Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday January 11, 2018

We’re back! After a holiday break, Open Sources Guelph returns for its epic fourth year of practical news discussion and interviews with local newsmakers. There’s none of the latter this week, but we’ve got plenty of the former. Read any good books lately? Well, we hear there’s one about a certain American administration. Also, it turns out that Trudeau might have been palling around with terrorists after all (in a manner), for some reason people are angry about a pay raise for the people making the least, and people out in the cold are still getting the cold shoulder. So it’s another year in paradise, apparently.

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

1) Trumpster Fire Season 2. At the end of season 1, President Donald Trump retired to his Florida resort for a ~~working~~ golfing vacation after a long year of getting ~~nothing~~ tax reform done. But he was no sooner back at the White House when controversy began a new. Author Michael Wolff released a brand new book called Fire and Fury, which chronicles Trump’s election and his first several months in the office, and it’s not a pretty picture. Team Trump’s ham-fisted attempts to block the book’s release only resulted in more interest, and despite concerns of its veracity, Fire and Fury has had very real consequences (for Steve Bannon anyway). We’ll talk about the latest from Trumpland.

2) A Festering Boyle. Joshua Boyle came to the attention of the nation late last year when he and his family were released from Taliban custody. He and his wife were taken prisoner in Afghanistan, and held for five years. All three of their children were born in captivity. It was a riveting human interest story that has now taken an unexpected turn. Boyle was charged with 15 counts over the holidays including assault, sexual assault, and unlawful confinement, all of which happened after Boyle arrived home. So now what should we think? Was Boyle adversely affected by his time in custody? Was the press not probing enough into Boyle and his background? It’s yet to be answered why he and his pregnant wife were backpacking in a war zone, for instance. Of course, there’s also the blowback on Justin Trudeau. Did the PM screw up meeting Boyle while he was being investigated?

3) Minimum Overdrive. January 1 saw one giant leap in everyone earning a living wage, when minimum wage earners in the Province of Ontario saw their paycheques jump to $14 an hour. The shift in fairness saw an almost equal seismic shift in vindictiveness, especially the Tim Hortons in Coberg, which is owned by the company’s founders, and was notable for cutting breaks and days off for staff as consequence of the hike. Just about any move in the business world the last week has been blamed or credited to the increase, but why is this such a boogie man? Why are people coming to the defense of corporations instead of workers that could really use the bump in their pay? And why aren’t we discussing the long term benefits of the increase instead of the imagined short term consequences?

4) Long John. The last few weeks of extreme cold showed, again, the holes in our social safety net, especially in Canada’s biggest city. The capacity of homeless shelters was being reached nightly, and rumours were heavy that people were being turned away though city staff big to differ. Still, the responsibility fell on Mayor John Tory, who, from his Florida vacation, was quick to point out that it wasn’t his vote to not open Toronto armories in the case of extreme cold that was causing the problem. But the crisis was real, and it is bound to be felt again as winter rolls on. So where does the ultimate responsibility fall? How much of the problem is connected to the cost of housing, and the lack of social housing? And is Mayor Tory’s true blue conservative colours showing with his apparent disinterest? And in an election year, no less.