Latest / Kvetch & Release / AM800 CKLW Roundtable with Dan MacDonald, Kristin Siapas, Mayor Dennis Rogers, & Jon Liedtke

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AM800 CKLW Roundtable with Dan MacDonald, Kristin Siapas, Mayor Dennis Rogers, & Jon Liedtke · Kvetch & Release

0:07
I think I love you again. Welcome to the show on AM eight hundred.
0:16
I am Will Raymond, introducing the roundtable right off the bat. Here,
0:21
Kristen ciapis from University of Windsor Players. How you doing Christmas? Good
0:25
morning, Good morning. It's great to be here today. Yeah, great
0:27
to see you. The countdown for the clips has finally started one week,
0:33
and I believe we're going to be playing totally eclips of the Heart and also
0:36
black Hole Sun. Next stuff we got from ro City Politics, John Licky,
0:41
How you doing John? Good morning, Will. It's great to be
0:43
with you again this week. Yeah, no, very excited. And last,
0:47
but surely not least, Dennis Rogers, maryri of Kings Oh, how
0:51
you doing, Dennis? Good good morning. I actually heard the eclipse was
0:54
canceled. That's not true. Oh I know, I know some Dann McDonald
0:58
that you know is spreading that rumor crazy till the next week. I was
1:00
just wondering. I heard they had the wrong date. The previous show was
1:03
called a rumor mel So all right, we'll get to our We'll get to
1:07
our first topic. Did you forget that it was April Fool's Day? Mike
1:14
Drop Here's Dan, Hey, Hey, I'm in the house today. What's
1:17
going on. How's everyone doing good? You don't actually believe for a minute
1:21
that Will was taken over the show and not me. I mean, I
1:23
like Will great, he did a good job. Good job producer, Will
1:29
Raymond. Thank you know. It's going to be back. I was actually
1:30
on vacation for the last week and it was a fun time. It was
1:34
nice to be up. But it's really really good to be back. It
1:36
truly is. I don't get the whole, uh, the anxiety of coming
1:40
back. I kind of I'm ready to come back after a vacation. I
1:42
was like, you don't get the Sunday scary a little night before a touch
1:46
of it. But I always say, don't let your Monday. Lisa Williams
1:49
tell me this, don't let your Monday ruin your Sunday. So it's and
1:52
that I use that now as a mantra. So it's like, no,
1:55
we're good, we still have Sunday, We're fine, and tomorrow it's back
1:57
to work and I got you find people to chat with. So how can
2:00
I not love coming back here. I had to shut off my email on
2:04
Sunday, like I had just shut off my notifications because I was finding I
2:07
was like I was getting in the mindset too early and it was totally ruining
2:10
Sunday Sunday for me. Second, ho, so we have council meetings and
2:15
stuff Monday, so like, yeah, I'll get stuff done earlier in the
2:17
day and then I got my block of time and then you know, yeah,
2:21
nighttime later on that. No, I try to avoid the Sunday Sunday
2:23
anxieties. Has anyone ever here fallen or gotten gotten tricked by in April Fool's
2:30
joke though? Before one that like actually got you and tricked you? Are
2:34
you? Everyone seems pretty sharp around here. It's been a while. I
2:37
think it's been a while. Yeah, since I was a kid. Probably
2:39
my grandparents used to love and call me and like I was I was a
2:43
kid though, So it's not fair. You're taking it right without like the
2:46
mental queue to be like wait a second. Correct one of them they were
2:50
like, oh you remember the next you know, we'll not remember at the
2:52
time he was there. It was like, you know, the next door
2:53
neighbor. He's the trios. They just outfitted it with flat screen TVs and
2:57
video game systems. You got to come out and see it and then I'm
3:00
pretty sure I went out there and not any thing. But once I went
3:07
from the cottage and my parents were like, we're going to go to Sea
3:09
water World, and I thought we were going to water World. Yeah,
3:15
two hours of Kevin Costner. No, exactly what I thought when that movie
3:20
came mean too, not what I expected at all. Kevin Costner sad for
3:27
two and a half hours. Perfect. My favorite aprifols because there least always
3:31
had great ones they did. Yeah, and there was one I think where
3:35
they had the city of Windsor is filling potholes with coffee grounds and we're collecting
3:43
coffee grounds and it was like this whole event of like bring your coffee grounds
3:46
down to I don't know wherever. They were like at devinter b collecting coffee
3:50
grounds all day today in an effort to fill potholes, and and like it's
3:54
perfect in the morning show, Like the Morning Show, you're like, not
4:00
quite there yet, You're not going to wake Yeah, I was ready,
4:02
man, I was like going cock grounds with us, and then like as
4:11
you start to wake up over the day, you're like, that is making
4:14
sense at all. Terrible Devonshire to deal with four thousand, conceived yourself some
4:21
taxes they did one one year two. It was years back, maybe ten
4:26
or fifteen years ago. They all of a sudden rebranded the station as eight
4:30
hundred X. I love that, and they made it almost sound like it
4:32
was an eighty nine X type of station. They were playing like new rock
4:35
alternative music, and I think Mike and Lisa had like different hy Stereo Mic
4:40
was back. He was Mike Cake of Stereo Mic, and Lynn Martin was
4:44
el Marts or something, and they all had these like trendy young names and
4:46
people, and they had like eight hundred X. They had the branding going
4:49
and everything, and people actually called in and were it furious? And how
4:55
could you swap the format? What are you thinking? And and it was
4:58
a complete April fool too. Okay, it even threw me first, I'm
5:00
like, what happened? Did I miss the memo? Yeah, because you
5:04
got you know, dragged into the boss's office and they showed contract terms totally
5:13
well back to the actual roundtable. This is not an April Fools joke.
5:15
Here, four of Ontario's largest school boards are suing the parent companies of Facebook,
5:21
Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok alleging the social media platforms are disrupting student
5:26
learning, contributing to a mental health crisis, and leaving educators to manage the
5:30
fallout, so suing four of Ontario's school boards suing social media. Your thoughts
5:38
on the lawsuit and do believe they actually have a case here? And I
5:41
know Mayor Dennis Rogers in the studio with us, as Will Raymond announced earlier
5:46
for our joke. I know you have a lot of thoughts in this.
5:47
Your thoughts on this one this morning, Dennis. Yes, it's interesting,
5:50
right because I mean this kind of the first ever of its kind within the
5:55
education aspect. And I think I read correctly it's four point five billion dollars.
5:59
Yeah, which you know, to me, it's going to be interesting.
6:01
But you know, my only thought on this is, you know,
6:03
if they do win, every single dollar has to go towards support for the
6:10
kids. Like this can't be one where it's you know, we're adding administrative
6:14
levels or not adding extra staff. We're adding eas we're adding teachers, we're
6:16
adding rights, we're adding tracks, we're writing books. You know, to
6:20
me, again, if they do win, like the process, it is
6:25
what it is and you know, I can understand the mindset and you know,
6:27
there's a lot of jokes behind it, like you know, hey,
6:29
water's wet, like no kidding, right, Yeah, And to me is
6:32
you know, if they do win, every single dollar has to go towards
6:36
helping the kids because if it doesn't, then to me, then it's I
6:40
wouldn't say it's all for not, but it would do our kids a disservice
6:43
if they go through this whole process and you have a groundbreaking you know,
6:46
legal action when this happens. Is that you know, the kids aren't the
6:49
true benefactors. Who would they win this though? It's my question, that's
6:54
my question, so that something in the environment, like the social media is
6:58
part of the digital environment that we all experience that like, how would you
7:01
show that the extent that these social media platforms have affected kids on a broad
7:09
basis? Like well, then does it open the door now for workplaces?
7:13
Right, because you could say the same thing, well, you know my
7:15
productivities down and totally to that opens a big door, right. I don't
7:19
know, it's wild. It's like it's like suing the sun forgetting a sunburn.
7:24
I don't know, It's like, yeah, that sucks and you could
7:27
be mad about it, but like, how do you even put a price
7:29
tag on that? How is it like four point five billion dollars? I
7:31
would like four billion dollars Peace would be groundbreaking, you know for sure.
7:35
I look at this one and I sort of scoff at it. I don't
7:40
see I mean, do the school boards have standing arguably? Will a judge
7:45
even allow this to come forward? Like here's my hey, christ and you
7:47
got kids? Yeah? Are they allowed to bring phones in class? I
7:51
mean allowed? Is an interesting and they are how to use them though sometimes
7:55
as per like you know, the teaching environment, what are the rules of
7:58
you know what's really interesting? I don't know what the rule rule is.
8:01
I would think from classrooms like I don't even know what it's not like,
8:05
you know, like a non attentive parent, right, well, I know
8:09
that my kid has a phone. I know that it's probably in their bag.
8:11
I'm sure like they're allowed to have it in their bag, in their
8:13
locker, And I think it's up to like the individual classroom to say,
8:18
like, you know, while we I think what's most interesting is is people
8:22
who accept that it's part of the environment and then use that to their advantage,
8:26
Like if you have a phone in your hands, let's use it for
8:28
whatever, like for a calculator, for research, for creating a media project,
8:33
like an art project, or something like. These are the tools that
8:35
we have that we can be using to our advantage. I think it's way
8:41
more interesting to try and interact with them the same way we would with our
8:45
physical environment. Interacting with our digital environment and giving our kids the tools to
8:48
navigate that environment safely and responsibly, I think is way more interesting than going
8:54
like this is like an old man shaking his fist at a cloud, right,
8:56
like this is the Like, well, come on, like this is.
9:00
It's in the environment. And no matter how mad you are, no
9:03
matter how important you is that you think it is to have this lawsuit go
9:07
through, you're gonna what happens if they win a lawsuit? Like, who
9:11
cares? It's still out there. Well, it costs all of us because
9:15
the school boards are doing a billion dollar transfer each from the public treasure their
9:20
own boards directly self funding it. If this does go through, My concern
9:24
is well not a concern. I just I don't see how they can really
9:26
come forward and say that these things are a harm unless they're able to show
9:31
we've banned cell phone usage on site at all times. Because if you're not
9:35
willing to do that, right, then how can you actually argue that these
9:39
things are so dangerous we're data Yeah, exactly, so, I mean it's
9:43
tough waters wet. I think that what we're really hearing here is the thing
9:50
that we are all aware of and recognizing, is that teachers are overwork.
9:54
There aren't enough eas the situation that has evolved into a much different role than
9:58
just teaching. Jane and Jimmy ran up the hill. Yeah, yeah,
10:03
ran up the hill and ended up learning sex ed or something. I don't
10:07
know what happened on the hill. I don't. Let's not get into the
10:11
that's fair. But you gotta figure though, like these are these professional school
10:13
boards, right who have professional lawyers, and they have pretty extensive legal teams.
10:18
So you got to figure their legal team is giving them advice that they
10:22
have to have grounds to be able to bring something like this forward. Like
10:26
they're not going to bring forward a giant, frivolous law suit for giant school
10:31
boards if they don't think that there's ground to stand on. I'm interested,
10:35
like the strength and numbers too, like the fact that it is these four
10:37
huge school boards, you know, is their merit because it's so many people
10:43
like that, we can draw from that, that experience of having so many
10:46
students in the system. But I think the real take home is what you're
10:50
saying, John, Like, that's the most important thing to me is like
10:52
this would not be happening if our teachers were not overworked and underpaid and more
11:00
and more responsibilities being piled on their plates constantly, Like this is a response
11:03
to that. And if this isn't the key, if this, this lawsuit
11:07
isn't going to fix things or change the environment or make things better for them,
11:11
what can be done? So, like I think doug Ford has come
11:15
out saying like, Okay, let's just focus on education here, Let's leave
11:16
with social media side. Let's not you know, he's kind of come out
11:20
saying like this is let's not, this isn't a big deal. Let's not
11:22
deal with this right now. Fine, that's fine. So what are we
11:26
doing to help teachers? Then? So, like, if this the message
11:28
to to Premiere forward is we're suffering, We're having a hard time, We're
11:33
not able to deal with all these things on our plate. So what are
11:37
you doing to fix it? Then? I don't know. I still I'm
11:41
still baffled by the fact that cell phones are and that that word allowed,
11:43
that you're allowed to use them in class. Like I wasn't allowed to have
11:46
a walkman or a game boy in class. When I did, there were
11:50
no cell phone to learn how to divide by hand. Yeah, and I
11:54
even get it when okay, everyone pull your phones on your devices. We're
11:56
going to do this exercise and learn about I get incorporating into like you have
12:00
to do that, but just to have your cell phone and I can chat
12:03
my friends, And clearly I'm not paying attention, Like we weren't allowed to
12:05
pass notes in class for that same reason, So why are cell phones allowed?
12:11
Right? It's the old you know, the old Canadian tire ad right
12:13
where it had like the GPS, it had the calculator, it had like
12:16
the twelve different items on there. That's right. Yeah, yeah, So
12:20
really, like you know, I think they use it for a lot of
12:22
diffundred percent. I'm looking at you right now, Maren. You've got to
12:26
cell phones. One's the bat phone and one's the personal love it so much
12:31
to be separate in my mind and in the physical world needs someone did say,
12:37
and I'm sure it's there. There's a large body of research to support
12:39
the negative effects of social media on mental health of students, and I'm sure
12:41
that is out there. Will just be it will be really interesting to see
12:45
how this case plays out, if it even and how far it goes to.
12:48
Like I don't know, it's interesting that it's like it's framed. I
12:50
believe in the sense that of the impact to teachers, right that that we
12:56
should not have to be responsible for all of these additional you know, mental
13:00
health tasks and all the things that the stress that it's putting on teachers.
13:03
But it's not being framed as we're standing up for kids, We're standing up
13:09
for families, we're standing up for parents. But I think I think that
13:11
is maybe part of it. I don't know if it's if it's intended to
13:16
be part of it. It's unint it's an unintended part of it. Maybe
13:18
that's till you know that it's not. It's this is frivolous in my opinion,
13:22
Like it's like if the teachers have a better union than the students,
13:24
Like that's what it comes down to. You do you think this is a
13:26
frivolous lawsuit. I think that you can't demonstrate actual standing as I said that,
13:31
Like, you know, it's just ban the phones in the instance that
13:35
you just said. If it's all this is so tough, I can't be
13:37
respected to deal with thirty five kids and they're all on their phone, then
13:41
just ban all the phone. No. If you're going no, I like
13:43
the phone and we need it for certain things. That's what makes it so
13:46
tough. And the fact that it's not being argued for the favor of the
13:50
students, but rather as a protection for the workforce. We all know labor
13:54
legislation is much easier to attack or utilize as a cudgel then it would be
14:00
to go and get a consensus of all parents to come forward and are horrendum
14:05
or something. Last time I checked most parents they're not on the same page
14:07
on a lot of stuff. So yeah, I mean, it's just I
14:11
look forward to the least. It's interesting too that it's not coming from the
14:15
teachers' union. It's coming from the school board, so it is the impact
14:18
is to teachers, but it's the boards that are better. I don't know.
14:22
I am ready, I have the popcorn ready, two takes I got
14:26
just again, I'm interested to see the data, right, what data they
14:30
bring forward to substantiate the claim, right, because to me, that's that's
14:33
the main part, and I think the other half it is it you know,
14:35
there has to be some financial motivation to this, because you even look
14:39
locally here where we're at is you know, you hear about the track and
14:43
Bell River and the school board not being able to upkeep them and then running,
14:46
you know, the public board having a deficit within their budget. And
14:48
you know, I look to our brand new sixty million dollars school in Kingsville,
14:52
which is great, you know, which we appreciate, but there's a
14:54
great deal of fundraising that has to happen for odds and ends within the school,
14:58
right, So there's a lot of shortfalls, you know, happening within
15:01
the system. So again it's you know, I hope, you know,
15:03
if it does win, it will be groundbreaking, but every single dollar,
15:07
like it's got to be invested back to the kids. I agree. We're
15:09
gonna take a really quick break, We're gonna come back in studio a round
15:11
table this morning. We're joined by marketing and public relations coordinator with University players
15:16
Kristin Siappas from AM eight hundred and Rose City Politics John Lidcky and Mayor of
15:20
Kingsville Dennis Rodgers. Keep it here. It's the Dan McDonald show on AM
15:24
eight hundred. Well, hey, good morning and welcome back. It's Dan
15:26
McDonald. Somebody interesting text here just about the whole lawsuit against public school boards
15:31
and social media. Someone said, focusing on education as a band aid solution,
15:37
not focusing on the root cause, which is social media. Do you
15:41
think social media is like the root cause of a lot of issues that we're
15:43
having today? Like is it a big problem? I think it's a great
15:46
thing. I'm someone who loves social media. I love embracing it. But
15:50
is it also a huge monkey wrench in life? It's terrible. Look at
15:54
what it does to all of us, Like it breaks our brains, We
15:56
become bad people, we're easier to jump at people. Like there's nothing good
16:02
about social media, this this great democratizing of it. You don't think there's
16:06
anything good about it. I think that there's like if you use it,
16:07
well, it's good, but inherently like it's a negative thing because it's designed
16:11
to be inherently I mean it's it's a slam book. It's it's it's it's
16:15
mean girls. Yeah, it's it's Yeah, that's true. I mean,
16:18
look at what you do, like you're you're a perfect example. You don't
16:19
do the slam book. You're like farts, and that's perfect. But you're
16:25
lowering the discord general. We look at how it's used by politicians, by
16:32
businesses, by brands increasingly. I mean, if I was a kid in
16:34
social media existed, oh, I don't want to think that I wasn't around
16:38
for it. Well, I think it's just the pressure too. Like I
16:41
have three kids, and you know, they're all in school and one's the
16:42
youngest. But you know, the the pressures of social media on kids is
16:48
now more than ever. You know, you look at bullying, you look
16:49
at people opening up fake accounts, you look at you know, you're always
16:53
on stage. So to me, I think those are not good for the
16:56
youth, you know, And I think that adds extra pressure. And I
16:59
think, you know, you look at what's the root cause, and the
17:00
root cause of everything is mental health. And the root cause of mental health
17:04
is not having enough financial governmental financial support to deal with that. Right,
17:11
So it's not good I always and I gotta always I always use this Mike
17:14
Tyson quote. He says, you know, the ability for someone to say
17:17
whatever they want and not get punched in the face with no repercussion will be
17:21
the downfall of always a good Yeah. Yeah, I don't know if I
17:26
take the same I'm definitely on the other side. I think, Okay,
17:30
I'm I'm going to come out pro social media today. I iow so we
17:33
can look for you as the intervener at this. Yeah. Actually, I'd
17:38
like to take up the fight for Facebook. Get in here. I'm not
17:42
here to work on Facebook. I'm here to say that if it's in the
17:45
environment and if it's in our world and we're not going to remove it at
17:49
a four point five billion dollar lawsuit, isn't gonna put a dent in anybody.
17:55
I think that we need to give kids the tools to use it effectively.
17:59
We need to just the same way that we teach them how to cross
18:00
the streets safely, and we teach them multiplication tables or I don't know,
18:04
whatever the Doug Board wants us to focus on in education, that's fine.
18:10
We let's also give them the tools that they need for mental health let's also
18:12
teach them how to be good digital citizens. Let's also teach them because how
18:17
do we make any society better, How do we make anything better for the
18:19
next generation. We have to invest in that education. And that's the only
18:22
way people are wearing seat belts today, you know what I mean, Like
18:26
the people are wearing seat belts, fewer people are smoking whatever, because we
18:30
invested in that education for our kids in the eighties and now it's like not
18:36
even you know, it's part of our cultures, the front of our world.
18:38
But if it uses a tool because to me as a small business owner,
18:42
it's essential to our business. I'm Italian government. It increases our visibility
18:47
and our communication and I agree with all those points. On the unfortunate part
18:52
is is the downside of it is how do you manage it? You know,
18:55
how do you help out with that side? Because to me, I
18:56
agree, we're there, the doors open, we're there. You know,
19:00
it's you know, I couldn't imagine taking a step back and not using it
19:03
at this point right right, Well, what are the steps we can do
19:06
to help eliminate the downfalls of it? Because the downfalls of it, or
19:10
they're higher than we were kids. Right, and that's the unfortunate part.
19:12
Christ and I hear from you social media is not going anywhere, so we
19:15
should accept it and try to deal with the situation at hand, which is
19:18
pretty well, you know, the same argument that the un RAA puts forward.
19:22
So I agree with you that we should probably have a second amendment.
19:26
I knew you were going to go. Yes, social media can be a
19:29
dangerous weapon in the wrong John. Just I'm going to take up a petition
19:34
to ban John from social media just for all of our sa take a really
19:41
quick break. We will come back with a round table. Keep it here
19:42
on A eight hundred. Hey, good morning and welcome back. It's Dan
19:48
McDonald. Good to be back. Happy Monday, Happy April Fool's Day as
19:52
well. Floating question for the day too, did you get anybody today with
19:55
an April Fool's joke or the best April Fools joke you ever chanced upon?
19:59
That's my voading question to you ten eight hundred. You can text me.
20:02
I'll read them out later on the show in the eleven o'clock hour. Welcome
20:04
back to our roundtable this morning too. We have Kingsville Mayor Dennis Rogers in
20:08
studio with us. We have a marketing and public relations coordinator with a School
20:12
of Dramatic Arts and University players at University of Windsor Kristin Siapis and host on
20:17
ROAs city politics and here on AM eight hundred CKLW John Lickey, John Leakeyan
20:22
Studio. So this is interesting that the party gates Party gates this gate aiming
20:26
to detour partying at a downtown parking lot. A city committee has backed a
20:32
new gated entry for this downtown parking lot that's prompted partying complaints. I'll quote
20:37
here from Ward three count Sir Ronaldo Agustino. He says people are bringing lawn
20:41
chairs down, they're smoking hookahs, drinking alcohol, open cans of alcohol on
20:45
the riverfront, really turning this parking lot into a party place. And he
20:49
says they're talking about Lot sixteen. It's just east of Olett Avenue, right
20:53
on the waterfront. The gate is part of more than one hundred thousand dollars
20:57
in improvements that will allow that will now go to council for final approval.
21:03
And he said it's a giant step. Now you won't be able to get
21:06
in the lot until you see the payment processing happen as soon as you put
21:10
your car up, you will pay your fee to get in, and he
21:12
believes it's going to discourage a lot of people from staying down there all night.
21:15
Your thoughts on this on party on Party Bridge Gate? Is this a
21:19
party determed or not? John? What are your thoughts on this one?
21:22
You know, listen alling out something here. Parking is obviously something that I
21:27
poke a lot of fun here, you know, on the station, on
21:30
social media, but it's a serious issue and anything that's going to go in
21:33
inhibit access to parking I think should be very strongly considered and debated. And
21:38
I don't think that this is a good idea. And I take this seriously
21:41
because you know, I've had family members that have been very seriously impacted by
21:44
a lack of available parking in our downtown. I just think that people who
21:47
live in Wards one and Wards five and six and nine should have easy access
21:52
to parking and that this will be a limiting factor to that. Kristin,
21:56
You've run before for elected office, and parking is a number one issue for
22:00
so many people in this community. That's quite a conversation about how we access
22:04
our downtown because anybody who is coming downtown. You know, we would need
22:08
to see really robust improvements in our transit system. I think to see people
22:12
starting to come downtown without a car. I think people who are coming downtown
22:17
from outside of the area are definitely coming with a car, so they're gonna
22:21
be looking for parking. To me, this isn't even a question about about
22:23
I mean, it is a question about parking and access to parking downtown.
22:27
But because of its location, Like we're talking about the lot that's right next
22:30
to the Spirit of windsor the train there, and it's just it's a small
22:36
lot, so it's not a lot of spots, but it's got kind of
22:40
like a little secluded area to it, Like it's it's sort of a little
22:44
area that's set away by itself. So I can see how it turns into
22:47
like a little party area. So I mean, if we're not gonna put
22:51
in the gate and limit the parking, then then what's the solution, right,
22:53
I mean, could we have by law, we could have police.
22:56
I mean, listen, people are using it because it's successible, so I
22:59
just I don't know because they're not getting caught exactly right, And that's what
23:02
it comes down to and we know that, you know, people are dealing
23:03
with the cost of living crisis right now. It's it's while it's April Fools
23:07
Day, the carbon tax has gone up. It's become more difficult for people
23:11
to fill up today, even though the rebate will come at some point in
23:12
the future. And you know, I just I think that, you know,
23:18
I get that it's not a free lot and that you have to pay
23:21
to be there, and that the enforcement of it is what catches us.
23:23
But like, we got so many other things that we could be dropping money
23:26
into in this city then spending probably one hundred grand on a lift gate,
23:30
right, I get, yeah, a couple of things. I mean to
23:33
me, it's you know, like the first thing where my brain goes is
23:38
enforcement. Right. So but if you install the gate and you have to
23:42
pay, you know, the payment is afterwards. But what deters because I
23:45
imagine everybody going down there. They're not driving down there, So you have
23:48
people that are walking down there. I assume they go there, they'll bring
23:52
I assume some from somewhere else, right, I mean, what does it
23:55
matter? You just pay to get in, and now like it's now it's
23:57
a club with a bouncer you pay or with a cover you just pay that
24:02
you go cost. They're doing business now, Yeah five bucks and I get
24:06
to hang out for four hours at the riverfront with the best view. Like,
24:08
where are we changing the rate of the lot? Like it's still going
24:11
to be flat rate or something. Yeah, So it's not. The whole
24:15
thing is just like we have so many issues that are pressing in this city.
24:18
And I get it. This is a committee that this is in their
24:19
purview. Okay, so yeah, I mean they established it as being a
24:23
concern, right, so I can appreciate on the municipal side, you establish
24:26
it's a concern, bring forth the committee. They're bringing forth recommendation to council.
24:30
So to me, it'll be interesting to see that conversation act council when
24:34
it happens and what's being proposed and administration's backing and all that stuff. Sarah
24:37
and put my municipal hat on at this time. But to me, is
24:41
that conversations. What I'd be interesting to hear is you know, what are
24:45
you know, what's the recommendations, what's the other options they're going to talk
24:48
about enforcement? Because that's some one thing you're not really hearing a lot of
24:51
right, so it's it's going to be a good conversation. Act council kind
24:55
of hear all those points just to see, you know, what happens,
24:57
because you know, I get the resident part, like, well, that
25:00
doesn't affect me, but you know I want my potholes filled, right,
25:03
like it's the you know issue, but you know they're bringing forward something that's
25:07
obviously important for that ward, right, So I would stay tuned to the
25:11
conversation and council. Mm hmmm. I wonder too, is enforcement And I
25:15
don't think we can police our weight of every issue, but I do wonder
25:18
if the problem is people yelling and screaming and drinking booze, which you're not
25:21
legally allowed to do, and it's causing an issue, then maybe it is
25:23
time to start handing out some tickets saying hey, I'm I'm all for having
25:26
a glass of a bottle of wine in a park at a picnic, not
25:29
bugging anybody that should not be ticketed. But if you're out there boozing it
25:32
up and cause a lot of trouble, maybe go down there. But hey,
25:33
guys, you got a case of bee, here, here's your ticket,
25:37
And maybe maybe start enforcing I don't know, could that Could that be
25:41
a part of the solution. I mean, we're hearing again we need more
25:44
information. We're hearing that it's turning into a party place, but I'm not
25:47
hearing that it's like anything bad has happened, Like we're not responding to like
25:52
an incident. That that right, Maybe it's time to get an sop,
26:00
like get your special cases permit out there and make it an official thing.
26:04
I guess I I'm down here all the time. We can encourage them to
26:15
like just host a party and get you know, apply for the necessary permits.
26:18
Let's go that way. I would also like to remind you, Dan
26:21
that while you say we can't police our way out of it, like you
26:25
certainly can't with that attitude, But if it is that big an issue,
26:30
maybe there needs to be some enforcement down there. People causing that big of
26:33
a ruckus where it's upsetting people who live there and they're doing things that are
26:36
illegal, then maybe that that is part of the solution. Hey, you
26:38
can't be doing you can't be acting this way in this lot. You're bothering
26:41
people and what you're doing is not is illegal as well, So who is
26:44
the aggrieved party here, is it, I'm assuming that's my guess, is
26:49
the residence. If that's the case, and they're going, look, we
26:52
can't go to sleep at night because it's incredibly low and we have noise by
26:55
laws on this, Like, I guess that makes perfect sense, right,
26:57
But if this is actually just being forward because you know, it costs more
27:02
money to clean up the parking lot the day after because there's a bunch of
27:04
bottles. If the aggrieved party here is actually the municipality because of a foregone
27:08
lack of revenue from parking or an added expense, then this is when this
27:14
maybe there's a liability issue there too, And of course there is, right
27:18
I mean, And that's this is where like I don't, I don't go
27:19
and say like it's not completely necessary. If offence will stop the problem and
27:25
charging at the outset will stop it, then that's you know, that's fair.
27:27
It's like what you were saying before with the school boards in Toronto.
27:30
We got a good legal department here and their job is to save all of
27:33
us money by not doing egregious lawsuits, frivolous lawsuits that won't go anywhere.
27:40
And their job is to you know, come forward with recommendations on policies that
27:44
won't result in frivolous lawsuits that come against us. So I'm I'm an idiot.
27:48
Listen, it's and it's April Fool's Day, So like take that all
27:52
for what it is. I know that our elected officials that are on this
27:56
committee are working invest faith. They decide that this is necessary. It's going
27:59
to go to counsel for debate. I look forward to that copy too.
28:03
Yeah, I think ultimately you don't have to agree with me when I said
28:04
that I'm an idiots. Oh, sorry, not to pretty quick. I
28:10
was like, yeah, right right on, right on every week. Yes,
28:15
I'm curious. I want the more information too. I'm curious to noise.
28:18
Well, somebody did say though a text here, and I don't disagree
28:21
with them. Guys, you're making this really complicated. Just send the cops
28:22
down there. Let the cops hang out there every night for a week and
28:25
people will get the message. And I wonder if that if it is a
28:27
problem when there's a police presence there, you do kind of think that stuff
28:30
we normally do when we think we have this place to ourselves. Let's not
28:33
do that. It does send a message. It's not like everything that everything
28:37
with downtown like or not even with downtown like across the city. Across the
28:41
city, We're like, well, where how come there isn't a police officers
28:45
every corner just watching people like there's because we only have so many police officers
28:49
and there's one million things for us to take care. It's just you know,
28:52
you go back to the priority piece, right, like, is there
28:56
is there other things where police could be you know, we're seeing and as
29:00
a higher priority than people. Again, I don't know the data, don't
29:03
initiation. I don't know if been crimes there. I don't know if anybody's
29:06
been hurt. I don't know if there's been you know, you know whatever
29:08
damage right, Absolutely, yeah, no, it'll be interesting to watch.
29:12
Quick break, we are going to come back our round table this morning.
29:15
We have Kristin Siapis, Mayor, Dennis Rodgers, and John Lidkey. Keep
29:18
it here. It's the Dan McDonald Show on AM eight hundred. Hey,
29:22
good morning and welcome back. It's Dan McDonald big welcome back to our round
29:25
table as well Kingsville Mayor Dennis Rogers, Kristin Siapis with university players and host
29:30
of Rose City politics and also right here on AM eight hundred CKLW. John
29:33
Lidkey, this is interesting on Terry's top Doctor calling for restrictions on legal substances
29:38
and to criminalization too. He's calling on the province to immediately enact policy that
29:42
will restrict access to alcohol, vapes, cannabis and cannabis as the number of
29:48
people who have died or visited a hospital due to using multiple substances has spiked
29:52
in recent years. He also says, though he recommends on Terry decriminalize simple
29:57
possession of unregulated drugs for personal use it's a big topic, and make safer
30:02
supply accessible to reduce the number of people in the province dying from preventable opioid
30:07
overdose overdoses each year. So what he's kind of proposing here, just to
30:11
summarize, he's recommending Ontario explore the value of increasing the legal minimum drinking age
30:17
from nineteen to twenty one and work with the federal government to require that all
30:21
alcohol products have warning labels and signage that depict the risks and harms of drinking
30:26
booze your thoughts and that I imagine that would go for things like legal cannabis
30:30
and whatnot to nineteen to twenty one, Yeah or nay? Good idea,
30:34
horrible idea. What are your thoughts on this, Jay, Like, I
30:37
mean, we're looking at some of the lowest rates of smoking right now,
30:41
albeit its increasing in other categories. But the strategy has been working. I
30:45
think you need to tighten up on these new neictine pouches things right, going
30:48
through and vaping. But I mean alcohol usage, like go find me a
30:53
downtown or like a restaurant tour. Who would say that, you know,
30:57
it's the young kids that are problems with drinking these days, like they're not
31:02
drinking. I think you would find most bar owners in restaurants hears going.
31:06
I wish that things were like they were five years ago brief COVID, but
31:08
I wish that they were like twenty years ago. So I mean, listen,
31:12
these are organizations that have great intentions. Of course, nobody is going
31:17
to argue against making society healthier, but these are also organizations that have to,
31:21
you know, increasingly justify their own existence, and in a situation where
31:26
things are going better according to the statistics, that's a tough sell. So
31:32
you have to go and look towards something else. I mean, I owned
31:34
a cannabis lounge. You know, it was not young people that were coming
31:40
in. It was primarily thirty thirty five plus that were coming in. I
31:42
wish we had younger people not under the age. Of course we had said
31:47
a course yet, But I mean it's this, let's be honest, nineteen
31:51
ninety one, when we had twenty thousand people being released at two pm or
31:55
two am, was a much different environment than what it looks like today.
31:59
It is. I actually can't believe it. It's a totally different environment downtown
32:04
at close, Like it's it's insane, Like it's so quiet now. Yeah,
32:07
but I think there's a lot here, Like I think what's being proposed
32:10
is like like the moving the age from nineteen to twenty one for drinking,
32:15
adding increased labels and signage and education around the health risks, as well as
32:22
this decriminalizing some illicit substances in small doses too. Like I there's a lot
32:28
to pick up. Yeah, I appreciate that there's sort of like a multi
32:32
pronged approach though that it's that it's like, looking at do any of these
32:37
things have a positive impact? Are any of them going to you know,
32:42
help us to live healthier or help our society to be safer or whatever.
32:45
And I think there might be some merit for some of these things for sure.
32:47
Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm on the other side there. Like,
32:51
you know, I can agree with the the elected official. You're so
32:53
brave taking this stance. Yes, you a couple of weeks of my shoes,
33:00
buddy, you know, like I you know the increased labels and you
33:05
know the warnings, and you know, I think I'm all day for that.
33:07
But to me is I think we're kind of spreading it out too much.
33:12
And you know, let's fish where the fish are, Like, where's
33:14
the fish? The fish is the opioid crisis, and the fish is mental
33:17
health. So we're going after alcohol, we're going after cannabis, which I
33:21
get, you know, those are paths of their own, but the biggest
33:24
path that we have right now is the opioid crisis. So why not put
33:29
more time, energy, money, and resources into that because that's something that's
33:34
prevalent in every single community in our whole country. That's part of it.
33:38
Like this is what I mean. There's so much in this proposal that it's
33:42
like it's not just alcohol. It's not just cannabis, it's not just vabe.
33:45
It's also you know, he says the system must first take urgent steps
33:46
to keep people alive, creating safe spaces where people can use unregulated drugs and
33:52
providing regulated pharmaceutical alternatives like that. It's a harm reduction piece. Yeah,
33:58
And I think the call for for reinstating safepoint, I wonder if this is
34:01
not just packaged in a way that because safepoint has been such a hot topic
34:07
and it's been such a difficult topic in the province and the CTS sites in
34:13
general. I think that it's really important that we have that conversation. As
34:19
you said, I think that's what's on fire right now. That's the fire
34:21
that we need to be putting out. But because of the controversial responses there's
34:24
been, I imagine that it's packaged with cannabis and vape and alcohol so that
34:30
it becomes more of like a palatable omnibus sort of thing. So they released
34:35
the report, right, and they go and they take data from the Canadian
34:37
Institute for Health Information and it states that thirty three percent of adult said they
34:40
used cannabis in twenty twenty, which is an eight percent increase from twenty nineteen.
34:45
Oh no, that sounds bad, but that has nothing to do with
34:46
what we're discussing right now. We're about we're talking about raising the age limit
34:50
for youth to be able to access it to twenty one, So we'd have
34:53
to have that broken down of everyone from nineteen to twenty one, and then
34:57
everyone else after twenty one. It also goes on to say when they release
35:00
the cannabis survey in twenty twenty two, Health Canada reported the number of Ontarians
35:02
who died of alcohol toxicity rose between from sixteen percent between twenty eighteen and twenty
35:08
one. And again but among whom like this is I think you're absolutely right,
35:14
Christ and like this is a solution in search of a problem. Like
35:19
they know what they want and they're laying the breadcrumbs to get there. And
35:22
if there's nothing I think wrong with harm reduction strategies at all, but like
35:27
just come forward and say that. Like, but I think they recognize that,
35:30
you know, that's not an easy sell. Well, and it's not
35:31
terrible asking for a report on this other stuff too. It's like okay,
35:35
well then we'll have that data for sure. Yeah, yeah, I don't
35:38
know. I guess maybe I'm more of the bold choice of like, you
35:40
know, this is the obvious issue, and this is what we're going to
35:43
go after. And I'm sorry there's political pushback from it, but it's something
35:46
that's going to help more people than those that are pushing back. They don't
35:50
agree with the safe injection sites and you name it. Yeah, but to
35:52
me, I'm like, I get the like cover of it, and I
35:55
get you know, it's opening up to something else. But I also believe
35:58
in you put your foot down, say hey, we're going to devote all
36:00
this time, money and resources into this. You know what though, No,
36:04
it's it's flies with honey, like it's like you you have to be
36:07
able to make it palatable for everybody. If you can't, there's been so
36:12
much pushback, not just from political pushback but from the province, from from
36:15
residents, from people who don't want things like a CTS site in their community.
36:22
If this that's one specific that's one specific item because the site though,
36:25
but I'm just talking about opioid and mental health in general. Yeah, well,
36:29
I mean, but that's what's being asked for this report is uh,
36:32
you know where and when and how we're going to put in more of these
36:36
sites. Yeah, but we're looping in all these other items, which you
36:37
know again right, I guess that's what I push back the most on is
36:42
like, you know, we're talking about uh age restrictions and we're talking about
36:46
cannabis, like I don't know. So yeah, but you don't think if
36:49
he brought brought forward to recommendation or request or to reinstate CTS sites across the
36:55
province that there wouldn't be so much pushback that it was pointless. Absolutely,
37:00
he's not gonna get anywhere with that. Like I appreciate that there is a
37:02
strategy here. It sucks that there has to be one because we know how
37:07
important these are to our community. We know what's on fire, we know
37:08
how to put out the fire, but we need a way to get there,
37:12
and I think if this is the way to get there, then all
37:15
right, let's go agree. We got to end there. We always end
37:16
the round table though with the plugged in saying we'll go back around the table.
37:20
Kristin, what would you like to plug in today? I am so
37:22
excited Danes Big Week show opening this Friday, Big drum roll, the Drowsy
37:28
Chaperone is playing this weekend at Korda. You can visit us on Facebook.
37:32
There's a Facebook event you can come and find us. The Drowsy Chaperone here
37:37
where. You're selling tickets on event right. You can buy them in advance.
37:39
We're running for three weekends. Please come check it out. It is
37:43
such a funny show. It has been called the perfect Broadway musical. I
37:46
don't know if what we're performing is perfect just yet. You're formal on stage,
37:52
though, Kristin you are. I can't wait to see you back on
37:53
stage. I am so shigned up. I have not been on stage in
37:57
a musical in nine years. That was a Little Mermaid with you have a
38:00
fan I follow I was. I played Ursula in a Little Mermaid. Now
38:05
I get to play the Drowsy Chaperon in The Drowsy Chaperon. And we had
38:07
we had some rehearsal this weekend. We're going into tech tonight. Costumes are
38:12
up. There's a few pictures that are going to be released this week.
38:15
It's phenomenal. The cast is so great. It's a fun show. It's
38:19
really upbeat, it's short, it's funny. It's like ninety minutes in and
38:22
out like it is, and it is it's all about the love of Broadway
38:28
musicals and the love of the beautiful, over the top, hilarious, fast
38:32
paced, funny love stories that are told in these fun Broadway musicals and and
38:37
uh, it really is a love letter to Broadway and I just love it
38:42
so much I can so I guess I can't wait to see you. It's
38:45
such a fun part to play, So please come see me. Oh I'm
38:49
pumped for that. No, thank you, Chris, and always love having
38:51
you on, John. What would you like to plug in this morning?
38:52
Listen to Roasty Politics. Listen to my new podcast, Fetch with John.
38:57
Listen. Yesterday I ended up driving by the pro Palestine rally that was going
39:01
on, and you know, God bless protest rights. I love living in
39:05
a democracy. There was a sign though that I ended up snapping a photo
39:07
of that I really found disheartening. It said saved from Nazis to become Nazis
39:14
and swastikas that are painted all over it. And it's just like, Okay,
39:17
that doesn't have anything to do with Israel. Israel didn't exist at the
39:21
time for people to be saved by the Nazis from say from the Nazis.
39:25
So this is clearly just a sign that's about Jews and saying that you know,
39:30
all Jews are Nazis, and like that's not a great message. I
39:32
think that we're so much better than what we're seeing sometimes going on right now.
39:37
And I just again, I'm just gonna just beg and pray that people
39:42
can find their better angels while being incredibly upset and passionate and rightfully so about
39:47
the things that are going on. Yeah, well said, thank you,
39:50
John, I appreciate that. Last but at least mayor Mayor Rodgers wish like
39:52
to plug in this morning. Yeah, a couple things. So clips is
39:55
next Monday, right, So Windsor Health Unit issued a couple things. Just
40:00
warreny, make sure you're using protective eyewear. Put on eyewear when you're looking
40:04
away from the sun. So if you don't attend an event, you know,
40:07
if you are sick, stay home instead. So again there are some
40:09
health risks to that, so please please please please make sure you're being safe.
40:14
And the other piece is April sixteenth, the FEDS released their federal budget.
40:19
Oh, we'll be looking for a national lunch program and funding for that
40:22
so stay tuned for that hopefully. You know you've been hearing a lot of
40:25
talk and I know the Prime Minister was just recently in Windsor talking about it
40:30
potentially being within the budget. So I look forward to that day. And
40:32
if it's not in the budget, then you need to call every single person
40:36
that's in the Liberal Party and ask them why. Thank you. Yeah,
40:39
very very important to have looking forward looking for on that eclipse too, and
40:42
we're going to have somebody on from the Essex County Library at eleven thirty eight.
40:45
They've got some of the much coveted eclipse glasses and Manuel Dennis from the
40:51
kind of Library to be joining us at eleven thirty to kind of geek out
40:52
with me about the eclipse. And it's going to be party city in Kingsville
40:55
too. I'm looking forward to it. I cannot wait. Thank you everyone,
40:59
great round on table today, more conversation coming up. Keep it here.
41:01
It's the Dan McDonald show on it