Open Sources Guelph - January 24, 2019

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we get an education. Here in Ontario, we learn that you don't get something for nothing when it comes to post-secondary education in the Ford era. In Canada, we learn that relations with China are complicated, at least so far as their telecom executives are concerned. South of the border, we learn that sometimes a picture is telling a different story than you might have thought. And in the U.K., we learn that... No, we already knew it was a gong show.

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

Bad Education. We don't talk about Doug Ford for a couple of weeks, and look what happens... In the latest scandal from the Ontario Government, they cut tuition fees and took a victory lap about saving money "for the people", but the reality is not as obvious. In order to pay for the "tuition cut", Ontario's universities will have to work with current funding levels, which means they might increase fees. And did we mention that changes to OSAP will mean that low income students will have to borrow more, while they've eliminated the six-month grace period for repayment after graduation? And wait, there's more... But you'll have to tune in to hear it.

The China Syndrome. It's rocky times for Canada/China relations, but that seems like it's putting things mildly. Late last year, Canada detained an executive from the Chinese telecom company Huawei at the behest of the United States. This prompted a strong response from China as they started rounding up Canadians working in China, and sensed one man charged with drug offenses to death. It's a mess, but an added dimension has emerged as Canada's security experts are saying that Huawei products should be banned from the coutry's 5G networks over security concerns. So is there a way out of this diplomatic fiasco?

The Kids Are Not Alright... Complicated. A viral video of a teen in a MAGA hat smiling rather creepily at an Indigenous protestor and Vietnam veteran on the National Mall in Washington sparked outrage, and prompted the school, an all-boys Catholic School in Kentucky, to even threaten expulsions. Further examinations brought the Black Hebrew Israelite protestors into the picture, and that's when most people retreated to their "both sides" posture. Could people have misjudged the MAGA kids? It's debatable, and it's being debated, but was does it say about modern life that a white male teen has more power than an Indigenous elder who's also a veteran?

Plan B. Although she survived a no-confidence motion, Theresa May seems no stronger in her efforts to get a Brexit deal everyone can live with. On Monday she announced that she will be looking again at the "backstop", which is the area of probably the most friction in the Brexit deal, but she also swore that there would be no suspension of Article 50, and no new referendum since it would threaten the social cohesion of the U.K., so that may be out of the question too. Still, March 29 gets ever closer, and it seems like there are no new or better ideas on how to do Brexit while people are across the U.K. are preparing for the worst. Is it time to panic?

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