HELLO OTTAWA | → The builder/maintainer of the Trillium Line has $100 million in lawsuits over it | → Registration for the City’s March break camps starts tomorrow | → Respiratory virus patients are overflowing Ottawa hospitals | → Scroll to find the Deals of The Day on artisanal vinegar and jigsaw puzzles | → ☁️ High -11° Low -16° and sunny | 🎂 Happy birthday to OTTAWAN member Linda J, who celebrated on Saturday. | – Martha and Darren | | STATISTICS OTTAWA | | 30,000 | The number of jobs generated by the tech business in Kanata North, through 540 companies. It really annoys Darren to admit defeat, but he just cannot work out what the writer of the City’s article is trying to joke about here: ‘With numbers like that, it’s no wonder civic pride in Ward 4 is spelled 1010010011.’ Got it, it’s a tech area, so we know ‘1010010011’ is a computer native binary number. But that number converts to 659 in decimal. If you know what the joke is supposed to be, please email to us at ‘hello@theottawan.com’ and stop Darren rocking in the corner. | | | | City of Ottawa |
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| OTTAWANS OF THE DAY | The Barrett family of Leitrim, Ervin Budge, Don Campbell, Jo-Anne Polak, the 2012 Ottawa Fury women’s soccer team, Jacques Martin, Pat Stoqua, and Erica Wiebe | The members of this group have been selected as the 2025 inductees into the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame for, respectively, being builders of ice areas and sports fields, billiards, media, business management, being a great soccer team, coaching hockey, being a football and basketball star, and wrestling. The induction ceremony will be held Wednesday, May 28 at Lansdowne Park’s Horticulture Building. | | | | Ottawa Sports Pages |
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| | I am extremely sorry for what happened to the City of Ottawa, and for that, I absolutely apologize for my actions |
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| – Convoy coörganizer Pat King speaking in court during the hearing to determine his sentence after being convicted on five criminal charges. The Crown is asking for 10 years in prison, Kings lawyers are asking for time served. A decision is expected February 7. | | | | David Fraser at CBC |
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| SPORTS | 🏒 PWHL Ottawa Charge 1 – Montréal Victoire 2 last night | 🏒 NHL Ottawa Senators 2 – New Jersey Devils 1 last night | 🏒 NHL Ottawa Senators 6 – Boston Bruins 5 last Saturday | 🏒 NLL Ottawa Black Bears 9 – Vancouver Warriors 8 last Friday | | PLEASE SUPPORT THE OTTAWAN | THE OTTAWAN was launched in 2020 as the daily answer to the questions: What’s going on? What should I do? Where is somewhere good to eat? | Please consider joining the many other readers with a monthly, annual, or one-time donation to keep THE OTTAWAN on its mission. | All annual or one-time donations over $60 get a free OTTAWAN or historic logo t-shirt of their choice. |
| Membership levels | ✅ $5 mo / Technically Beautiful | ✅ $10 mo / ByTowner | ✅ $20 mo / City that Fun Remembered | ✅ $25 mo / Truly OTT | ✅ Or make a one-time donation | |
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| | WHAT’S GOING ON AT CITY HALL | Accessibility Advisory Committee
Tuesday, January 21 at 6 pm
• Site Plan Review Orientation • Centrepointe Drive Area Traffic Management Study • 2025 Meeting Schedule | | | | Agenda |
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| | WHAT OTTAWA IS TALKING ABOUT | 🚊 O Train | ▪️AtkinsRéalis is being sued for $100 million by Lines 2 and 4 contractors. AtkinsRéalis, which is the new name for SNC-Lavalin, is the contract holder to maintain and expand the O Train’s Trillium line, which has also been renamed, to Line 2 and Line 4. Contractors allege mismanagement by AtkinsRéalis, resulting in years-long delays and substandard work. Others allege that their contracts were wrongfully terminated. | | | | Elyse Skura at CBC |
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| 📺 Federal Public Employees | ▪️Last week we wrote about how Shared Services Canada would be preventing Federal Public Employees from having access to many streaming services. The agency, which supplies the Internet, amongst other things, to most Federal offices is barring Crave, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Apple TV+, and Hulu from work computers. We wondered if CBC Gem was also barred, but also wondered why Hulu, unavailable in Canada, was mentioned. So we asked Shared Services Canada. They wrote back: 1. ‘At this time, CBC Gem has not been blocked. While Shared Services Canada has blocked streaming services that present no business value to the Government of Canada, news sites and other channels remain accessible for information or professional development purposes (eg. CBC, CTV, Global News, YouTube). SSC can add to the list of which streaming services are blocked as needed.’ 2. ‘SSC networks are used by Canadian public servants working in locations outside of Canada.’ Fair enough, although we can only imagine the hue and cry that would ensue if the CBC was banned on government computers. | | | | Netflix and other streaming services now blocked on federal government networks |
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| 🚊 Kitigan Zibi | ▪️Voting members of the Kitigan Zibi will take part in a referendum to buy the 1977 Graham Spry Building, 250 Lanark Ave. Formerly used by the CBC, and named after the journalist and diplomat credited with inspiring the creation of the Mother Corp, the building has been deemed surplus by the Federal government. While the asking price is $24 million, Chief Jean Guy Whiteduck says, ‘I think Canada should just give it to us for $1’ noting the irony of buying back unceded Algonquin land. ‘But that’s not the case. We’re trying to negotiate and hopefully, a fair deal will come out of it.’ If the referendum approves and the purchase is made, the property would become an urban reserve within Ottawa of the Kitigan Zibi. | | | | Karyn Pugliese at APTN News |
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| ⚕️ Hospitals | ▪️Seasonal respiratory viruses are filling local hospitals, with CHEO putting beds in ‘every single nook and cranny’. The Ottawa Hospital says that it has been putting patients in its gymnasium. Queensway Carleton Hospital says that it put patients in the emergency department, some for as much as 40 hours. | | | | Elizabeth Payne in the Ottawa Citizen |
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| 😵💫 Tariffs | ▪️An association of local municipalities have called upon counterparts in New York State to strengthen their economic partnership. The Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus – yes, the name requires an eye roll – represents 103 municipalities in Eastern Ontario, everything between Kawartha Lakes in the west and the Québec border except Ottawa and Cornwall. The Wardens’ Caucus have asked the New York State Association of Counties – see, it’s not hard to name things – to coöperate on fighting the 25 per cent tariffs threatened by new US president Donald Trump. THE OTTAWAN does appreciate that the Wardens’ Caucus has placed the apostrophe correctly in its name. | | | | Emma Weller at CBC Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus |
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| | OTTAWA HISTORIC LOGO T-SHIRTS |  | Newbridge Networks |
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| Newbridge Networks T-Shirts | Newbridge Networks was founded by Welsh-Canadian entrepreneur Sir Terry Matthews in 1986. | Help support THE OTTAWAN by buying one of our historic logo t-shirts. | |
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| | THE ROLLING 3 DAY CALENDAR | Is there an event we should know about?
Please use our easy event submission form | We were invited to see the Stratford Festival remount of Salesman in China at National Arts Centre last Friday and were blown away. If you can snag tickets, we highly recommend the play, which dramatizes the period in the early 80s when Arthur Miller traveled to Beijing to mount an all-Chinese production of his 1948 hit Death of a Salesman. We’d also like to thank the National Arts Centre security guards on duty at midnight, who let us back in and helped us find our car keys, which had fallen behind our seats. Read Darren’s review here. (Tonight through Saturday January 25). |
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| TODAY | | TOMORROW | ▪️ If you’ve got kids to place in March break camps, today’s the day. Check out the sports, arts and crafts, animation, science and technology and specialized programs run by the City of Ottawa, then make sure you’ve opened an account. Have your credit card ready for 9:00 pm when registration begins. ▪️ There’s a new trivia night in town: Silverwood Golf & Lounge in Kanata holds trivia nights every first and third Tuesday. ▪️ Bring your vinyl, CDs, tapes, and other music memorabilia to Possible Worlds: Record Listening and Swap. ▪️ Sounds Like a Song: A Musical Improv Comedy Jam is for experienced improv practitioners, but you don’t need a singing background. ▪️ ByTowne Cinema: The Room Next Door, Soundtrack to a Coup d’État. ▪️ Mayfair Theatre: A Real Pain, Flow, Supervixens Gigs ▪️ Gab Desmond. Le petit bar à vin (158 Old Chelsea Road, Chelsea, QC) ▪️ Open Mic Night. LIVE on Elgin ▪️ Tuesday Trivia. Irene’s Pub |
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| WEDNESDAY | ▪️ If you’re over the age of 45 and want to meet people without the pressure of speed dating, be at Mandarin Restaurant (150 Katimavik Road) on Wednesday night. ▪️ Bring your doggo to the pet-friendly Stray Dog Brewing for Taproom Trivia. ▪️ ByTowne Cinema: The Room Next Door, Good Morning, Soundtrack to a Coup d’État ▪️ Mayfair Theatre: Anora, A Real Pain, Vampyros Lesbos Gigs ▪️ Branford Marsalis. National Arts Centre ▪️ Celtic Celebration featuring The Women of Fiddle. Red Bird ▪️ Adema Manoukas Octet. National Arts Centre ▪️ Monthly Pinball Tournament. House of TARG |
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| JUST ANNOUNCED / NOW BOOKING | ▪️ New theatre company TooBeats’ first production, Misery, opens at the Gladstone Theatre on Thursday night. The gripping thriller is based on the novel by Stephen King and adapted by the writer of the Oscar winning movie, William Goldman. January 24 through February 1. ▪️ You’ll learn a brief history of the various methods and then work on assembling your own books at the Possible Worlds: Bookbinding Workshop. Thursday, January 30. ▪️ The Mayfair Theatre has announced the al. Films presented will be: 🎞️ Eraserhead – January 31
🎞️ The Elephant Man – February 7
🎞️ Wild At Heart – February 14
🎞️ Blue Velvet – February 21
🎞️ Dune – February 28
🎞️ Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me – March 7
🎞️ Lost Highway – March 14
🎞️ The Straight Story – March 21
🎞️ Inland Empire – March 28 |
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| | DEALS OF THE DAY |  | Aurelius |
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|  | Books on Beechwood |
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| All in-stock jigsaw puzzles are on sale at Books on Beechwood. Save until January 31 when you use the code PUZZLE25 |
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| | BUT, ONE MORE THING … | | | DAILY QUALITY CONTROL | What did you think of today’s OTTAWAN? | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great ⭐⭐⭐ Satisfactory ⭐ Needs Improvement |
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