The discovery of a mass grave with the remains of 215 children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School has re-opened a national sorrow, and prompted new demands for accountability and reconciliation. Guelph is no exception as key Royal City institutions have lowered their flags to half-staff in recognition of the loss while community activists organize a vigil at Guelph’s most recognizable landmark. Continue reading “Guelph Marks Discovery of Mass Grave at B.C. Residential School”
New daily case counts are falling, we’re closing in on a potential re-opening date, and more vaccines are being given out every day. What this silver lining needed was a cloud, and we got one. On Monday, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health sent out a warning to the community that anyone who recently returned from Nunavut needs to self-isolate now to prevent the spread of a very contagious form of COVID-19. Continue reading “WDG Public Health Warns About High Risk Variant as the Region Re-Enters Orange”
Jam-packed meetings started the month of May with a committee meeting that covered a lot of different money matters, both immediate and long-term, and then with a planning meeting that featured four controversial planning proposals. In part one of the monthly council recap, we will go from a COVID update from public health, to concerns about over-protecting local heritage in the city’s east end. Continue reading “This Month at Council Part 1: Operations Campus Update and a Contentious Planning Meeting”
Every month, Guelph Politico posts the latest inspection results from the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health Unit inspection of local restaurants, hotels, cafes, grocery stores and other businesses that handle food. We call it “Mangez!”, and this column highlights the latest inspections done by WDGPH, and the results they’ve posted. Continue reading “MANGEZ! Dine Safe Guide for May 1-31, 2021”
The Government of Ontario is full-speed ahead on a “two dose summer” according to Premier Doug Ford in a Friday announcement from Queen’s Park. Starting on Monday, people over 80 will begin receiving their second doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, but progress on vaccines seems to have come at the expense of progress on re-opening schools as the week ends with no announcement on education. Continue reading “Ontario Moves to Accelerate Second Doses, While Schools Left Waiting for News”
The first council meeting of June will be a very busy Committee of the Whole meeting indeed, and it will cover a wide variety of items from several different service areas. From Corporate Services, to Public Services, to Audit Committee, and the regular quarterly update on the local pandemic response from Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, you should pack a lunch because this might be a long meeting. Continue reading “Committee of the Whole Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the June 7 Meeting?”
After last night’s discussion of the Transportation Master Plan, the City of Guelph is zooming in on one aspect of transportation planning that will be key to the TMP’s goal of getting people to make 19 per cent fewer trips by car. From now until Jun 20, the City is looking for feedback on proposed changes to transit routes that could be implemented over the next 10 years with the approval of the public and council. Continue reading “City Looking for Feedback on 10-Year Plan to Change Transit Routes”
Let the debate of the Transportation Master Plan begin! You can click here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here for the Politico preview. For the complete blow-by-blow of today’s council meeting, you can follow along on Twitter, or follow the tweets below. You can also watch the City’s own live-stream of the meeting here. Continue reading “LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for May 26, 2021”
On Monday May 23, 1921, a small group of people gathered in a barn on the outskirts of Guelph to found the Communist Party of Canada. It was three years after the Russian Revolution, and there was already widespread concern about the spread of Marxist ideas, but economic stagnation, a global pandemic, and societal disillusionment post World War I made people hungry for some kind of change to the status quo. Sound familiar? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #275 – 100 Years After the Meeting on Metcalfe Street”
Lately we’ve seen the effects of the pandemic on the performing arts. Audiences have disappeared. Live performances have been replaced by online performance attempts. Artists are struggling. However, on the positive side, I’ve witnessed first-hand a storytelling experience that uses simple technology – the telephone – to bring joy to those who are locked away from social interactions and who are the most vulnerable to COVID-19. Continue reading “OP-ED: Jay Wilson Talks About “Arts’ Immeasurable Value””
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