The 519 Podcast

The morning of August 26, 2021 was like most mornings in the town of Wheatley Ontario. 

Kids were getting ready for another day of summer, people headed off to work, and it was a fairly normal day. 

Until it wasn’t. 

The calm of that summer day in the Lake Erie town was shattered when an explosion rocked a section of the downtown. 

On this episode of the 519 Podcast, we present  ‘Rising from the Ruble: The Wheatley Explosion’. 

It’s a first in Ontario.

A cow manure powered garbage truck has hit the streets of Hensall, Ontario, a small town in Huron County. 

These carbon negative garbage trucks are a part of a 6 month pilot program run by Bluewater Recycling and Enbridge. If all goes well, manure powered garbage trucks could be a mainstay in our municipalities. And potentially well beyond. 

In this episode of the 519 Podcast, we look at whether these, shall we say, poop powered garbage trucks give us a glimpse into the future of fuel. 

Long wait times, understaffing and underfunding in hospitals we’ve seen before, but ER closures and this level of surgical cancellations is completely new. We are in the middle of a healthcare crisis, and experts say it might not get better any time soon.

The 519 Podcast looks at what’s going on inside our healthcare systems and asks experts about solutions that could solve some of the issues.

In Part 1 of “The Windsor Spree Killer: From Horric to Surreal” we took a look at Matthew Charles Lamb and the fateful day he became Canada’s first spree killer. 

But, his story didn't end with his arrest. It continued in directions that are really quite unbelievable. 

Sitting in his holding cell and awaiting trial, there were really only two options for Matthew Lamb. Execution, or life in prison. And as far as open and shut cases go, this was definitely one of them.

In part 2 of The Windsor Spree Killer, we hear again from Will Toffan, author of  “Watching the Devil Dance” and find out how Matthew Charles Lamb spent the rest of his very short yet chaotic life.

When you think of spree killings, mass murders, and mass shootings, your first thought may be that it’s just another day in the news.

While they have become a far too frequent occurrence south of the border, and they are significantly more rare in Canada, they have happened here. It’s a phenomenon that we’ve begrudgingly had to accept, and an image we’ve somehow developed a stomach for. 

But in 1966, these sorts of violent events weren’t as common. There wasn’t even a label for it. No ‘mass shooters’ or ‘serial killers’. Back then they were just bad people, plain and simple. If something of this magnitude did happen, it was such an anomaly that it was hard to forget the name of the shooter and their victims, unlike today. 

So when Canada’s first ever spree killer attacked the streets of Windsor on June 25th, 1966, it was a complete shock to everyone. 

This is part 1 of a 2-part episode about Matthew Charles Lamb, Canada's first spree killer. 

In 1913, one of the largest storms to ever hit the Great Lakes claimed the lives of over 250 people, while sinking 12 ships. The storm was so massive, it is now referred to by climatologists as a ‘weather bomb’, an extremely rare occurrence. On this episode of the 519 Podcast we examine the Great Storm of 1913 and take a look at the death and destruction that came along with it.

When a teenaged cashier at the grocery store makes a mistake, just about everyone would be outraged if the customer began yelling at them and berating them. And yet, so many of us stand by and say nothing when a coach or parent yells at a teenager who is umpiring or refereeing their child's soccer, hockey, or baseball game. 

Why do we accept what amounts to verbal abuse of young people, simply because it happens at a sporting event?

Most minor sports leagues in our region are experiencing a shortage of referees and umpires, and the argument could easily be made that this is a problem of our own making. 

In this episode of The 519 Podcast, we speak to two sports organization officials about the challenges they are facing, an umpire's association president who says it's getting harder to find people willing to put up with the heckling, and two 15-year-old umpires who describe the impact the verbal abuse has on them.

You can't sit down to watch a sporting event without seeing them.

Countless commercials, and even studio segments, promoting betting on the games. Were we too hasty when allowing single game betting in Canada? What are the downsides? On this episode of the 519 Podcast, we explore the new reality of sport gambling in Canada and what it all means.

This episode is hosted by Craig Needles.

In 1881, London’s Thames River was the scene of, what was at the time, one of Canada’s worst maritime disasters when the "Victoria" sank in the river. Despite happening in the 1800’s, the news of the incident spread around the world, in newspapers such as the New York Times and outlets as far away as Australia. 

It became what is now known as the Victoria Steamboat Disaster, causing the deaths of 172 people. And back when London only had a population of around 20,000 people, few in the city were unaffected. 
 
How did this happen? Who, if anyone, was to blame? 

On this episode of the 519 Podcast, we talk to Dan Brock, a London historian and author of 2011 book, “Fragments from the Forks” which details the disaster.