Welcome to the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet, a twice-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 Tuesdays and Fridays.
So yeah, that happened.
Sucking all the air out of any other story in this election was the Time Magazine story about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wearing brown face in a picture from an Aladdin-themed party at the Vancouver private school where he was employed as a teacher in 2001. In rapid succession, reporters for the Globe and Mail and Global News uncovered two other instances of Trudeau wearing black face in the 1990s.
Condemnation was swift from all quarters. Some think that this is another example of Trudeau’s unfitness to lead, others want to give him the benefit of the doubt that Trudeau now understands, even if he didn’t then, that what he did was extremely hurtful and offensive.
The controversy continued to chase the prime minister on day nine of the election, as he took press questions about whether or not there are more videos, and why he hadn’t owned up to them before now.
“I am wary of being definitive about this because the recent pictures that came out I had not remembered,” Trudeau said at a campaign stop in Winnipeg. “And I think the question is: ‘How can you not remember that?’ The fact is I didn’t understand how hurtful this is to people who live with discrimination every single day.”
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer literally stopped the campaign plane to make a comment on the matter.
But it’s probably NDP leader Jagmeet Singh that scored the most honest and emotional reaction to Trudeau’s scandal by addressing not the prime minister’s past actions, but rather how they’re reflected in the eyes of people of colour in Canada.
For local reaction, NDP candidate Aisha Jahangir told GuelphToday.com that she was disheartened and disappointed by the story. “As a racialized woman, I really truly wanted solidarity with fellow Canadians who have felt isolated and alienated by different levels of insensitivities,” she said. “I think it’s great that he has come out with an apology because clearly he has reflected on his behaviour and he recognized he may have hurt people.” Jahangir added that we, the people, should now move forward.
Liberal MP and candidate Lloyd Longfield said that Trudeau called his team to offer apologies to them and the communities they represent. “As a white person myself, I can sympathize, but I haven’t had the experience a lot of people have had because of me growing up as a white Canadian,” he said.
In other news, although the controversy has since been eclipsed by this bigger one, local Green Party candidate Steve Dyck had to answer whether or not he was a “9/11 Truther” this week.
A screen grab of a deleted Facebook post from 2015 seemed to see Dyck share a video about the debunked conspiracy that wrongfully alleges that the U.S. government destroyed building #7 of the World Trade Centre as part of a cover-up to hide that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were a “false flag” operation.
“Mr. Dyck has confirmed that he is not a 9/11 truther and that this was a one-time post made purely out of intellectual curiosity,” read a statement from Dyck campaign manager Brandy Davis to the Guelph Mercury Tribune. “He said he regrets the post and has taken it down. We are satisfied with his answer and view the matter as closed.”
This isn’t the first time that old Facebook posts have come back to haunt a Federal Election candidate in Guelph. In 2015, NDP candidate Andrew Seagram was accused of being anti-Christian with a Facebook comment taken out of context.
Remember, there’s an election coming. For all the latest coverage of the 2019 Federal Election from the Guelph angle, you can go directly to that Politico page by clicking here.
Also in the News…
The Ontario Home Builders’ Association hosted a forum with the four main Federal Election candidates on Tuesday:
Canada now has it’s first confirmed case of vaping-related lung illness out of the London area. The teenager in question was on life support for a time, but he has since recovered enough to be sent home to recuperate. The announcement came on the same day that Minister of Health Christine Elliott order hospitals to start collecting more data about lung issues in suspected vaping cases. Read about the unusual serendipity here.
Speaking of the Ford government, there were some stern words about some of their transit decisions at the Transport Futures debate in Toronto Tuesday night. All sorts of transit and transportation matters were discussed, and it was well worth the Guelph Politico field trip to hear it all. You can read a recap of some of the best comments here.
How to you feel about Guelph Transit using reloadable fare cards? You should tell the City of Guelph because they want to know and you have until October 4 to tell them.
What’s that ringing downtown at noon hour? Check it out.
Mercury Tribune reporter Graeme McNaughton is using his birthday to raise money for the Canadian Mental Health Association, and you can help him out for the next week!
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Next week, the real election fun begins with two all-candidate meetings.
The Guelph Coalition for Active Transportation will be hosting a ride and meet with the Federal Candidates; Lloyd Longfield, Ashish Sachan, Steve Dyck, Aisha Jahangir and Mark Paravolos have all been invited to take part. The ride will begin at the River Run Centre at 5:45, and wrap up at the Red Brick Café at 7pm, but if you want to take part, you do have to pre-register.
On Thursday, candidates will meet at the Italian Canadian Club for the perennial favourite Social Justice Debate. The debate starts at 7 pm, but get there early because this will fill up fast!
In non-political stuff, and courtesy of my friends (and yours) at Nightmare on Film Street, a horror movie marathon list for your October.
September 23 – Regular Council Meeting.
The final meeting of the month will be relatively straightforward with the passage of the agenda from the Committee of the Whole. Staff have also brought forward new memos that address council concerns with the Strategic Plan and the changes to the Procedural Bylaw, which you can read all about in the Politico preview of the meeting here.
If you want to register as a delegate for any of these items on the Council agenda, then you have to get in touch with the City Clerk’s office by 10 am on Friday September 20.
Sadly, there’s no council meeting on September 30, so it’s a week off for everyone!
Also coming up at City Council:
October 7 – Committee of the Whole. Items from the Infrastructure, Development and Enterprise agenda will be discussed.
October 16 – Planning Meeting. Special Wednesday meeting because of Thanksgiving.
October 23 – The first meeting for the 2020 Budget. Presentation and Public Delegations for the Capital Budget and Forecast.
Aside from election stuff, it will be a very busy week in the city:
On Tuesday, eBar will help launch the new book Highway of Tears by Jessica McDiarmid with a conversation between McDiarmid and Dr. Kim Anderson, Canada Chair in Indigenous Relationships at the U of G. The doors open at 6:30 pm.
The next Clair-Maltby workshop is on Wednesday at the Harcourt United Church at 87 Dean Ave. There one at 1:30 pm and another at 6:30 pm. Learn more here.
HOPE House celebrates its seventh birthday at 11 am on Thursday.
Also on Thursday, the 32nd annual Take Back the Night March and Rally will begin at Marianne’s Park at 6 pm.
The Stop the Stigma Rally hosted by Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy will take place next Friday at City Hall at 11:30 am.
And finally, back to the Bookshelf next Saturday, there will be a premiere screening of Election Day In Canada: When Voter Suppression Came Calling. Director Peter Smoczynski will be in attendance. The screening starts at 2 pm.
If you missed any of this weeks shows, you can listen to them all, right now or any time, by subscribing to the Guelph Politicast channel on your favourite podcast app at iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify.
This going to be a very busy Friday:
1) The Guelph edition of the Global Climate Strike begins at noon sharp at City Hall. Expect hundreds!
2) Communist Party leader Elizabeth Rowley will be at 25 University Ave E in the basement of CUPE Hall at 5:30 to help support local Communist candidate Juanita Burnett.
3) Conservative candidate Ashish Sachan will host a forum called Project Awareness that promises to address drug addiction, homelessness, mental health, and crime and safety with many guests taking part. The forum will take place at the Sachan campaign office at 336 Speedvale Ave W. Get your [free] tickets here.
Hopefully, nothing major will happen on Saturday because I’ll be at Guelph Lake with family celebrating my niece Maybel’s second birthday. I got her a set of hardcover Curious George books, who’s her very favourite. Don’t worry, she doesn’t read the newsletter so nothing is spoiled.
And finally, feel free to reach out to be by email at adamadonaldson [at] gmail [dot] com, or find me on Facebook, Twitter, and, of course, GuelphPolitico.ca!