Open Sources Guelph - May 21, 2020

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.