Open Sources Guelph #315 -February 25, 2021

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.