HELLO OTTAWA

Smoke is getting in our eyes today.

There is an air quality warning due to forest fire smoke, with 48 active fires across the Ontario and two major fires north of Ottawa in Québec. While Ottawa gets an air quality warning, Gatineau gets only a smog warning.

Two VIArail trains – one Ottawa to Toronto, the other Toronto to Ottawa – were delayed by half an hour yesterday due to fire worries near the track. 

Residents and cottagers near Centennial Lake are advised to evacuate. The area is near the village of Matawachan, about 65 kilometres southwest of Renfrew.

All this smoke may be making you a little thirsty. Luckily, we have a pass for two for this Thursday at the Orléans Craft Beer Festival. Craft beer, food trucks, and music are promised.

Send us an email to ‘beer@theottawan.com’ and we’ll draw a name from a hat. We'll announced the winner in Wednesday's newsletter. 

– Martha and Darren

 
 

ottawa historic logo t-shirts

Club Zinc T-Shirt

For underground Ottawa of 80s, Club Zinc was a short, dark light.

Help support the ottawan by buying one of our historic logo t-shirts.

 

Weather

  • 🌦️ 40% chance of showers. High of 23°, low of 14°. 

Number 

  • 50
  • – The number of years that have passed since the opening of Canada’s largest recreational centre, the Nepean Sportsplex. It is no longer Canada’s largest but it’s still the biggest in Ottawa. As a birthday celebration, the Sportsplex will have 1973 pricing on drop-in activities – only 50¢. (City of Ottawa)

Ottawan of the Day

  • Noah Balkovec
  • – The designer, and member of Jersey Nerds, has released his own personal redesign of the Ottawa Senators uniform. (Faces magazine)

Quote 

  • I remember listening to a senior editor say: ‘The last thing I want to work for is a (bleep) local newspaper.’ Well, you got your wish. You’ll get no newspaper at all.
  • Ken Gray in Ottawa Bulldog lamenting the permanent closure of the Citizen newsroom. The 26 remaining editorial staff will work from home.

Sports

  • CPL Atlético Ottawa 2 – Halifax Wanderers 0 last Saturday
  • ⚾ Frontier League Ottawa Titans 7 – Les Capitales de Québec 3 last Friday
  • Frontier League Ottawa Titans 4 – Les Capitales de Québec 5 last Saturday
  • Frontier League Ottawa Titans 4 – Les Capitales de Québec 9 last night

🐦 Ottawa Police Service

  •  The Ottawa Police Service has been accused of attempting to intimidate a child who flipped them the bird. On May 9, an elementary school boy on a school bus gave the finger to a passing police car. The police stopped the bus, boarded it, and scolded the boy, threatening to take him away in the cruiser. The two officers then followed the bus to the school and complained to the principal. The boy’s family has filed a complaint with the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, which has referred it to the Ottawa Police Service. (Gary Dimmock in the Ottawa Citizen)

    ➕ Related Last February, a Québec judge aquitted a man, stating ‘Flipping the proverbial bird is a God-given, Charter-enshrined right that belongs to every red-blooded Canadian. It may not be civil, it may not be polite, it may not be gentlemanly. Nevertheless, it does not trigger criminal liability.’


    Related Ottawa Police Chief Eric Stubbs wants to get uniformed police officers back into the schools.

💸 Electoral Law

  •  Construction firm Birgil has been fined $20,000 for breaking Gatineau electoral law. Owner Gilles Desjardin was fined $5,000 as well. The developer had commissioned a report that outlined the terrible economic impact of declaring Gatineau's Quartier-du-Musée a heritage district. Coincidentally, the company was planning to build two towers right in that area. The company then declared part of the cost of the $60,000 study as an election expense. (CBC)

🗑️ Garbage ideas

  •  The City of Ottawa looked at several different alternatives to tags. Binned ideas were: fixed garbage can limit, with no way to add extra cans; ban anything that could be recycled; and require all bags to be clear. (Josh Pringle at CTV)

🚊 O-Train

  •  Here are some pictures of the new diesel-powered Trillium Line trains. The new trains are made by Swiss firm Stadler instead of the existing ones manufactured by France’s Alstom. The system is expected to open later this year. (Guy Quenneville at CBC)

🚋 OC Transpo

  •  OC Transpo is planning on kicking out the Streetcar 696 Restoration Project from its garage. The project has been restoring the last remaining 600-series streetcar that serviced Ottawa between 1915 and 1959 in OC Transpo’s Merivale garage on Colonnade Road. The agency wants to reclaim the garage and says the project must leave, at its own expense, by June 30. In an email, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s office suggests the group explore private storage options. (Guy Quenneville at CBC)

🚗 Gatineau Auto Show

  •  This year’s Gatineau Auto Show has been cancelled for lack of volunteers. The non-profit has been struggling to find volunteers for the date, as well as board members. It hopes to return next year. (Josh Pringle at CTV

Click here to feature your event

Today

  •  Starting today and continuing until September 1, Canadian Geographic is exhibiting Pressure: James Cameron Into the Abyss. The experience takes visitors back more than 10 years to Cameron’s exploration of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. View his Deepsea Challenger submersible and other equipment used in the expedition. Alex Trebek Theatre, Canadian Geographic, 50 Sussex Drive. 12:00pm to 5:00pm Tuesday through Saturday. Free admission.

Tomorrow

Wednesday

  •  Canadian Film Institute’s Café Ex is back with the second of three in-person experiences focusing on the work of guest artists. The featured artist on June 7: Alexandra Gelis (Toronto-Bogotá), whose work is “research-based, process-oriented, and multi-disciplinary. It incorporates film, photography, drawing, and multimedia.” Club SAW, 67 Nicholas St, 7:00pm.

Just Announced / Now Booking

  •  The theme of this year’s 20th anniversary Lumiere Charity Gala benefiting Queensway Carleton Hospital is ‘Roaring 20s’. Thursday, September 7, 2023, Newbridge Ballroom, Brookstreet Hotel.
  • PuppetCon is the place to be if you want to learn everything there is to know about puppeteering. Taking place annually in Almonte starting this year on August 11-13, PuppetCon will have panel discussions and workshops covering every aspect of the art, from how to manipulate and manoeuvre a puppet to marketing your show.
  •  Folk music duo Quote the Raven bring their sweet harmonies to Red Bird on July 14. Tickets $37.61. 1165 Bank St.
  •  Tickets go on sale on Friday (June 9) at 10:00am for Star Wars: A New Hope - In Concert. The FILMharmonic Orchestra will play a live-to-projection performance of the film that started it all, way back in 1977. 78 musicians will play under music director Francis Choiniere while the film plays on the big screen. The Arena at TD Place, 1015 Bank St. Friday December 1.

 

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Spend $400 or more at Melow from now until June 18, and get 30% off. If that's too steep, you'll get 20% off when you spend $300 or more, and 15% off when you spend over $200.

 

The CBC has the scoop on the new owners of the Ottawa Senators and the location of its new arena. Unfortunately, it's the 1923 Ottawa Senators and the new Ottawa Auditorium on O'Connor Street. But they were the defending Stanley Cup winners, so if history doesn’t repeat maybe it could bring us a cup anyway.

We will see you tomorrow  – Martha and Darren
 

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