Open Sources Guelph #317 - March 11, 2021

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're in a mood to celebrate, or we would be if the special occasion in question was something other than the start of a global pandemic. On this paper anniversary of the COVID-19 lockdown, we will talk about the politics of vaccines, and the racial politics of being royal. And in terms of local politics, we will talk about the surprisingly bitter politics of patios.

This Thursday, March 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

Needle Things. Developments have been moving very quickly on the vaccine rollout in the last couple of days, including the announcement of distribution through pharmacies and doctors' offices, but is this really the good news story it appears to be? The Ontario government is showing signs that it's still responding to COVID-19 on the fly with a sign-up system that may not be ready, and Premier Doug Ford still refusing to consider paid time off to get vaccinated. Where are we one year after the pandemic started?

The Meg. Sunday's interview of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex by Oprah Winfrey created an upheaval between the British Royal Family and the general public that has not been seen since the immediate aftermath of the death of the Princess of Wales. Allegations of racism in the family, and their apparent unwillingness to address racist attacks against the Duchess, have spurned a new conversation about just how ready for the 21st century the Royals really are, but is a real test of equality, or is it just gossip?

District Dine. Last week at Committee of the Whole, city council voted in favour of a more limited downtown patio program instead of a full street closure, and that got a lot of people upset about the lack of ambition. One of those people was not Councillor James Gordon because he proposed a compromise to just close the streets on the weekend. This week, Gordon joins us to talk about why weekends were a good middle path, and what his concerns about a summer-long street closure are, plus he will talk about his personal experience the past year being a local rock star and having no place to play because of the pandemic. 

Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.