In a strange turn of fate, the year on Open Sources Guelph began with an attack on Paris, and as the year winds down, Paris has come under attack again. As the news has buckled under the weight of changing developments, we will also take a look at two homegrown developments, whether a serial killer has the right to sell awful conspiracy/spy fiction, and the struggle for the Royal City to balance the books once again.
This Thursday, November 19, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
1) Terror in Paris 2. A co-ordinated attack on a soccer stadium, a concert venue and two restaurants resulted in the death of over 150 people in the City of Lights. The perpetrators were seemingly ISIS inspired, which has spurned a whole new round of calls to war against the terrorist group based in Iraq and Syria, but is that the right call? Is total war against ISIS going to do more harm than good in the long run? And isn’t this exactly what ISIS wants? Also, with two attacks in Paris in one year, what will the public be asked to give up in exchange for security?
2) The Refugee Crisis. A new consequence of the Paris attacks is the fate of millions of refugees fleeing from fighting in the Middle East. Europe, already strained under the weight of refugees, is closing ranks further, meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is being asked to slow the pace of accepting refugees, governors of half the U.S. states have refused to accept any migrants, and the House of Representatives is currently working to stop President Barack Obama from implementing his plans to bring more people Stateside. Considering that no refugee has been definitively tied to the attacks, does it make sense to punish the people already victimized by ISIS?
3) What’s in a Book? It came as something of a shock last weekend when a new book appeared on Amazon, A MAD World Order. The shocking part is that this Clancy-esque techno-thriller was written by the notorious Paul Bernardo, easily the most hated man in Canadian penal history, sentence to life for a string of rapes in Scarborough and the brutal murders of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy. Amazon pulled the book after a public outcry, but that raises more philosophical concerns of censorship. Should Bernardo’s book have been pulled in the name of public distaste?
4) Money Issues. It’s budget time in Guelph again, and despite renewed efforts to make the process more interactive with the community, a number of contentious items are on the table. Mayor Cam Guthrie wants a tax hike to be in line with the rate of inflation, but that looks like it could mean a whole series of cuts. Already Public Health is taking about laying off people, and Guelph Transit is suggesting cuts in service and and a far hike. What will the 2016 books look like when the process is over?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
Open Sources Guelph 