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.

Guelph Politicast

GUELPH POLITICAST #294 - Fighting Food Insecurity

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.

Open Sources Guelph #347 - October 14, 2021

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.

End Credits #218 - October 13, 2021 (The Card Counter)

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.

GUELPH POLITICAST #293 – What‘s Going on at the Shelldale Family Gateway?

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.

Open Sources Guelph #346 - October 7, 2021

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.

End Credits #217 - October 6, 2021 (Britney Vs Spears)

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.

GUELPH POLITICAST #292 - Saxon on Storm on Podcast

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.

Open Sources Guelph #345 - September 30, 2021

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.

End Credits #216 - September 29, 2021 (Kid 90)

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.

GUELPH POLITICAST #291 - On Trying to Do Better with Truth and Reconciliation

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.

Open Sources Guelph #344 - September 23, 2021

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.

End Credits #215 - September 22, 2021 (Worth)

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.

GUELPH POLITICAST #290 - Election Night in Guelph 2021!

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.

End Credits #214 - September 15, 2021 (Pig)

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