Open Sources Guelph #412 - February 9, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we look up. We look northeast-ward to Ottawa to see if there might finally be a new healthcare deal between levels of government, and then we look to the sky for more Chinese spy balloons because that's a thing now. After that, we go back to Ottawa to revisit the fallout from the "Freedom Convoy" exactly one year ago, and specifically the effect on the people living there, which has now been documented in a convenient new report.

This Thursday, February 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

Premier Leagues. Canada's premiers finally got their chance to have a sit down with the Federal government to talk about healthcare spending and getting more money to deal with the crisis. It's long been a point of contention because the premiers want a blank cheque, and the Feds want a plan, including the Federal NDP and Greens who want to be sure that the increased funds will not go to further privatization. So were they able to overcome the impasse, and what do these talks mean for people caught in healthcare limbo?

99 Problems But a Red Balloon Ain't One. It was a situation so dumb it's actually surprising that there was no Simpsons precedent. Last week, a Chinese spy balloon slowly travelled over Alaska, Alberta and then entered mainland U.S. airspace passing near sensitive military installations in what's become the greatest national security failure since the Rosenbergs were caught. Right? We'll peel back the layers of right-wing hyperbole to talk about the implications for China at a time where both they and the U.S. were trying to cool tensions.

The People's Court. The report by the official inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act was delayed a couple of weeks, but the report by the Ottawa People's Commission was delivered right on time. Organized by Centretown Community Health Centre, the OPC aimed to document the human toll of the "Freedom Convoy", and this week, we'll talk to Alex Neve, an adjunct professor in international human rights law at the University of Ottawa, who served as one of the commissioners and will tell us about their findings and why the convoy was a human rights issue.

Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.