The wind didn’t howl so much as whistle though downtown Saturday afternoon, but it wasn’t the only thing making noise. Three weeks after a large protest among the pandemic skeptical in front of City Hall, about 60 people met again at 1 Carden Street to express their ongoing disgruntlement about the current state of things. In other words, it’s all going according to plan and they don’t care for it. Continue reading “Protestors Say They’re Fed Up With “Scariants” and the “One More Con” Virus”
Around a dozen protestors stood in front of the Edinburgh Road entrance to the St. Joseph’s Health Centre on Saturday over a labour issue. The issue? The long-term care home’s vaccine mandate. Several members of the protest identified themselves as personal support workers now let go from St. Joe’s because they refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Continue reading “St. Joe’s Protestors Say They’re Out of Work Because They Won’t Get Jabbed”
It was a grey and chilly Saturday afternoon, the downtown streets had the usual kinds of people milling about grabbing a bit or doing a bit of shopping, but the real action was political this weekend. At noon, it was the supporters of the First Nations land defenders in the Wet’suwet’en territory, and then later it was time for the Guelph Freedom Rally, one of the largest local gatherings yet for the COVID-19 skeptical. Continue reading “A Tale of Two Protests: Saturday Marches for Indigenous Rights and Freedom (!)”
A proud Guelph tradition returns this Thursday when several local groups will host a climate strike at noon in St. George’s Square. In the wake of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s recent, and damning, report about the out-of-control warming of the planet, the consortium has some very important demands with local and national reach. Continue reading “Climate Strike Planned Downtown This Thursday”
As bombs fell and rocket fire was exchanged in Israel again on Saturday, hundreds of Guelph residents attended a march downtown to support the Palestinian people who are once again barring the brunt of this new wave of violence in the Middle East. The large Guelph turnout was one of a number of such protests around Canada Saturday as local anger over international affairs boiled over. Continue reading “Hundreds Take to the Streets in Guelph to Support Palestinians”
For the third Saturday in a row, a small group of the vaccine hesitant, people that might be called conspiracy theorists, and others who are just concerned about the inadequacies of the government’s COVID-19 response, gathered in Market Squared to hash it out. This time, there’s a perceptible increase in hostility towards the media covering the event as attendees believed that the coverage they’re getting does not accurately reflect their beliefs. Continue reading “COVID Skeptics Challenge Media to Represent Them “Right””
Less than 24 hours after the Provincial government announced stricter lockdown measures, including new police powers and the closure of playgrounds, there was a requisite response from Guelph’s small but vocal group of skeptics. They say they’re not-anti-mask, but they are anti-lockdown, vaccine hesitant, and that they think the government is somehow both tyrannical and incompetent at the same time. Continue reading “Less Organized, Still Misinformed; COVID Skeptics Gather Downtown Again”
The year was 2010. Things started rough with a massive earthquake in Haiti, President Barack Obama got the Affordable Care Act passed but it came at the cost of one of the biggest midterm sweeps in American history, and Spain won that year’s FIFA World Cup. Meanwhile, in Toronto, whatever goals there were for the G20 Summit were overshadowed by violence in the streets and the overreaction by Toronto Police that’s now been backed up with a court settlement. Continue reading “After a Decade, a Settlement is Finally Reached with G20 Protestors”
The slam of a hammer against wood echoed throughout the street. It was the sound of a demonstrator hitting the post of a sign depicting a gravestone into the carefully manicured grass in front of the Guelph police headquarters late on Wednesday. Like many communities across Canada, Guelph activists spent the anniversary of the country’s birth demanding an end to police brutality, and to add their voices to the “Defund the police” movement.
Continue reading “Protestors Make It Clear in Canada Day March: ‘Defund the Police’”
Thousands of people flooded Market Square Saturday and than marched through the streets downtown to send one message: anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism must end, and so must police brutality against those groups. In what might have been one of the largest protests Guelph has ever seen, especially in recent memory, a diverse group of residents joined a worldwide chorus of people demanding the elimination of systemic racism. Continue reading ““The Change Starts Now!” Thousands Take Over Market Square to Say, “Black Lives Matter!””
Guelph Politico 