guelph's new Transportation Master Plan.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're getting excited! Look at the top line to see why, but next week is going to be a pretty big episode of the show. In the meantime, we've got something big for this week's show, monsters! We're going to review the post-apocalyptic romance fantasy Love & Monsters, and we're going to rewind to the very busy summer of 1985 in our wayback segment.
This Wednesday, May 19, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Summer Lovin’ Part 3: 1985. In our revisit of great summer movie seasons of the past, we've made it to the middle of the 80s. The blockbuster mentality has been firmly established, and in 1985, a common theme involved young kids going on big adventures to space, with robots, with pirate ships buried under their town. It was the summer of the Future, and it was the Day of the Dead plus so much more. Let us revisit the jam-packed movie season from the summer of '85!
REVIEW: Love & Monsters (2020). We all know what it's like to spend a lot of time inside. We know what's like to be locked down, stuck with the same people, and getting uncomfortably close because of some existential threat outside. But what if instead of COVID-19, it was mutated monsters? That's kind of the gist behind Love & Monsters, a new Netflix hit about a nebbish young man willing to cross a monster-filled Earth to find the girlfriend he thought he lost, and do some personal growth in the process. But is it any good as a movie?
Programming Note: Next week is End Credits' 200th episode spectacular! Join the whole panel as we tackle the Top 5 movies we've review during the first 199 episodes of the show!!!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The last time that Dr. Nicola Mercer was on the show, we were on the downward slide from the second wave, the vaccine rollout was moving slowly, and there was a vague hopefulness for a brighter spring. Now, it’s almost summer, the third wave is still strong, but progress is being made to get more people shots, but even that move has had very public hiccups that are crying out for an in-depth discussion.
When it comes to the vaccine rollout, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health has done very well. As of this week, more than half of the region has received one dose of the three distributed vaccines, which, depending on the day, is either keeping pace with the provincial and national vaccine rollout, or exceeding it. But even when things are running smoothly with the vaccines, there are problems, and last week there was a big one.
When Ontario decided to discontinue the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine as a first dose, the Government of Ontario said it was done out of an abundance of caution due to vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia, or VITT, but the price of caution was concern. People were concerned about the efficacy of the vaccines, and concerned about the advice of public health. We need to talk to a doctor, so we got one for this week's episode of the podcast.
Associate medical officer of health for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health Dr. Matthew Tenenbaum joins us this week to talk about the issues around AstraZeneca’s vaccine, and how you know that you’re having a normal reaction to it. Dr. Tenenbaum will also debunk some of the talking points from the vaccine hesitancy file, talk about what the COVID case numbers tell us, and how sure he is that we will have a semi-normal fall. Plus, we'll talk about the future, and lessons learned from the pandemic.
So let's catch-up about COVID-19 with Dr. Tenenbaum on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can see Dr. Tenenbaum’s statement about the discontinued use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for the first dose on the WDG Public Health website, and while you're there, you can also get all the latest data about COVID-19 and the vaccine rollout. And it should go without saying, but if it doesn’t, if you’re 12 years old or over, you can pre-register to receive a COVID-19 vaccine right now!!
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, things get complicated. At home, we're going to try and unwind the complex string of motivations behind new government regs for tech companies, and the even more complex political and religious motivations behind the last violence in the Middle East. In the back half of the show, our local MPP will stop by to talk about the intricate random web of the provincial fight against COVID-19.
This Thursday, May 13, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
C-10ic Panic. You may have heard about Bill C-10, and have been confused by some of the discourse. Is the Federal government trying to regulate the YouTube page where you review frozen pizza? Not directly. The intention was to bring steamers under the CRTC fold, but things have gotten so much more complicated than that, and there's not a lot of trust that the Federal government knows what it's doing. So what's next?
Rocket's Dread Glare. In the last week, tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in East Jerusalem have erupted in some of the worst violence seen in this part of the region in years. Dozens of people on both sides have been killed or injured as protests led to violence which led to an exchange of rocket fire, and all this as the current Israeli prime minister is still under a cloud of corruption. Can there be a resolution?
A Green Lantern. By this time next week we will definitely know if the stay-at-home order will be extended for another couple of weeks (as advised by the Science Table), but why not announce things before the last minute? That's one of the questions we'll ask Green Party of Ontario leader and Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner on this week's show as we talk about the ongoing issues with the Provincial government's pandemic response.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to loosen up our thumbs and get out our controllers because we're digging up the ghosts of video games past with the newly rebooted Mortal Kombat movie. That sounds like a summer flick, but since we have no summer movie releases of our own, we will once again be forced to dip into the past with another 80s recap!
This Wednesday, May 12, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Summer Lovin’ Part 2: 1984. In lieu of the latest summer movies, we again journey back to summer movie seasons of the past, and this week we will look back at the Summer of 1984. From baseball movies to Spock, from the return of the man with the hat to the receipt of both gremlins and ghosts on the same weekend, the Summer of '84 had something for everyone, and we'll remember it all. We may not have our summer movies, but we still have the 80s!
REVIEW: Mortal Kombat (2021). If you were a kid in the 90s, you probably spent hours at the arcade or in front of the TV playing a game featuring monsters and superhumans fighting for the fate of humanity in a martial arts tournament. That's Mortal Kombat in a nutshell, and it's already been realized well in what's arguably the best video game adaptation every made, the 1995 Paul W.S. Anderson film. But 25 years later, can the je ne sais quoi of Mortal Kombat be updated for modern times? In other words, does the remake deliver a "Flawless Victory"?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
These days, more and more people have used the pandemic to discover new creative resources, while professional artists have struggled to earn a living without access to the live venues and events from which they usually collect the majority of their income. From new programs to virtual events, it’s been a long, hard road for the Guelph Arts Council for the last 15 months, and it’s not over yet.
The Guelph Arts Council has been around since 1975. It's reportedly one of the first institutions of its kind in Ontario, and if you’ve been to an artsy event in Guelph, then chances are that the GAC had a hand in it at some point. From helping artist groups to get established, to sponsoring new shows and festivals, to being a natural place for emerging artists to network with established colleagues, the GAC has been essential to the arts in Guelph, and that hasn't changed.
In the last year, the GAC had to establish an entirely new way of doing things. Signature events like Art on the Street had to move on line, their annual historical walks had to be limited to a few people masked and physically distant, and they had to hustle to ensure that money and support still flowed to artists whose various revenue streams dried up. The logistics are mind boggling, so let’s hear about the logistics from the person who knows about the balancing act, the GAC's executive director Patti Broughton.
In this week's podcast, Broughton will talk about the effect of the pandemic on the local arts scene, and whether the pandemic might be a net positive with so many people discovering new artistic talents. She will also talk about how the GAC had to adapt to the pandemic, and how programs and events might be changed forever once things go back to “normal.” And finally, Broughton will discuss the council's new online arts hub, and how it's still a busy time in Guelph's vibrant arts scene despite the lockdown.
So let's talk about the fine art of surviving the pandemic in this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Guelph Arts Council at their website, and all over social media. The new artist hub will be posted sometime later this summer, but in the meantime, you can check out the Collector’s Dilemma fundraiser here until May 20, and for all future virtual Arts Council events, visit the calendar page of their website 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 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're coming down from May Day, Star Wars Day, and Cinco de Mayo. The news week was almost as busy with provincial pandemic politics this week focused on the long-term care enigma, and the conundrum of anti-lockdown protestors. Federally, the sexual misconduct story in the military keeps getting bigger, and then there's this other big education story in northern Ontario...
This Thursday, May 6, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Care Bares. Last week, there were two reports about long-term care in Ontario, and they both said the same thing: the province got caught with their pants down at the start of the pandemic, and a lot more people died in care because of those shortcomings. The minister in charge of the file, Dr. Merrilee Fullerton, tried to respond this week, and let's just say it didn't go very well. Have any lessons been learned from these reports?
Lonely Trinity. The Ontario attorney general's office forced the doors of Trinity Bible Chapel closed last weekend. It was the first time that this church, which routinely flaunts stay at home orders and capacity limits, was pre-emptively acted against by local authorities who have been too often skittish about taking action against lockdown scofflaws. Is that tune finally changing, and what happens this coming weekend in Waterloo?
Conduct Disorder. The Federal government's problems ridding the Canadian Forces of sexual misconduct keep adding up. This week, it was the head of the military intelligence school that was forced to resign, while the opposition have called on the Justin Trudeau's chief of staff Katie Telford to resign over the mixed messaging about how much the PMO knew about these deep routed problems. We'll try to sort out the mess.
College Tumor. While all universities and colleges in the province are struggling with the financial pressures of the pandemic, Laurentian University has filed for creditor protection. With liabilities of over $300 million, Laurentian has slashed its educational programs in response by chopping 58 undergrad programs, 11 grad programs, and 116 teaching positions. How did this happen, and can Laurentian be saved?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to get spooky again! It's been a while since we tackled a good, old fashioned ghost story (unless dead malls count), but we're going to make up for lost time with the new streaming hit Things Heard & Seen. It's not exactly breezy summer viewing, but we're also going to talk about the good old days of going to the movies in summer time.
This Wednesday, May 5, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Summer Lovin' Part 1: 1982. Normally, this Friday would be the start of the summer movie season and the first of a long, string of blockbusters consisting of animated flicks, franchise entries, and tonnes of sequels. So if we can't have a regular summer season, then let's live vicariously in the past. To kick things off this week, we're going to go back in time nearly 40 years for the first great summer of sci-fi!
REVIEW: Things Seen & Heard (2021). It's another Netflix haunted house movie! This time, it's the Hudson River Valley in 1980 and a cursed farmhouse that's now the new home for an art professor and his wife. Amanda Seyfriend and James Norton play the couple, and while their new setting is idyllic. their marriage is far from being so. It's not exactly the best time to start dealing with a ghostly presence in their lives, but what about we, the audience? is this a good time, or are we going to bust this ghost story?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
In May 2, 2011, it was the 41st general federal election. That was the day that Stephen Harper won his first and only majority government, and while that did shake up the normal political order, it was not the only thing that happened that day to reverberate in Canadian political culture. Remember Pierre Poutine? Remember Robocalls? Well this is the day for a little political unsolved mystery.
On Election Day 20211, thousands of people around Guelph received a robocall telling them that their polling place had been changed to the Shops of Old Quebec Street downtown. This was, to use the modern parlance, “Fake news.” We don’t know how many people fell for it, but we know that some people did. We also don’t many know how many ridings this and similar schemes happened in, but it was at list six, and likely dozens more.
But Guelph was where everything would come to a head, and it was the only place that someone would ever pay a price for the crime. At some point, the name of a young Conservative staffer named Michael Sona was leaked to the media, and that become the only name. Several years later, Sona was charged and convicted for the Guelph robocall, and he’s been the only person to have ever been taken to court for it even though the convicting judge said in his decision that Sona hadn’t acted alone.
The fact of the matter is that this is something that could happen again tomorrow. There was no hacking required, or state-sponsored cyber security apparatus, and on top of that, the perpetrators know that there’s not much in the way of legal deterrents. So this week’s show will remember that fateful day ten years ago, and the political controversy it launched, and there is no greater local resource on this than Susan Watson who's spent much of last 10 years trying to make sure we never forget May 2, 2011.
So let's gig into the unanswered questions from the Robocall scandal on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can revisit the coverage of the Robocall scandal, but you may have to call up the old Blogspot version of Guelph Politico in order to find it. If you would rather watch the movie version, you can rent Peter Smoczynski’s documentary E-Day Canada: When Voter Suppression Came Calling for $3.99 on Vimeo.
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.
Photo Credit: Press conference demanding further action on the robocall investigation in 2015.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we don't have anything snappy to say. The pandemic is getting way out of control in India, and we desperately need a response. Meanwhile, in the United States, where the virus used to be out of control, the POTUS took a sort of victory lap. We'll talk about that, and we'll talk to a member of the provincial NDP caucus from a neighbouring riding about the Ontario angle.
This Thursday, April 29, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
India's Sorrow. In the space of just a few weeks, India has become the world's COVID hotspot, with thousands of new cases per day, hundreds of people putting pressure on ICUs, and 24/7 business for local funeral homes. How did this happen? It's complicated, but getting India out of this COVID death spiral might be equally difficult. We'll talk about the Indian pandemic, how the world's responding, and the effects here in Canada.
Joe-mentum. On the 99th day of his presidency, President Joe Biden gave his first address to a joint session of Congress, or at least as much of a joint session as possible given pandemic restrictions. Biden is riding high on early successes, but he will soon be tested on all manner of issues including infrastructure, police reform, and gun violence. Can "No Drama Biden" continue his winning under-promise/over-deliver strategy?
Lindo of Opportunity. There's been a lot of drama at Queen's Park lately, and it's been reflected in the sometimes random-seeming pandemic response on the part of the Provincial government. From the official opposition benches this week, we're joined by Kitchener Centre MPP Laura Mae Lindo, who will talk about sick days, anti-lockdown protests, being an MPP and a single parent, and how even she gets confused following the Ford government's plan of attack on COVID.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going high-brow and low-brow. We're going to review the new comedy Bad Trip, which, yes, is a double entendre, but is the Bad Trip, really a bad trip, or is it a good trip? Is this Inception? We'll find out, and we'll also talk about this year's Oscars ceremony, which was very different, but still somehow managed to court controversy.
This Wednesday, April 28, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Golden Moments. The Oscars took place last weekend, and it was a perfect show. Ha! Of course, it wasn't. No Oscars show is perfect, but this year's show was definitely interesting. The show was filmed at Union Station in L.A., it was a small crowd, there were no elaborate musical numbers or gags, and there were surprises. We'll run down the pros and cons of this year's Oscars ceremony.
REVIEW: Bad Trip (2021). We've seen so many movies where two best friends get in a car and go on a road trip with comedic results. But consider this: two friends from Florida go on a road trip to New York City and enjoy some hilarious hijinks, but while those actors know they're making a movie, no one else will. Part road movie, part prank show, Bad Trip offers a lot of comedic gold, and a lot of cringe-worthy moments, but how well does it manage the two parts of its personality, and did those people really think they were looking at a real gorilla?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
As you may have noticed, it’s a tough time out there for businesses, and a tougher time for businesses run by Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Colour. No one knows that better than Chidi Nwene because he talked to BIPOC-owned businesses to discuss their struggles in this third wave of the pandemic. What he learned was not necessarily surprising, but it still needs to be said.
Nwene literally went door-to-door to talk to business owners for a project he called “On the Streets of Guelph” and what he discovered about the immediate future of small businesses, especially the ones run by people from marginalized groups, is difficult to accept. While they might be able to survive the pandemic, they might not be able to rebuild their businesses and get to the supposed post-pandemic economic boom that’s coming.
Business and community are what Nwene is all about. Through his day job, he helps businesses diversify and work towards environmental sustainability, and when he’s not got his mind on business, he’s working as a community activist. Nwene has had a couple of different roles including a seat on the Community Grant Allocation Panel, and as Social Justice Co-ordinator for the Guelph EDA of the Green Party.
This week, Nwene will lend us his experience as he talks about the problems that BIPOC-run businesses are facing, and how those business owners are facing different challenges when compared to White businesses owners despite the same lockdown. He will also talk about what recovery might look like, and how many of those businesses might not be around long enough to enjoy it. And finally, Nwene will tell us about his work developing the social justice platform for the Green Party.
So let's talk about the pandemic struggle for BIPOC businesses is the topic on this week’s Guelph Politicast
If you would like to help out locally owned Black businesses, you can find a directory for local connections here, while the Guelph Market has a list of products created by BIPOC people, and the Guelph Chamber of Commerce has a list of diversity and inclusion resources, which you can find here. Also, the #ChangeStartsNow Anti-Racism Summit takes place this weekend virtually.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we can't handle all the drama at Queen's Park. There are a lot of juicy stories coming out of the Ontario Legislature this week, but who can keep track of it all? So let's go to Parliament Hill, where they delivered a budget after a 25-month hiatus, and then we'll head stateside for a talk about social justice. After the break? Back to Ottawa, and a chat with China's most hated Canadian!
This Thursday, April 22, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Two Years a Budget. For the first time in two years, the Federal government delivered a formal budget, and for the first ever, the new shoes bought for the Finance Minister came in a woman's size. Chrystia Freeland announced all kinds of new spending meant to finish the fight against the pandemic, and thanks to Jagmeet Singh it seems unlikely that this budget is going to force an election. So what all was in the budget?
Three Strikes. In a move that was somehow both expected and surprising, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on all three counts stemming from his murder George Floyd last summer. So justice is served, right? Not if you ask 2nd Lt. Caron Nazario, or Daunte Wright, who was shot and killed a short drive from where Chauvin was on trial. Where does the fight for equal justice go next?
Chong on China. Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong has been hitting China so hard lately, they actually sanctioned him. As the Foreign Affairs critic on the Conservative bench, Chong has pushed against China on a variety of causes whether it's the Uyghur genocide, or the continued detainment of the Two Michaels. Chong will join us this week to talk about all of that, plus how we can be critical of China without stoking ant-Asian racism at home.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we will go to the mall. But you say it's not open because of the lockdown. Well that would be true in real life, but in screen life going to the mall is as easy as calling up your Amazon Prime app. This week, we're going to check out the documentary Jasper Mall and also give a few Oscar predictions.
This Wednesday, April 21, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Pete Salmon will discuss:
Best Bets. The Oscars are happening this Sunday and the event itself will look will differently, but one thing will stay the same: there will be winners, and there will be a great many losers. In our last show before the big night, we will take the cover off the official End Credits crystal ball and consider the ones who will win, and the ones who are probably better suited to win if the Academy watched movies with their eyes open.
REVIEW: Jasper Mall (2020). Guelph's own Stone Road Mall has shown incredible resiliency, but not all malls are as lucky. The titular mall in Jasper Mall is one of the unlucky ones. Filmmakers Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb spent a year chronicling the slow decline of Jasper Mall after it lost two anchor tenants, and follows the workers, entrepreneurs and characters who are now spending their days trying to save it. Is Jasper Mall a valuable time capsule about the seismic shift in commercial commerce, or is it just scenes from a mall?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Belleville is a little bigger than one-third the size of Guelph, but next month we’re going somewhere that Belleville’s been for a while. Since the invention of public transit, it’s been run simply by posting a map, scheduling the stops, and running buses and trains with regularity. It was static, it was predictable, and it was the simplest way we knew how to run a transit system. But is all that about to change?
Like Guelph, Belleville has a thriving local cultural base, a beloved local junior hockey team, and a very active student population thanks to Loyola College. They also have transit issues like we do. They needed to provide service to people at off hours, and they didn’t have the capacity to run a conventional service at times like Sunday evening. So what do you do? In Belleville, the answer came in the form of an experiment: on-demand transit.
The Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC) proposed that Belleville team up with the Toronto-based software company Pantonium to give their on-demand transit software a shakedown. It turns out that there was an app for that: tell it where you are, tell it where you’re going, and the bus will come and get you and drop you off. It worked so well for that Belleville Transit started to roll it out to fill other holes in their system, but is it everything it’s made out to be?
Belleville Transit General Manager Paul Buck thinks it is, and this week he'll tell you why. Buck will take us through the mechanics of an on-demand transit system, how it works, and what the buses are doing while waiting for someone to book a ride. Buck will also discuss how on-demand has changed transit service in Belleville, and how on-demand transit ended up helping Belleville Transit weather the pandemic’s effects on its budget better than other services. Plus, the future!
Let's talk about the pros and potential cons of on-demand transit on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Belleville Transit, their on-demand service and their entire transit operation at the City of Belleville website here. You can also follow them on Twitter @BUSBELLEVILLE. You can now get the details about Guelph Transit’s implementation of on-demand bus service at their website 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 iTunes, 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we have really mastered the art of covering politics virtually. We start the show with the latest news from the third wave of the pandemic, and then pivot to the online-only policy conventions for two of the major Federal parties from last weekend. After that, we will be joined by another member of Guelph City Council thanks to the power of Zoom. Who is it? Let's find out!
This Thursday, April 15, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
"There's no confusion." When the premier of the province has to say that, at a press conference, you can probably bet there's some confusion out there. Between vaccine delays when there are hundreds of thousands of doses in freezers, to the friction over the latest lockdown measures, the persistence of the variants, and outside pressures on vaccine viability, we may be in the most precarious phases of the pandemic yet. What happens next?
Zoom-topia. The Liberals and the NDP both held their party policy conventions last weekend. The Liberal con was a relatively smooth affair with star candidates and the usual platitudes, while the NDP declared war on the wealthy with talk of a wealth tax and a $20 minimum wage but with well-covered technical disruptions. We will look at both conventions and talk about who made the best case that they're election ready.
Pick Up Six. Ward 6 Councillor Dominique O'Rourke was one of the last people we had in studio before the start of the pandemic, and this week she will join us in the new normal via Zoom to talk about the blame game by small businesses against the City for the lockdown, the pending redrawing of the ward map, and the ongoing traffic issues in the south of the city. Plus, we'll discuss this week's vote on the Parkview supportive housing project.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're all on lockdown here in Ontario, but we're going to hit the road in spirit. Unable to travel ourselves, we will live vicariously this week through the titular characters of Nomadland, and since this is an Oscar-nominee, we will consider all the movies that were also looking good in awards season, but never got their just desserts.
This Wednesday, April 14, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The Snub Club. It's Oscar time in just a few weeks, but as we all know, the movie or person that wins the Oscar is not always necessarily "the best." Before the main review this week, we're going to do a little back-tracking into Oscar history to talk about some of those times that the wrong people walked away with a trophy, and all the people that went home empty handed when they really shouldn't have.
REVIEW: Nomadland (2021). This is the movie that's most likely to win Best Picture and Best Director at this year's Oscars, but does it deserve it? Director Chloe Zhao spins an inspired-by-real-life tale about the people who, out of desire or circumstance, set out in vans or RVs on the roads across America, discovering something about their country and themselves in the process. It's a story that's as hopeful as it is difficult, with great performances by experienced and first-time actors, but is it good enough to win gold?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The most dramatic cultural shift of the pandemic has not been “care-mongering”, or an appreciation of essential workers, it’s been the growing number of people who believe that the things we all see and hear are fake, and reality is something entirely different. With the province locked down again, these groups have found a curious new ally: small business owners. So now what happens?
This past Saturday, some 60 people marched through downtown Guelph to support small businesses forced to close again in the lockdown. It’s a laudable goal, and important, but among the people looking to raise voices for shoppes and restaurants were anti-vaxxers. The government has made it known that the road back to normalcy is paved with vaccines, so if stores are ever going to re-open, people need to get shots. So how did these two groups team-up for one protest?
Last year, as conspiracies started to move from the dark web to mainstream, Dan Collen started to take note. Then, when the proprietor of a Toronto-based barbeque joint openly defied public health orders last fall, turning his restaurant into a Mecca for the “Hugs Over Masks” crowd and other conspiracists in the process, Collen was among the people to cast a light on the intersection of business and disinformation. With recent events, it seems like a good time to cast some light on that again.
On this episode of the podcast, Collen will lend us his flashlight to look at his efforts to expose conspiracy theorists, and consider just how many of them are true believers and how many are just opportunists. He also talk about the process by which people get radicalized, and how legitimate causes are getting hijacked by misinformation peddlers. And finally, he will discuss how anti-masking leads to more dangerous right-wing ideologies, and what might happen to these groups once the pandemic is over.
Let's talk (again) about fighting conspiracies is the topic on this week’s Guelph Politicast.
You can read Dan Collen's work at Vice News, and on his Medium page. You can also follow him on social media on Instagram and on Twitter.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we come down off the post-Easter chocolate high with a very busy news week. We've got some mixed messages here in Ontario about the latest COVID restrictions, and there's controversy in Ottawa with allegations of gross (and gross) misconduct. From the U.S., we've got a pretty big trial happening across the lakes right now, and there's this guy from Florida...
This Thursday, April 8, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Hurt Lockdown. Last Thursday, Premier Doug Ford announced that Ontario will be locking down again... sort of. The move was greeted with near universal derision with some medical professionals saying that the lockdown was too soft, and others noting that there needs to be a concentration of vaccine distribution at workplaces and schools. We'll talk about the latest from the third wave of the pandemic.
Trial By Fury. The trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer charged with killed George Floyd last summer, has been unfolding for the last two weeks, and the prosecution has been making a convincing case of Chauvin's guilt complete with members of the Minneapolis force testifying against their former colleague. Will justice be served this time, or will the Blue Wall hold and keep Chauvin out of prison, and then what?
Army of Stun. There's been a controversy under the radar with the Canadian Forces, accusations that the highest levels of the military and the Ministry of Defence ignored repeated reports of sexual misconduct and abuse. This is not great, and it's not great for either this moment of social reckoning, or a prime minister that claims to be a "feminist", so is this the moment everything changes, or will we end up back at the status quo?
Gaetz-gate. You may have heard of Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, a man who's tied his sail to Donald Trump by being a bloviating partisan hack without a single legislative accomplishment to his name. It turns out that Gaetz and Trump have more in common that it originally appeared with the former now under Federal investigation for a variety of sex crimes. We'll close out the show with a very special schadenfreude segment.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to get out our singing voices. We're tuning up another bio-pic, Oscar-nominated drama with a great central performance, and it's called The United States Vs. Billie Holiday. Before that, we will dig into the latest in the collection of movie news from giant monsters, giant sequels, and giant disappointments(?).
This Wednesday, April 7, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Monster Cache. This week, Godzilla Vs. Kong was released online and in theatres where they're open (which is not Ontario), and it turns out that they weren't just saving the world, they were saving the box office! The effect of that monster mash on the box office is among the news items this week, plus the success of the Snyder Cut, a brand new Space Jam trailer, and the end of the OG Space Jam website.
REVIEW: The United States Vs. Billie Holiday (2021). You had probably never heard about Andra Day before she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress for this movie, but there's no doubt that she owns as the legendary Miss Day in The United States Vs. Billie Holiday. The movie sits at the intersection of social justice issues, the history of the War on Drugs, and the usual needs of a musical bio-pic around the life of Billie Holiday, so can director Lee Daniels possibly carry that weight and deliver a movie that's as promising as its lead?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The State of the City is hosted annually by the Chamber of Commerce, a chance for businesses to network with each other, talk about what they're doing, and then hear from the mayor about the latest selling points of the city from 1 Carden Street. This year, there was the usual positive spin, but the long shadow of COVID was everywhere, so what is the State of the City according to the mayor?
Usually, the State of the City event is held in the Delta Hotel and Conference Centre, and it comes with breakfast. You can catch up with old friends, make some new friends and then here the mayor talk about the success and challenges at City Hall. Along the way, the mayor will also lay out his or her vision for the coming year, inspirational and aspirational ideas meant to sell Guelph's appeal to the people that sell Guelph.
But how do you sell Guelph in the era of COVID? That was going to be one of the many challenges of this year's State of the City for Mayor Cam Guthrie. The speech was made in early February at the tail end of the last lockdown, and there was already a sense of ennui and struggle because of the pandemic's persistence. So perhaps now is a good time to revisit the speech, which speaks to our resolve, but also speaks to kindness and hopefulness.
So this week on the podcast, we will replay Mayor Guthrie's 2021 State of the City, which, unlike previous speeches, was off the cuff from a long list of issue headings instead of the immaculately prepared talking points plus props and a theme. Guthrie touches on the local pandemic response, struggling to get help from upper level's government, working to solve homelessness and the opioid crisis, and the City's efforts to address last summer’s reckoning around social justice and racism.
So let's recap the State of the City on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can revisit the coverage from this year's State of the City back in February here and here, and you can also revisit Mayor Guthrie’s most recent appearance on this podcast back in December 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 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.
The original April Fools are back this week with another episode of Open Sources Guelph. We would love to spend the hour making jokes and pulling pranks, but there's some serious stuff to talk about. We will look at the ever changing pandemic response provincially, and the growing trend of Anti-Asian hate that's even affected our community. After the break, it's back to the patio with another Guelph city councillor.
This Thursday, April 1, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
It's Still a Pandemic. A confluence of COVID-related crises afflict us heading into the Easter long weekend. New cases are increasing and about half of those new cases are variants, vaccines are slowly rolling out and there's some confusion about who's to blame, AstroZeneca's got issues again or this may just be more extreme cautiousness, and March April Break might be cancelled all together! We'll try and sort it out.
Racism Stripes. From the streets of Guelph and one woman out walking her dog, to the streets of New York City were a senior was shoved down and repeatedly kicked in the head while people stood by and watched, Anti-Asian racism is real, and it's getting nastier. Is this really about frustration with the pandemic, or is that just a convenient excuse? Can we stop this new racist violence before someone is killed under boot?
Party Downer. This week, Guelph City Council made the decision to allow for street closures for downtown patios on weekends only this summer. It's a decision that will likely please no one, which means it's probably the right kind of compromise, but it was not a compromise that was easily reached. Ward 5 Councillor Cathy Downer will join us to talk about her vote, her concerns, and her definition of success for this year's patio program.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to #ReleasetheCutasUsual. It's not exactly the sexiest hashtag, but it's apropos because we are releasing the show like usual, but this show is about the so-called #SnyderCut of Justice League. If you like that, you might also like our list of other movies with their own #ReleaseInsertNameCut.
This Wednesday, March 31, at 4 pm*, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Cuts Above the Rest. In honour of this week's review, we're going to talk about Director's and Extended Edits of movies. It's not a new idea. From time to time, studios and directors have had different ideas about the direction of movies, or a director's just powerful enough to say, "Why not more?" and make it happen. This week, we will look at some of the most feel known extended editions.
REVIEW: Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021). In 2017, a titanic battle unfurled on the big screen, but it was not between the Justice League and the legions of an alien army, it was between the contrasting visions of Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon. Free of Whedon and studio interference, Snyder restored the superhero film to his original vision thanks to a successful fan campaign. There's been a lot of positive buzz about the so-called "Snyder Cut", but is this movie really a superhero vision people want to see?
*End Credits airs at a special time this week due to International Trans Day of Visibility programming.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Over 15 per cent of our region has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, which means that we are slowly but surely putting the pandemic behind us. But once everyone’s gotten a shot, there’s going to be an even longer term recovery project to consider, which is how we will mentally recover from the pandemic. The last great COVID-19 health crisis will be fought inside each of us. Are we prepared?
Earlier this month, the Homewood Research Institute announced a new fellowship designed to train people to assist first responders and healthcare workers with trauma-related illnesses. The new program will support research into the diagnosis, treatment and recovery of post-traumatic stress injuries (PTSI), and as you can imagine, there is probably going to be a lot of that in the years and decades to come as we begin the mental recovery from the pandemic.
If the job is to research trauma and PTSI, then Dr. McKinnon is exactly the right person for the task. She’s the Associate Co-Chair of Research and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University. She’s also a Clinical Neuropsychologist with the Mood Disorders Program and Academic Head of Research for Mood and Anxiety Disorders Division at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton, plus she's the Homewood Chair in Mental Health and Trauma. She knows a lot about trauma, and she's going to share that with us.
So in this edition of the podcast, Dr. McKinnon talk about the various ways trauma can manifest itself, and the trauma being inflicted on first responders and doctors as they continue to fight COVID-19 ever day. She will also discuss how we need to start planning for the mental health recovery from the pandemic, how to be aware if you or someone in your life might be having a hard time processing trauma, and how her personal experience with trauma made her a better researcher.
Let's tackle the health and science of treating trauma on this week’s Guelph Politicast.
You can learn more about Dr. McKinnon's research at the McMaster University faculty page, you can learn about the research being done through St. Joseph’s Healthcare here, and you can learn more about the research being done at Homewood Health Centre here. You can also follow Dr. McKinnon on Twitter.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're having Canada Day three months early. Sort of. Our topics this week are all Canada-centric, from the provincial where we just got a new Ontario Budget just six months after the last one, to the national where the Official Opposition might have failed to make a case that anything has changed. After that, we've got the update on the Two Michaels and some museum chat(?).
This Thursday, March 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
'21 For the Money. For the second time in about six months, Ontario will deliver a budget. The 2021-2022 Ontario budget outlined some new spending to combat COVID-19 and assist in pandemic recovery, but if the last two Doug Ford government budgets have been any indication, the Devil is going to be in the details. We will break down those budget details, and talk about what they mean for Ontarians everywhere.
O'Toole Time. Last weekend, Conservative leader Erin O'Toole re-launched his leadership and the Conservative bid to become the next Government of Canada by looking to the future, but then the party voted against a line that would acknowledge that climate change is real. Not a great sign for a party that says it knows it has to change to appeal to more Canadians, so can the Conservatives stop tripping over themselves?
Drop the Michaels. This past week in China, both Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were put on trail in Beijing for espionage charges, and in typical Chinese fashion, these were secret trials. The verdicts have not yet been revealed, but the outcomes are inevitable, and so is the ever intensifying situation between Canada, China, and other international powers. Are the Michaels ever coming home?
Days and Nights at the Museum. This week, CFRU launched an exhibit at the Guelph Civic Museum to mark 40 years of broadcasting out of the University of Guelph. For four decades CFRU has been delivering new, diverse, eccentric, and eclectic programming meant to appeal to wide and niche audiences in the Royal City. To finish up this week's show, we will talk about why community radio and independent media still matters.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, things are going to get especially disturbing. Our review this week is an Oscar-nominee, and a timely one at that. We're going to talk about Promising Young Woman, and there's so much to talk about with this movie. For a bit of fun though, we're going to kick off the first part of the show on a theme with a list of revenge movies.
This Wednesday, March 24, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Scorecard with a Vengeance. Are you aware of the old Klingon proverb that says revenge is a dish best served cold. Over the years, Hollywood has served up many, many cold dishes indeed. From an architect at his wit's end with 70s crime in New York, to a genetically enhanced despot on the edge of known space, we will count off 10 of the greatest, and sometimes funnest, revenge movies.
REVIEW: Promising Young Woman (2020). There's nothing new about the revenge thriller (see above), but there's something very different about Promising Young Woman. The Oscar-nominated film by Emerald Fennell is about one woman's attempt to get justice for her friend, a victim of sexual assault, but the course by which she gets there is thought-provoking, disturbing, and leaves you with a lot of assumptions questioned. Carey Mulligan leads a great cast in what may be one of the most difficult and satisfying movies this awards season.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You may remember Xinyi, a Chinese glass manufacturer that wanted to try and build a plant just next door in Guelph/Eramosa Township. All but one of the township's councillors rejected the proposal in the wake of wide-spread public outcry about the effect on the local environment, especially the water supply, and that seemed to be the end of that. It wasn't. The story then moved to Stratford.
Last fall, it was announced that Xinyi was trying again in the Festival City, and this time they had a Ministerial Zoning Order in hand. Typically, and MZO is meant to be used in the event of an emergency, or for projects of provincial significance, but according to Environmental Defence, more MZOs were handed out in 2020 than in the previous 20 years combined. One of those MZOs was intended for Xinyi's new plant.
MZOs have been the great boogeyman for activists lately as they override the normal planning processes and timelines, and Stratford is just one of the places that is fighting back. An organization called Get Concerned Stratford organized, even though the Xinyi plant seemed like a done deal, but they still demonstrated, petitioned, delegated, and they forced Xinyi to put the entire project on pause. So does this mean public pressure still works?
Melissa Verspeeten, who is a member and spokesperson for Get Concerned Stratford, will help us figure that out on this week's podcast. She will talk about her beginnings as an activist, and the political and planning conditions in Stratford that led to this project being proposed in the first place. Verspeeten will also talk about the difficulty in getting materials on the project, and Xinyi’s attempts to discredit Get Concerned. She will also discuss the future of her group, and what other groups can learn in their own local fights against MZOs.
So let's get back in the fight against Xinyi on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Get Concerned Stratford and its activism via their website and social media pages. The Stratford Beacon Herald had complete coverage of Xinyi, and you can check that out 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we will wrap up the month with a multifaceted discussion that will take us from the present, to the future, and back to the past. We will look at the contentious debate about a certain Conservative motion this week, and we will look at the provincial conservatives move to... protect the environment? In the back half, we're talking again about Facebook's world takeover, and we'll remember a notable bit of Canadian political history.
This Thursday, February 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Motion Captured. This week, the Conservatives brought forward a motion to declare the treatment of the Muslim Uyguhur minority in China a genocide, and it succeeded with broad support from other parties, and despite the Liberals. But why vote against it? It seems like a no-brainer, but does it make sense when only Canada is going out on a limb to call out China? Was Erin O'Toole perhaps more obsessed with "pwning" Justin Trudeau than the plight of the Uyghurs?
Greenbelt New Deal. Last week, the Government of Ontario announced that they were working on a plan to expand the Greenbelt and its protections, even extending them to the Paris Galt Moraine in Guelph's south end. If this sounds weird to you, you're not alone in that assumption. What are we supposed to make of the Ford government's new commitment to the environment, and why are they still proceeding with MZOs and other measures if we're protecting the Greenbelt?
Beatdown the Press. The Australian government introduced a law to get Facebook and Alphabet, the company that owns Google, to start paying for the news that gets shared on their platform, Facebook responded by blocking all Australian sites until the government started seeing things their way. Now Canada is looking at the "compromise" as something that can be initiated in our country, but what makes anyone think this will support the need for local news?
Handshake Diplomacy. It was 25 years ago that Prime Minister Jean Chrétien manhandled anti-poverty protestor Bill Clennett after a Flag Day event in Hull. The incident, where Clennett was grabbed by the neck and chin, and forced to the ground while losing a tooth in the process, was cutely called "the Shawinigan Handshake" and became an infamous bit of Canadian lore that was mostly dealt with humorously. But was that the right call? Should we take a second look at the "Handshake"?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to appreciate the gift of hearing a bit more after seeing this week's movie. Our review on this episode is the new drama Sound of Metal, which features a couple of great performances, and some excellent sound design. Less excellent though are the people we will be talking about in this week's news items.
This Wednesday, February 24, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Show Us the Money! Back when all theatres were open, it was a Sunday tradition to get the weekend box office numbers, but more and more studios are keeping that information to themselves. We'll talk about that story in this week's news section along with the new Woody Allen doc series and the improbable return of Brett Ratner with a Milli Vanilli bio-pic.
REVIEW: Sound of Metal (2020). The Oscars are still a couple of months away, but everyone's talking about the main performance in this movie as a likely Best Actor contender. Riz Ahmed plays a heavy metal drummer who suddenly loses most of his hearing. Thrust into a new world without music, or his musical partner (played by Sophia Cooke), he has to learn a whole new way to live. So what did we make of the journey, and its central performance? Tune in and find out!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It's a difficult time for conservation authorities across Ontario. Pandemic? Yeah, that’s part of it. Conservation authorities can’t take part in their usual programming, and they’ve lost normally dependable funds because of that, plus there are all the new precautions they have to take in areas of their parks that are open. But that’s just the beginning of the current headaches for conservation authorities.
Back in November, the Ontario government announced the 2020-21 provincial budget, and like their previous budget there was some very non-budget related stuff in the fine print. Schedule 6 of the budget bill, Bill 229, took away some autonomy from the province’s 36 conservation authorities including a clause that forces those authorities to issue permits at the insistence of the minister. There was some disagreement on that.
The person now charged to work through those disagreements on our end through the Grand River Conservation Authority is Guelph/Eramosa Mayor Chris White. White has been mayor of Guelph/Eramosa since 2006, he was Warden for the County of Wellington from 2011 to 2014, and he’s been part of the GRCA board since 2014. He was appointed chair of the board just last month, and the complex situation coming out of Bill 229 is a lot to deal with for someone with less than two months on the job, so how's he coping?
That’s one of the questions Mayor White will answer, and he will also talk about why the GRCA is so important to him, and the current stresses the GRCA is facing because of the pandemic. On the issues with the Province, White will talk about why he intends to proceed with the working group in good faith, and the legitimate issues concerning the management of conservation authorities that really do need to be addressed. And finally, White will discuss his goals and concerns for 2021.
So let's talk about the view from the GRCA board on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Grand River Conservation Authority at their website. The next meeting of the GRCA board of directors is this Friday at 9:30 am, which is also the annual general meeting for the GRCA, and you can find the agenda and links to the virtual meeting 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we will consider a great many others. This episode of the show will take us from the still bruised U.S. Capitol for one senate hearing, to the red chamber of our own senate where there's very important social matters being debated. From there, we'll talk about election misses on the east coast, and the aforementioned salesmen above.
This Thursday, February 18, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Acquitted Place. Even though it was the most bipartisan impeachment vote in American History, the Senate was still 10 votes short of preventing Donald Trump from running from office again and losing his post-presidential privileges. To say it's disappointing is an understatement, but this may not be the end of the troubles for Trump who is already being sued for the insurrection by the NAACP and is facing electoral fraud investigations in two states. So now what?
Death Notes. Canada's assisted dying legislation is in the midst of a court-demanded upgrade, but the friction now is between the House of Commons and the Senate as the upper house is debating their amendments, including new provisions that will expand access to doctor assisted dying. The real question is whether or not the House will take up the amendments, especially now that the Liberals don't have a majority, so is this process about to get somehow more complicated?
The Vote was Rocked. Newfoundland and Labrador is in the middle of a pandemic like the rest of us, but unlike the rest of us they are also in the middle of a provincial election. A spike in new COVID-19 cases prompted election officials to cancel in-person voting in favour of an all mail-in election, which has forced the extension of the deadline and a lot of questions about proper election procedure and making decisions without input from opposition parties. Did Elections NL eff-up?
The Aristocrats. Earlier this month, Centre Wellington councillor and deputy mayor Steven VanLeeuwen joined something called the "End the Lockdown Caucus", a group of Canadian politicians who find accepted actions to stop the spread of COVID-19 "too restrictive". It's a group that includes Maxime Bernier, Derek Sloan, and Randy Hillier, but are we to take this as a serious political movement, or are some of Canada's most well-known political agitators just living up their reputations?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're getting back on track with another tribute to Black History Month. Judas and the Black Messiah is the movie we're reviewing on this episode of the show, and perhaps in keeping with the theme, we will also talk about the week's news, which was all about problematic white celebrities doing and saying gross and inappropriate things.
This Wednesday, February 17, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The New Cancelled. It was quite a week for geek icons behaving badly. On the one hand, we had Gina Carano being fired by Lucasfilm for sharing conspiracies and anti-Semitic memes, and on the other hand we had more allegations against Joss Whedon, but these ones come from the halcyon days of his work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. We'll talk about both stories.
REVIEW: Judas and the Black Messiah (2021). In 1969, the 21-year-old leader of the Chicago Black Panthers, a young man named Fred Hampton, was killed in an early morning police raid, and what nobody knew at the time was that his trusted head of security was an FBI informant. Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield star in this true life story ideally situated for a Black History Month release, but does the movie live up to the moment, and its important place in the culture?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
From 2009 to 2014, a group of University of Guelph students who were fans of gaming, comics, anime and other geeky things organized a yearly winter convention designed to bring people together and share their passions. It was perfect in its way, but all good things must come to an end, but sometimes they come back, and they come back at the most surprising times.
In so much as the demise of Con-G had to do with the core group of now-former U of G students growing apart, and moving on to adult demands like careers and families, it was also a victim of its own success. There was no venue in Guelph big enough for the size of event that Con-G had become, so the organizers took the money they made and donated it to the Guelph Food Bank, and that was apparently the end of it.
They moved on, but in the shadow of the pandemic there was opportunity. Could you run a convention where size was only limited by your audience’s bandwidth? Could you capture the fun, creativity and camaraderie of an in-person con while running it all online? This week, we're joined by Lindsay Barker, who is also one of the originators of Con-G years ago, and ask her all about the miraculous comeback.
So this week on the podcast, Barker will recap the history of Con-G, and why the pandemic provided the perfect opportunity to bring it back. Barber will also talk about how she and her fellow organizers, all Con-G originals, are adapting all their favourite events for an online audience, and the technical and organizational challenges of a virtual convention. And finally, she will also discuss the growing geekiness of Guelph, how she will judge the success of the event.
So let's talk about how the con is back on on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can find all the details about Con-G, which takes place at your home this weekend from February 19 to 21, at the Con-G website, or through its various social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've not news, analysis and a healthy dose of informed speculation. We will spend the first half of the show talking about provincial politics as the economy is re-opening and the legislature is returning. In the second half, we will talk about that latest spectacle happening now in the U.S. Capitol, and then we will go to India where farming has become a matter of international interest.
This Thursday, February 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Normal-ish. This week, most Ontario schools got back to in-person classes, and on that same day Premier Doug Ford announced that most of the province will come out of the state of emergency and lockdown the day after Family Day next week. This is good news for a lot of struggling small businesses, but the typical Ford government approach to announcing a direction without a plan remains intact. So is this a good move, or is the Province threatening to undo weeks of hard work?
Same Time, Next Year. Also returning next week is the Ontario Legislature. The Provincial government has been in recess since the second week of December, so the opposition parties have had a lot of time to think about what they're going to do, and the NDP have decided to shake up their front bench. Why does this matter? Because this time next year we will be talking about the coming Provincial Election. So do opposition parties stand a chance against the kinda okay Ford?
Impeachment 2: Impeachment Harder. The second impeachment trial of former social media influencer Donald Trump began this week in the U.S. Senate, and Day One did not go well. While the House managers delivered a harrowing video and an emotional opening statement from Rep. Jamie Raskin, Trump's lawyers stumbled through a rambling counterargument that did not belie the reputation of the only lawyers Trump could get. So there's a chance Trump might be convicted this time, right?
Old Mohindra's Farm. You may have heard about the protests being held by farmers in India against their government, what's the deal? Well, they're protesting the passage of three new bills in the Indian Parliament that thousands of small and family farmers in the country say will give too much control to argricorps, including the possibility of price fixing. The anger and concern have been felt be Indian communities all the way here in Canada too, so we will talk about why this has become a global affair.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, get ready for mortal combat! Not the video game, or any ancillary products based on that franchise, but a verbal title bout between two great actors playing a romantic couple. This week we're reviewing Malcolm & Marie on Netflix, the most honoured studio in this year's Golden Globe nominations, which we will also be talking about.
This Wednesday, February 10, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Golden Moments. Normally at this time of year we're thinking about the Oscars, but the pandemic delay is giving us our first taste of awards season just now with the Golden Globes. The nominations were announced last week, and we will review the nominees and the ones who are on track for Oscars, plus we will pay tribute to the late, great Christopher Plummer.
REVIEW: Malcolm & Marie (2021). You know those fights that either make or break your relationship? That's what Malcolm & Marie is about. Directed by Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, the film features Zendaya and John David Washington as the titular couple, facing off for almost two hours and scouring almost every corner of their relationship in the process. It's an acting class by two great performers, but does it work as a film and as a [pandemic] production?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, the hits just keep on coming. The blows are physical if you happen to be in Washington D.C., where the Capitol looks like a demilitarized zone due to the actions of the newly re-impeached 45th President of the United States, and let's not forget the suffering close to home, which is mostly in the form of people coming down with COVID-19. After that, we will remember the man who was called. "The Voice of Guelph."
This Thursday, January 14, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Strange Coup. This time last week, the attempted insurrection on Capitol Hill was still not 24 hours old. Then things started moving fast and furiously with Trump sort of conceding, getting a permanent ban from all social media, and then getting impeached again by the House. At the same time, there are new security concerns about future attacks, and accusations that politicians and police were part of the attempted coup. We'll try and recap all the insanity from Washington.
Deja Flu. This week, Doug Ford and the Provincial government announced new restrictions to prevent the continued spread of COVID-19. The new modelling that Ford warned would make us "fall off our chair" does show a dangerous situation developing in Ontario hospitals, but critics say that the new rules are a tepid response and have sewn more confusion than offering genuine clarity. Has Ford and company bungled this dangerous new phase of the pandemic?
Norm. Last Friday, Mayor Norm Jary passed away. If you were to make a list of Guelph's all-time favourite political figures, there would be no doubt that Jary would come in first place. Not only did he oversee a time of incredible growth in Guelph, he was respected and appreciated for his dedication to civil discourse and for being a genuinely kind and generous man. This week, we will play a portion of Jary's December 2019 interview with the Guelph Politicast in his honour.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we live vicariously through others by going on a trip to the desert. While we can't identify with a vacation these days, we can certainly identify with being stuck in one place, so this week's movie might be the perfect choice for the time. Before that though, we will optimistically look forward to the future, and movies we might like to see later this year.
This Wednesday, January 13, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Coming Soon in 2021 (Hopefully). So the best laid plans for movie releases was seriously upset in 2020, and you know what they say about the best laid plans. Acknowledging that COVID-19 could still throw a lot of the calendar out the window as the case count continues to grow, we will spend the first part of this week looking ahead through the next 12 months and what movies tickle our interest.
REVIEW: Palm Springs (2020). If you feel like you're stuck living the same day over and over again, then this is the movie for you! In Palm Springs though Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti are stuck in a literal time loop, re-living the same day at a destination wedding over and over again to the point of insanity, and perhaps the discovery of true love. Reliving the same day over-and-over-again is a pretty well-worn concept in cinema, so does Palm Springs bring anything new (or funny) to the table?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It’s impossible to look at the events last week in Washington D.C. outside the lens of White Supremacy. Even President-Elect Joe Biden affirmed in a press conference that if the insurrectionists that broke into the Capitol, vandalized, and threatened the lives of elected representatives had been Black, there would have been a lot more arrests, and a lot more than five deaths. Shockingly, 2020 wasn't the end of racism.
This week on the podcast, we're joined by Kevin Sutton, who is an equality and inclusion workshop facilitator, a spoken word performer, workshop facilitator, and a communications professional. If all that isn’t enough, he’s also a radio host, a politico, an activist, and the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Guelph. Sutton joins us for one more look back at 2020, and what we can look forward to in social justice in 2021.
What happened in 2020 may be best summed up by Sutton in an op-ed he wrote for the Guelph Mercury Tribune last August:
“Is it fate that one pandemic has at long last exposed another? Because of COVID-19, many non-racialized people have been able to step back and witness their system of racism in action for the first time. In the COVID-19 response, and in the response to peaceful protest, a multitude of folks born into the systemic dominance of 'whiteness' finally saw the horrors that racialized people had been detailing for generations.”
But is this a moment in time, or is it the beginning of a movement?
This is going to be one of those episodes where we meander from one point to another, and for a topic like this, maybe that’s okay. Sutton will discuss what gives him hope and optimism about the future, and how joy is sometimes an act of rebellion. He will also talk about the difficult necessity of having uncomfortable conversations, and how we can make room for minority voices in the local discourse without making people think it’s just tokenism.
So let's consider the last year and the progress to equality on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can find episodes of Sutton’s show The Great Pause on CFRU’s website. You can find Sutton himself all over social media and links to his writing and engagement all over Google. As you heard, he is also taking up a post at Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition as Community Resilience Co-ordinator. Stay tuned.
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.
It's a new year here on Open Sources Guelph, our seventh year to be precise, and it feels like not much has changed from the last. We've still got a pandemic, and we've still got pandemic problems, not to mention politician problems, which wouldn't be so bad if they were able to start ramping up vaccination. In the second half, we will talk about out lingering issues with you-know-who, and for something completely different, we'll talk about "demolition by neglect".
This Thursday, January 7, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Vacation Mental. We're back from our winter break having not gone anywhere or seen anyone outside our own households, you know, as instructed by all levels of government. From Ontario, to Alberta, to Parliament Hill, politicians across parties and across the country couldn't take their own advice and stay home, and many of them are now paying the political price. Why did so many politicans think that the rules protecting us from COVID are for thee and not for me?
Needle For Speed. It was supposed to be the moment we've all be waiting for, and the government had months to plan for its imminent arrival, but there still seems to be some difficulty actually rolling out the shots. In Ontario nearly three-quarters of the province's vaccine supply sits in freezers, and even a small province like P.E.I. has just vaccinated a little over one per cent of their population. Why has the easy part of fighting the pandemic ended up being so hard?
Sedition: Impossible. U.S. President Donald Trump is maximizing the scandals with his last few weeks in office by having another "perfect phone call", this time with government officials in Georgie whom he tried to press into overturning their election results. Meanwhile, several Republicans in Congress were threatening to make the pro forma counting of the Electoral College ballots on Wednesday a last ditch (and pointless) effort to overturn Joe Biden's victory. Is it January 20 yet?
Demolition? Man! Down the road in Cambridge, the holiday crisis was as much about heritage as it was about COVID. The Preston Springs Hotel, abandoned and deteriorating for over two decades, was demolished after an emergency order was issued on Christmas Eve. It's sad given the hotel's history, but was there any way it could have been avoided, and what about the circumstances of giving the controversial demo order right in the middle of the holiday season?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
It's a new year here on End Credits, although we acknowledge that it's a new year for everyone else too. We're going to take it slow getting into this new, and hopefully better year by revisting some old favourites from 2020. Tales of a cow, soldiers, and zombies made the cut as you will recall from last week's Top 5 episode, and this week, we will replay the original reviews to remind you why they floated to the top.
This Wednesday, January 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Recapping the Best. We know it's a week later, but we're still recovering from New Year's Eve and 2020, so this week we will make the case for why you should visit, or re-visit, three of the movies we consider the best of 2020. From a yarn about stealing milk on the Oregon frontier, a story about four Black soldiers returning to Vietnam years after the war, and a speculative tale about how First Nations people will save us from the zombie apocalypse, we'll take one last kick at 2020 before moving on with the show.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The last council meeting of 2020 dealt heavily with the protection of heritage, including one particular case of the Old Crawley farmhouse. Perhaps the fall of the Preston Springs Hotel in Cambridge over the holidays portends a similar fate for valuable heritage buildings in Guelph, but one thing is certain: If we care about our heritage buildings and features, time is running out to save them.
Now obviously, there are no cabinet positions on city council, but if Guelph had a Minister of Heritage, it would be Ward 5 Councillor Leanne Caron. Her ward contains what is presently Guelph’s only heritage district, and her in-depth knowledge of Guelph history has been called upon many times in council debates. It will likely be tested again next week as the Cultural Heritage Action Plan (CHAP) is discussed at Committee of the Whole.
The question is can we preserve our cultural heritage, do so in a way that reflects all concerns, and implement it before "demolition by neglect seizes endangered properties? On the one hand, we have situations like the Crawley farmhouse and the old Drill Hall on Farquhar Street, but we’ve also had great heritage preservation successes like the Petrie Building and the facade of the Gummer Building. How can we have less of the former and more of the latter?
This week on the podcast, Caron will talk about her own love of history, and the dedication to heritage in the Guelph community. She will also talk about our long history of shortsightedness on heritage, and why only some get saved. And finally, she will talk about how the CHAP might be able to resolve heritage protection issues, and how she might have been banking on Heritage Guelph's rejection of the plan.
So let's talk about the politics of saving our cultural heritage on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Council will be taking up the matter of the Cultural Heritage Action Plan at Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting. You can read the coverage of last month’s Heritage Guelph meeting here, and you can follow live coverage of the meeting on Monday at 2 pm here 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we’ve made it! We’re at the end of 2020!! We still have to make it to midnight, and a lot can happen between now and then, but this year is almost history, and hopefully so are most of the troubles that went with it. Before all that though, we will do what we do every year at this time, and have the annual Open Sources awards, which we still don’t have a name fore, but are very prestigious just the same.
This Thursday, December 31, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Worst Politician of 2020. Always keeping in mind that you-know-who, the 45th President of the United States, is ineligible for any awards, we couldn’t choose the most obvious person in the world to serve as the worst politician of the year. Fortunately, there are always politicians behaving badly, or not living up to their commitment to do what’s right for the people that elected them. So surely some other names will come to mind.
Good News Story of the Year. Was there good new this year? You may have to dig under the surface, like really far under, but there is some good news to be had in 2020. Maybe we can take some solace in the basic goodness that most people have displayed during the pandemic, or perhaps we look back with some pride that there was good progress this year on social justice issues, but there was indeed some good news in 2020!
Dumpster Fire of the Year. In the end, hasn’t the entirety of 2020 been one big dumpster fire? It started with Australia burning down thanks to climate change, and then COVID hit, and while some governments did better than others, the one south of the border dumped gasoline on a fire, and then started burning marshmallows. Or was that fake news? Perhaps the biggest dumpster fire is the one that people don’t acknowledge as real at all.
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Best Politician of 2020. A once in a century pandemic, a once in a lifetime struggle for equality, all those issues, and many more, made the year, and some of our political leaders actually managed to rise to the occasion. Expectations are huge, and the consequences for failure are even bigger, but there are some people in the world that are managing to still make people believe that there is hope for a better tomorrow. So who are these rare people we’re honoring this year?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits it's the end... of the year! Maybe we shouldn't joke about that. You know what else is not joke? The quality of the movies released in 2020! There was a lot of quality in terms of the new films released in the last calendar year, even though we say most of them on our TVs, tablets, laptops, and phones. As usual at this time of year, we will check our lists, check them twice, and give you our Top 5 of the Year!!
This Wednesday, December 30, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Best of 2020. Although we spent most of the year at home, it was actually a pretty good year at the movies. There were timely movies about social justice, a pandemic apocalypse, and a fierce Black woman trying to find her voice. There were stories from the frontier, stories about potential alien encounters, and stories told from the point of view of a Zoom call. From a documentary about disabled kids, to dramas about lost fame, to a tale about the lasting effects of war, we're going to cover the best movies of 2020!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
When we look back at 2020, we will remember the pandemic. Full stop. We will remember locking down, making masks a regular part of our wardrobe, and the economic tumult created by so many people losing their job, or working from home, or having to radically reorient their business models in order to stay afloat. But what about the rest of the year's news?
The year started with a pair of violent homicides downtown, which made everyone in Guelph question the safety of the core. Before Black Lives Matter, Guelphites came out in big numbers for another matter of social justice, supporting the hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en territories. And do you remember when Public Health had to test a thousand people because of contaminated tools at Stone Road nail salon? It really was quite a year, wasn’t it?
Graeme McNaughton, who is the city hall reporter for the Guelph Mercury Tribune, knows it's been a busy 12 months because he was on duty to witness most of this year's news as it was happening. On this week's podcast he’s going to talk about the news, his impressions of the year's events, and the challenges he experienced covering them in the midst of the global pandemic.
McNaughton will go in-depth on his Freedom of Information requests to the Guelph Police, the reaction they provoked from the Service, and why these insights into the operation of Guelph Police should matter. He will also consider if there's anything else from 2020 that’s not COVID or social justice related that will float to the top of our minds in the years to come, and what stories we might have come up short on in the last 12 months. And finally, he will talk about his thoughts on virtual council meetings, and why we might not go back to in-person meetings until after the next election.
So let's get into some Guelph Stuff from 2020 on this year end edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can check out Graeme McNaughton work on the Guelph Mercury Tribune website, and you can follow him on social media @iamgmcnaughton. You can also visit Guelph Politico for more Year in Review coverage, including the Top 10 News stories that are neither COVID nor social justice.
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.
It's the end of the year, and it's Christmas Eve, so you'll forgive us if we don't tuck in behind our remote microphones for this week's edition of Open Sources Guelph. Like usual, we will fill one of our two holiday slots with the sixth annual edition of our political movies show. Sit back and relax, as we look at our political past through the lens of liberal Hollywood, and, in at least one instance, stark raving socialists!
This Thursday, December 24, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Scotty's Pick #1 - The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel (2020). "From Joel Bakan and Jennifer Abbott, filmmakers of the multi-award-winning global hit, The Corporation, comes a just-in-timely sequel that exposes how companies are desperately rebranding as socially responsible - and how that threatens democratic freedoms."
Adam's Pick #1 - Lincoln (2012). "In the final four months of Abraham Lincoln's (Daniel Day Lewis) life and presidency, the full measure of the man came to bear on his defining battle: to plot a forward path for a shattered nation, against overwhelming odds and extreme public and personal pressure. In an act of true national daring, Lincoln exerts enormous political will to end the Civil War, not merely by ending the battle but by fighting to pass the 13th Amendment to permanently abolish slavery."
Scotty's Pick #2 - The Front Runner (2018). "Senator Gary Hart (Hugh Jackman) captures the imagination of young voters and is considered the overwhelming front runner for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination when his campaign is sidelined by the story of an extramarital relationship. As tabloid journalism and political journalism merge for the first time, Senator Hart, and the country, are left with the profound and lasting impact on American politics."
Adam's Pick #2 - Selma (2014). "In 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (David Oyelowo) leads a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The march from Selma to Montgomery culminates in President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement."
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This week on End Credits, we're under siege! No, not literally, and no, we're not talking about the 1992 Steven Seagal movie. We're going to officially kick-off the holiday season by heading to the frontlines of the Afghan War with a review of The Outpost. Before that, we'll head to the trenches of Hollywood and dig up some of the week's biggest movie news.
This Wednesday, December 2, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
No Wonder Woman? For all those that were hoping to unwrap Wonder Woman 1984 on Crave on Christmas Day, you're about to be disappointed. That's one of the news items we will cover this week, and we will also say "goodbye" to the man that originated Darth Vader, say "hello" to new Predator and Transformers movies, and say "huh?" about another Disney controversy.
REVIEW: The Outpost (2020). Based on the book by Jake Tapper, which is based on real events in Afghanistan in 2009, The Outpost follows a standard war movie formula: a group of dedicated soldiers are outmanned, outgunned, and unsure about what exactly they're meant to achieve, but under siege, they rise to the occasion. The story is old and the setting is relatively more modern, but does director Rod Lurie use the formula to his advantage, or is The Outpost just another war movie?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
When he's not setting some of the most bizarre world records, Professor Jason Thomas, or as he’s more commonly known, The Great Orbax, can be found teaching physics at the University of Guelph, or out in the community instilling a love of science in people young and old. His latest project: taking that love, and turning into support for a new Guelph destination: a bricks-and-mortar science centre.
On November 10, Orbax, his colleague Dr. Joanne O’Meara, U of G President Charlotte Yates, and a who’s who of “sci-lebrities” all appeared in a video to launch a simple idea: let’s build a science centre in Guelph. It almost seems weird that Guelph doesn’t have a science centre doesn’t it? We're the epicentre for food and veterinary sciences in Ontario, we were one-half of the winning Smart Cities Challenge, originator of the blue box program, and home of numerous inventions and experiments.
Long story short, this is an overlooked area of our local culture, and Orbax is one of the people that would like it overlooked no longer. Royal City Science, which is a registered non-profit that promotes science and STEM education, will begin by creating online science-based courses and activities. If successful, that will hopefully lead to in-person events, which will continue to generate interest and awareness for that full science centre, but there’s still a lot of road between here and there that needs to be covered.
In this podcast, Orabax will lay out the reasons why a science centre would fit nicely with other Guelph destination spots, and what a bricks and mortar science centre might offer the city. He will also talk about the state of science education, the growing influence of science denialism, and why we might have to write off a generation of older people that have fallen down misinformation rabbit holes. And, because of the time of year, he will also talk about science-related gifts you can give the young people in your life.
So let's talk science and science centres on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about Royal City Science, its programs, and its initiative to build a new science centre in Guelph, you can visit their website. You can also follow Orbax and his adventures in science on Instagram at the handle OrbaxandPepperDoScience.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph will formally start our transition to getting through these last few episodes before our Christmas break and the end of 2020. Still, it's been another busy seven days in the news business, and we will spend our hour catching up with the Biden transition, and the creeping of conspiracy theories in Canada. Staying in Canada, we will also talk about the back end problems with the CERB, and how housing is still an issue despite the pandemic.
This Thursday, November 26, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Ordinary People. After a needless 17-day wait, U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden was able to formally start his transition to being the 46th President of the United States; meanwhile, Donald Trump came to the White House press room to announce that he magically helped the U.S. stock market reach the "sacred" 30,000 mark. Back to Biden though, and in his first cabinet picks he didn't include a single sycophant, family member or professional Fox News contributor. Good news?
Grill to Die On. While the conspiracy theories about the U.S. Election tapper off, crackpot comments about COVID-19 are alive and well. A Toronto barbecue joint became the witting (or unwitting) host for anti-maskers this week as it defied provincial shutdown orders. Elsewhere, a high-ranking Conservative MP showed he was willing to traffic in tweets that accuse the prime minister of initiating the "new world order." Can we stop all this conspiratorial theorizing before it's too late?
CERB and Protect. The inevitable has begun, and the Federal government must now contend with the fact that some people got the CERB when they shouldn't have, and now they're going to have to try and get that money back. This news comes a week before the Federal government will provide a fiscal update, and as people are looking for even more help to make it through the winter. Did the Trudeau government screw up with the CERB, and what lessons have been learned?
Blunder the Dome. A group of housing advocates built foam domes in front of Mayor John Tory's downtown Toronto condo last weekend, as a not so subtle reminder that winter is coming, and there are a lot of people who still live on the street despite the pandemic. This has been a weird year for housing issues, with record-breaking prices in the GTA, and lower than expected rental costs in Toronto, but it's still hard for many to find a home. What will it take to change that?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week's episode of End Credits is on the rocks, and we mean ice! This week's review is sponsored by our newly arrived winter weather, and the new film On the Rocks, which is our first pick from Apple TV+. And since we're sort of talking about the future, we will also consider what past science fiction and fantasy shows from the 80s, 90s and 2000s might be worthy of a reboot.
This Wednesday, November 25, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Back to the Future. It's a great time for 90s reboots, from the new Animaniacs, to Saved by the Bell, and also sci-fi and fantasy shows like Roswell and Charmed. But there were so many hits, some that followed space adventurers, people going to alternative Earths, and even the crew of a big submarine! So let's play a game: what other genre masterpieces from the 1990s are worthy of a comeback?
REVIEW: On the Rocks (2020). Almost 20 years ago, Bill Murray teamed up with Sofia Coppola to make their first movie together. Lost in Translation was a critical and commercial hit, and the start of a beautiful friendship, so when Coppola and Murray team up again, you have to sit up and take notice. In the new film On the Rocks, Rashida Jones joins Murray to play daughter to his father, and together they go on a journey to self-discovery and whistling. Is it worth the ride?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
If the weather last weekend didn’t tip you off, Christmas is coming, and one of the most recognizable signs of the season is the legion of volunteers who stand by the red kettles of the Salvation Army collecting physical money for Christmas programs. This was hard enough in a time of “going cashless” but in the year of COVID, collecting physical money from someone in-person seems doubly unlikely.
A few weeks ago, the Salvation Army announced the start of its annual red kettle campaign, which arrived in the face of a 19 per cent increase in the number of people using Salvation Army charities in 2020. The Salvation Army has set itself the goal of raising $23 million for this year’s Christmas Red Kettle Campaign, and that money will go to help 1.9 million people in Canada by providing holiday meals, food hampers and toys, and even practical help like skills training or housing support.
But then there's the practical consideration of how that money is going to be raised. Salvation Army spokesperson Lt-Colonel John P. Murray said that the organization will “refuse to let the pandemic steal their Christmas joy,” and that they still intend to have their physical kettles in the usual spots. Having said that though, the Salvation Army is keenly aware that this is not a typical year, and some of the old ways they raise money just will not work. So what will that entail?
Dan Millar, the Area Director for Public Relations for the Great Lakes Division of the Salvation Army, will join us this week to answer that question and discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on this year’s campaign, and how the Salvation Army has to work with different health restrictions in different areas. He will also talk about the best ways people can help out this year, and how he and his colleagues stay hopeful in the face of all they deal with every day.
So let's talk about raising money during this very unique Christmas season on this week's Guelph Politicast!
There will be Red Kettles out and about in the community this year, but if you would prefer to give virtually, you have that option at FilltheKettle.com. If you’re looking for more ways to give, or for ways to give back, you can get in touch with the Guelph branch of the Salvation Army at 519-836-9360 or by email at office@guelphsa.ca.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Plague, Death, War, and Spite. One of those may not be an actual Horseman, put it is a fairly succinct description of the current occupant of the White House who is letting Plague and Death run unchecked. Things aren't much better plague-wise speaking here in Ontario, or in the rest of Canada, and that's where War comes in. He's got his own room in Alberta and everything!
This Thursday, November 19, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Doug Day Afternoon. Ontario has been hit hard with the second wave of the pandemic, and Premier Doug Ford hasn't made it easy to get a handle on things. From a colour-coded alert system that did not follow the best advice of public health, to a vague warning that school Christmas breaks might be an extra two weeks long, there are a lot of confusing messages about there about the current state of the COVID response. What happened to Doug, he was doing so well?
Second Coming. Ontario is just one place that is seeing a spike in new COVID cases. From the newly locked down streets of western Europe, to freezer trucks now sitting in the loading docks of hospitals in El Paso, it's clear the pandemic is far from over, and this with more good news on vaccines this week. We'll look at the growing concern and the rapid new spread of COVID across Canada, the United States, and around the world, and we'll let you know when to freak out.
It's Only Democracy. This week in "Will He or Won't He", outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump gave orders to draw down U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan by the thousands, he fired the DHS official who said the 2020 election was the safest ever, and two Republic election officials refused to certify Detroit's results, and all this was in the space of a few hours on Tuesday night. This week, we'll look at the latest hiccups in the road to a Biden presidency, and ask, will this madness ever end?
Harsh Pipeline. There's been a lot of talk about the post-pandemic economic recovery, and a lot of people think that a pipeline runs through it. Not so fast though because the economics of Alberta oil right now don't really make a pipeline viable, neither does Joe Biden's ascension to the White House, and then there are all those Indigenous issues, and now Michigan is saying "Not In Our Back Yard" to Enbridge. Jason Kenney says "it's war" but is the war already over for oil?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we've got politics and magic! As the United States recovers from their election, we will take a look at the pop culture presidents we wish we had and the ones we're glad we didn't have. For the magic, we'll be reviewing the new legacy sequel of a 90s classic about the self-described weirdos who made spells in school cool before Harry Potter.
This Wednesday, November 18, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Fake U.S. Presidents. The election is over (for some), but U.S. politics is still big news as the transition rolls on. In the movies, there have been great presidents, there have been terrible presidents, and there have been a lot of mediocre presidents who were just pawns in their own stories, and this week, we will talk about the five best and five worst movie and TV presidents.
REVIEW: The Craft: Legacy (2020). For many people, particularly young women, The Craft was the movie of the 90s, a celebration of the weirdos, the outcasts, and the ones that don't fit in to the paradigms of 90210 and Clueless. Now, 25 years later, Legacy features a new generation of witches who are ready and willing to use their powers in the cause of social justice in their high school, but can director Zoe Lister-Jones capture the (ahem) magic of the original Craft?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
If you’ve been following the current state of affairs south of the border, you know that there are a lot of people living in false reality bubbles built on a mound of conspiracy theories. Social media companies are finally taking at least tacit steps to stop the flood of misinformation, but it’s becoming clear that the real fight against clashing realities is in our hands, and we all need to know how to fight back.
Now being the smug Canadians that we are, we look at these developments in the United States and shake our head sternly, but we know that we have our own truthers here in Canada. Consider the anti-mask group The Line who held a rally last weekend up the road in Woodstock, and another that happened a few weeks ago in Aylmer, it’s likely that every one of us knows someone in our lives, or in our social media circles, who have fallen down misinformation rabbit holes.
So what can we do? Presented here in one place are two experts on the effects of misinformation.
First we will hear from Christopher DiCarlo who is a philosopher, educator, and author who teaches at the University of Toronto, Ryerson University in Toronto, and is an Expert Advisor for the Centre for Inquiry Canada. From DiCarlo, we will hear about why people find themselves so susceptible to misinformation, and why we should thinking about the spread of misinformation like a drug addiction.
After that, we will hear from Maya Goldenberg, who is an associate professor in the College of Arts at the University of Guelph. Among other things, she studies vaccine hesitancy, or what has become more commonly known as anti-vaxxing. Goldenberg will tell us the long, unfortunate history of vaccine hesitancy, and how it has spun off into the new area of medical skepticism we more commonly know as anti-masking.
So let's attack this land of the truthers in this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
For further reading on this subject there’s an article on Psychology Today from May called “How Should We Respond to People Who Spread Conspiracy Theories?” For methods on how you can identify misinformation, there’s a page on Ryerson University’s library website that gives you tips, and WNYC’s On the Media show has a Breaking News Consumer’s Handbook that can give you further suggestions, including a list of problematic sites, which, thankfully, Guelph Politico is not on.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's schadenfreude time! Sadly we can't dedicate the whole hour to sad orange man, but we can discuss his status as a loser for at least one segment. After that, we will talk about the "Great Whole Foods Poppy Controversy of 2020" (TM), and we will talk to our local MPP about last week's budget reveal, and the current status of fighting COVID-19 here in Ontario.
This Thursday, November 12, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Loser. At around 11 am on Saturday November 7 the Trump Age unofficially came to an end when almost every media outlet called the election for former Vice-President Joseph R. Biden. Current President Donald Trump accepted the loss with grace and dignity spent the weekend golfing, rage tweeting and refusing to accept defeat. That's not unexpected. What is unexpected is that the Republican Party is just going along with it. Are the GOP going to allow Trump to just build an alternate reality for himself?
Whole Fools. It was nightmare and a disgrace all in one package. Whole Foods, the grocery chain owned by Amazon, had apparently barred its Canadian employees from wearing a red poppy in honour of Remembrance Day, and in stark contrast to almost every other issue, the country's governments acted swiftly to condemn Whole Foods. Did the media make too much of what was likely a cultural misunderstanding, and wasn't cancel culture supposed to be bad?
Straight Outta Lockdown! The Ontario Government announced its budget last Thursday (and disappointingly they released it less than an hour before show time), and yes, there is record spending and record deficits, but what does all that extra spending buy us? This week we will be joined by Guelph MPP and Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner to talk about what he likes about the budget, what he wishes was in the budget, and his thoughts about how the Premier is handling this second wave of COVID-19.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're going to fight the power! For our review on this episode we're going to move our streaming sight to Netflix and an Australian style western called True History of the Kelly Gang (true story: it's not a true story). Along with that, we will also recap the week's movie news which features a death and a firing.
This Wednesday, November 11, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
News of the Week. The week started off rough with the passing of Alex Trebek, but it's been even rougher for movie theatres as they lost two more 2020 releases that have been postponed to 2021. At the same time, Johnny Depp lost a prime role in a magical franchise after a libel case didn't go his way in the U.K. We'll cover these stories and the rest of this week's movie news.
REVIEW: True History of the Kelly Gang (2020). In 1870s Australia there was an outlaw named Ned Kelly who led his gang of dress-wearing bushranger berserkers in a war against the colonial forces of the British Empire. This movie is the not remotely true story of Kelly and his gang, but it is still an interesting piece of Australian history and a brutal modern spin on the classic Western outlaw tale. But what's our true opinion about this half-true tale?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Putting together the City of Guelph budget was a process that more or less started right after the last budget was passed, and involved every City department basically rebuilding their budget from scratch every year. It wasn’t easy, it was short-sighted, and it created a lot of extra work for staff. There had to be a better way, and that better way might be the move to multi-year budgeting.
Now this is always a busy time of year for the City's finance staff, but this year may be even busier because they're introducing multi-year budgeting. It's a plan that aligns budget priorities with the Strategic Plan and forecasts the budget out three extra years. In the past, Guelph’s annual budget has been built piece-by-piece, and only one year at a time, and while that has served us well in the past, the move to multi-year budgeting is meant to give us a broader budget picture.
For example, consider the decision to build a new library, or community centre. The immediate costs to next year’s budget may fall under the capital budget, but there are also new operating expenses and staffing in the years that follow. Multi-year budgeting makes it easier to see those effects by not just expanding the timeline, but also by eliminating the silos of capital and operating and considering them both at the same time. It sounds complicated, but how complicated is it really?
Tara Baker, the general manager of finance and the treasurer for the City of Guelph, will help guides us through that and other questions. Baker will talk about how the new budget is organized, how staff aligned the different departments into the various Strategic Plan categories, and how local boards and committees that still budget on an annual basis fit in. She will also talk about the ongoing effects of COVID-19 on the budget, and how members of the public will be able to follow along with the new budget process.
So let's talk about this very different Guelph Budget season on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can see all the budget materials now on the City’s website. The budget will be presented at a special meeting of council on Tuesday November 17 at 9 am, and the public delegation night will be Wednesday November 25 at 6 pm. The final budget vote will take place on Tuesday December 1.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph feels like a million years. After going live-to-air on the U.S. Election Night, we're back at our usual time slot on Thursday to talk about all the ins and outs and whatevers of the Presidential race, and all the other races in this consequential election year. For something a little less controversial, we'll also talk to a University of Guelph researcher who has some things to say about the effects of that screen you're looking at right now.
This Thursday, November 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Aftermath. It's two days out from Election Night, and boy was it a gas! Fortunately though, no one was actually gassed, and whether people will remain ungassed in the days to come is going to be the bigger question. It's a big question as to whether or not we will know all the final results by show time, but we will try and talk about the results from the Presidential race, the House and Senate races, and all the crazy QAnon people that are now in the halls of Deep State power in Washington.
Kill Screens? One of the thing that we've all had to acclimatize to in the pandemic is spending a lot more time in front of screens, but what are the effects of that, especially on the kids? This week we're joined by University of Guelph family studies prof Jess Haines, who's appearing in an episode of CBC's The Nature of Things on November 13 called "Kids Vs Screens", to talk about the effects of too much screen time, the best ways parents can model good screen behaviour, and how they should manage screen time for the kids.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're going to make glorious show for the benefit of great radio station CFRU. In case you haven't already guessed, we're reviewing the Borat sequel this week, and just one day late for the American election. Before that, we will talk about the streaming wars to secure on James Bond, and the sad passing of another.
This Wednesday, November 4, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The (Movie) News. The last time we talked about movie news, more big movies left their 2020 release dates, and with new lockdowns in Europe it's guaranteed that theatres are going to struggling for a while longer. That's why there were rumblings that the next James Bond movie No Time to Die was the subject of a first bidding war between Apple and Netflix even if those rumblings lead nowhere. We'll talk about that other movie news.
Sir Sean. Although he retied from acting in 2003, Sean Connery has never been far from the minds of fans who have always hoped for a comeback. It was not meant to be. From his being the first legendary portrayer of James Bond, to his Oscar winning role in The Untouchables to being Indiana Jones' dad, we'll make some time this week to remember Sean Connery.
REVIEW: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2020). Borat is back, and this time the misunderstandings are on a global scale. Fourteen years after the bumbling foreign journalist was sent to a gulag for bringing shame to his country, the Kazakh regime can only entrust their bribe for U.S. President Trump to one man. Is America ready for more Borat, and is Borat ready to be a father to a teenage daughter whose feminist ambitions lead her to make some news of her own?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The last time that Dr. Nicola Mercer appeared on this podcast it was July, and things seemed to be going pretty good. Much of the province had been under a Stage 2 re-opening for weeks, and we were on the cusp of Stage 3. The virus wasn’t gone, but the number of new and active cases was on the right trajectory, but there were at the time rumblings about what would happen in the fall.
We’re now more than one month into fall, and it seems like those warnings underestimated just how hard COVID-19 would come roaring back as soon as it got colder outside. If you just watch the daily numbers, it seems bad, or if you just listen to the news about all the places that have had to go back to Stage 2 openings, the outlook for the rest of the year is concerning. But doctors have been advising us to look at the trends, so what do the trends tell us?
By the time you’re listening to this, it’s likely that Wellington, Dufferin and Guelph has had more cases of COVID, but even in this resurgence we’re seeing around 50 active cases at any given time. Our local assessment centre has struggled occasionally to keep up with testing capacity, but that wasn't an unusual story as cases started ticking up again last month. It seems we’re doing well managing the pandemic locally, but let's ask an expert on public health matters.
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Medical Officer of Health Dr. Mercer joins us this week to talk about the bigger picture in protecting our area from COVID-19, the secrets to our success so far, and whether or not she’s concerned about the surge in new cases in other regions around us. She will also discuss the potential issues with the location of the assessment centre now at Southgate Drive, when an outbreak’s not an outbreak at Holy Trinity School here in Guelph, and how you might be able to tell the difference between when you have the common cold and if you might have COVID-19.
So let's talk about COVID (as if we're talking about anything else) on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can get all the latest trends and statistics about the COVID-19, as well as the latest public health advisories and advice, at the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph is another one of those weeks where there's almost too much news, and it's not all related to the U.S. Presidential Election, which is definitely one of our topics for this show. Along with that, we will also talk about the four (!) elections we had in Canada this week, the continuing failures of Reconciliation in Caledonia, and labour strife in Alberta in their... healthcare sector?!
This Thursday, October 29, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Too Good to Be True? We're now in the final week of the U.S. election, and all the national polls, and most of the swing state polls, say that Joe Biden looks good to become the 46th President of the United States. But wait, it's not a done deal! We all know that the polls pointed to a Clinton blowout in 2016, and there's still big enthusiasm for Donald Trump despite the ground he's lost, so what will happen on Election Day, and will that be the final word on this 2020 election?
Return of the Kings. There were four elections in Canada this week, and they more or less ended the way you expected. In British Columbia, the NDP and John Horgan no longer need to worry about the Green MLAs now that they have a majority, Scott Moe and the Saskatchewan Party got their fourth consecutive victory, and the Federal Liberals held on to two seats in Toronto. Are there any lessons to be taken from these fairly straightforward election results?
La La Land Back. Things have escalated again at Land Back Lane in Caledonia after a court ruled last week that the land defenders have to get themselves off a disputed property there, but the land defenders have refused to go, and have actually dug in further. Meanwhile, tensions have risen with the OPP, who posted a video of a couple of protestors attacking a cruiser, but the land defenders said they were provoked at the sight of officers with guns drawn. So how does this get fixed?
Strong Medicine. In case you've forgotten, we're in the middle of pandemic. You probably haven't forgotten that, but the Alberta government seems to have because why else would they propose to cut 11,000 healthcare jobs at the moment in time? Like in most provinces across Canada, COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Alberta, but the politics have forced hundreds of healthcare workers to take part in a wildcat strike on Monday. So what do Jason Kenney and Co. think they're doing?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits it's Halloween week! Yes, the day itself is on Saturday, but it's also Halloween week in show as we appropriately run the series on the movie series of the same name. Also, just in time for Halloween, we have an all-new horror-comedy to review that finally brings vampires, and the people of the Bronx, together in one film.
This Wednesday, October 28, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Run the Series: Halloween. There have been 11 Halloween movies including the 1978 original directed by John Carpenter. The series has been rebooted two times, retconned three times, and only one featured a story that had nothing to do with Michael Myers. Halloween has set the curve for slasher films, and the series isn't over yet, but this week we will rank all the entries so far.
REVIEW: Vampires Vs. the Bronx (2020). From Nosferatu to Twilight, vampires have been a constant presence in the movies, but can they stand up to the Bronx? The New York City-set horror-comedy sets a group of civically-minded kids against a nest of vampires trying to gentrify their borough and the beloved neighbourhood bodega where Tony lets the kids watch Blade. So can the kids take what they've learned from the Daywalker and save their 'hood? And, more importantly, is the movie any good?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
In 1982, John Cassavetes appeared in a schlocky Canadian-made horror movie called The Incubus, and a not so small portion of The Incubus was shot in Guelph. Just in time for Halloween, we’re going to talk about that time in the 80s where an Academy Award nominated actor and director came to the Royal City to hunt monsters in an unforgettably forgettable horror movie.
Released in 1982, The Incubus focuses on a small New England town plagued by a series of rapes and murders. Cassavetes plays Sam Cordell, a doctor who’s just moved to town with his estranged daughter and gets wrapped up in the police investigation of the attacks. As the saying goes, “It’s not Shakespeare,” but it’s hard to deny that there’s something about the film.
For Guelphites, The Incubus is a time capsule for vintage Guelph circa 1980 with the old Odeon movie theatre, Macdonell Street, the Homewood, and the Gilnockie House on Queen Street all being prime locations. For cinephiles, there's the curiosity of Cassavetes, long considered the godfather of the modern American independent film movement, who won the Gold Lion at the Venice Film Festival for his acclaimed film Gloria the same year he made The Incubus.
This is where Brett Wright comes in. Wright wrote an article for Split Tooth Media about Cassavetes and why he found some creative solace in shooting The Incubus. This week on the podcast, Wright will give us some insight into the artistic value of The Incubus for Cassavetes, why this supposedly forgettable horror movie from the early 80s hasn’t been forgotten, and why modern audiences and horror fans have been giving it a second look.
So let's get into this forgotten slice of Guelph pop culture history on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can read Wright’s piece “An Artist’s Nightmare: John Cassavetes, Horror Films, and ‘The Incubus’” on Split Tooth Media. Guelph Museums has photos from the Guelph set of The Incubus in their collection, and you can watch The Incubus for yourself, for free, on the ad-supported streaming site Tubi TV.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to get into a realm of law and politics you've long demanded we visit: fishing rights! We will head out to the east coast for that big story on Indigenous rights, and then we will look at the recently renewed fracas over the WE scandal. Then, in the second half of the show, we will talk to an old friend and former colleague about the COVID-age at Guelph City Council.
This Thursday, October 22, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Talk Lobster. "Lobster War" sounds like the subtitle for the next Aquaman movie, but in Nova Scotia it's a real thing that's happening with Indigenous fisherman on one side, and the rest of the Maritime fishery industry on the other. The House of Commons held an emergency debate on the matter after another fire destroyed a First Nations lobster facility on the weekend, but is this something the House can resolve, or is it just more anti-Indigenous racism in action?
Here WE Go Again. The spectre of the WE Charity scandal arose again this week on a couple of fronts with new reporting from Canadaland, and new demands from the Opposition to have an open and honest rake out about everything that went in to the decision to funnel a billion dollars of student COVID relief through WE. Justin Trudeau said that this is heading down a road to election, but does he really want to fight an election over ethics? Does anybody?
Allt in the Family. It's October, but there are still a few very busy months at Guelph City Council left, so this week we will be joined by Ward 3 Councillor Phil Allt, and we will ask him to put on his philosopher's hat from the old Beyond the Ballot Box show to talk about the changes to council operations in the COVID-age, whether or not he thinks some of those changes will be permanent, and how it's been going so far. We will also talk to Allt about the upcoming budget season.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, the whole world is watching. At least that's what the trailer says. Just in time for the American political season, we've got the new film about a very politically charged part of American history from one of the guys that knows how to handle politically charged material best. Before that, we will Run the Series on this week's filmmaker in question.
This Wednesday, October 21, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Run the Series: Aaron Sorkin's Films. He started as a New York playwright, became an accomplished screenwriter, wrote one of the most influential TV series from the turn of the century, and finally won the Oscar for a movie about the creation of Facebook. In this week's "Run the Series", we will review and rank the screenplays of Aaron Sorkin.
REVIEW: The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020). At the Democratic National Convention in 1968, eight people lead thousands of supporters in what was, at the time, the largest demonstration against the Vietnam War. The government called them anarchists, agitators, and left-wing extremists, and then they put them on trial. Through the lens and words of Aaron Sorkin, this new Netflix film draws comparisons to the current political climate, but how effective is it?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
The Guelph Public Library Board of Directors met Tuesday night, and among their agenda items was the next steps for the new main library plan. For many people in Guelph, these are great signs of progress for a project that’s been gestating since the mid-90s, but there might be even more pressure for the board to now turn those plans into reality.
This week on the podcast we're joined by Scott Butler, who is the current chair of the Library Board. Butler is not the only person to whom credit goes for the new library building’s approval to proceed two weeks ago, and he admits as much in this podcast, but he is now the one that has to lead the Library board, staff, volunteers and friends down the literal and figurative road to the new main library, and its approved $62 million pricetag.
Before we get to all that, let’s take a minute to remember how we got here, all the work that got the project this far, and maybe enjoy the moment. And although there's still some doubt about the wisdom of the investment in some quarters, the project is now on course to be made a reality. There are capital campaigns to plan, final blueprints to draw, groundbreakings to attend, so what does going forward look like right this minute?
Along with that question, Butler will also talk about his immediate thoughts and feelings after the October 7 meeting of council where the Baker Project was approved, and his thoughts about some of the counter-arguments against proceeding. Then, Butler will discuss the immediate next steps, the opportunities for public input and assistance on the project, and where the Baker Project should be at this point next year. In between, we'll talk what happened to that "silent majority", and the value of libraries in the middle of a pandemic.
So let's check out (library pun) what Board Chair Butler thinks now that the vote is done on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To see the supporting documents for the new main library branch, and the audio version of the September 29 presentation of the design plans and building details on the Guelph Public Library’s website by following the links. You also follow this link to more information about the Library’s Board of Directors.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got some leftovers to dig through on our post-Thanksgiving show. COVID is back, not that it ever really left, but things are getting more dangerous as the colder weather arrives. In other leftovers, we're got "Blue Lives Matter" making a comeback, more news about the American election, and a surprising update about the battle against online hate.
This Thursday, October 15, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
COVID Strikes Back. Last weekend, the Province of Ontario rolled back three COVID hotspots to Stage 2, closing up indoor dining, gyms and entertainment venues in the name of slowing a flare up of the virus before we get deeper into the fall. At the same time, those newly closed businesses are asking for more help, long-term care homes are feeling the strain of staffing issues, and the Ontario government is sending out mixed messages. So what is the state of COVID?
Symbol Freeze. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has been under justifiable scrutiny after several Indigenous people were killed in police shootings this year, and getting caught up in the whirlwind of Black Lives Matter, so the RCMP banned all "Thin Blue Line" and other pro-police ephemera. Having said that, the National Police Federation, a police union, are telling the officers they represent to ignore the order. Why do police unions insist on doing themselves harm with these measures?
Do We Care Package. You may have heard that there's a presidential election going on in America right now, but why do we care? It's not unreasonable to say that what happens in the United States politically has an effect on Canada, and American political decisions have a visceral impact on Canada when you consider relations with China, pipeline construction, and international trade. So why does this election matter to Canada in the short and long term?
Death on Denial. Facebook took a step it has long hesitated to do for some reason: ban Holocaust deniers. The social media site has formally banned posts and groups that deny or distort the fact that the Nazis killed six million Jewish people in World War II, and just in time for the 75th anniversary of the end of the war. Facebook has been hesitant banning anyone because an active user is money in the bank, so what finally convinced Mark Zuckerberg to ban the original truthers?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits. it's time for another deep dive into the New York arts and theatre scene with all the neuroses, personalities, and creative obsessives that come with it, and it's in black and white! This week, we're reviewing The 40-Year Old Version, and before that we will catch up with some good old fashioned movie news!
This Wednesday, October 14, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The News. It's been a while since we caught up with the latest movie news, and the biggest news is still the fallout of COVID-19 as more movies move to 2021, and theatres struggle with the lack of new product. We will also look at how the next Spider-Man movie is getting Stranger, a possible Social Network sequel, and the inevitable return of Cleopatra.
REVIEW: The 40-Year Old Version (2020). Radha Blank's directorial debut is about a Black playwright on the cusp of her 40th birthday. She was once hailed as a promising new artistic voice, but now she teaches theatre to school kids, so in her frustration, she puts her doubts and anxieties to a hip-hop beat. Blank's Sundance winner hits nicely in an oeuvre of New York movies about New York arty types trying to make it, so does Version make it for Blank?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
We know that small businesses everywhere are struggling, but every business is struggling in its own way. Halloween is Christmas for those businesses that sell costumes, make-up, and party supplies, but there’s definitely not going to be any parties this year, and even the possibility of Trick or Treating is in doubt. So what will Halloween look like, and where does that leave the people for whom Halloween is big business?
This week on the podcast, we're joined by Missy Morrow, who is the proprietor of Party Corner Costumes. Believe it or not, the Centres for Disease Control has a list of recommendations for a safe and healthy Halloween, and indoor costume parties and door-to-door trick or treating are among the more high risk activities though. The CDC does offer some alternative suggestions though, so the holiday is not dead, but what about the people that supply the party favours?
But Party Corner is more than a one holiday pony so to speak. In fact, one of their biggest annual draws is St. Patrick's Day, which was more or less cancelled this year because the lockdown hit just before its March 17 celebration. There was lost revenue from all the green and Irish party favours for a university town that enjoys a good St. Patty’s Day shindig, and all occasions in between, so is this Halloween going to make or break the local costume business?
That’s one of the questions Missy Morrow will answer, along with how she’s had to adapt and change her usual business practices because of COVID, and the incredible amount of extra work she’s had to put in to help her business to survive the pandemic. She will also discuss what this Halloween will look like, what people are doing, how much pressure she’s feeling to make the most of her busiest holiday, and whether or not she thinks there’ll be Trick or Treating this year.
So let's talk about Halloween, and the costume business, in this COVID age on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can find Party Corner on all social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can also fine them on their website, call them at (519) 763-6400, or visit them at their store at 200 Victoria Road South, the Eggcetra Plaza, from 9 am to 9 pm Monday to Saturday, and 10 am to 7 pm on Sunday.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we will take everything we know about a busy news week, pack it in a tote, and leave it in the basement to gather dust because we've got a new standard for what a busy news week looks like. So Trump got COVID, and so did, it seems, most of his senior staff, which cast this week's Vice Presidential debate in doubt. Meanwhile in Canada, we elected a new Green leader with no problem, and we've got a new provincial election to talk about.
This Thursday, October 8, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
American COVIDiot. Between Thursday and Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he had COVID-19, was taken to Walter Reed hospital, given various treatments, and returned back to the White House where he said COVID was wicked easy to beat and he was discontinuing all negotiations on COVID relief until after the election. Trump claims that he's really learned from the experience, but did he? Also, how should Joe Biden by campaigning now with a month left till Election Day?
Veep Stakes. Speaking of the election, current Vice President Mike Pence met perspective Vice President Kamala Harris on the debate stage Wednesday after much wrangling with the debate commission since Pence might be an asymptomatic carrier of the virus. Pence versus Harris is a debate a lot of people were waiting to see, and a debate that was likely to be more formal that the s**tshow between Trump and Biden last week, but did it debate change any minds?
Green with Annamie. After eight rounds of voting, Toronto lawyer Annamie Paul broke all kinds of barriers to be named the new leader of the Green Party of Canada. Paul is the first Black woman and the first Jewish woman to lead a national party in Canada, and she's only one of two major national party leaders who are People of Colour, so will representation make people take a second look at the Green Party, and how will Paul be able to build on Elizabeth May's legacy?
Moe Better Choose. As scheduled, the Provincial election in Saskatchewan is underway, and it seems pretty unlikely that Scott Moe and the Saskatchewan Party will be dethroned with a shift to the left and the NDP. Having said that though, at least one Saskatchewan Party candidate had to resign from the race for espousing support for QAnon, while another is getting attacked for a history of juvenile behaviour that doesn't sit well post-#MeToo. Still, can Moe be denied?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we're going to blind you with science, and then blind you with Satan! In terms of the former, we're going to talk to a U of G professor with some expertise in the subject matter of the documentary we reviewed last week, and then, in this week's review, we cross streams again with another horror comedy that features a Satanic cult.
This Wednesday, October 7, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Talk to an Expert. Last week we reviewed Kiss the Ground, which is about carbon sequestration and better farming practices, but we broadcast from Canada's "Food University", so we can get more information from the source, right? This week we do just that with Prof. Rafael Santos from the School of Engineering at the University of Guelph who will discuss his research into getting more carbon into the ground, and issues the movie might not have mentioned.*
*(Click here for the stats Prof. Santos mentioned in the interview)
REVIEW: The Babysitter: Killer Queen (2020). Just in time for Halloween (or Thanksgiving depending on how you feel about the original), we get a sequel to the 2017 Netflix hit, The Babysitter. Two years after the original, young Cole is still the nebbish, low-end of the social totem pole, but that might change with a weekend at the lake with his best friend Melanie and her friends. Still, you can't escape the grasp of high school Satanists so easily. So does this movie re-capture that dark energy again, or is it just another needless sequel?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
There was a gathering of people in Riverside Park in late August, and even though they said that they didn't identify with QAnon, they still knew all the buzzwords like “save the children”. And then, one of the counter protestors said something interesting: “Why don’t these people, if they’re so concerned about child welfare, volunteer with a local organization that does just that?” Good idea!
In that spirit, this week's episode of the podcast features Sheila Markle, the executive director of Family and Children’s Services of Guelph and Wellington County. FCS used to be known as the Children’s Aid Society, but the name change was meant to flush away the old image of a child care worker forcibly taking a kid from his or her home after one negative report, the type of scene that launched so many “Lost Love” stories from Unsolved Mysteries.
In fact, nearly 99 per cent of children under FCS care remain at home with their families, and it’s only in circumstances where there are no family, relatives, or other type of personal connection that children end up in care. FCS offers clinical support, parenting groups, foster parents, and adoption opportunities, but working with children can be difficult at the best of times, so how as FCS been coping with the added anxiety of COVID-19 and public health crisis on their usual workload?
That's one of the questions we'll ask Merkle, along with a broader discussion about the work that she and her staff do, how the work has changed over the years, and where things currently stand in terms of the demand and requests for assistance. Of course, we will also discuss the effects of COVID, what kind of help FCS is looking for from the general public right now, and what kind of help their clients need in these difficult times.
So let's learn more about helping children and families here in our own backyard on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
To find out more about the work of Family and Children’s Services of Guelph and Wellington County, or to learn how you can get involved, or what kind of volunteer assistance they need, you can go to 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we begin October with a discussion of the most terrible show on Earth. Yes, we will dive into the sewage of the first Presidential debate for 2020, and then we will talk about some of our own issues right here in Canada with people who think they're cops trying to arrest people on fake charges. In the realm of the real, we'll talk to a member of city council about the always controversial library project in Guelph.
This Thursday, October 1, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Debase Night. The first Presidential debate of the 2020 cycle was... Uh, what's a polite word for "$h!tshow"? Indeed, the worst predictions for what the first round of Biden Vs Trump would like like were not bad enough to capture what actually happened, including another chance for the President to refute white supremacists that even his loudest supports [almost] couldn't forgive. We'll talk about the debate highlights (?) and whether or not there'll be a second.
Citizen's Oppressed. On Parliament Hill, one man has decided that he's going to clean up the place, but no one elected him, and he has no law enforcement powers beyond the ones he's given himself. The same guy that tried to arrest Justin Trudeau this past summer, has been harassing other people on the Hill, which compounds the issues of government members and other politicians who are being harassed and receiving threats. Do MPs need more protection?
Library Marred. Coming up next week at Guelph City Council, there will be a vote on two major infrastructure projects, the South End Community Centre and the new main branch of the library. The latter is a project that's been on the City's to-do list for the last 25 years, and it's starting to look like it's in danger of not going forward. Ward 5 Councillor Cathy Downer will join us to lend her vast experience on the file, and to discuss her hope that the project will still move forward.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to get dirty, but it's not what you think. We're going to take a look at a documentary that covers the important need for soil in our ecosystem, and it's called, appropriately, Kiss the Ground. Before that, we will talk about the latest movie release news, and we will run the series on Spider-Man.
This Wednesday, September 30, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
More Musical Chairs. As we get closer to the end of the year, the assumption was that we were going to start getting more new movies at the theatre. Nope. This past week, there have been more major movie moves... to 2021, and it's going to disappoint Marvel fans the most. We'll have the latest on the new release dates.
Run the Series: Spider-Man. He's amazing! He's spectacular! He's your friendly neighbourhood wall-crawler, and his cinematic adventures have now spanned four different franchises. From the classic Sam Raimi movies, to the bloated Marc Webb flicks, to the MCU and the animated adventures of Miles Morales, we will rank all the Spider-Man movies.
REVIEW: Kiss the Ground (2020). It seems like every year there's a new documentary about climate change meant to raise the alarm on the pending threat. Kiss the Ground takes a different tact though. Yes, it raises the alarm again, but it's also focused on practical considerations. It turns out that we can save the world with dirt, and Woody Harrelson takes on a journey to prove why this is so. Is it enough to find optimism again?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
We’ve heard a lot of talk about this being a moment, and June 6 was indeed a memorable moment in the history of Guelph with over 5,000 people in Market Square to march for Black Lives Matter. It amplified of a lot of voices who don’t always get heard in our community despite best intentions, but moments pass and that one was almost four months ago. How have things been going lately?
Since the Black Lives Matter march here in June, more people have been sharing their stories and experiences with an inequitable system, and to add insult to injury, the search for that justice made Guelph Black Heritage Society the target for renewed racist attacks. In the summer, the Society’s headquarters at Heritage Hall on Essex Street was repeatedly vandalized, a very visible and very visceral reminder that there’s still a lot of work to be done in our backyard.
This week's guest is Kayla “Kween” Gerber, who is the executive director and community engagement co-ordinator of Guelph Black Heritage Society, and one of the leading faces of the Black Lives Matter march in Downtown Guelph this past June. Issues of racism and inequality have not gone away in the last four months, but the intention of this week's podcast is to check on our progress.
Kween joins us this week to talk about how it felt to stand up in front of thousands of her fellow Guelphites, and how she’s been coping by making herself the face of the cause. She also talks about the sometimes difficult conversations she’s had with the Chief of Police and the especially difficult discussions she’s tried to start with the people that send her racist comments. She also discusses the bigger issues for all of us, like recognizing our own privilege, and how we can measure progress on equality and social justice in the immediate future.
So let's catch up with Kween on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
The Guelph Black Heritage Society is trying to raise $135,000 to create an education fund, and you can go to their website, or look for the hashtag #ChangeStartsNow to learn more. You can also check out the first episode of Diverse and Converse tonight at 9 pm on Rogers Channel 20.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's a jam-packed news week, and there's a lot of ground to cover. In Ottawa, the government is trying to avoid an election, but the truth is that everybody wants to avoid an election because the number of COVID cases are going up at alarming rates again. And speaking of elections, a new wrench was thrown into the U.S. Election, and since that looks like its so much fun, the Premier of B.C. seems to have decided he'd like to see an election too.
This Thursday, September 24, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Swing Speech. Hoping that he can reset the agenda and his government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament in August and set the stage for Wednesday's Speech from the Throne. Everyone agrees that no one wants an election, and why would you when two out of five major party leaders have the virus, but what can Trudeau say to divert a potential election, and what can the Liberals do to win back the public trust after the WE scandal?
The New Wave. Fall is here, and predictably COVID-19 has come roaring back with a vengeance with new cases being diagnosed daily at a rate not seen since the spring. Forget about the Americans because we've got problems here at home; long lines at COVID assessment clinics, big gatherings with hundreds of people at parking lots, and didn't the Ontario government just recently release their plan for fighting the fall wave? How concerned should we be right now?
RBG. The passing of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has prompted people to pay tribute to her decades of service on the court, and her tireless work to achieve gender equality. At the same time though, her passing has opened a new front in the culture wars with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump looking to ram through a replacement before Ginsburg's even been buried. What effect will the court fight have on the election?
Horgan's Run. Two weeks ago, Blaine Higgs led his Progressive Conservatives to a majority government in New Brunswick built mainly on his positive approval ratings in responding to the pandemic. It seems that other provincial leaders with minority governments have learned that lesson, and B.C.'s NDP Premier John Horgan has called an election for October 24. What about the confidence and supply agreement with the Green Party? How craven is this move by Horgan?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we take on a daring adventure... to the movie theatre. For the first time in the pandemic era, we will watch something on the big screen, and it's hard to get much bigger than the latest Christopher Nolan picture, which is Tenet. That's the review, and before that we will thoughtfully rank all of Nolan's other movies.
This Wednesday, September 23, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Run the Series: Christopher Nolan's Movies. From a man with no short-term memory to the the hopeless beaches of France in World War II; from the crime-filled streets of Gotham City, to the endless streets of impossible dreams, the works of Christopher Nolan have covered a lot of ground. This week on "Run the Series" we will rank Nolan's first 10 films before...
REVIEW: Tenet (2020). It was supposed to one of the biggest hits of the summer, but it's now the canary in the coal mine. Tenet is Christopher Nolan's latest attempt to turn James Bond spy action into a trippy science fiction mind-bender where two spies try to stop a future war involving tech that allows the user to literally travel backwards in time. It's got all the trappings of another great high-concept thriller from Nolan, but has time run out for the auteur?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Eliminating poverty has been made more difficult because of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the increased number of people who have found themselves jobless, and the difficulty in delivering services to people when physical distancing being a priority. But no matter how complicated you think your life is now because of the pandemic, it’s made the life and routine of people living in poverty in Guelph almost twice as hard.
The plight of the homeless was cast in stark relief when the order came for everyone to lockdown in their homes. How do you lock down when you don’t have a home? Where do you get clean water when public facilities are closed? Where do you get out of the cold for a cup of coffee with nowhere allowing dine-in service? How do you know what's open and closed, or if the Consumption and Treatment Site was open and safe to use? The pandemic isolated people that already feel isolated, so how have they coped?
The complex series of issues facing the homeless and those living with poverty is what we’re talking about on this week's podcast with Dominica McPherson, the Co-ordinator for Guelph and Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination. We will go down the list of issues faced by those living in poverty during the pandemic, and how the pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing concerns about people in poverty. We will also talk about how the pandemic had a positive effect at raising wages and treatment for low pay workers, at least for a while, and why solving poverty needs to be a priority in any economic recovery effort.
So let's learn about more about how the pandemic has affected those living in poverty in Guelph on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can find out more about the work of Guelph and Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination at their website. And if you haven’t already, check out last week’s episode with Drop In Centre executive director Gail Hoekstra, and the recap of last week’s town hall about supportive housing.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, the roof is on fire, and so is everything else. Yes, we will tackle the implications of the wildfires spreading across the U.S. west coast, and we will consider the successful gambit of the returning champion Progressive Conservative Party in New Brunswick. After those two issues, we will have another remote chat with our Member of Parliament about federal concerns on the local level.
This Thursday, September 17, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Higgs Will Fly. New Brunswick wrapped up the first provincial election of the COVID era Monday with a successful return to power for PC leader Blaine Higgs whose party will now govern with a majority. The Liberals seemed to be the big losers, and the apparent star-power of former Sargent-at-Arms Kevin Vickers seemed to have little effect on the electorate, at least not so much as the appearance of good pandemic management. So did Higgs just show other minority governments the way to majority?
Fire Stressed. Wild fires along the west coast of the United States are now a regular occurrence, but have they ever been this bad? Because of the millions of acres ablaze, the western states now have the worst air quality in the world, and the effects of the smoke can be felt all the way in our neck of the woods. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump could only give Californians assurances that the temperature will go down soon (sound familiar?). Might this finally raise the alarm about climate change in the States?
Watch the Throne Speech. This time next week, we will have heard the Speech from the Throne, and the Federal government's new COVID-era agenda for Canada. This week, Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield will give us an in-depth preview of the Speech... just kidding! Seriously though, Longfield will tell us what he's looking for in the speech, the work to supporting non-profits and charities during the pandemic recovery, and whether or not his Liberal colleagues have learned any valuable lessons from the WE scandal.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we have to face the music. Make that Bill and Ted Face the Music. The sequel almost 30 years in the making is the movie we're reviewing this week, and we'll see if it's nostalgia or innovation for the win. Speaking of nostalgia, we will start a whole new series of listicles that will rank the entries in some of the greatest (?) franchises of all time.
This Wednesday, September 16, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Run the Series: A Nightmare on Elm Street. In a new ongoing feature for the show, which we definitely didn't steal from a well-known pop culture news website, we will rank some the most famous, and longest-running film series that Hollywood has ever produced, and this week, we will kick things off with some Halloween flavour with the Nightmare on Elm Street films.
REVIEW: Bill and Ted Face the Music (2020). Over 30 years ago, a man from the future told two high school metal heads that their music would save the world. They're still working on it. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter reprise their classic roles as Bill and Ted, who now have a deadline to get that killer song written and recorded before all of reality falls apart. Can the boys save the future and their own legacy? And can you still capture lightning in a bottle three decades later?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
At the August 24 city council meeting, money from the affordable housing reserve was given to the St. Joseph’s Housing Corporation to help complete a project to provide 65 affordable units to seniors. As a delegate at that meeting, the executive director of the Drop In Centre announced that her non-profit was working on a deal of its own for supportive housing, and that became the story.
This week on the podcast, Gail Hoekstra will join us to talk about the Drop In Centre's project to buy the Parkview Motel at Woolwich Street and Marilyn Drive, and turn it into supportive housing. It’s important to note that supportive housing is housing, not shelter. It's defined by the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing as “a combination of housing assistance and supports that enable people to live as independently as possible in their community.”
The immediate aftermath of Hoekstra sharing her news about the project was the usual NIMBY concerns and extremely stereotypical and hurtful comments that otherized the people that this project is meant to help. Bad things are born in an information vacuum, and before a narrative about this project gets too solidified in a package that people have pre-made for it, we’re going to lay out the facts on this Parkview supportive housing project.
In this week's podcast, Hoekstra will take us through the timeline and tell us how did this project come about, how far along are they in the process, and what resources have they brought to bear on the project. We will also talk about what resources the Drop In Centre will need to complete the project, and why social services are moving away from emergency shelter systems and towards supportive housing models. And finally, we will discuss the outreach to the neighbourhood, and overcoming politics to create more supportive housing in Guelph.
So let's learn more about the possible transformation of Parkview on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about the project, you can tune in to the Ward 2 town hall on Thursday at 7 pm, and you can find the link to that remote meeting here. A report on this project is likely coming to the October 26 council meeting, and that agenda will be released on October 15.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going Back to School. Not really, but it's a theme, and we're going with it as one of the topics of this week's show. We're going to talk about the concerns about kids going back to school, and we're going to talk about Indigenous-Settler relations on an important anniversary. In the back half of the show, we will look at a big issue closer to home in Guelph with one of the representatives from Ward 2.
This Thursday, September 10, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Back to School Concern. Labour Day is usually a time of excitement because it means all students are heading back to school, but Back to School 2020 is a minefield of concerns from coast to coast to coast. Here in Ontario, teachers are still concerned that their classes are too big, bus drivers are still concerned that their buses will be too packed, and parents are concerned that their kids will be back home by the end of the month. Are we looking at the beginning of the second wave?
Caledonia Sweep. Just down the road in Caledonia, there is a land dispute underway as First Nations land defenders are standing against the Town and the OPP to stop the development of a residential neighbourhood. Hot on the heels of the Wet’suwet’en protests earlier this year, and renewed interest in social justice for BIPOC people, the demonstrations also come on the 25th anniversary of the death of Dudley George at Ipperwash. So how well have we learned the lessons of reconciliation?
The View on Parkview. It was kind of a surprise when the executive director of the Drop In Centre announced at the August 24 city council meeting that they might be buying the Parkview Motel to establish supportive housing. Now there's a debate raging in the neighbourhood, and one of two people caught in the middle is Ward 2 Councillor Rodrigo Goller. Goller will join us this week to talk about the Parkview debate, and the struggles to create housing for the homeless in Guelph.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, the movie theatres are re-open, but we're still physically distant. All this concern about being locked down and contracting a potentially deadly virus is good grist for the mill artistically speaking and we might see that in this week's review, She Dies Tomorrow. Before that though, we'll have the news!
This Wednesday, September 9, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Back to Normal-ish(?) There was once high expectations that we would be back to so-called normal by now. Nope. Still, as you'll see in this week's news, we have box office numbers for the first time in months, and some details about the partially virtual Toronto International Film Festival. But if you think the pandemic is over, we're here to tell you that Batman now has COVID-19.
REVIEW: She Dies Tomorrow (2020). What if you knew with absolute metaphysical certainty that you were going to die tomorrow? Writer/director Amy Seimetz plays with that idea in her new independent movie that is being marketed as a horror-comedy, but is not especially scary or funny. You can't easily peg She Dies Tomorrow in any kind of genre, which makes it something rather unique, but it is a rewarding experience just the same, or is just a timely bit of experimental cinema?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
What if we told you that vaccine hesitancy didn’t start with Jenny McCarthy? In 1722, not long after the first successful vaccination efforts were started in the west, there was an English preacher who argued that diseases were God’s punishment for sin, and any attempt to stop them with a vaccine was going against His will. That may sound crazy, but so do the modern world’s reasons for not getting your kids vaccinated.
This week on the podcast, we're joined by University of Guelph professor Maya Goldenberg who sums up her research with the question “How do we know what to believe?" In other words, she studies how medical information is presented by doctors and how they’re accepted patients.
Much of her research has been specifically about women’s healthcare, but Goldenberg’s been spending more time on a growing area of medical skepticism, which technically goes by the name vaccine hesitancy, but is more universally known as anti-vaxing. That's not a term Prof. Goldenberg uses, but it does fit with other issues where people have trouble following the best advice of their doctor, whether that's vaccines or cancer treatments.
As you will hear in this episode of the podcast, it’s not the lack of intelligence in people that believe in the conspiracy theories so much as it might be the fault of medical professionals that can’t take the time to answer questions about a treatment. When people can’t get answers from a doctor, they go out and search for them on the internet, and that’s not always a great idea. So how do we keep people out of internet rabbit holes?
Goldenberg will tackle that and other questions this week on the podcast, including why people trust their own doctor over the medical profession as a collective, and why your family doctor might be too overburdened to make battling conspiracy theories held by their patients a priority. She will talk about how the pandemic has calcified some of those false beliefs about medicine, what it will take to start changing minds, and the Venn diagram between vaccine hesitancy and what we could start calling mask hesitancy(?).
So let's talk about vaccine hesitancy and other issues between patients and doctors on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Maya Goldenberg's book - Vaccine Hesitancy: Public Trust, Expertise, and the War on Science - comes out in the spring. You can follow her on Twitter here, and you can check out a list of some of her scholarly writings by visiting her U of G faculty page 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, there's no rest for the wicked before this Labour Day weekend. We're going to head back to the United States where the intersection of racism and police brutality is busy again thanks in no small part to the disinterest of the man in the White House. We're also going to talk about the concerning conspiracy sharing of a sitting MP, and we'll talk to an expert in how we think about why it feels like QAnon is winning (and how we can reverse the effects).
This Thursday, September 3, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
American Carnage. The shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, WI released a new wave of protest by Black Lives Matter and other social justice groups and activists across the United States, and even a few places in Canada, but it also unleashed something else. From Kyle Rittenhouse, to the so-called Trump Caravans in Portland, to the President's own refusal to denounce his supporters doing violence while attacking activists, we'll look at all the angles on the renewed fight for justice in the U.S.
Findlay Fire. "The closeness of these two should alarm every Canadian." That's what Conservative MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay said about a clip from a 2009 interview featuring now Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland talking to George Soros. Soros has been cast as the boogeyman in multiple conspiracy theories, which has long been understood as anti-Semitic, but there's a bigger problem. Seeing the takeover of the conservative party in the U.S. by conspiracy theorists, are we starting to see that here in Canada.
Cognitive Theory. Speaking of QAnon, it's become clear that this is not going away like a miracle anytime soon, there was even a QAnon-esque gathering here in Guelph last weekend. But what is driving this belief in not just unfounded conspiracies, but out-right deranged narratives about secret Satanists? Christopher DiCarlo, a cognitive behaviourist and expert in critical thinking will join us this week to tell us why, and tell us how we can help people find their way back to some semblance of reality.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going on vacation. In this last week of summer, we're going to take a break, and play you a little something special. We love him, you love him, and sometimes he lets us down, but most of the time he hits it out of the park. Whatever your flavour of Spielberg, this week we've got them all.
This Wednesday, September 2, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Uneven Stevens (The Whole List). Earlier this summer, we produced a multi-part list where we organized all 33 films of Steven Spielberg films from worst to best. It's no mean feat covering nearly 50 years of one of the most successful and influential filmmakers of all time, and all that work deserves to be heard. Again. So for this week's special edition of the show, we're going to cover the whole story and put every Spielberg film, from Duel to Ready Player One, in its proper place.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This is the last week of summer, and it’s typically a time of great excitement for kids and parents alike. This year though, there is also more than a little amount of trepidation because going back to school means something very different in the era of COVID-19. Perhaps this will help. We're going to look at what your school might look like when you, or your child, are heading back to it in the next couple of weeks.
As we’ve seen in the news over the last few days, the details around back to school plans are changing regularly. On a different week, we might make some time on this pod to plunge into the political and legal concerns and their effect on school board plans, but for now, we will assume that despite minor variations, school will still proceed next week as planned. So what will that look like?
To learn that, we’re joined this week by Michael Glazier, the Director of Education of the Wellington Catholic District School Board, and Heather Loney, the Communications and Community Engagement Officer for the Upper Grand District School Board.
From the perspective of both boards, we will dedicate this episode of the show to a basic examination of what students and parents can expect when school starts whether your child is going to their physical school in masks, or if they’re remaining at home to do virtual learning. We will talk about what the school day will look like, the new rules for riding the bus, how the classroom will look, what things kids need to bring, and how lunch and recess will work.
Before we begin, these are separate interviews so you can stop the podcast after Glazier, or you can fast forward things about 30 minutes to get to Loney. Or, if you like, you can listen to the whole darn thing so that you can compare and contrast the back to school plans like the political wonk you are.
So let's talk about what to expect when you're going Back to School on this week's Guelph Politicast!
For all the latest updates about the Back to School plans of both school boards, you can visit their websites. For the Wellington Catholic District School Board here, and for the Upper Grand District School Board go 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.
Welcome to the black parade! That My Chemical Romance tune is front of mind on this week's Open Sources Guelph as we watch the Republican Party at their convention tell a horror story that's supposed to make Joe Biden look like a Stephen King villain in clown make-up. We'll discuss that, and we'll talk about our own new Conservative Party leader here in Canada. and then, in the back half, we'll talk to one of the councillors from Guelph's south end.
This Thursday, August 27, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Hatch Game. The Republican National Convention started one week after its Democratic counterpart, and if you're a fan of U.S. President Donald Trump it's the greatest show on Earth. On the other hand, there was lies, more lies, multiple violations of the Hatch Act - which outlaws the use of government property in campaigning - and it took almost two whole nights for some one to offer condolences for the 177,000 who have died from COVID-19. So, that's awesome right?
O'Toole Time. After months of speculation, it was finally announced that that Durham MP Erin O'Toole was the new Conservative leader, and the new leader of the Official Opposition. The announcement came late on Sunday night after a lot of technical issues with counting the vote, but unlike 2017 the O'Toole victory was decisive and overwhelming. So what was the secret to his success, and how can he hopes to keep his coalition together while expanding the base.
The Other 6ix. Guelph city council just wrapped up their August schedule, which is weird because there's not usually any council meetings in August. In these unusual times, we could use a little insight, and this week Ward 6 Councillor Mark MacKinnon will return to the show in order to provide it. With MacKinnon, we will cover the City's COVID-19 response, the currently underway ward boundary review, and the omnipresent controversy about the fate of the new main library.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
Coming up this week on End Credits, it's the end of summer! Well, almost. To mark the occasion, we will look at the ultimate summer movie, a introspective slow west movie about the first cow in Oregon in the 19th century! Hold on, you may actually want to hear about this movie, and you will also want to hear the second part of our ultimate summer movie list.
This Wednesday, August 26, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
A Farewell to Summer Blockbusters Part 2 of 2. Summer was once Hollywood’s harvest season, where it made most of its bank, but COVID-19 changed all that. So as we wind down this unusual summer, we’re going to talk about the Top 20 summer blockbusters since that became a things in 1975. The movies that are fun, action-packed, but not necessarily Oscar-worthy.
REVIEW: First Cow (2020). Kelly Reichardt's famed minimalism is on grand display in First Cow, a movie that takes place in the Oregon frontier in the 1820s, and is about two men that steal milk from the area's only cow to find their fortune in selling cakes. It sounds bizarre, but the earnestness and deliberate pace of First Cow, not to mention some world-class performances, have been this film a rare critical darling in 2020. But what do we think of this tale of friendship and dairy theft?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRUWVT87mt8&t=3s
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Normally there are no August city council meetings, but as we all know in 2020 what's normal got up, walked out of the room, and threw itself down the stairs. Having three city council meetings in August is unusual, but it's hardly the most unusual thing about this political year, and to make sense of everything that's happened at council so far in 2020, we're going to do a recap.
Looking back at the council year so far, there are a lot of interesting developments. It's not just the variety of issues that have come before council, but it's watching the council process having to change suddenly, and radically, as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. The best laid plans came to a sudden halt in March, but it seems like city council was able to rally quickly and get things back on track at least in terms of council process.
In terms of the specific issues, COVID cleared a lot of priorities off the table in the short-term, but we've also seen a lot of the regular business of council find its way back to the top of the agenda. Planning and bylaw updates, multiyear budgeting, the Clair-Maltby Secondary Plan, and the council composition and ward boundary review are all part of that bigger picture, and have been address at council since the pandemic started.
Along the way, there was a great big debate about dog parks that's yet to really go away. There have been planning projects presented, and some of them were greeted with optimism, while others looked to be rejected before planners got a chance to make their case. Speaking of cases, the City discussed updates to road safety, and new regulations for accessory apartments, and that's only scratching the surface about what's happened at council so far in 2020.
So let's review two-thirds of the 2020 year at council on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The next meeting of city council is Committee of the Whole on Tuesday September 8 at 2 pm. In the meantime, City staff are getting feedback about the council composition and ward boundary review, and you can offer your input on the subject on the City's website 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 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.
This week there's a surprising amount of news for the middle of August on Open Sources Guelph. There's election news out of the United States, but more surprisingly, there's election news out of Canada as one of the Atlantic provinces is going to polls. Will there be a Federal election in Canada? Not for a month thanks to some shadiness by Justin Trudeau, which might be the name of a book published by Rebel Media, which we will also talk about.
This Thursday, August 20, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Going Prorogue. The heat finally got too much for Justin Trudeau this week as we reached into Stephen Harper's old playbook and prorogued Parliament for a month, at which point we will hopefully have forgotten about the ethical lapses that lead to the PM's third ethics investigation in five years. In the meantime, Chrystia Freeland has been made the new Finance Minister, which makes us wonder if a) Is there anything Freeland can't solve? and b) Does Trudeau really think this is old news now?
Run DNC. In a first, the Democratic National Convention has been happening this week remotely, with the entire affair taking place via Zoom from locations across the United States. Along with formally nominating Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as candidates for President and Vice-President, the goal of the DNC is to make the case against Donald Trump, while rallying the Democrats' bigger than ever tent. So how are they doing, and what does Biden have to do now to win?
A Blaine on Resources. The United States is not the only place in North America looking to hold a fall election. New Brunswickers will be going to the polls on September 14 as Premier Blaine Higgs formally had the writ drawn up this week, but what does a pandemic election look like in Canada? How will New Brunswick overcome many of the same challenges as the U.S? And will this election set the tone for future elections across Canada going forward?
Rebel Alliance. When the Alberta Legislature decided to bar Rebel Media from the press gallery, Postmedia, of their own volition, announced that they would boycott the press gallery in solidarity with Rebel Media. Apparently, the reporters in Edmonton were not pleased about the move, especially since Alberta's four biggest papers are all Postmedia papers, but the order came down from HQ in Toronto, which begs the question, is this an important hill that Postmedia wants to die on?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're getting ready to say goodbye to summer. This week's movie review takes us to the cold, drab island off the coast of Chile where nothing ever good happens, which is a solid message for the end of August in a pandemic. We're talking about Nobody Knows I'm Here, and we're looking back at the best summer blockbusters of yester-year.
This Wednesday, August 19, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
A Farewell to Summer Blockbusters Part 1 of 2. Summer was once Hollywood's harvest season, where it made most of its bank, but COVID-19 changed all that. So as we wind down this unusual summer, we're going to talk about the Top 20 summer blockbusters since that became a things in 1975. The movies that are fun, action-packed, but not necessarily Oscar-worthy.
REVIEW: Nobody Knows I'm Here (2020). Fame is a double-edged sword. Movies have told us that for years, but rarely so darkly than in the case of Nobody Knows I'm Here. A first for Netflix, this original film from Chile stars Jorge Garcia of Lost fame as a man driven to being a recluse on a small sheep farm with his uncle after his brief brush with childhood fame in Miami, but what happens when fame and notoriety finds him again?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
WE has turned into something of a national scandal, but the truth is that there have been a lot of questions about the way WE does business for a long time, and only some of it's been recently exposed. The little non-profit that could, fighting child labour and promoting sustainability around the world, is now at the centre of the biggest political story in Canada in 2020, but what about the personal story?
This week on the podcast, Eli Ridder will take over hosting duties and talk to Humber grad and Guelphite Abi Dube, who, like hundreds of thousands of young people across Canada, was encouraged to get involved with WE and volunteer to support international development projects in developing countries around the world.
While at Rickson Ridge Public School, Abi volunteered for two WE trips, one to Kenya and one to India. These experiences were eye-opening in more ways than one because while she volunteered abroad, Abi did not see a charity that was leading by its best, most idealistic aspirations. In the wake of the new level of scrutiny brought to WE Charities, its affiliates and partners, Abi reached out to Guelph Politico to tell her story, and this it.
On this week's edition of the podcast, Abi Dube will walk through her WE experiences, from helping to build schools in Kenya where it seemed like not all children there were treated equally, and India where a hotel used by WE Charities to house volunteers seemed to use child labour. Abi will also talk about how she tried to bring her concerns to the attention of the people running those programs, and how she believes that her concerns were never really addressed. Also, Abi will discuss her concern that some of the real issues with WE are getting lost among the louder political scandal.
So let's talk about one volunteer's experience with WE on this week's Guelph Politicast!
There is a companion piece to this podcast, which includes Abi’s trip diary entries and a response from WE Charities, and you can find all that 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 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got protests. In Lebanon, people are protesting the incompetency and corruption of their government that lead to disaster. In Canada, people are protesting [checks notes] the best advice of public health to protect them from a deadly pandemic (?). And, in Guelph, people are protesting the potential alteration of a major public park. These week, we'll try and shed some light on all these issues.
This Thursday, August 13, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Into the Blast. Last week, about 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate confiscated from a cargo ship six years ago exploded in the port city of Beirut, killing over 200 people, injuring 7,000, and leaving about 300,000 people homeless. While it was not an attack, it was not an accident either, and the blame fell immediately on the corrupt Lebanese government who aren't even being trusted by the international community to manage the funds raised to fight the devastation. We'll talk about the politics that led to this terrible event.
Son of the Mask Debate. Last weekend in Kitchener, there was a "Hugs Over Masks" protest in Victoria Park, one of a series of nation-wide protests by people who supposedly think that mask orders infringe on their freedom, but have also attracted all kinds of conspiracy-minded people. We'll talk about how the media should be covering these kinds of protests, how seriously we should take them, and how they're a sign of encroaching QAnon-like movements.
Mike on Margaret. There's a disturbance in the west end, and it has everything to do with Metrolinx plan to electrify the Kitchener GO Train line with the placement of a traction power substation in Margaret Greene Park, and the neighbours are furious. This week, we will be joined by Ward 4 City Councillor Mike Salisbury, who will talk about how he heard about the issue, and what he's doing to make his constituents' concerns front and centre, plus the latest on City Hall's COVID fiscal crunch, and more.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're in the mood for love. For our review this week, we've got a New York flavoured rom-com the makes you forget that there's a pandemic outside and that living in Manhattan is expensive, and it's called Almost Love. In the first half of the show though we will deal with the harsh realities of living in a pandemic and its effects on pop culture.
This Wednesday, August 12, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Re-opening News. Are we getting closer to seeing new movies in the multiplex again? Some people think so! Cineplex is opening more theatres across Canada, and while Tenet seems to be finally ready to open at the end of the month, Mulan is going direct to Disney+ for an extra $30 (?). We'll talk about all the latest movie news, including something called "The Schumacher Cut."
REVIEW: Almost Love (2020). Remember just hanging out with friends, and the only concern you had was your love life? Of course, no one does. Pre-COVID bliss is explored in Almost Love, an ensemble romantic comedy about two New York couples on the cusp of having to make or affirm their commitments with their respective partners by answering the question: Is this really the person I want to spend the rest of my life with? Hint: There's a happy ending!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Despite conventional wisdom about there being no news in August, over 100 people went to Margaret Greene Park last week to confront City councillors, staff, and Metrolinx reps about a plan to build a traction power substation in a portion of the park. The events in the west end capture in a microcosm of big concerns about public engagement, and development running roughshod over neighbourhood concerns.
As you've surely heard, Metrolinx, the crown corporation that owns and operates GO Transit, posted a virtual town hall outlining their plan to electrify the Kitchener GO Train line. One slide identified the placement of something called a traction power substation, or TPS, on a trail that runs from Margaret Greene Park behind some residential homes on Ferman Drive. The infrastructure, which is usually the size of cargo container, will change the shape of the park, and the implications did not go unnoticed.
The way that Metrolinx has handled this public engagement, and the behind the scenes discussions with City staff on the placement of the TPS that even seemed to catch Ward 4's councillors unawares, has fit into an increasing common narrative. For years, people have been feeling more and more cut out of the planning process, and in the case of Margaret Greene Park people are no longer willing to stand for it. This week, we've got two people who are standing up to Metrolinx.
This week’s guests are Crenda King and Ashley Lewis who both live in the neighbourhoods around Margaret Greene Park, and they both have a new found sense of political activism to protect this area that means so much to them and their families. This week's podcast will take you to the park where King and Lewis will talk about their concerns, their thoughts about the process so far, and whether or not they trust City Hall, Metrolinx, and other authorities to respect their point of view when it comes to the fate of their beloved neighborhood park.
So let's go to the park and talk about how to save it on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Metrolinx has extended the deadline for the virtual town hall until August 28, and you can find those materials and leave your input here. And you can keep up with the fight to protect Margaret Greene Park at the "Save Our Greenspace: Margaret Greene Park" Facebook page 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 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, there are a lot of unknowns. Will there be a proper school year with COVID still a thing? Are we ignoring Canada's growing far-right extremism and conspiracy theorists? And what about future political leaders, who is going to run alongside Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket, and who will lead the Green Party of Canada into the next election? This week, we'll try to get some answers.
This Thursday, August 6, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Class Struggles. It's almost exactly one month till the start of the school year, and for a lot of parents across Canada that means making a tough decision: If the schools are open, do I feel the precautions make it safe enough to send my child there? It's a tough call, and the details change between provinces and school boards, but with reports of outbreaks at American schools that have re-opened, what assurances do we have that school will be COVID cool in September?
Parks and Wreck. Among the problems facing the country, one that's been overlooked is a small group of conspiracy-minded people camped out at the National War Memorial called "the Canadian Revolution." This group has been demanding that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau be arrested or investigated for pedophilia, child trafficking, and other charges, and if you think this sounds suspiciously like QAnon level stuff, you're right! Are we paying enough attention to these fringe groups?
Veep Stakes. Former Vice-President Joe Biden will be announcing his running mate sometime in the next week or so in the lead up to the Democratic National Convention where he will officially assume the Democratic nomination for the presidency. The VP selection has a lot riding on it, not just because people want a forward, progressive-leaning pick, which will definitely be a woman, but because this person will likely be the presumptive nominee for President in 2024. Any guesses?
Follow the Leader's Race. A lot of people have been talking about the Conservative leadership race, but there are actually two Federal parties in the midst of a leadership contest right now. The Green Party race has twice the number of candidates as the Conservatives, but probably hasn't garnered half of the coverage, and this is a key moment for the Green Party as they plot a path forward without the leader that put them on the electoral map. So who looks good to succeed Elizabeth May?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to enjoy a taste of summer as usual, still watching movies at home, but watching movies that best suit a summer's day at the multiplex. On this episode, we're going to review The Old Guard, which is the Netflix version of a summer blockbuster, and before that, we're going to look at all the potential blockbusters Spielberg never made.
This Wednesday, August 5, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Uneven Stevens Epilogue. For the last few weeks, we've been ranking all of Steven Spielberg's films from worst to best, but with nearly 50 years in the business, Spielberg's been attached to a lot of different projects over the years. So as an addendum to our Spielberg ranking, we've got one more list: the Top 10 Spielberg projects that Spielberg never made, or got made by someone else!
REVIEW: The Old Guard (2020). Look at that picture at the top. Now that is a group of badasses, right? Lead by the Queen of Action herself, Charlize Theron, The Old Guard is Netflix's latest entry in the big Hollywood summer action game and features Theron's Andy leading a quintet of immortal warriors in a modern world where they can no long hide in the shadows. Sounds like the start of a beautiful franchise, but does this sure to be part one of a series get us hooked?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
City council is one of those things that has more less operated the same way for decades, You’ve got your elected officials, and the relevant City staff around the big central table, media covers the goings on from their appointed desk, and there’s a gallery full of spectators and supplemental staff who will take part in the meeting when called upon. It’s simple, and it’s how things have always been done... at least until COVID-19.
As part of its COVID-19 emergency measures, the Ontario government amended the Municipal Act to make certain allowances for cities, towns, and regional governments to hold meetings remotely. Guelph was one of the first early adapters to go to the digital council meeting, and the first COVID response meeting happened on March 23, a little over a week after Guelph, and indeed the country, shut down in response to the outbreak.
Those initial forays on March 23, and then again on April 16, led to an adjusted summer schedule for council that allowed them to handle City business while keeping physical distance and then also creating a way for council to hear from the public. Has it been an adjustment? Yes, but it’s seemed like an easy one, at least from the point of view from council observers. So how has it been going behind the scenes?
On this podcast, we’ll talk to the man best qualified to discuss those behind the scenes details, City Clerk Stephen O’Brien. O’Brien will review the changes that have allowed the virtual meetings, and whether they were considered before COVID-19. He will also talk about the advantages and disadvantages of virtual council meetings, and which of those changes might remain after the immediate effects of the pandemic are over. And finally, O’Brien will talk about the current status of the ward boundary and council composition review, and when you will be able to have your say about what council might look like in 2022.
So let's talk about how council meetings have changed in the pandemic era on this week's Guelph Politicast!
City council meetings will continue next week with the planning meeting of council, and the latest COVID-19 response meeting. In September, city council will return to a more regular schedule while still being physically distant, and stay tuned to Guelph Politico for all that coverage.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's going to be a Canadian affair with a splash of conspiracy. From coast to coast to coast, people are talking about the controversy that rhymes with "Me", but there are concerns in select localities including questions about mass murder on the East coast, and questions about the limits of Free Speech in Alberta. And speaking of Free Speech, yes, we have to talk again about conspiracies.
This Thursday, July 30, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
WE Are What WE Are. It was a big week for the still ongoing scandal involving the Federal government's decision to allow the WE Charity to administer nearly a billion dollars for youth volunteerism. The Kielburger Brothers testified Tuesday as they try to valiantly save their non-profit's reputation, if not its very existence, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself will testify just before showtime on Thursday. So where does the story go from here, and will there be any lessons learned?
Under Pressure. David Bowie and Queen must have been in the back of the head of the Nova Scotia government this week as they finally announced a public inquiry into the April massacre there, which is still the worst mass shooting in Canadian history. Originally, they were going to go with a simple review, but immense public pressure forced them to change their minds. So will a public inquiry get the answers people need, and will the government's heart really be in it?
Kill Bill 1. A few weeks ago, the Alberta government passed Bill 1, or the Protecting Critical Infrastructure Defence Act. Sounds pretty innocuous, right? Well, don't tell that to environmentalists in the Wild Rose province because they smell a rat, a rat designed to stop them from exercising their right to protest big oil and pipelines. So is Alberta and Jason Kenney using the pandemic as an excuse to stifle Free Expression for their friends in the fossil fuel business?
Fake Drastic Expertise. A viral video posted Monday night featured a group of people in front of the Supreme Court of the United States (?) talking about how everything that real medical professionals have told you about COVID-19 is wrong. It's another in a long line of conspiracy theories concerning the pandemic we've heard, and they're made worse because they're amplified by the President of United States. Will anything break this conspiratorial stranglehold on people?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're all about the Colour. It's not real, but it is spectacular, and it's the basis for this week's review, Colour Out of Space, which is now streaming on Netflix. Before that though, we will finish off our ultimate ranking of Spielberg film, and there may be some discussion about a tough weekend for loses in the film industry.
This Wednesday, July 29, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Uneven Stevens Part 3 of 3. Forty-five years ago this summer, Steven Spielberg changed movies forever with the release of Jaws, and that was merely just another step on his run as the most successful filmmaker in 125 years of cinematic history. This week we continue the definitive ranking of Spielberg’s films with the Top 10. (May not actually be definitive.)
REVIEW: Colour Out of Space (2020). The works of H.P. Lovecraft have been hugely influential, but they've not been easily adaptable, which is why Colour Out of Space is such a unique product. Well, there's also the mythic careers or director Richard Stanley and star Nicolas Cage, but mostly it's the Lovecraft, and his timely interpretation of humanity as just another cog in the cosmic machine. So is this Colour as spectacular and terrifying as advertised?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This week, we’re going to talk about small business, and we’re going to talk about it from two sides: the nation-wide trends on how entrepreneurs are trying to survive the pandemic, and a unique local example from a small business owner who has loudly and publicly asked for more help as we’re entering this important recovery phase of the crisis. How's business? It's complicated.
If you’re an entrepreneur running your own small business, and especially if that business depends on the regular traffic into a bricks and mortar storefront, these are very tough times. Three quarters of all small businesses in Canada have been forced to carry some kind of debt because of COVID-19, and according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), that debt now sits at $117 billion altogether. How are small businesses going to overcome this and other challenges?
We're going to get help answering that from two people this week. First, we will focus on the big picture with Ryan Mallough, the Ontario Director of Provincial Affairs for the CFIB. Mallough will talk about the worst case scenario for small business, the potential for a “second wave” of business closures in the fall as certain government measures expire, and the best ways that small businesses can overcome COVID challenges, especially in the digital realm.
After that, we will hear from Ryan Brooks, who is the CEO and founder of Ctrl V, a virtual reality arcade with nearly 20 different locations across North America. Brooks will talk about why he sent out an email to Ctrl V customers about getting more Federal and Provincial government action to support small businesses, and what those governments have done so far that’s been both helpful and unhelpful. Brooks will also talk about the effects of the pandemic on his own small business, and what factors will make or break some of the various Ctrl V franchises.
So let's talk about the challenges of small business, and the possible solutions, on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about the Canadian Federation of Independent Business click here, and to learn more about Ctrl V click here. To read the email that Ryan Brooks sent out to customers to rally support for small businesses from the government, click 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 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we are once again overwhelmed by the dregs of living in the year 2020. On the one hand, we've got stormtroopers on the streets of American cities, and a burgeoning blowback of abuse and assault allegations here in Canada. On top of that, we've got work issues in spite of the pandemic, and those pesky fascistic and colonial statues aren't going anywhere. What happened to a slow, summer news week?
This Thursday, July 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Portland oh-no! The most active of the Black Lives Matter protests have died down, so why were the streets of Portland, Oregon filled with unidentifiable government goons putting activists into unmarked cars? No one knows who these people are, or what agency they're a part of, but it goes all the way up to President Donald Trump. Is this performative fascism for the camera, or is this a warm-up act for actual fascism pre-election in November?
MouAussi. It hasn't really broken through into English Canada yet, but there is a MeToo reckoning happening now in Quebec. With a couple of exceptions, like Simple Plan bassist David Desrosiers, the majority of the accused are not well known outside of Quebec's insular celebrity culture, but that's not the only thing that's different about Quebec, where it's much easier for people to sue for libel even if the allegations are proven true. What can we learn from this new phase of MeToo?
Work Weak? We've reached the point in the pandemic where we're talking about how to get people back to work, and while the Federal government has extended the payout period for the Canadian Emergency Benefit Response, business owners are now shaking their fists because people are getting paid more to not go to work and stay safe. What's missing from the debate? If people are feeling that they're not paid enough to risk going to work, shouldn't we be talking about paying them more?
Statue of Limitations. More statue news this week as three protestors were taken into custody in Toronto for painting a Sir John A. MacDonald statue at Queen's Park pink, meanwhile Halton Regional Police were investigating the defacement of a Nazi monument in Oakville as a hate crime. Wait a minute, there's a Nazi monument in Oakville? You better believe it, which is another thing we've discovered about ourselves in another difficult week of reassessing our racial biases.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, even though we're in the middle of another summer heat wave, this new episode of the show might send a chill down your spine. For our review this week, we're going to discuss the new family-bases horror flick Relic, and before that we will continue our career recap of the man with the beard (and the box office).
This Wednesday, July 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Uneven Stevens Part 2 of 3. Forty-five years ago this summer, Steven Spielberg changed movies forever with the release of Jaws, and that was merely just another step on his run as the most successful filmmaker in 125 years of cinematic history. This week we continue the definitive ranking of Spielberg’s films with the middle 11. (May not actually be definitive.)
REVIEW: Relic (2020). It would be insulting to call the trend of high brow horror movies "smart horror", but this week we have another example of the best of the art form. Relic tells the story about three generations of woman coping with the deteriorating mental condition of the matriarch, but are the weird things happening in the house the fault of dementia, or is it the fault of some supernatural presence? Here's a question: Why not both?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
It’s hard to imagine a more personal environmental issue for many in Guelph than water. We’re a community that gets our drinking water from ground sources, and that means we have to be even more guarded about potential threats to those sources, which has long included private water taking operations. Some big changes are coming in that sector as you might have heard, and we’re going to get perspective from an activist and a politician.
A few weeks ago, the Government of Ontario announced proposed changes to water taking in Ontario, and around that same time Nestle Waters announced that they’re selling their water bottling operations in Canada. To water protection advocates, it’s like hell froze over twice!
Way back in 2016, the water taking contract between the Province and Nestle Waters operation in Aberfoyle expired. Still, Nestle has been taking water for the last four years, and all the Ontario government has done in the mean time is put a moratorium on new water taking permits, a moratorium that carried over when the new government took over in 2018. Now that moratorium is set to expire, and Nestle is selling its water bottling operations in Canada to a Shelburne company. What the heck’s going on?
To answer that, and other questions, we will be joined on this week's podcast by Robert Case, who is the chair of the Wellington Water Watchers, and Guelph MPP and Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner. We will hear from Case about his thoughts on Nestle leaving Canada, and whether Nestle is the canary in the coalmine for the profitability of bottled water. Then, we will hear from Schreiner as he talks about the politics being played by the Ontario government, and where this issue sits in terms of other government action on the environment.
So let's consider the future of bottled water and water bottling on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about the Wellington Water Watchers, you can go to their website here, and to learn more about the update to Ontario’s Water Quality Management framework, you can click 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 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.
With the literal spectre of death hanging over us, we will convene this week's episode of Open Sources Guelph. On this week's show, we have four very big topics to discuss including the latest on the WE scandal, the latest on the investigation into a downed plane in Iran, and how COVID and cancel culture is destroying America, but the government is talking only one of those seriously.
This Thursday, July 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
WE Need to Talk. There seems to be no end in sight as a scandal around a plum government contract for the WE organization has now absorbed Finance Minister Bill Morneau, and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, albeit on an entirely different matter. WE now finds itself under a microscope, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finds himself under his third ethics investigation in five years, so is Trudeau about to lose the sheen of his better than terrible response to COVID-19?
Plane Truth. Remember before COVID when one of the biggest foreign policy issues of the year was when Ukrainian Air Flight 752 was shot down by Iran? Well, it turns out 176 people were killed due to bad communications and poor alignment. So that's that, right? Not so fast, because this is Iran's own investigation, and others are waiting to finally get a second look at the black box. So what else is left to learn, and what consequences will there be for the Iranian regime?
Casket Case. When President Donald Trump got up in the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday, he talked about almost everything except the fact that the U.S. is rapidly approaching four million cases of COVID-19. Nearly four out of five states are showing increases in cases now, some are returning to lockdown, and expanded Federal employment benefits are running out, while Trump's team publicly demeans the nation's chief virologist. Has COVID defeated America?
Culture Club. The two most controversial words in politics right now is "cancel culture", but what the heck is that? To some people, it means the erosion of speech as some people say the wrong thing and are then inundated by the "liberal mob", but to others it means the democratization of speech and a call to account for outdated thinking and talking points. So is cancel culture a sign of the beast, or is it, as Desmond Cole said, more of a culture of responsibility?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits we enter a realm of the mysterious and the unknowable where only the stars have the answer you seek. If you think that's over-the-top wait until you see the subject of this week's review, which is entitled Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado. We'll have that, and we'll also kick-off our latest listicle series featuring a very famous "Steven."
This Wednesday, July 15, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Uneven Stevens Part 1 of 3. Forty-five years ago this summer, Steven Spielberg changed movies forever with the release of Jaws, and that was merely just another step on his run as the most successful filmmaker in 125 years of cinematic history. This week we kick off the definitive ranking of Spielberg's films with the bottom 12. (May not actually be definitive.)
REVIEW: Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado (2020). In 1969, Walter Mercado delivered the weekly astrology segment on the local Puerto Rican TV station while dressed flamboyantly for another show, but the gusto of his delivery made him an instant sensation. Fifty years later, Mercado stands as a legend in both the Latinx community as well as the queer community for being a pioneer in non-binary gender conformity, and now everyone can appreciate that legend anew with this Netflix documentary. So how it is?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This is where the hard work of changing the system, and combating systemic racism, begins. For almost two months there have been marches, demonstrations and meetings all designed to promote the cause, but if we’re going to tear down the system, and build something more equitable, it's going to be a more long term fight. So how do we begin? Why don’t we begin with this podcast?
This week, Velma Morgan, the Chair of Operation Black Vote Canada, joins us to talk about how we get more representation for the 18.8 per cent of our population in Guelph who are visible minorities. All things being equal, three of the spots on city council should be represented by People of Colour, which doesn't seem hard, but how do we make People of Colour in our community more comfortable in the council chambers, and how do we make more space for them in our politics?
Morgan's list of accomplishments is too long to list here (you can read them here though), but sufficient to say that her experience in promoting more involvement by Black Canadians in all levels of politics is a good place to start having the discussion. At Operation Black Vote Canada, Morgan and her colleagues run programs to educate, promote and support Black Canadians’ participation in Canada’s political process at all levels and elected offices, whether that’s local boards, or seats in government. Her advice should be essential listening on this topic, so let's listen.
In this episode of the podcast, Morgan will lay out the work of Operation Black Vote Canada, their accomplishments, and the current picture of Black representation at all levels of government here in Canada. She will also talk about voter turnout among Black Canadians, and the extent of the barriers for Black Canadians to get involved in politics. She will discuss the racial bias in municipal politics, what current members of city council should be doing to encourage diversity, and what we all should be doing in our community for the next two years to get more People of Colour involved in politics before the next municipal election.
So let's talk about getting out the vote among our racialized communities on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about Operation Black Vote Canada, or to take Velma Morgan up on her generous offer for political engagement training, you can find that information on their website here. Keep in mind, the opening of nominations for the 2022 Municipal Election is now less than two years away...
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.
Get some friends together and watch this week's episode of Open Sources Guelph! (Maybe not those ^^^ friends.) We're going to talk about those friends and the disturbing allegations around them, and we're also going to talk about the latest protests erupting from China's newest crackdown in Hong Kong. After that, we're going to catch up (virtually) with a member of our own local city council to talk about some of the latest developments in Guelph news.
This Thursday, July 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Grief of Security. The Chinese government is at it again in Hong Kong, with a brand new security law that basically makes it illegal to be critical of the government, and makes allowances for closed door trials, unlimited wire tapping, and a rather open definition of what can be called 'terrorism.' This was welcomed in the former British colony with about as much enthusiasm as you'd expect. Is this the end of one government/two systems?
Maxwell's House. When Jeffrey Epstein killed himself while in custody in 2019 it was assumed that he took many of his secrets with him to the grave, but as Yoda once said, "There is another." The arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's partner in business and, allegedly, sex trafficking, changes that, and Maxwell's arrest opens the door to finally get answers to questions about Epstein's systematic abuse and how we got away with it for so long. What new insights are we looking for?
James of Mind. For the last few months, Guelph City Council has been carrying out business virtually, and have had to make some pretty big decisions on the fly as new information developed quickly. So let's start talking about that by welcoming back to the show some members of the horseshoe, starting this week with James Gordon. The Ward 2 Councillor will discuss COVID-19, the Black Lives Matter protest, and the impact of the pandemic on his other job as a local rock star.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're getting in shape. Actually, we're going to watch other people get in shape because self-improvement is best left to the people in the movies; we're just trying to survive COVID-19 here. Speaking of which, the effects of the pandemic still weigh heavily on the news of the week even though we're still making future plans.
This Wednesday, July 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
News of the Week. In this week's round up of the latest movie news, we see that going back to the theatres might still be a long way off even in the places where they're currently re-opening. On top of that, Cineplex is suing their would-be buyer, TIFF is announcing a mixed program of at-home and in-festival offerings, and there's another wrinkle in the behind-the-scenes drama on Justice League.
REVIEW: Brittany Runs a Marathon (2019). It's been pretty hot outside these days in Guelph, so it's maybe not the best time to actually run a marathon. Instead, why don't you stay in where it's cool and watch a movie about a woman training to run her own marathon. Jillian Bell plays the titular runner in this comedy streaming on Amazon Prime that talks about millennial angst, body image, realistic expectations, and running, but is it funny?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
Our area has been under Stage 2 of the re-opening for nearly a month now, and people are eagerly looking for signs that we might soon enter the final stage. Still, our position is precarious. We see what is happening in the United States, and if there’s one thing that we can all agree on, it’s that we do not want to re-enter lockdown. So shall we get a doctor’s advice on how to avoid all that?
This week, we're joined by Dr. Nicola Mercer, who is the Medical Officer of Health for Wellington County, Dufferin County and Guelph. It seems like a million years ago, but Dr. Mercer appeared on the podcast barely four months ago at the beginning of March when a COVID-19 outbreak in Canada still seemed like a theoretical exercise. It was barely two weeks later that everything started shutting down; we went from a regular day’s routine of work, school and errands, to three months of lockdown and quarantine and empty streets, and it's been a long way back.
Now, four months later, Dr. Mercer joins us again as we look ahead, as well as behind, about the local response to COVID-19 so far. She will talk about how the medical advice on masks evolved over the course of the pandemic, and whether or not they will now be a regular part of life. She also discuss how the virus is spreading now in the Guelph area, and the best tips on how to avoid it as we go out more. And finally, she will offer her insights on how we will move to Stage 3, when the local state of emergency will end, and how public health is preparing for that eventual return of COVID-19 in the fall and winter.
So let's talk about the past, present and future of the pandemic in our region on this week's Guelph Politicast!
There’s a Board of Health Meeting Wednesday July 8 at 2:30 pm where we will get an update on the local battle of COVID-19 from the public health perspective. And for all advice public notices regarding COVID-19, or any public health matter, you can go to the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health website 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 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, the Canada Day long weekend is five days long, and we've got to work! On the plus side (?) there's so much work to do, and so many stories to cover. Considering the holiday, we will look at the issue of our beloved prime ministerial statues, and how the current PM is making it rain for his friends. After the break, we'll look at the latest foreign policy controversy for the White House and the political question of mandatory masks.
This Thursday, July 2, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
John A Neurotic. The new wave of Black Lives Matter demonstrations has included Indigenous people and the some 500 years of colonialism they've endured. Cut to Baden, ON, where a statue of Sir John A. MacDonald, Canada's first prime minister, has been vandalized with red paint three times in the last week for his role in creating residential schools. What should the fate of the statue be, and how do we present our history in the context of systemic racism?
WE Don't Need No Consultation! It's only millions of dollars in taxpayer money, so how did it all end up in the hands of a charity that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has taken such a pretty big part in? WE Charities received $900 million from the Federal government for youth volunteer programs, and given Trudeau's past involvement in WE, it's raised a lot of serious questions about why and how WE got the money? Is the PM using COVID to give hand outs to good friends?
Bounty Punter. A shocking report initially delivered by the New York Times, and now confirmed by various other media outlets, describes a program by the Russians to pay a bounty to the Taliban and other Afghan insurgents for killing American soldiers. Even more shocking still is the report that the Trump Administration has known about for over a year and done nothing, which adds to suspicions about inappropriate ties between Trump and Vladimir Putin. We'll talk about the latest developments.
Behind the Mask Debate. Aside from washing your hands regularly, the number one recommendation to stop the spread of COVID-19 is now to wear a mask or face covering while you're out in public. To most people this is common sense, but to a small group of very loud dissenters, the importance of wearing masks has become an issue of cultural identity and eroding freedoms. How have masks become a wedge issue, and what will it take for people to universally embrace the recommendation?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it's a holiday episode. As fate would have it, this week's episode falls on Canada Day proper, which makes us want to look at the movies from here at home to celebrate, and if you feel like celebrating, we'll tell you where you can find some great Canadian films. After that, pull the drapes and get under the covers because we've got a horror movie anthology to review.
This Wednesday, July 1, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Streaming Canada. In case you didn't notice, today is Canada Day. Now people's choice for movie options don't usually begin with what's Canadian, and Canadian options aren't usually presented in the menu, so for this week's pre-review segment, we're going to rundown some of the Canadian flicks that are available now on the major streaming services.
REVIEW: Scare Package (2019). Horror and comedy together is like chocolate and peanut butter, two things that shouldn't work well when combined, but when it's good, it's reeeeally good. Does the combination work when you throw in a third element, an anthology? Scare Package, a new film on Shudder, has laughs, has gore, and has about eight different stories reflecting various horror subgenres, but does the chemistry work or is it a big green gooey mess with a talking skull head in the middle?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
This week, in honour of Canada Day, we have a repeat of the podcast. That doesn't make a lot of sense, but it is a holiday, and we could all use a nice break from the routine and skullduggery of the pandemic news cycle. So let's revisit happier times from the recent and distant pasts.
In 2017, as Canada celebrated the 150th anniversary of its creation, we looked back at how Guelph marked its own birthday over the years. Today, Guelph’s 200th anniversary is less than seven years away, and despite the pandemic, the city continues to evolve and change and grow into something both familiar and totally different. What will that be? Who knows? Where have we been? Well, that question is easier to answer.
Recapping a review of Guelph history is the basis for this week's Guelph Politicast!
The Guelph Politicast will return next week with a new episode!
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to take a break from the ongoing stories that have so pre-occupied us these last few weeks to revisit some golden oldies. We've got Canada-China relations, we've got some Donald Trump stuff, and we've got the Conservative leadership race for a well-rounded news diet. On top of that, we'll discuss some good old fashioned investigative reporting.
This Thursday, June 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Informer? In April, Gabriel Wortman committed the worst mass murder in Canadian history, but before that, could he have been an RCMP informant? That interesting question comes from a Maclean's article that points to $475,000 in cash that Wortman withdrew from a bank that he theoretically shouldn't have been able to get. In some quarters, this is considered a type of "trade-craft" used by our Federal police service, so what does this mean, and are we missing a bigger piece of this story?
China Beseech. China is moving ahead with the prosecution of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, two random Canadians they picked up and charged with espionage out of apparent retaliation for the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. Moving to a prosecution phase is an escalation for the Chinese government, and seen as a warning to Canada and the Trudeau government, but are there any reasonable moves that Canada can make to save the Michaels?
How Deep is My Rally? It was not a good week for Donald Trump. He had multiple failures at the Supreme Court, he had a near-Saturday Night Massacre with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Southern New York, and then the rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations have sky-rocketed, so Trump really needed that Tulsa campaign kick-off rally to go off without a hitch. It did not. We'll talk about how and why things are not going well for Trump and his re-election efforts.
Debate Society. Last week, the four Conservative leadership candidates - Leslyn Lewis, Peter MacKay, Erin O'Toole, and Derek Sloan - all made their case to lead the Official Opposition into the next election. Unfortunately, what was going on in the campaigns was more interesting than the debates with the O'Toole camp accusing the MacKay team of stealing data and information. Can the Conservatives get behind a leader with such a stunning amount of animosity?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to slack off. There is a long weekend/national holiday coming up, so it seems like a good time to do nothing, or at least watch a movie about people sitting around doing nothing. This week, we'll review the new Judd Apatow comedy The King of Staten Island, and look back at the summer that was two decades ago.
This Wednesday, June 24, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Summer of 2000. Twenty years ago it was the turn of the millennium, and everything seemed possible. Coming after what still might be the greatest year in movies, the year 2000 had a lot of great expectations, but were the movies able to meet them? And looking back 20 years later, what did those movies leave us, and what do we think of them now?
REVIEW: The King of Staten Island (2000). Loosely based on events from his own life, Pete Davidson stars in Judd Apatow's new movie about a young slacker with a lot of issues just trying desperately not to grow up on everyone's least favourite New York City burrow. The movie was supposed to one of summer's big releases, but now it streams on VOD, which begs the question: Can Davidson overcome the pandemic conditions to reach Apatow-infused super-stardom?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.*
*Programming note: End Credits is moving to 3 pm on Wednesday until further notice.
There’s been a lot of news in Guelph lately, maybe too much news, so we’re all going to take a minute, or 60, on this week’s podcast to bring some analysis and a recap of all the happenings in this sorted little ‘burb called the Royal City. It's time for another entry in the great Guelph Stuff punditry franchise.
On this edition of Guelph Stuff, we will be joined by Eli Ridder of the Guelph Wire, who will help us review some fairly big issues from around town these last few weeks, and months. This will be the first Guelph Stuff since the Christmas holiday, which was six months and a million years ago in what seems like an almost alien period of time giving the tremendous physical, social and financial upheaval currently all over the news.
This edition of Guelph Stuff has a lot of ground to cover on three pretty significant headlines that have been making news in Guelph lately. First, we will look at the follow-up to the Black Lives Matter march earlier this month and issues around diversity and policing. Second, we will talk about the City's response to COVID-19, and the big plan to turn downtown Guelph into a patio destination. And finally, we will wrap up talking about the arrest of MP Marwan Tabbara and what it says about how the media covers Guelph.
So let's enjoy another Guelph Stuff on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can find Eli Ridder on Twitter here, and you can read his work over at GuelphWire.ca. And for more information about any of things we talked about today, you can find them here 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 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, nothing important happened so we're going on vacation. Just kidding. We will follow up with the two big stories of our time: Black Lives Matter, and the pandemic, and we will go deeper on a couple of issues including how and why we should defund the police, and whether or not the House of Commons should get back to business as usual.
This Thursday, June 18, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Movement Continues... Protests in solidarity with Black Lives Matter continued across North America and around the world over the last week, but there have been some new dimensions. Someone allegedly tied to the so-called "Boogaloo" movement was charged with shooting an officer in Oakland during a BLM protest, and a protestor was shot by armed people protecting a conquistador statue in New Mexico. Are we entering dangerous new phase of this growing social movement?
Defund the Police. Along with "Black Lives Matter," "Defund the Police" has become one of the most frequently used rallying cries of the recent Civil Rights demonstrations. But what does that mean? Cynics think it means eliminating the police entirely, but for most people it means looking at how the police are funded, and looking at if other ways that they're duties can be maintained using non-police services, but can it work? Can we, at least, have that conversation?
Still COVID. Hey, did you know that the pandemic is still a thing, right? Cases are on the rise across the United States, and certain sections in Ontario are still stuck in Stage 1 of the economic recovery, including Toronto, and there's currently a debate about whether or not masks should be mandatory, or just required. So why does COVID-19 feel more and more like yesterday's news?
Open House? The government faced a confidence motion on Wednesday in the special COVID-19 committee sitting of the House of Commons, but it was expected to survive thanks to the NDP and the Liberals willingness to extend the CERB benefits till the end of summer. But has the special committee turned into a divide and conquer scheme for the sitting Liberals? With many places around the country re-opening, is it maybe time for Parliament Hill to join them?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to get more socially conscious. Our movie of the week is Da 5 Bloods, which, like any good Spike Lee movie, is going to educate and entertain with a robust conversation about race relations. Before we talk about the movie though, we have to talk about movie releases again. Get your calendars open, there have been some changes...
This Wednesday, June 17, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
More Musical Chairs. The continuing pandemic concerns in North America has started to wear on the already abbreviated movie season. Tenet has been pushed back a few weeks, which has started some additional moves along the calendar. We'll talk about those moves, and we'll talk about why drive-in theatres are mad about The King of Staten Island.
REVIEW: Da 5 Bloods (2020) - With Black Lives Matter in the news on a nightly basis, and the conversation on equality shifting rapidly, what a great time for a new Spike Lee film to enter the conversation. In Da 5 Bloods, a group of Vietnam vets return to their old battlefield to find the remains of their old C.O., and the CIA gold they buried in 1968, but can they survive each other, and the social commentary that Lee has constructed in his typical style?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.
Like so many events and festivals since the middle of March, the annual Guelph Sports Hall of Fame ceremony was postponed because of the pandemic. One of the inductees this year is Rob Massey, who has made a career out of covering local sports in Guelph, and that definitely deserves to be honoured. So as Massey waits to get his lovely Kiwanis Club dinner, we will tide him over by celebrating his achievement on this edition of the podcast.
Rob Massey has spent 33 covering amateur sports in Guelph, and for most of that time, he was at the Guelph Mercury, where he was the sports editor from 1986 to 2016. After that, he started his own website dedicated to local sports called the Guelph Sports Journal, where he kept covering the beat he had dedicated so much of his life to following, from the ball diamonds and soccer fields in neighbourhood parks to the turf of Alumni Stadium at the University of Guelph.
You have to believe that a man that's covered local sports for this long is a true fan. Far from the stars and the spotlights, he’s looking at athletes as they develop, as they learn their skills and ability, and as the truly gifted athletes start to separate themselves from the pack. Or not. If you’ve been to a Guelph sports field for league play in the last 30 years, there’s been one man there the whole time, telling all the stories no matter what they are. This week, Massey tells his.
On this episode of the podcast, Rob Massey talks about his career in Guelph, how we got started, and why he's still doing it almost five years after the Mercury closed. He also talks about the similarities between covering politics and covering sports, what his regular workload looks like, and how he’s handling a sports-free pandemic. And finally, he will discuss covering generations of athletes in Guelph, whether or not he’s thinking about retirement, and what he’s going to think about when he eventually sees his picture on the wall of the Sleeman Centre.
So let's finally talk about sports on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can see Rob Massey's work covering local sports, when there is local sports, at the Guelph Sports Journal here. You can also see all past inductees of the Hall of Fame in the lower level hallway at the Sleeman Centre, or by going to the Sleeman Centre website 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 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph looks very much like last week on Open Sources Guelph. We're going to talk about the latest on the rejuvenated Civil Rights struggle against anti-Black racism and police brutality, and we'll have the latest about the pandemic, which is still a thing that's happening. In between, we'll talk about the road to the White House, which will surely be bumpy no matter how big a lead the newly-minted challenger has this far out from Election Day.
This Thursday, June 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
It's Not Going Away. It's been another week, but the demand for equal rights and the end of police brutality has not gone away in towns and cities across North America, and the world. More the 5,000 people came out to march in Guelph, Minneapolis is voting to dismantle their police force and replace it with... something new, and a statue of a slaver in Britain was yanked down and thrown in the river. Are we really in the midst of systemic change, or is this still reactionary?
Joe-Mentum? Last Friday, former Vice-President Joe Biden clinched the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, and in the midst of a heartless and pitiful response from the current occupant of the White House, to both the pandemic and the protests, Biden has a very healthy lead on Donald Trump in most of the national polls, but will COVID fears and voter suppression prevent Biden and his team from being able to capitalize on his lead?
"This Pandemic Does Strange Things to People." That observation is brought to you by Premier Doug Ford, who's under fire for the regional re-opening of the province under Stage 2 of their economic strategy. Meanwhile, the Federal government is under fire for taking out the switch to anyone that might have defrauded the emergency relief benefits, and Dr. Fauci made a return to media appearances to say that the pandemic's not over. We'll update all of that.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're kind of in a celebratory mood despite the pandemic. This week, we're delivering our 150th episode, and we're unofficially kicking off season four of the show. For this timely occasion, we have a timely movie, and it's French-Canadian too. On this show, we're going to review The Decline, and we're also going to talk about what we've learned from the first 150 episodes of the show.
This Wednesday, June 10, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
150 Episodes. It's been three years and a week since our little radio show began life on CFRU, so for the first part of our show this week, we're going to recap those first 149 episodes and look at the trends we've followed in the news these last 36 months, from #MeToo, the streaming wars, and the great Hollywood era of extended universes!
REVIEW: The Decline (2020). A more timely piece of cinema there's never been, this Canadian film produced directly for Netflix (a first!) finds a group of survivalists heading out to the Quebec countryside to learn how to plan, hunker down, and attack once society collapses. But can they survive each other? Chock full of ideas about community, dependency, group think, and individualism, The Decline definitely captures the zeitgeist, but is it any good?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.
Saturday's Guelph Solidarity Protest to Support Black Lives Matter drew 5,000 people to downtown Guelph to demonstrate against systemic racism and police brutality. For Guelph's predominately white citizenry, it was a time to listen, and to show support, and in that spirit, this week's episode of the podcast will feature very little commentary from the host, and will be almost entirely dedicated to those voices that were raised last weekend.
So let's skip the preamble, and get right into this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
In terms of the next stages in how you can support the causes of People of Colour in Guelph, you can join the Black Lives Matter - Guelph Facebook page. You can also support these Black-owned businesses in the Royal City, and you can volunteer or offer financial support to Guelph Black Heritage Society. And finally, know you're history. Visit this University of Guelph project, called “The Black Past in Guelph: Remembered and Reclaimed.” There’s some great, disturbing stuff in there including our disturbing fascination with Minstrel shows well into the 1960s.
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.
So that happened this week. Those are dozens of American soldiers standing on guard in front of the Lincoln Memorial in the midst of night eight of nation-wide protests following the death of a black man in Minnesota. This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to talk about everything happening in the United States, or at least try, and we're going to talk about how it reflects on our own systemic racism here in Canada. Plus, isn't there still a pandemic going on?
This Thursday, June 4, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
George. For nearly two weeks now, American cities have been nightly scenes of chaos as people have taken to the streets to protest anti-Black racism, and the systemic racism in American police departments. It started with the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, but its become so much bigger now, and the U.S. President, who has long espoused racist beliefs, and used racialized language, has done nothing to promote calm. We'll try and make sense of the last week.
Canada is Racist Too. A lot of people have made hay about the 20 seconds Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took before not calling Trump a fascist, but nobody seemed to listen to what he said after the pause. There is racism here in Canada, and the fact that we just passed one-year since the delivery of the final report into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls without any substantive action is proof of that regardless of what Rex Murphy thinks.
There's Still a Pandemic? The Ontario government is still reacting to last week's report about the conditions in long term care homes, and the Province took over another home this week bring that number up to seven. Meanwhile, the state of emergency has been extended until the end of June, but it seems like we've all but forgotten there's a pandemic still out there because of this week's top story. So where do we sit now in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we find the love. The news has been filled with all kinds of hate and scary things lately, but for this episode, we're going to log on to Netflix and review the new outrageous rom-com, The Lovebirds. Before that, we're going to get back to the classic End Credits of old, and tell you about what's been happening in movie news lately.
This Wednesday, June 3, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
What's in the News? Normally on End Credits, we spend the first half of the show talking about the latest in pop culture news, but with the format getting remixed because of COVID-19, we haven't been able to stay on top of things like we should. Well, this week, we're going to review some of the latest news, from casting choices, to new releases, to the fate of the exhibition business itself!
REVIEW: The Lovebirds (2020). The last time that Kumail Nanjiani and Michael Showalter teamed up it was for the personal, and Oscar-nominated The Big Sick. The Lovebirds is not that. It's more silly, more adventurous, and it was written by the team that brought you Young People Fking, but can it possibly stand on its own in the shadow of The Big Stick, and can it stand out having been shuffled to Netflix after its theatrical release was cancelled?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.
Last September at the Labour Day Picnic in Riverside Park, there were already signs that it was going to be a long year at the province’s schools. The contract with all four teachers’ unions in Ontario had expired, and the Ontario government was in no mood to approve new spending or pay raises for teachers and other school workers employed at our Catholic and separate public schools. That was only the beginning.
This week on the podcast, we're going to talk about the end with two leaders of the local branches of our teachers' unions. What began with an expired contract on August 31, exacerbated by legislation limiting raises by one per cent in October, and accelerated with rotating strikes in the winter, ended rather anticlimactically once schools closed because of COVID-19. With weeks, all four teachers' unions secured a new contract in March. So what are the leaders of the unions thinking now?
This week we're joined by Mark Berardine, the president of Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA) Wellington, and Jennifer Hesch, the president of the Upper Grand Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO). In separate interviews, they talk about the process, the negotiations, and the eventual deals. They also talk about the various tactics employed by the teachers’ unions, and how they were able to hang on to the support of parents. And they’ll discuss what the unions have learned from dealing with the Ford government, and whether or not they would still be striking now if it weren't for COVID-19.
So let's recap this year of labour strife at school on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Note: Paul Rawlinson, the president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation District 18 was invited to take part in this podcast, but he did not respond before press time.
You can stay up to date with the latest developments on any subject concerning your local school boards, be it teachers contracts or COVID-19 developments, by connecting to their websites. Click here for the Upper Grand District School Board, and click here for the Wellington Catholic District School Board.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we have the silly, we have the serious, and we have an in-depth discussion with a politician about the issues. This might be one of the most normal episodes we've done in a while, but we've still got COVID-19 concerns, especially in long term care homes. We'll also head to Parliament Hill and we'll talk to a local politician (for the East Coast) about his Canada-wide concerns for all cities.
This Thursday, May 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Disgrace. A report from Canadian Forces, who respond to a call for help in Ontario's long-term care home, outlined a terrible series of abuses observed in these facilities that have nothing to do with COVID-19. Premier Doug Ford has pledged that he will now pursue a public inquiry, and referrals will be made to the police, but we're once again forced to confront how little we've done for our seniors who we claim to cherish. Will anyone pay a political price though?
The Commons Struggle. Meanwhile in the House of Commons, MPs are debating about whether or not the time has come to return to regular order. The Conservatives want to, the Liberals aren't so sure, and they might have the support of the NDP if the government makes sick pay a reality. Meanwhile, all three major parties have been dipping into wage subsidies to help their staffs. We'll catch up with all the latest from Ottawa.
A Country of Cities. Municipalities across the country are struggling with bloated bottom lines, and many of them are barred by law from running red ink. Cities are in trouble, and they've been reaching out to higher levels of government for help with increasing concern, but is help going to come from the Federal and provincial governments? Bill Karsten, a Halifax city councillor and president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, will offer an answer.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, get ready for some childhood trauma! Not ours, of course, but the cinematic life based on the real-life family drama of a well-known and controversial Hollywood actor. Plus, we will have some doc talk with one of the people responsible for North America's biggest documentary film festival!
This Wednesday, May 27, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
All Things Digital. It's the end of the May, and in a typical year, the annual Hot Docs documentary film festival would be long since over, but in the age of COVID-19 it's actually just getting starting. We will talk to Shane Smith, the director of programming at Hot Docs, about making changes to this year's festival, and how the pandemic will change things forever moving forward.
REVIEW: Honey Boy (2019). The life of a child actor can be difficult, and it can be made even more so by a reckless parent. Just ask Shia LaBeouf, or, better still, watch the new movie he stars in and wrote about it. Honey Boy began as a therapeutic exercise for LaBeouf while in rehab, his life story and struggles told on celluloid with the author playing his own father warts and all. But is Honey Boy more than just good therapy for its wannabe auteur star?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.
The library is the ideal paradox for the present pandemic: we’re all stuck at home looking for new stuff to read and watch, which is a situation ideally suited for the library, but because of the public health emergency, it is wildly irresponsible to have people visit the library and handle various books, and other things. But good news, we will soon be able to borrow from the library again. How will they do it?
Like most City of Guelph facilities, the Guelph Public Library closed its doors to the public on March 15. That was right on the brink of March Break, which is a time when the library rolls out all sorts of programs and activities, but there are people all over Royal City who make the library part of their daily or weekly routine, whether they're using the computers, reading the paper, or using it as a place to study quietly. And then there are the thousands of items borrowed every year...
Even though the library is still, essentially, in business with a variety of online resources, people have had to get by without the library's vast collection of books, DVDs, and periodicals, but that will soon change. The Ontario government has loosened restrictions, and the Guelph Library system is currently in the process of preparing for curbside pick-up of physical books and media, but how will life at the library change as we continue to recover from COVID?
That’s one of the many questions that Steve Kraft, the CEO of the Guelph Public Library, will answer on this week’s podcast. He will talk about how the library has handled the demand for digital materials during the pandemic, how they're preparing for curbside pick-up, and the intricacies involved in creating an entirely new way of borrowing. He also talks about what a physically distant library might look like when it re-opens, and whether or not libraries will see more visits once the state of emergency is lifted. Plus, he will talk directly about whether or not the fiscal developments from COVID-19 at city hall might have an effect on the construction of the new main library on Baker Street.
So let's talk about pandemic life at the Guelph Public Library on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The Guelph Public Library is looking to have curbside pick-up ready to implement on June 1, and if you are presently in possession of library materials, you can now return them to any of the library’s branches with the exception of the bookmobile, and the West End Rec Centre branch. To keep up to date with everything happening at the library, visit 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 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph we start with dessert. The Premier of Ontario hasn't told us to eat cake, but he showed us how to make one, which could be just as bad as the other thing once austerity sets in. That's just one of the topics we'll explore on this week's show along with matters of inquiry in Nova Scotia, the latest attack against a free press, and the messed up labour market being created by Amazon, and its "trillionaire" CEO.
This Thursday, May 21, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Let Them Eat Cheesecake. Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that the province would start its gradual re-open, and then showed everyone how to make Mama Ford's cheesecake, but what we really need is assurance. With a ballooning deficit, and the PC government's previous willingness to play with the numbers to justify government cuts, how do we know that the Ford government won't use the pandemic as an excuse for austerity once the emergency has passed?
Inquiry of a Wimpy Kid. So much has been happening on a daily basis that its passed the collective memory that just a month ago there was a gunman that went on a rampage across Nova Scotia. Things have gone quiet in terms of the investigation into how and why, but many questions linger about how this gunman was able to arm himself, why no one seemed to see it coming, and why authorities seemed to respond so poorly. Should there be a public inquiry into what happened?
Beat the Press. It seems bizarre that in a public health emergency there should be so much distrust of authority, but once again accusations of fake news are being made against reporters just going their job. U.S. President Donald Trump shared a tweet of a New York reporter being yelled at by screaming conspiracy theorists and other MAGA folks, a way for him to endorse the actions and attack what he considers a dishonest press. Is there a way to combat such blatantly hostility?
Amazon Shiver. The pandemic has revealed the character of a lot of different people and companies, and none are perhaps as revealing as Amazon and Jeff Bezos. Shortly after it was announced that Amazon would be rolling back pandemic pay at the end of the month, it was reported that the company's head, Bezos, might be the world's first trillionaire before the decade's out. What will it take to change Amazon's culture, and should there be such a thing as a trillionaire?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it's time to get dead again! Just in time for the unofficial start of summer, we'll review the new socially conscious zombie hit Blood Quantum, and, before that, we'll finish up the list of the Top 40 Comic Book Movies of the Last 40 Years. Yup, this one's going to be a nerdy episode.
This Wednesday, May 20, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The Top 40 Comic Book Movies of the Last 40 years PART 4. In 1978, Superman the Movie was released in theatres everywhere, and since then everyone’s chased that big box office money from superhero movies. For the next four weeks, we’re going to countdown the 40 greatest of the genre in the last 40 (or make that 42 years). This week, we’re doing 1 to 10.
REVIEW: Blood Quantum (2020). The toast of the Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight Madness program last year is now available on VOD. Just another zombie movie? Hardly. Filmmaker Jeff Barnaby supposes an outbreak of undead near a community of First Nations people, but the gimmick is that Indigenous people seem unaffected by zombie bites. Like all great zombie movies, this one's got a social message, but does Blood Quantum stand with the best of the living dead?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.
We normally do a quarterly discussion of transit matters with a couple of our friends from the Transit Action Alliance of Guelph, or TAAG, but there’s been a lot going on lately, and it’s been really hard for friends to get together like we usually do. Getting people to take the bus in the best of times is hard, but during a pandemic? It’s time for another edition of the Transit Pass, even though these days you don’t need one.
Thousands of people take Guelph Transit every month, especially when school’s in sessions, and while Transit hasn’t released any official numbers, most transit systems are reporting a loss in ridership of 90 per cent or more. Almost all transit systems have cut schedules, or rolled back service, but in the wake of the pandemic they've still been deemed an essential service so that people still have the means to get to work or the grocery store.
It’s a perfect storm: cities have to run a transit service in some capacity, but many of them depend on the revenue from the fare box in order to cover the cost. Some transit systems, like Guelph Transit, have made services free as a way to encourage social distancing, but that means there’s currently no revenue being collected at all. There are pressures now on upper levels of government to give transit some bailout money, otherwise they might need to start charging fares again. It’s a conundrum, so let’s see what one of our friends from TAAG might have to say about it.
So this week on the podcast, Steve Petric, the chair of TAAG, will talk about what it’s like to take the bus these days, and how Transit is managing the health and safety of both passengers and operators during the pandemic. He also talks about the current financial needs of transit, and what role TAAG serves in promoting transit while everyone’s in lockdown. And finally, he will also talk about how the pandemic can promote new, radical approaches to the way we plan and fund transit.
So let's talk about transit during our pandemic age on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about the Transit Action Alliance of Guelph, and its advocacy, you can go to their website here, and to keep up to date with the latest from Guelph Transit itself, go to their website here. Remember, Transit is free in Guelph until July 1, and presently only 10 people are allowed on the bus at a time.
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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're getting ready for the long weekend, and that means stoking some controversy. We're going to re-visit the non-stop state of weirdness, ignorance, and conspiracy in the American executive, and then we're going to discuss some controversial comments from a Canadian politician who is no stranger to controversial comments. Before that though, we'll hear from Guelph's mayor and get the latest about the local response to COVID-19.
This Thursday, May 14, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Cam on COVID. Scotty interviewed Mayor Cam Guthrie back in March just a few days into the pandemic lockdown, and this week we're going to check back in with the mayor about how Guelph is doing now just a few months later. Guthrie will talk to us this week about the long plateau of lockdown and keeping people engaged, the work of his economic task force, his advocacy through LUMCO, and the things he's learning about what it takes to be mayor in a crisis.
It's Coming From Inside the [White] House. U.S. President Donald Trump is not having a good week. He's got key White House staff contracting COVID-19, a desperate desire to re-open the economy, a new conspiracy theory that makes even less sense than usual, and his scientific advisors told the senate about all the worse case scenarios they're not allowed to say to his face. We'll look at all that, and some casual racism during a press conference on this week's edition of the Trump Show.
"Oil is Dead"? In a National Observer op-ed, former Green Party leader Elizabeth May doubled down on a comment she made in a press conference, "Oil is dead." This made more than a few politicians, business people and even journalists apoplectic; why does May hate jobs, money, stimulus, economic freedom, etc? We'll look at May's arguments, and consider that maybe, just maybe, she might be on to something...
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to get out our dancing shoes, and that's probably going to end horribly... Like the release of Cats! The adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical is now available to watch at home, and we watched it, and there might be regrets. In other news, we'll continue with out list of the best comic book movies in the last four decades.
This Wednesday, May 13, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Top 40 Comic Book Movies of the Last 40 years PART 3. In 1978, Superman the Movie was released in theatres everywhere, and since then everyone’s chased that big box office money from superhero movies. For the next four weeks, we’re going to countdown the 40 greatest of the genre in the last 40 (or make that 42 years). This week, we’re doing 11 to 20.
REVIEW: Cats (2019). We finally did it. Cats may not be the biggest bomb of the last year, or even the last 10 years, but it's definitely one of the most infamous box office disasters in recent memory. From the visual effects controversy, to the overemphasis on making successful actors act cat-like, to the deathly serious way director Tom Hooper treats this campiest of Broadway musicals, we'll watch Cats this week so you don't have to.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.
The detailed Clair-Maltby Secondary Plan was going to be one of the biggest issues before city council this year, and it still might be, but in the almost literal centre of the debate is the Marcolongo Farm property. With council returning to some kind of regular order in the next few weeks, look for the planning of Clair-Maltby to pick-up again, and there is almost no one that has as much invested in that plan both personally and professionally than Mike Marcolongo.
This week on the podcast, Marcolongo is going to take us back to the beginning, and then come with us back to where we left off with the Clair-Maltby debate in March with the Committee of the Whole meeting. Before that meeting, staff proposed to establish a community park by using, in part, 35 acres of the Marcolongo property meant for what can be most simply described as affordable housing. It was the latest hoop that the Marcolongo family had to jump through to make their vision for their property a reality.
What was that reality? Marcolongo's father had a vision to turn a portion of the property, including the over 100 year old farmhouse and barn, into a medical training facility, as well as giving several acres of the property back to the City as new, protected open space. There's also the aforementioned housing, which will be built by Options for Homes, who offers financial tools to make it easier for people to buy homes even at market value. So what are the odds that the Marcolongos will see that vision realized?
Marcolongo will provide an answer to that question, and others. He'll talk about the process, the struggles, dealing with other developers and the City staff, and whether he’s felt besieged through the process. He'll discuss whether he’s been surprised at how political the process has become, whether he thinks all the politicking might be over, and his advice for the next person with a bold plan for a big piece of land in Guelph. And finally, Marcolongo will talk about the memories, and the lessons that he’s taking with him.
So let's head down to Old Marcolongo's Farm on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
The approved plan for the Open Spaces Strategy for the Clair-Maltby Secondary Plan will be ratified by city council at some point now that regular meetings of council are resuming, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, you can see all the Clair-Maltby documents at the City’s website 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 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, let's chat about the present and the past. There's still some COVID-19 stuff going on, which includes the status of long-term care homes, and all those proverbial "yahoos" battling imaginary boogeymen in the name of re-opening the economy. In other news, the Federal government is looking to pass new gun laws, and on the same week we mark the 50th anniversary of the Kent State Massacre.
This Thursday, May 7, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Long Term Snare. As we continue with the COVID-19 crisis, and start looking at re-opening the economy, the question about long-term care homes is cast in stark relief and people are looking again at the decision to privatize these facilities in the 90s as the original sin that lead to the quick spread of COVID in these homes. Meanwhile, four PSWs have died in Ontario being exposed to the virus, will we finally standardize and compensate this industry properly?
Have Gun, Will Outlaw. In the wake of the attacks in Nova Scotia, the Canadian government has introduced new legislation that will ban over a thousand different assault weapons, and initiate a gun buy back program. Gun control is always a third rail in politics, even in Canada, and a lot of Conservative politicians, including Doug Ford and Peter MacKay, are making hay about it. Will politics get in the way of gun safety again, and will this be the path to stop another massacre?
The Perplex Files. In the midst of all the protests to re-open the economy, both here and in the United States, there have been some additionally disturbing elements. From Flat Earthers, to Anti-vaxxers, to QAnon believers, there have been a lot of people who seem just generally paranoid about a lot of different things aside from COVID-19. And, oh yeah, the racism. Why are these protests collecting all the wackos, and how much weight should we give them?
Kent 50. Speaking of protests, it was 50 years ago this week that four students were killed on the campus of Kent State University by National Guardsmen. To this day, no one knows who fired the first shot or why, but the so-called "Kent State Massacre" was the beginning of the end of the Vietnam War. We'll talk about the long-term impacts of what happened at Kent State, and how that affects the modern view of protest movements, especially for student-led protests.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
We're back with another quarantined edition of End Credits, but that doesn't mean we can't go worldwide. For our review this week, we're heading to the west side of Africa for the Grand Prix-winning Atlantics, which has definitely got a flavour we haven't had before. In terms of old news, we've got part two of our comic book movies list.
This Wednesday, May 6, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Top 40 Comic Book Movies of the Last 40 years PART 2. In 1978, Superman the Movie was released in theatres everywhere, and since then everyone’s chased that big box office money from superhero movies. For the next four weeks, we’re going to countdown the 40 greatest of the genre in the last 40 (or make that 42 years). This week, we’re doing 21 to 30.
REVIEW: Atlantics (2019). Mati Diop was the first African woman to have a movie at the Cannes Festival, and she took the second prize for this haunting romantic drama. Set in the Senegalese city of Dakar, a young couple are broken apart by cultural and economic circumstances, but supernatural happenings start to set the wrong things right as young Ada launches on a journey of self-discovery. You've probably never seen anything like it, but do we like it?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.
There are 130,000 Personal Support Workers (PSWs) in Ontario alone. They are a vital link in the healthcare chain for people that need assistance at home, or in long-term care. They assist people who are seriously ill, and the elderly, and they perform a variety of functions including help with healthcare needs, personal assistance, palliative care, supportive care, and work around the house like cooking and housekeeping. So why do we know so little about them?
This week on the podcast, we're going to dig into the working life, and the challenges faced, by Ontario's PSWs, and we're doing this in the wake of the recent news that the fourth PSW in Ontario has died from COVID-19. Sharon Roberts, a PSW at Downsview Long Term Care in North York, was one of 46 staff members to contract COVID at that facility, and in these precarious times for all employees in the healthcare system, would it surprise you to learn that there are really no rules, safeguards or oversight for these important workers?
An article in the Toronto Star recently covered the Ontario Federation of Labour's call to mandate standardization of the pay, schedules, and other benefits for PSWs, but this is an argument that the Ontario Personal Support Workers Association has already been making for about 10 years now. The OPSWA have seen for years the things that other groups are now finally making note of in the wake of COVID-19, so are we finally going to give this industry the attention it deserves?
This week's guest is Janet Greener, the Director of Education for the OPSWA, and she has some thoughts about that. She will talk about the work of a PSW, their duties, their training, and the variety of work that they do. She will also talk about the OPSWA’s attempts to form a set of standards for PSWs, and to regulate the profession with some universal guidelines for education, training, and oversight. And she also discusses how the COVID-19 crisis has brought the work of PSWs to the forefront, how they’ve been rising to the occasion, and how they hope to make new rules and pay raises permanent post-pandemic.
So let's talk about the essential help that PSWs need both during and after the pandemic on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about the Ontario Personal Support Workers Association, you can visit their website 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 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going looking for some answers. Is the Ontario government making the right moves in responding to COVID-19? Does the leader of the Liberal Party have any better answers than the ones coming out of the government? And where in the world is Kim Jong Un? We're going to do some investigating, or rather, as much investigating as we can in quarantine.
This Thursday, April 30, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Sufficient Proposal. Premier Doug Ford announced his government's plan to re-open the province in a gradual and responsible way with the feedback of public health officials, all that was missing was a timeline. Meanwhile in Quebec, the government there is looking to open schools two weeks from now even though over half of all COVID cases in Canada are in that province. Is Ontario moving too slow, and is Quebec moving too fast?
Kim Jong Un-dead. There's a lot of uncertainty in the world right now thanks to COVID-19, but the biggest uncertainty in foreign relations presently is the mystery absence of Kim Jong Un. The leader of North Korea has not been seen in public for nearly a month, and the rumour mill's been churning about whether or not the Dear Leader is dead or almost dead. So how do we know what's going on in North Korea, and why should we be concerned?
Steven Unrehearsed. He was elected the Liberal leader right before everybody got quarantined, but Steven Del Duca has been trying to keep up with the rapidly changing situation around COVID-19 like the rest us. This week, we will talk to Del Duca about his own ideas about what the Provincial government needs to do to respond, his first month on the job, and what the future of politics might look like on a social distant campaign trail.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to engage in some light Satanism, and by light we mean "lighthearted" because the first name in comedy everyone thinks of is the Devil. So we're going to check out Satanic Panic, which is now streaming on Shudder, and we're also going to kick off a new multi-part list that will keep you coming back for more (hopefully).
This Wednesday, April 29, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The Top 40 Comic Book Movies of the Last 40 years PART1. In 1978, Superman the Movie was released in theatres everywhere, and since then everyone's chased that big box office money from superhero movies. For the next four weeks, we're going to countdown the 40 greatest of the genre in the last 40 (or make that 42 years). This week, we're doing 31 to 40.
REVIEW: Satanic Panic (2019). There was, of course, a real Satanic panic in the 1980s, but it turned out to be just as fake as the events in this new horror/comedy of the same name. In Satanic Panic, a young pizza delivery girl accidentally comes upon a Satanic ritual and has to spend her night trying to evade the affluent and evil group of suburban Satanists before she becomes a human sacrifice. It's funnier than it sounds.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.
As we’re entering this third calendar month under a state of quarantine, we're starting to feel that it still might be a long time until we get back to what we consider normalcy. It might be a long time before we can sit comfortably again in a room filled with a few hundred people to hear the city’s mayor talk about a grand ambition for Guelph that has nothing to do with responding to a global pandemic.
So let us pause this week to remember what we’re fighting to get back to, let us a take a minute to reorient ourselves to a world without fear of COVID-19. This week on the podcast, we're going to replay the 2020 State of the City address from Mayor Cam Guthrie, which was delivered on February 7 at the Delta Hotel and Conference Centre on Stone Road in an annual event hosted by the Guelph Chamber of Commerce.
The State of the City is part update about current events at city hall, and it’s part wishlist on the part of the mayor as he or she talks about what they want to do for the next year. It’s a victory lap, and a declaration of intent, but there's also the breakfast event around it, which gives city leaders a chance to meet, chat and network. It’s a perfectly innocuous little event, but because it involves a political speech by the mayor, we give it a lot of attention in the media, and in the community.
So let's once again hear the mayor’s pre-pandemic vision for the city, which includes keeping operating fees under control, creating a free transit option for young people, and starting an initiative to create car-free downtown. You will also hear about what the mayor calls a message of hope, and what the City has done to try and address the growing gap in inequality between the haves and have nots. Mayor Guthrie also talked about the clashes between cities and the Province, the tricky balancing act with the budget, and then he answered a few questions from the crowd.
Let's go back to a pre-COVID-19 world and the State of the City on this week's Guelph Politicast!
City council will be returning to some kind of regular order in the next few weeks; the agenda for May 11’s special meeting will be published later this week. You can also revisit Guelph Politico's original coverage of this year's State of the City 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 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we get a break from non-stop COVID-19 coverage so that we might talk about other tragedies. We're going to dedicate some time on this week's show to talk about the ongoing tragic state of affairs on the East Coast, and then we will talk about the ongoing - could be - tragic state of affairs in the U.S. with some fairly silly protests. We'll have all that to talk about, plus an interview with the Downtown's chief advocate too!
This Thursday, April 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
We Are Nova Scotia. In an act of unspeakable violence, a madman ran a bloody rampage across the province last weekend killing two dozen people before taking his own life. There are so many questions resulting from this violence, and not the least of which is the motive for the massacre. On top of that, people are now wondering why the authorities in Nova Scotia didn't let the public know why an active shooter situation was ongoing, and what the Canadian government is going to do in the form of further gun control.
Question, Period. The COVID-19 reaction is going in some strange new directions. In Canada, the House of Commons spent the day on Monday debating the limited re-opening of Parliament with a mix of in-person and virtual sittings. Meanwhile, in the United States, small groups of agitators being driven into a frenzy by right-wing media are pushing for stay-at-home measures to be lifted even as the number of cases keep growing, and worse still, some governors are listening. Are we entering the crazy phase of the pandemic?
Recovery Talk. We've spent over a month in quarantine, and, as mentioned above, some people are eager to get back to work, and back to business as usual. Most people are more rightly concerned about the health crisis, but small business owners are also understandably worried about their immediate financial futures. We'll talk to somebody this week that knows a little something about the business scene in the Royal City, Downtown Guelph Business Association executive director Marty Williams.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, let's fall in love. Once again recording from our mutual isolation, we will take a look at one of the last movies to come out in theatres before quarantine, the Jane Austen adaptation, Emma. Before that, with what is normally the summer movie season almost here, we will look at some of the past summer movies that should have been bigger hits.
This Wednesday, April 22, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Summer Re-Lovin'! A lot has been made about the disruption of the box office by COVID-19. So many of the biggest movies that were supposed to come out in 2020 have had to reschedule, and now the summer movie season is going to start at a time when it should be winding down. We'll look at some of the past summer flicks that should have been hits, but they ended up being flops.
REVIEW: Emma (2020). In what is definitely one of Jane Austen's top three novels, Emma Woodhouse is concerned about everyone else's love life, but she doesn't much care about the state of her own romantic affairs. The story has been re-adapted again by renowned photographer Autumn de Wilde, and starring Anya Taylor-Joy, but is there any joy to be had in this new interpretation or is this another case of been there/done that English Lit cinema?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.
From time to time, the Guelph Politicast likes to do a sit down with a member of City of Guelph staff to talk about their job in detail with all its day-to-day demands, challenges and rewards. This podcast is in the mode of one of those past explainers, but with a COVID-19 twist because what is possibly affecting City business more these days than the global pandemic?
The subject of this week's podcast is Chief Administrative Officer Scott Stewart. Stewart hasn’t even held the top job in the City’s administration for a full year yet, but he’s now marshaling the response to what may be the most challenging of circumstances that someone in his position has ever faced. COVID-19 has forced all levels of government to practically drop everything else in order to respond. Guelph is no exception, and everything that the City is doing crosses the desk in the CAO’s office at some point.
You may recognize Stewart as the guy who literally sits on the right hand of Mayor Cam Guthrie in regular order council meetings, but he's probably the person in local government with the most influence right after the mayor. The CAO is the only member of Guelph staff that is directly hired and supervised by council itself, and they often serve as an intermediary between the experts on staff, and the political direction of council. The job requires a certain mastery of all portfolios and departments at the City, but could anything prepare Stewart for responding to COVID-19?
That's one of the questions put to Scott Stewart on this week's podcast, and he will also talk about how his job has changed with the demands of combating COVID-19. He also discusses the co-ordination between Guelph and its neighbouring municipalities, how the City is able to navigate directives from higher levels of government, and how much of the City’s reaction to COVID-19 is proactive versus reactive. Finally, he also talks about how much of the regular business of City Hall is proceeding despite COVID-19, and the most pressing problem that staff is facing at the moment.
So let's talk about how the COVID response is running through the CAO's office on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
For all the latest information about the City of Guelph’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, just go to the City’s website, and click on the red banner at the top of the screen. You can also stay tuned to this 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 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to do the same thing we do every week, try and take over the world talk about COVID-19. It's not going away anytime soon, and the pandemic news continues to unfold quickly, so we will once again try and fold it up in a tightly wound 25-minute package. In the second half of the show, we're going talk to our Member of Parliament about the ongoing Federal response.
This Thursday, April 16, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Long Term Scare. As we enter the second month of COVID-19 lockdown the primary concern turns to long-term care homes, where nearly half of all COVID-19 deaths in Canada have been suffered. Can we address the systemic ignorance with emergency measures? Meanwhile, south of the border, Donald Trump kicked off the post-Easter period with an off-the-rails press conference that started with propaganda, and ended with authoritarianism. We'll talk about those developments, and many more...
Lloyd Again (Naturally). All eyes on are on the Federal government, from which a lot of the COVID-19 response has been directed. The pressure is on for the Trudeau government to not just deliver virus protections, but to help make sure there's an economy to come back to once the quarantine is lifted. We'll talk to Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield about all those issues, how the government is going to try and address the gaps for students and workers in the gig economy, and about the potential effects on Canadian agriculture.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, it's all about the music. And real life. We're going to get into some smooth jazz with a biography of the late, great Miles Davis in Birth of the Cool, and before that we're going to talk about 10 documentaries with scary themes, you know, because there's not enough to worry about in these coronavirus afflicted days.
This Wednesday, April 15, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Shock-umentaries. April is usually Hot Docs month in Toronto, the world's largest celebration of documentary films. And hey, this week we're reviewing a documentary, right in the middle of these scary times. Scary? Documentary? This week we're going to combine the two by talking about 10 great horror-based documentaries you can find easily, and not so easily.
REVIEW: Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (2019). In the 1940s, a young trumpet player came out of East St. Louis and changed everything about popular music. In his five-decade career, Davis reinvented jazz, and he reinvented himself, on almost a regular basis. It would be a wonder if any filmmaker could stuff all that life and music into a single two-hour documentary, but some how they did it with this one. This film is part of the PBS American Masters series and is available on Netflix.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.
It would be unfair to say that independent art house movie theatres like the Bookshelf Cinema are feeling the biggest impact from the COVID-19 lockdown, but things weren’t exactly easy for them before the outbreak. From the fewer number of films being released theatrically, to big monopolies at the studios and national theatre chains, to the growing number of streaming options, indie cinemas had a lot to deal with before a global pandemic. But is it a lost cause?
Consider the near unlimited amount of content you can access in your home from Netflix, Crave, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus and so many more. Then consider the big cinema chains who have the advantage of first dibs on big movies from big studios, not to mention the leverage of being able to negotiate across dozens of locations, and hundreds of screens versus one-at-a-time. When you take into account these massive challenges, it’s a wonder that so many indie theatres are still standing at all.
Perhaps in Guelph that idea is not so strange because of the incredibly strong and dedicated community that the Bookshelf has fostered for over 30 years in the downtown core. COVID-19 came just after the Bookshelf had finished an elevator to the second floor, as well as the new front-of-house at the cinema that offers a variety of new treats through the Greenroom including beer and spirits. Things were on an upswing, but with even the largest cinema chain in the U.S. possibly hemorrhaging on bankruptcy, how can the small guys be expected to survive the pandemic?
It's pretty concerning for those us who enjoying seeing movies in a crowd on the big screen, and this week, Bookshelf Cinema manager Peter Henderson will talk about life at the his theatre before and (hopefully) after the pandemic. He also talks about the concerns of his fellow managers of art house cinemas, and how these theatres are only as strong as the communities they’ve built. He also discusses the regular-sized issues facing art house theatres, and whether being in quarantine for months will make people more likely to visit the Cinema once restrictions are lifted.
So let's talk about going to the movies on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Yes, the Bookshelf is still closed, and the Ontario government announced Saturday that the state of emergency will continue until April 23. Of course, you can still order books from the Bookshelf, and you can place those orders at the store’s website 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 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to break quarantine. Not really, but we're going to open the show again and make it about more than just what Adam and Scotty think of the news. This week, our special guest will be fan favourite and Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner, who will talk about his favourite recipes the Ontario government's response to COVID-19. Before that, we'll try and cram the rest of the day's pandemic news in the first half of the show.
This Thursday, April 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Speaking Moistly About COVID. The country's new most famous Freudian slip was spoken at one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's daily press conferences, which are still going better than the daily rake outs down at the White House, even as J.T. faces pressure to do more financially. Also facing pressure is Premier Doug Ford who declared that the Easter Bunny is an essential worker, but people are more interested to know if the Province is shorting on the number of tests. We'll talk about the latest pandemic news.
Quarantined Mike. Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner was last on the show on January 23, and a lot has changed since that time when we talked about the teachers strike, and the Ontario's lack of commitment to the environment. In April though, it's all about COVID-19, and we'll talk to Schreiner about the government response, what they still need to do, some of the initiatives he's working on, and how his constituency office is trying to help people in Guelph navigate the government response.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week on End Credits, we're going to fire up the Netflix machine and press play on a movie that might have missed our attention if the movie theatres were still open. This week, we're going to get into the teen drama (and COVID-free) All the Bright Places, and we're going to do a run down of where all your most-anticipated movies have moved on the release calendar.
This Wednesday, April 8, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Release Date Moves. It was going to be a beautiful year at the movies, but then COVID-19 happened and nobody was going to the cinema for a while. How do you run a global movie market when no one is supposed to leave their homes for the time being? You back load the second half of the year with all the anticipated blockbusters! We'll talk about the changes, and where you can find your favourite upcoming films.
REVIEW: All the Bright Places (2020). She's a normally bright teenage girl racked with grief and survivor's guilt from the death of her sister; he's a teenage boy trying to find the bright side as he battles some complex mental health issues of his own. Some how, they manage to fall in love as they try to overcome their specific struggles, and how could they not in the beautifully captured vistas of [checks notes] Indiana! Still, is this movie, and the personal struggles and small victories it chronicles, a nice break from our pandemic times?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.
One week ago was rent day for people everywhere, and many of those people were not able to submit those rent cheques because the COVID-19 quarantine has meant no money in the bank. April 1 was the first hurdle in what might be a months long dilemma for Canada’s renters. We could be on lockdown for the foreseeable future, so what happens when the rent cheques stop entirely?
We're already thinking about it. An article in the Globe and Mail Tuesday by Moira Warburton and Denise Paglinawan warns that landlords need to brace for rent strikes as we get closer to May, and that the government might have to step in with rent subsidies. According to a CIBC economist, about 70 per cent of the rent that was due on April 1 was paid, which is good, but after one full month without wages, how many more people are going to start being left behind?
That’s why activists have begun to take action. Starting in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood and spreading around Ontario, renters are organizing with a simple message: Keep your rent. In the short-term, what they're arguing is the very practical consideration that a lot of renters live paycheque-to-paycheque, but there's also the broader social justice message that our housing needs in this country are inadequate and expensive even at the best of times.
In other words, the COVID-19 pandemic is exposing long gaping holes in our housing system, but are people now finally in a position to listen and understand the need?
So this week on the podcast, we're joined by Moon Richards, Danny Drew, and Dustin Brown of the Guelph Renters Union as they talk about how there’s still different levels of privilege when it comes to renters, and how it’s psychologically hard to take that first step to not pay the rent. They will also talk about their thoughts on why we can’t depend on government to come to the rescue, and how the quarantine has exacerbated the pre-existing conditions in our less-than-egalitarian housing market.
So let's talk about the economics of keeping your rent on this week's Guelph Politicast!
To find resources on renters' rights, or to learn how you can get involved with the Guelph Renters' Union, you can visit their website here. There are also resources for renters on the Government of Ontario website, which you can find 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 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.
Welcome back to Open Sources Guelph COVID! Yes, it's still the number one story in the world, and in many places, the circumstances are getting worse, not better. Looking to the United Kingdom, and portions of the United States, it's hard not to be worried, and for everyone else, the biggest concern might be cabin fever. We will beat our cabin fever by talking about all the stuff happening outside.
This Thursday, April 2, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Is it Normal Yet? No, it's not. Now you don't have to listen to the show today. On the other hand, if you still want to listen to the show today, we will do another round up of the week's Coronavirus news. From the local reaction and our new state of emergency in Guelph, to Ontario closing schools for a year, to the enhanced support for businesses from the Feds, and the White House now calling 200,000 deaths a "win." So we'll talk about all that, plus how COVID-19 has seemingly killed democracy in Hungary.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
Welcome back, everyone! We know that you haven't gone anywhere, but we sure did. After a self-imposed self-isolation, End Credits is back on the air with a brand new episode in our pre-post-pandemic era. In a rare appearance by all the panelists on the same show, we're going to recap our own independent watchlists in our own private theatres at home.
This Wednesday, April 1, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Candice Lepage, Tim Phillips, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
What We've Been Watching! It's been two weeks since our last episode, and with movie theatres closed around the country, that means there's nothing to watch... Wrong! That's fake news!! There are so many streaming sites now, you can't possibly run out of things to watch, and we're going to talk about some of the things we've been binging since the world went on lockdown.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.
What a difference a pandemic makes, huh? For years now, there’s been a grand debate about whether service industry workers deserve a living wage, whether or not they should be able to access employer benefits, and if we need to change our assumptions about the quality of work provided by mostly minimum wage employees at our retailers, grocery stores, and restaurants. Now, these are the people who are keeping our economy a float.
On this week's podcast, we will consider the new reality for the workers we've always thought on the bottom rung of the economy. In fact, local Walmart and Zehrs stores are practically begging for people to come and work for them on a temporary basis to cope with the high demand, and these famously stingy outlets are now paying a premium for labour with higher wages, more safety, and even, in a few cases, childcare.
It’s quite the turnaround from the outrage heard when the previous Ontario government increased the minimum wage to $15, a move that was later undone by the current government. It took a pandemic, but many of those workers are now making a living wage, and if you’ve visited an essential grocery store in the last three weeks, then you probably talked to someone represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). Getting a living wage for all their workers has been a long-term goal.
But will it last? After COVID-19 has passed, will the businesses in question try to repeal the gains given to their employees in this time of crisis, or has the paradigm changed forever? Debora De Angelis, the Ontario Regional Director of UFCW, will answer those questions, and talk about how she’s been working with employers and different levels of government to make sure that workers are protected in these extraordinary circumstances. She also discusses her concerns for workers right now, and the important message she wants workers and employers to hear in these difficult, unprecedented times.
So let's talk about the current state of affairs for our newly essential work force on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can visit the UFCW website to learn more about their advocacy, and to find resources about your rights as a worker. Remember that you have the right to feel safe and secure at work, and if you have a complaint that you can’t resolve with your employer, and you aren’t represented by a union, you can always talk to the Ministry of Labour online, or by calling the Health and Safety Contact Centre 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.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, there's only one story, and it's the same story we had last week. Once again, we will do a wrap up of all the latest COVID-19 news from all corners of the globe. From the micro to the macro, we will try and get you up-to-date on all the latest doings and wrongdoings from our pandemic world.
This Thursday, March 26, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
COVIDeodrome. It's week two of our pandemic times, and things seem to be getting dicier. Once again, we'll do a round robin of all the latest COVID-19 news from the local to the international. We'll talk about Guelph's emergency council meeting, Ontario's shutting down of all non-essential services, sweeping new powers proposed for the Federal government, and Donald Trump's idea that the cure is starting to be worse than the actual disease. All that, and the Olympics are postponed, on this week's edition of "Too Much News!"
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
This week, as we continue our COVID-19 lockdown, we will once again play an End Credits classic, this one from January, and our review of the last of the Skywalker sage, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now available of VOD, and will be available on Blu-ray this coming Tuesday!
It’s been noted frequently that the COVID-19 pandemic is touching just about every aspect of our society, but aside from healthcare, perhaps no two areas of everyday life have been more affected than how we shop, and how we work. How fortunate then that the University of Guelph has two experts to help us out with understanding that!
The first half of this edition of the podcast will feature Dr. Evan Fraser, who is a Professor and Director of the Arrell Food Institute and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security at the University of Guelph. The second half will feature Professor Nita Chhinzer, who is an Associate Professor of Human Resource Management and Business Consulting at the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics.
Dr. Fraser is going to talk about food security and why we’re not on the verge of running out of groceries. He will also talk about how COVID-19 has been a shock to our “just enough, just in time” supply system, and how we need to work harder to build resilience by supporting more regional food distribution and eliminating food deserts. And Fraser also discusses how COVID-19 might be a dress rehearsal for how we deal with future issues that can affect food production, like climate change.
In the second half, Professor Chhinzer will tell us how COVID-19 reminds us about the importance of sick days and sick leave in modern business. She'll explain how this is a problem across the corporate culture, from employees unwilling to take time off from work when they’re sick, to the bosses that sometimes expect you to “suck it up” in the name of being a good employee. She also discusses what she teaches her students about looking out for their wellbeing at work, and how employees need to use the language of management to get their point across about sick leave.
So let's talk about the potential long-term effects of COVID-19 on food and work on this week's edition of Guelph Politicast!
For background reading on these topics, you can head over to The Conversation. You can read their Dr. Fraser's piece, "Coronavirus: The perils of our ‘just enough, just in time’ food system" here, and you can read Professor Chhinzer's piece "Employers need to give paid sick days to fight the coronavirus" 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 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.
What do you do when there's so much news you can't possibly fit it all into a single hour? Who can say, but on this week's special edition of Open Sources Guelph, you're going to see a couple of guys try their damnedest to fill your brain with the maximum allowable amount of current events coverage. Grab your favourite snack of self-isolation, because it's time for the social distance version of OSG!
This Thursday, March 19, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Good Coviddance (The Time of Our Lives). It's pretty much the only thing that anyone is talking about right now. The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting all areas of life from politics, to the economy, to education, to entertainment and sports, and, of course, healthcare. Events are moving fast and furiously, and its hard to keep up with all the latest developments from right here in our own backyard to the broader implications and actions at the provincial, national and international level. We will do our best to bring you the latest information on all the COVID-craziness.
Speaking of the latest, Scotty Hertz has been running an emergency daily news show on COVID-19. You can listen to excepts from Monday and Tuesday's show here.
And you can listen to Wednesday's show, which featured interviews with Mayor Cam Guthrie and Guelph Mercury Tribune reporter Graeme McNaughton, here.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 4 pm on Thursday.