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What Ottawa is Talking About – 6 April 2022

▪️A second man has been charged with attempted arson of an apartment building during the Trucker siege. Because of the proximity of the apartment – right on a siege street – many were concerned that the Trucker protestors were involved. But like the first man arrested, the second person seems to have no connection to the Trucker protests at all. Their motivation is still unknown. [CBC]

▪️Manotick and Richmond may finally get their Highway 416 offramp. The Province has signed an agreement with the City for an environmental assessment at Barnsdale Road. Residents have long wanted the turnoff, rather than drive to the inconvenient Fallowfield Road offramp. To our mind, this feels somewhat like the plot to the 1981 comedy Honky Tonk Freeway. [Mannotick Messenger]

+ Related The Transportation Safety Board has ruled that a driver killed by a VIARail train at the Barnsdale Road crossing may have been focussed on the upcoming road intersection rather than the rail crossing warnings. 

▪️Ottawa Rewind has the story of the Top Secret Balls, vacuum-filled spheres used to test the ill-fated Avro Arrows. Spoiler alert: the spheres are still there, the Arrow probably now. [Ottawa Rewind]