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HELLO OTTAWA

✡️ Passover

Happy Passover to Jewish Ottawa. Pesach begins this evening and continues until April 30. *

🌐 Earth Day

Today is Earth Day, here are three ways to celebrate it:

🌎 Watch Wings Over Water, the story of three families of migratory birds (the yellow warbler, the sandhill crane, and the mallard) as they journey from the Prairies to Costa Rica. The low ticket price ($6.99) is care of Ducks Unlimited Canada. Choose from Cineplex Odean South Keys Cinema or Landmark Cinemas in Orléans.

🌍 Get ready for the gardening season with a visit to the Seed Exchange at the Sunnyside branch of Ottawa Public Library. Bring some seeds, take some seeds. 5:30 pm in Program Room 1A. 1049 Bank St K1S 3W9

🌏 Visit the town of Almonte for the Arbor Week Speaker Series featuring Ed Lawrence, who will hold a Tree and Garden Q&A. Other speakers include Will Affleck from Just Good Compost and Scott Horton. If that isn’t enough, there will also be a seedling giveaway. 7:00 pm at Almonte Old Town Hall.
 

⚫ Record Store Day mailbag

Reader Jamil informs us that a new record store, Baked Goods, has opened on Baseline at Pinecrest.

Reader Rhys wonders why there are no record stores east of Bank. Good question, Rhys. Answers at hello@theottawan, please.

– Martha and Darren

* Wait. Didn’t the ottawan wish a Happy Passover around Easter earlier this month? Yes, we did. Let’s not talk about that. Hey look over there, kosher Ottawa brewery Shillow has Lemon Mint sodas and hard seltzers available for Passover.  L'Chaim!

OTTAWA STATS

Ottawan of the Day

• Catherine O’Grady
• – The former executive producer of the Ottawa Jazz Festival has been declared one of 33 2024 Jazz Heroes by the International Jazz Journalists Association. (International Jazz Journalists Association)

Quote

• “

• I come from a big Jewish family. I’ve had some raucous Passover Seders … but what we have in common, and we as an industry have in common, is this fundamental belief that we have a right to exist

• – Lawyer and University of Ottawa professor Solomon Friedman, who is not talking about antisemitism but the treatment of his video company Pornhub. 
  
  We again point out that this would not normally be a subject of interest to the ottawan but Pornhub is Ottawa’s largest Internet business, and probably Canada’s.
  
  The story itself is quite an interesting walk through of Friedman’s thinking legally, financially, and personally. (Hallie Lieberman in the Washington Post)

Sports

• 🏒 PWHL Ottawa 4 – Minnesota last Saturday
• ⚽ CPL Atlético Ottawa 1 – Calvary FC 1 last Saturday

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CITY HALL AGENDA

What’s going on at City Hall

Community Services Committee
Tuesday, April 23 at 9:30 am

• Mooney's Bay Park Hill
• Status update – Community Services Committee inquiries and motions for the period ending April 12, 2024

📋 Agenda

WHAT OTTAWA IS TALKING ABOUT

🐈 Purring for Nothing and your Cats for Free

•  The Ottawa Humane Society is dropping the adoption fee for senior cats. The Society says that senior cats are the hardest to adopt out, with one moggie waiting since the beginning of the year. The Society deems any cat older than six years as a senior cat. (Toula Mazloum at CTV) (Pick your cat here)

🐠 Grand Theft Fish

•  The tropical fish stolen from a Beachburg restaurant last week have been recovered. Ontario Provincial Police executed a search warrant on a Whitewater residence and a 23 year-old man was charged.
  
  The Citizen headlined this story as ‘OPP net suspect’ and quoted the Ontario Provincial Police as saying ‘the wave of support from the public’ was  ‘fintastic’. Oh, cod. (Marlo Glass in the Ottawa Citizen) 

🎲 Gambling

•  The City has received $1.2 million as part of its cut of gambling revenue at the Rideau-Carleton Casino. The money covers Jan, Feb, and Mar of this year. (Josh Pringle at CTV)
  
  ➕ Related The City has paid out $63,000 requested by 41 family-friendly events. 

🅿️ Zoning

•  A draft version of a vastly rewritten zoning bylaw shows the dropping of minimum parking, more neighbourhood businesses, and more trees. The rewrite shows no requirement for parking, except accessible spaces, and a ban on new parking lots. Proposed new rules would allow low-risk businesses such as bakeries to open in homes, and to allow a non-resident employee of any home-based business to work there. There will be 18 months of public consulation and committee meetings before the new bylaw comes up for a vote. (Arthur White-Crummey at CBC)
  
  ➕ Related Kitchissippi ward councillor Jeff Leiper wants you to take part in the City’s survey on parking in the area. 

🛑 Good Fences make Good Neighbours?

•  An AirBnB operator is angering Constance Bay neighbours with a fence on the beach. The beach in question is Point Beach on the Ottawa River, and the owner has placed movable fence posts to claim the sand in front of the property, leaving a walkthrough near the water’s edge. Neighbours are incensed, with some believing it's unneighbourly others that it is illegal. The problem is, it never has been clear if the public or the adjacent property owners own the beach – the City says because the land was subdivided hamhandedly decades before amalgamation, it won’t put forward an opinion. (Jake Davies in West Carleton Online, which is paywalled but worth it at $50 per year)

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MORE FROM THE OTTAWAN

• 🍺 Our Ottawa-Gatineau Craft Brewery Map

•  

• 🏆 The Best Of Ottawa Awards 2023

•  

• 🎧 Best Podcasts from Ottawa

EVENTS

Is there an event we should know about?
Please use our easy event submission form

Today

•  Start the week off by flexing your creative muscles (and enjoying a fine beer). Beyond the Pale’s Painting Workshop will be led by an instructor who will guide participants of any level of experience through the exercise.

•  Sammy Obeid brings his politically charged humour to Bronson Centre for one night.

•  ByTowne Cinema: Irena’s Vow

•  Mayfair Theatre: Remembering Gene Wilder, The Condor & The Eagle, Sting

  Gigs

•  Raven, Vicious Rumours, Lutharo, No Plans for Chaos. Rainbow Bistro

•  Bluegrass Mondays ft. The Dusty Drifters. Red Bird

•  Open Mic Night. Art House Café

•  2000s Music Trivia Night. Boston Pizza Barrhaven

•  Trivia night. Select Royal Oak pubs

Tomorrow

•  The Spring Celebration Market by Indigenous Markets brings more than 20 Indigenous makers to 240 Sparks from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm.
   
•  How can we as individuals—and authors, thinkers, & advocates—keep each other hopeful and stand up collectively in the face of rising hate and Islamophobia in the world? Join Octopus Books for a community conversation with Barbara Leimsner, author of Quitting the Master Race, and Monia Mazigh, author of Gendered Islamophobia.
   
•  Get caught up in the smouldering chemistry between stars Gregory Peck and Anne Baxter as Yellow Sky (1948) is screened for free at the OPL Main Branch (mature audiences only).
   
•  ByTowne Cinema: Irena’s Vow, Passing: In the Shadow of Everest with Q&A, Wicked Little Letters
   
•  Mayfair Theatre: Remembering Gene Wilder, One Life, Sting
  
  Gigs
   
•  Trivia Hall of Fame. Royal Oak Pubs (Bank at McLaren, Stittsville, Barrhaven), O’Grady’s Outpost
   
•  The Kevin Prater Band, Concession 23. Greely Legion (Branch 627)
   
•  In Concert: Taqsim Driver. SAW Centre
   
•  Pizza & Poetry. Spark Beer
   
•  Half Cocked Trivia. Atomic Rooster
   
•  Outside the Box Trivia. Barley Mow Westboro
   
•  Tuesday Trivia. Broadhead Brewery

Wednesday

•  The embassies of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, in partnership with the ByTowne Cinema, present the German Language Film Festival Ottawa. Starting tonight (April 24) until May 15, each Wednesday evening a different recent German language film (with English subtitles) will screen at the ByTowne Cinema. Tonight’s festival opener is Breaking the Ice.

•  Democracy on Trial is a series of group discussions led by Robert Miller, former president and chief executive of the Parliamentary Centre. Tonight’s discussion is The Fire Next Door: The Authoritarian Impluse in the United States. 6:30 pm at Ottawa Public Library Sunnyside branch. 1049 Bank St, Ottawa, ON K1S 3W9

•  The 2024 National Poetry Recitation Finals bring students from across the country to the National Arts Centre to compete for glory in performing works in English and French by Canadian, Indigenous, and International poets. Hosted by Evan Solomon and Johanne Blais. Azrieli Studio at 8:00 pm. 1 Elgin St.

•  Boston visits Ottawa in the penultimate home game of the Professional Women’s Hockey League season. The Arena at TD Place.

•  Catch athletic and determined people doing incredible things on top of and inside mountains in the Mountains on Stage festival. Four films of 45 minutes or less will be screened at the event, which takes place at the Mayfair Theatre.

•  There are some pretty terrific prizes up for grabs at Nerdy Bingo at Laugh Lounge. Plus, you’ll get to meet other geeks and have lots of fun. 61 York St. K1N 9C7

•  ByTowne Cinema: Wicked Little Letters, German Language Film Festival Ottawa: Breaking the Ice, Irena’s Vow

•  Mayfair Theatre: One Life, Mountains on Stage

  Gigs

•  Operatic Revelry: Spring Fever. Rainbow Bistro

•  Sourpussy, Castle Black, Saturn Sunrise. LIVE on Elgin

•  Supersonic Hearts Band. Atomic Rooster

•  Vanessa Collier. Meridian Theatres @ Centrepointe

Just Announced / Now Booking

• Enigmatic dub/trip hop artist Lolina (FKA Inga Copeland, member of Hype Williams duo with Dean Blunt) descends on Ottawa along with Man Made Hill and Please, pillars of Hamilton DIY scene, joined by local hip hop surrealist Jules Filmhouse at Lounge 164. Friday April 26. 

• Brown bag it to the NAC on Thursdays starting May 2 for free lunchtime concerts in Peter Herrndorf Place.

• Nominations are now open for the 2024 VOscars Volunteer Awards Gala at the Preston Event Centre on October 24. Your nomination can go in one of seven categories and must be received by June 14.

   

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DEALS OF THE DAY

BUT, ONE MORE THING ...

A project pioneered by the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute is making news in the United Kingdom.

It’s so interesting that BBC Radio 4’s science show More or Less just did a podcast on it.

Earlier this month, the National Health Service of England and Wales released the four-years-in-the-making Cass Review which examined gender identity services for children and young people there.

Part of the project was a systematic review of all studies on the efficacy of puberty blockers for children who have not yet gone through puberty and have been referred to a gender identity clinic.

In research, the gold standard is the double-blind, controlled randomized trial where one group receives the procedure and another receives a placebo and neither the participants nor the researchers know who got what until the end.

As there were zero gender studies on children that were done this way, researchers at University of York needed another way to gauge the merits of each paper. They turned to the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for assessing the quality of nonrandomised studies in meta-analyses, created by the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the University of Newcastle in Australia.

In a nutshell, researchers using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale rank studies as ‘low’, ‘medium’, or ‘high’ quality based on how the study group was selected, how participants compared to each other, and whether or not the study found what it was looking for.

The Cass Review found that there was nothing in medical research that showed that providing puberty blockers to children had any effect, positive or negative, on gender issues and the rationale for suppressing puberty at all ‘remains unclear’.

Following the publication of the Cass Review, the health services of England, Wales, and Scotland joined Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland in essentially banning puberty blockers for use this way.

RAPID RESPONSE QUALITY CONTROL