Open Sources Guelph #418 - March 23, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we mark a grim milestone. You see the smiley, happy man with the thumb up in the picture above, well he's responsible for what might end up being the biggest foreign policy debacle of the 21st century, and the century was barely three years old when it happened. On this episode, we're marking the 20th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, and we're also going to talk about other fights closer to home, like housing, and we've got a city council guest to talk about it.

This Thursday, March 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

Iraq at 20 (Part 1 and 2). Twenty years ago this week, the United States with the United Kingdom and a small "Coalition of the Willing" launched a war on Saddam Hussein and his authoritarian regime in Iraq. We were told Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, he had connections to terrorists, and he was a clear and present danger to the Free World, and two months after the war begin, George W. Bush declared that the mission was "accomplished."

But it wasn't, and the reason for the mission was a lie. Two decades later, the Iraq War is now understood as a disaster, destabilizing the whole Middle East and undermining the global leadership of the United States. We will spend the first part of the show this week talking about how Bush et al were allowed to get it so wrong and why we're still haunted by it.

Goller Back! Back at the beginning of the year, Ward 2 Councillor Rodrigo Goller posted to social media that he had a tiny house built in his backyard that he was looking to rent out. There was more than a little controversy around that, but as you will hear, it gave him some personal insight into the housing issues facing Guelph from multiple sides. That's only the beginning of our latest discussion with Goller as we tackle questions about the housing pledge, NIMBYism, and the fate of 90 Carden Street.

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