In Today’s Edition → King Charles to drop by later this month → 49 things to do in Ottawa this weekend → Deals of the Day on chocolates, lotions, and candles → 🌦️ High 20° Low 8° and chance of rain ☀️ 5:49 am 🌛 8:11 pm |
🎂 Birthday Shoutout Happy Birthday to OTTAWAN members Shea M and on Sunday, Monica G!
– Martha and Darren
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NUMBER - $0
- – The fare for OC Transpo buses, Para Transpo, and O Train tomorrow and Sunday. OC Transpo is hoping that people will try out the O Train’s new Line 2 and 4 and the revamped bus routes.
- Faith Greco at CBC
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OTTAWANS (HONORARY) OF THE DAY |
King Charles III and Queen Camilla The King will make a 48 hour visit to Ottawa May 27 to open Parliament and read the speech from the throne, something that has not been done by the sovereign since Queen Elizabeth did it in 1977. Queen Camilla will also come on the whirlwind trip. Leyland Cecco in The Guardian
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SPORTS - 🏒 NHL Ottawa Senators 2 – Toronto Maple Leafs 4 last night
- Alas, our dream of the Sens hoisting the Cup is over. Thank you for the ride, Ottawa Senators.
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WHAT’S GOING ON AT CITY HALL |
WHAT OTTAWA IS TALKING ABOUT |
⚕️ There has been a suspected exposure of measles at a Gatineau Farm. The Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de l'Outaouai reports that an adult and a child are believed to have acquired measles and ask people who had contact with them to monitor themselves for symptoms.
People who were at the following location may have been exposed: - Éco des champs farm, 482 Eardley Road in Gatineau
- Sunday, April 20, 2025, between 10:00 am and 1:00 pm
Symptoms may occur up to 21 days after contact. Gatineau has a dedicated page here. Ottawa Public Health has also set up a dedicated page at OttawaPublicHealth.ca/Measles. – CBC
💥 Now that the coroner’s inquest into the fatal 2019 bus crash at Westboro station is over, the jury has released 60 recommendations. – Guy Quenneville at CBC 💼 The Canada Revenue Agency plans to layoff more than 1,000 temporary workers May 16. The employees work in Revenue Agency contact centres and were told that their contracts would not be renewed. – Matteo Cimellaro in the Ottawa Citizen
⚾ The City says that some baseball diamonds will reopen this weekend due to the fair weather. The remainder are scheduled to reopen next weekend. The rest of the sports fields will reopen May 15. – Baseball diamond opening dates and locations 🚧 The CN Cycle for CHEO fundraiser will partially close several streets Sunday from 6:00 am to 1:00 pm. Streets affected are: - Kichi Zībī Mīkan (KZM) Parkway
- Booth Street
- Wellington Street
- Champlain Bridge
- Portage Bridge
- Laurier Avenue
- Queen Elizabeth Drive
- Prince of Wales Drive
- Heron Road
- Vincent Massey Park
- Riverside Drive
- Hogs Back Road
- Colonel By Drive
- Sussex Drive
- Sir George-Étienne Cartier Parkway
. – Bay Ward Bulletin |
The Poll Last time, we asked ‘Are you vaccinated against measles?’. 63% Yes 2% No 35% I was vaccinated as a child in school but I have no idea what I was vaccinated against
According to a Government of Canada webpage, all provinces innoculated kids against measles, mumps, and rubella by the early ’70s. It doesn’t mention it on the page, but the other vaccination that you probably received, the one that causes the circular mark, was against smallpox.
Reader Marielle writes to us, ‘I’m old as dirt and got measles as a child many moons ago. My doctor assures me that I have natural immunity. If I didn’t, I would not hesitate to get the vaccine’. Ottawa Public Health agrees with you, Marielle. On its webpage, it says ‘All adults born before 1970 are generally presumed to have natural immunity to measles and may not require vaccination if considered to be low risk of exposure’. However, OHIP will cover measles boosters regardless. You just need to ask your doctor or go to a walk-in clinic.
Today’s poll:
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Does the visit to Ottawa by King Charles and Queen Camilla interest you? |
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THE ROLLING THREE DAY CALENDAR |
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✳️ Means change from previous edition FRIDAY ✳️ Nepean Knights Junior C Lacrosse Season Opener versus Cornwall Celtics gets underway at 8:00 pm at Bell Centennial Arena. ✳️ Three mystery writers share their new works in a conversation with the CBC’s Alan Neal in today’s 50th Ottawa International Writers Festival lineup. 🆓 The spring edition of ArohaFest, which celebrates the arts and culture of India, arrives at Shenkman Arts Centre. The festival continues tomorrow (Saturday May 3). 🆓 The European Union Short Film Festival opens with a series of nine films about womanhood. Arrive early to ensure you get a seat and to enjoy the snacks and drinks from participating embassies, before the screening starts. The Ottawa Wine Auction in support of Music and Beyond will be led by renowned auctioneer Stephen Ranger. $50 per person. Organizers of the Orléans Legion Cinco de Mayo event hope you’ll wear your festive colours. Sombreros optional. Bachman-Turner Overdrive will be taking care of business at Canadian Tire Centre, with special guests April Wine and Headpins. No experience and no partner are needed at the Learn to Swing Dance evening by Ottawa Swing Dance Society. $15 per person. There’s an incredible night of music brewing: ELK Trio brings “an electrifying night of jazz/world fusion to the Art House, ft. transcendental electric violin, hypnotic guitar grooves, and mind-melting tabla/percussion wizardry.” The party's at Next Door Market and Event Space as MAX Ottawa presents the second edition of The (W)hole Night Long. It was a dark and stormy night when you heard author Joanne Levy was going to explain The Importance of Hooking Readers from the First Line. NAC Orchestra presents works by Gabriela Montero (who also guest stars), Prokofiev, and Tchaikovsky. Two epics collide as the original, 1925 silent version of Ben Hur is screened to a live soundtrack of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. DARC presents MÆ-Motion Aftereffect by Freya Björg Olafson. “MÆ-Motion Aftereffect is a sixty-minute intermedia performance that explores how immersive media expand individual perception of ‘reality,’ ‘time,’ and ‘space.’” ByTowne Cinema: I’m Still Here, Bonjour Tristesse, The Penguin Lessons Mayfair Theatre: The Ballad of Wallis Island, Darkest Mirium
Gigs 80s Dance party. House of TARG Grunge Night: tribute to Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots. Overflow Brewing Jalen. Broadhead Brewery The Rembros. The Carleton Tavern Night of Indie Songs. Irene’s Pub Andrew Duhaney. Rainbow Bistro Ed Lister Group residency. Night Oat Night at the Genres. Brass Monkey
SATURDAY ✳️ The Sons of Scotland Pipe Band, composed of 80 pipers and 20 drummers, will commemorate the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) and will depart the Canadian War Museum to line Wellington Street to the National War Memorial. They will perform at one-minute intervals from 3 to 5:30 p.m., ending at the
National War Memorial, where a massed band performance will conclude the day. ✳️ There’s still time to register for the Ottawa Air Guitar Championships at House of TARG, in support of the Gord Downey and Chanie Wenjack Fund. Or just come and watch the artistry unfold (According to the compeition rules, both acoustic and electric air guitars are permitted, so you might want to bring ear plugs). ✳️ 🚗Road Trip: Wander the undeniabley attractive streets of Merrickville as the annual Community Garage Sale gets underway from 8:00 am (approximately) to 5:00 pm. ✳️ The 50th Ottawa International Writers Festival continues with Science Saturday, which starts with a deep dive into the misinformation crisis of our age with authority Timothy Caulfield (The Certainty Illusion). Then palaeontologist, biologist, and science writer Neil Shubin travels to the Ends of the Earth to the “dinosaur dance floor.”
Next up: Dr. Jagadish Shukla presents his memoir A Billion Butterflies: A life in Climate and Chaos Theory. At 4:00 pm author and journalist Don Gillmor traces the changes and evolution of the oil industry in his book On Oil.
The festival’s evening programming begins with Sandy Hudson, author of Defund: Black Lives, Policing, and Safety for All. Two new Canadian works, both set in Uganda, are covered next in a conversation with authors Otoniya J. Okot Bitek and Iryn Tushabe.
Finally, speculative fiction writer Amak El-Mohtar discusses her latest work The River Has Roots. ✳️ JazzWorks, the Ottawa-based Canadian not-for-profit that promotes the development of jazz musicianship in players of all ages, turns 30 with a special weekend of programming, beginning with a concert today. Eight professional musicians who have benefited from JazzWorks youth scholarships in the past return to perform a “homecoming” concert at Centretown United Church (507 Bank St). Tickets are free for students under 24 and $23 in advance for adults. ✳️ 🆓 Shop from more than 50 local vendors at the Mother’s Day Craft Market in the Glebe. Or take part in the free workshop, Distress Ink Flower Card. St. Andrew's is holding its Rummage Sale to benefit those in need in the downtown community. Come spend the morning browsing through an amazing bargain selection of clothes, shoes, toys, sporting goods, books, treasures, and much more! Please bring your own shopping bags. Cash only. Wear your comfy shoes to the 2025 Blackburn Hamlet Community Garage Sale. You never know what kind of treasures you’ll unearth. Creatives, sewists, and crafters: find deals on fabric, patterns, buttons, zippers, embroidery and cross stitch supplies, and more at the Hintonburg Fabric Flea Market. $3 admission, cash event. Today at the European Union Short Film Festival: The Places You’ll Go is a series of family-friendly short films about the road of life (3:00 pm). Then, at 7:00 pm the festival closes with Band of Outsiders: a series examining the resilience of marginalized people in contemporary society. The Parkdale Orchestra plays music from Canadian composer Harold Kaufmann as well as Ottorino Respighi and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Cumberland Farmers Market’s Spring Market will feature 85 local farms and vendors. 🚗 Road Trip: the impossibly attractive town of Almonte welcomes the Cheerfully Made Spring Market. It’s an indoor and outdoor affair with 100 Canadian vendors, live music, a guest canteen, games, and craft workshops. You might not know that stamp collecting is alive in the 21st Century. Visit the Ottawa National Stamp Exhibition at Nepean Sportsplex this weekend. 🚗 Road Trip 🆓 The Indigenous Cultural Fair Carleton Place will raise funds for Art for Aid, a local project that collects and ships art supplies to resource-challenged Indigenous schools across Canada. Join Urban Sketchers Ottawa for an on-location drawing session on Elgin St. Join the Jane’s Walk from ByWard Market to Parliament Hill. Buy, sell, or donate your gently used outdoor gear at the MEC Gear Swap. It’s Bike Day at the New Edinburgh Field House. Buy and sell bikes and other non-moterized wheeled conveyances (10% of the proceeds will go to Crichton Community Council. Have your bike checked out by a volunteer mechanic from Full Cycle. Take part in the Kidical Mass Bike Ride at 10:00 am (every child must be accompanied by an adult). Cranium Showcase 2025 is your chance to see tomorrow’s stars now. The lineup features performers from Ottawa, Toronto, and Glasgow, Scotland. 🆓 Explore the possibilities of crystals, energy healing, tarot and psychic readings, and more at the Ottawa Mothers Day Holistic Healing Fair. ByTowne Cinema: The Penguin Lessons, I’m Still Here, Bonjour Tristess, Mickey 17 Mayfair Theatre: The Ballad of Wallis Island, The Spoils, Tenebrae Gigs Graham Greer. Red Bird Alice Longyu Gao, Arthritis Kid, and Los3r. SAW Centre Wicked Grin with The Blind & The Beautiful. Irene’s Pub Switched-On Synths: ACTORS, Frissons, Groupe B. House of TARG
SUNDAY Watch the original Star Wars trilogy back to back (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi) at the ByTowne Cinema’s May the Fourth event. 🆓 Shop in the shadow of the Houses of Parliament at the epic Spring Craft Market at the NAC. This is the 10th year for this Common Markets event, and it just might be where you score the perfect Mother’s Day gift. Bring a $5 donation for the Ottawa Youville Centre to the Doll Show and Sale, presented by Ottawa Doll Club (kids 12 and under get in for free). Ottawa’s second Jane’s Walk will be led by staff from the Parkdale Food Cupboard and will be accessible for walking, strollers, and scooters. Special guest Ian Tamblyn joins the Chelsea Youth Choir for a joyful afternoon Spring Concert. 3:00 pm at La FAB Sur Mill. 🆓 Broadhead Brewery’s Hello Spring Makers Market will gladly accept monetary and non-perishable food donations for Orléans Cumberland Community Resource Centre. Come and meet some gentle giants at Covered Bridge Brewing’s Berners and Beer event. From 11:00 am to 2:00 pm you’ll find Bernese Mountain Dogs and their owners enjoying the relaxed vibes of Ottawa’s newest craft beer destination. The Beyond the Pale All Hands On Deck art auction remains live until 8:00 pm on May 4. Bid on 276 unique skateboard art pieces, all of which are on display in BTP’s taproom. This year’s auction will benefit Operation Come Home and The Ottawa Mission.
The Sunday daytime lineup at the 50th Ottawa Writers Festival offers moments of rich discourse and consideration: Dangling in the Glimmer of Hope: Academic Action on Truth and Reconciliation; On Book Banning: Or, How the New Censorship Consensus Trivializes Art and Undermines Democracy; From Truth to Reconciliation; Canada in the New World Order. In the evening, hear from fiction authors Bill Gaston, Catherine Bush, Andre Alexis, Emily Austin, Matthew James Jones, and Georgia Toews. Ottawa Humane Society’s Petals and Paws Sprint Event offers activities and crafts for kids at just $5 per child (the accompanying adult gets in for free). If you’re curious about Cohousing, take part in the family-friendly Open House featuring a tour and presentation by Terra Firma as well as face painting, a cookie competition, and live music. More than 50 local vendors will be selling treasures at the Spencerville Spring Market. Supporting BEING Studio, the BEING THERE: Collage Workshop is your chance to spend a couple of hours at Ottawa Art Gallery, nurturing your creativity. $45 per person, all ages welcome. Why suffer from the Sunday scaries when you could drop into the Beginner Line Dancing event at D.A. Studios for just $20. ByTowne Cinema: Bonjour Tristesse, Star Wars: A new Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi Mayfair Theatre: All Fall Down, Flow, Darkest Miriam Gigs Acoustic Coffee House (matinée). Red Bird Mia Kelly. Red Bird Legendary Sunday Afternoon Blues Jam. Rainbow Bistro River City Junction. Atomic Rooster Acoustic Afterglow - A Fundraiser (matinée) . LIVE on Elgin Josh Q with Special Guest Silla (Matinée). Irene’s Pub The Sunday Night Revue with special guest Zachary Lucky. Irene’s Pub Obscura, Atheist, Origin, Decrepit Birth, Fractal Universe. Overflow Brewing Co
MONDAY
The Royal Canadian College of Organists - Ottawa Centre play their first concert in the 2025 Pro Organo series. Tonight’s concert at St. Francois d’Assise features Jonathan Oldengarm performing a program about animals in music. Join the open house kick off to the planning of the future neighbourhood known as “W2 North Stittsville” tonight at Stittsville Library. The neighbourhood will be located north of Hazeldean Road and west of Timbermere. ByTowne Cinema: Bonjour Tristesse, The Penguin Lessons, Mickey 17 Mayfair Theatre: Flow, Darkest Miriam Gigs Leprous. Bronson Centre Fired Up Fridays. The Laff Karaoke Mondays. Atomic Rooster
JUST ANNOUNCED/ NOW BOOKING The Canadian War Museum will honour Second World War veterans with a new exhibition, Last Voices of the Second World War (May 9 2025 to January 18, 2026). The exhibition integrates more than 60 intensely personal and powerful perspectives from veterans of the Second World War and their family members in an intimate and warm exhibition space. Through a rich array of interview excerpts and quotes, artifacts, artworks, photographs, and design elements, visitors will embark on a compelling and poignant exploration of a broad range of experiences of life after conflict. Published in 1953, The Man Who Planted Trees has spawned an animated film (1987) and several other versions over the years. Now it’s set to become a unique immersive experience at the Canadian Museum of Nature (May 16 - October 13).
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MOST CLICKED FROM THE PREVIOUS OTTAWAN |
MADE IN CANADA DEALS OF THE DAY |
Brigitte Pellerin in the Ottawa Citizen thinks Ottawa should be more like Portland, Oregon. In the 1970s, Portland removed its urban freeway that ran along the river, returning it to parkland. What if we turned the ‘urban part of the Queensway into a lush, human-friendly, urban boulevard. Think Queen Elizabeth Driveway but bigger’? |
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THE OTTAWAN is written and edited every working weekday by Martha and Darren. Is there something that Ottawa should know about? Email to us at hello@theottawan.com. We read every single comment. |
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