Live From the "Turbulent River of Twitter Commentary"
May contain "some vulgarly worded observations."
Welcome to the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet, a thrice-a-week newsletter meant to “tip” you off about some of the important stuff going on in the Royal City. It arrives directly in your inbox on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings.
A judge ruled that the lawsuit brought against a Guelph couple by the owner of Guelph Medical Imaging for some Twitter comments was a SLAAP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) suit after all, and the case was dismissed. Justice J. Morgan said, “"Mr. Mondal jumped into the turbulent river of Twitter commentary with some vulgarly worded observations that touched a nerve with the defendants. He got it back as good as he gave it, and got wet in the process.”
It's confirmed: Guelph city council will start holding hybrid in-person/virtual meetings starting with next week’s Committee of the Whole.
Local farmers are adding their voice in defense of one of their own. The Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, the National Farmers Union, and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture have all added their official collective support to Michael Campbell, a Wellington County farmer who was essentially carded at the Woodlawn McDonalds.
It wasn’t the ending anyone wanted but Charles Rudd, a 58-year-old Guelph man that’s been missing since December 15, has been found. His remains were located in a remote part of a city park exactly two months after he disappeared. No foul play is suspected.
Ontario Public Service employees will be expected to start working from the office again at least three days a week by April 4.
Let’s preface these updates with a general word that the official numbers released do not represent the true number of COVID-19 cases, which are likely higher due to limited testing.
The new case count in our region on Wednesday was 40, while there were 31 total recoveries, which pretty much leaves the active case count around where we left it on Tuesday with 288. On the bright side, there have been no new COVID deaths in the last few days. The 7-day moving rate of confirmed cases is up slightly at 77.6 per 100,000 and the test positivity is down slightly at 10.3 per cent.
So how are vaccines looking? As of Wednesday, 90.1 per cent of area residents 5 and over have received one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 86.9 per cent have gotten two doses, while among those 18 and over, 61.6 per cent of residents have gotten their booster. In Guelph alone, 92.4 per cent have one shot, 89.3 per cent have two, and 64.6 per cent have been boosted.
Across Ontario on Wednesday, the yo-yo continues. There were just 1,176 new COVID cases on Tuesday, but there were 1,959 cases on Wednesday. There was also a slight increase in the new daily number of COVID deaths, there were 16 on Tuesday and 24 on Wednesday. There are now just 847 patients with COVID-19 in provincial hospitals, including 273 in the ICU. Both numbers are down from last week.
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Sad news from the world of community radio. CFRU host Nicky “Dread” Taylor passed away earlier this week. His show, “The Crooked Beat”, ran for over 40 years over CFRU and is still one of the most distinguished platforms in Canada for supporting reggae and reggae artists. Nicky was also a mentor and influence for countless CFRU programmers and volunteers and will sorely be missed around the station.
Further analysis of the new census data shows that 40 per cent of Guelph’s new growth in the last five years has been south of the University of Guelph.
The Guelph United football club is supporting their former goalie, Svyatik Artemenko, in his decision to join his fellow Ukrainians in fighting back against Russia.
This month is Provincial Voter Registration Month so act accordingly.
eMERGE is holding an info night to encourage more women to get into an electric car.
Although case counts are going down, there are still four long-term care homes in this region that are experiencing outbreaks.
Minto Mayor George Bridge is opting to end his tenure at 12 years, and will not seek re-election this fall.
Items are nice, but the Holy Protection of the Mother of God Ukrainian Catholic Church in Guelph would much rather you donate your money to help support Ukraine.
A group of students in Fergus want to brand the town as the home of gold medal-winning Paralympian Patrick Anderson who was a silver medal, two world championships and three gold medals for basketball.
A constitutional court challenge brought by two Ontario churches over provincial lockdown rules was thrown out by the judge who considered the limits reasonable at the time they were enacted.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, Scotty Hertz and I will talk about the current state of the Russian war in Ukraine, and the western response, plus we will talk about the first week of the inquiry into the Nova Scotia mass casualty event in 2020. We will also have an interview with Guelph Progressive Conservative candidate Peter McSherry, who will look ahead to the stakes in the coming Ontario election.
Tune in to Open Sources Guelph later today at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm!
Listen to Open Sources Guelph, as well as the Guelph Politicast and End Credits, any time by subscribing to the Guelph Politicast channel on your favourite podcast app at Apple, Stitcher, Google, and Spotify.
REMINDER #1: You have until this Friday at 10 am to register with the clerks office as a delegate or to send a correspondence for Monday’s Committee of the Whole, and you can see the agenda on the City’s website here.
REMINDER #2: Applications are now open for this year’s in-person, 20th anniversary Art on the Street event. The deadline is March 7.
REMINDER #3: There are some openings on local boards and committees including Accessibility Advisory Committee, the Guelph Economic Development Advisory Committee, the Transit Advisory Committee, and Heritage Guelph. The deadline to apply is March 10.
The office for Immigration Services Guelph Wellington is now seeing clients in person again. One of those services is help filing tax returns, which Immigration Services is once again offering.
Nominations are now open for the Winegard Awards. If you know anyone worthy of an “Exemplary Volunteer Involvement Awards”, you can nominate them anytime from now until May 1.
Resignation for spring and summer recreation programs in Guelph opens on March 9.
Grand River Conservation Authority will be opening up their online campsite booking on March 15 at 8 am, and camping season officially begins on May 1.
The GRCA also approved their 2022 budget last Friday.
The Grove Hub at the University of Guelph is now open for business, Monday to Friday from 12 pm to 3 pm.
The City of Guelph won a Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation last week for its preservation work on the pumphouse at 29 Waterworks Place.
Julie Byczynski is the new CEO of the Foundation of Guelph General Hospital, the hospital’s charitable fundraising arm.
#Perspective
And finally, feel free to reach out to me by email at adamadonaldson [at] gmail [dot] com, or find me on Facebook, Twitter, and, of course, GuelphPolitico.ca!