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HELLO, OTTAWA

Here's a quick round-up of Black History Month events over the next few days, arts in Gatineau, Canadian fashion, and how Martha and Darren will slog through the snow Saturday for a good cause.

▪️Tonight (7pm) the Canadian Museum of History presents “An Evening with Desmond Cole.” The Canadian author will discuss his experience as a Black Canadian with broadcaster Adrian Harewood. 

▪️The Ottawa Public Library and the Ottawa International Writers Festival have partnered to present two virtual author visits in honour of Black History Month next week: 

CBC Radio’s Idil Mussa will host a conversation with Rinaldo Walcott on the publication of his pamphlet book On Property, on Monday (February 22) at 7:30pm.

Then, on Thursday February 25 at 7:30pm join CBC’s Adrian Harewood in a conversation with Celina Caesar-Chavannes about her recently published memoir and leadership book Can you Hear Me Now?

▪️The Mayfair Theatre reopens tomorrow (Friday February 19) with a special screening of the 1967 hit film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?, in honour of Black History Month. The movie explores what happens with a young white woman brings her older and accomplished black fiancée home to meet her parents. Other screenings this weekend include Some Kind of Heaven and War of the Worlds. 1074 Bank Street.

+ Related: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner star Sidney Poitier turns 94 years old on Saturday

▪️The 100 Mile Arts Network is an initiative launched by Théâtre Wakefield, which aims to connect Outaouais-based artists of all disciplines with venues, funders, media, programmers, and audiences. On February 24 at 7:00pm, 100 Mile Arts Network will launching the first episode of Our Hidden Hills, a new three-part video showcase of Gatineau-Hills artists on their YouTube channel. Further episodes will launch on March 3 and March 10.

▪️Workshop and Flock boutiques are Ottawa institutions that promote Canadian made fashion, accessories, and decor items. The team have announced that after 16 years at its Byward Market location, Workshop will be closing permanently later in the spring. Don’t worry: all of the stock will be shifting over to Flock (1275 Wellington St. W) and to the online store.

▪️There are just two days until the ottawan pulls on our winter boots and heads out to walk 5km as participants in the Coldest Night of the Year fundraising walk. We’ll be walking for Cornerstone, the charity that provides emergency shelter and safe permanent housing for women. If you can donate $5 towards our goal of $250, we’ll truly appreciate it

We'll see you tomorrow – Martha and Darren


#STATS

Weather: ❄️ 30% chance of flurries. High of -5° 

Number: 21 to 21. The number of votes, pro and con, by the residents of Trump Avenue on the issue of changing the name of the street. The street, named by the neighbourhood’s developer in the 80s as a tribute to his well-known New York counterpart, will not be changed. [River Ward councillor Riley Brockington Twitter]

Ottawan of the Day: Faisa Omer. The photographer’s new project is It's Different For Us, portraits profiling young people in Ottawa's South West and how COVID-19 has deepened divisions. [CBC]

Quote: “We aren’t reopening the province” – Premier Doug Ford to the Provincial Parliament, promising to ‘put the brakes on’ business reopenings if COVID-19 cases pick up [Huffington Post]

Sports: Ottawa Senators 1 – Toronto Maple Leafs 2 last night. The two teams meet again this evening in Toronto.


CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

Vaccination tracker by Andrew Lam (@socialvizcanada)

489,484 doses have been administered in Ontario (93% of the doses available)

? At this rate, it would take 183.8 weeks to administer one dose to each person in Ontario. 

Pfizer and Moderna vaccines delivery tracker
Federal Goverment database listing predicted future deliveries


? Public Health Reports

OTTAWA

Ottawa Public Health Dashboard

Ottawa Wastewater Dashboard

Ottawa-Carleton District School Board

Ottawa Catholic School Board

Conseil des ecoles catholiques du Centre-Est

Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario
 

There have been 14,105 confirmed cases of COVID‌-19, an increase of 67 since yesterday, and 434 deaths, no new reports.
 

OUTAOUAIS

Outaouais Public Health dashboard

There have been 6079 confirmed cases of COVID-19, an increase of 14 since yesterday, and 158 deaths, one new report.
 

EASTERN ONTARIO

Eastern Ontario Health Unit dashboard

There have been 2664 confirmed cases of COVID-19, an increase of nine since yesterday, and 66 deaths, two new reports.
 

Sometimes the number of cases or deaths are lower from one day to the next. This is usually because the powers-that-be have reassigned a case to a different health authority.


⭕ Health Canada is still not ready to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine. [CityNews]

⭕ Canadian study shows that one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine may be just as effective as two doses. [CityNews]

⭕ 340 Indigenous elders will be vaccinated at Ottawa’s Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health today. [CBC]

⭕ Two people have been fired from Riverstone Retirement Communities. Last week, it was reported that the wife of a manager had been given a COVID-19 vaccine dose meant for a housekeeper. There is no word if these two stories are related. [CTV]

⭕ OC Transpo apologises to a Para Transpo taxi passenger who was going to be required to ride with another customer, despite the lack of social distancing. Para Transpo minibuses have enough room to separate passengers but Para Transpo taxis are taxi-sized. The passenger exited the vehicle rather than ride with a stranger. [Ottawa Citizen]

⭕ Canadians returning by air must stay in a hotel for three days while they await a COVID-19 test, Canadians crossing the US border by land do not. So canny travellers are flying to the US then cabbing it home. [CBC]


 ? The Canada COVID Alert App

Be alerted if you have come in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. 

How It Works       [Apple App Store]      [Google Play Store]

The Ottawan Store

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#WHAT OTTAWA IS TALKING ABOUT

▪️ Last week, City Councillors Theresa Kavanagh and Catherine McKenney called on the city to oppose the planned Chalk River Nuclear Waste Facility. The waste is an aboveground mound located less than a kilometre from the Ottawa River. 

The issue will be debated on February 24, but if you want to know more about the project, questions will be answered tonight (7:00pm) at a virtual “Town Hall” sponsored by the Council of Canadians.

▪️The O-Train Line 1 will be reduced to 11 trains per hour for two months. Normally 15 trains run. In the downtime, the operating company will attempt to fix the square wheels. The City claims that it will save $60,000 in electricity during this period. Let's see, $60k, divided by four trains, divided by two months: this means each train uses $7,500 per month in electricity. Interesting! [City of Ottawa

▪️A longtime editorial cartoonist at the Ottawa Citizen has died. Alan King worked for the paper for 17 years until clashing with new right-of-centre management, quitting in 1998. [Ottawa Citizen]

▪️Family in Manotick makes giant chess pieces out of snow. It's a slow news day. We'll take it. [CTV

THE OTTAWAN

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