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HELLO, OTTAWA

Thanks to you, our readers and donors, the ottawan had a great day at Saturday’s Coldest Night of the Year 5km walk. 

Yes, it was cold, but we walked with wonderful people through a lovely Westboro neighbourhood.

We smashed our target of $250, raising $1,275 as some incredibly generous donations came through in the final 48 hours before the walk. 

For a while we were even in the top 20 of the Westboro fundraising teams, however we were edged out by the stellar efforts of the McKellar Park Book Club and Friends (great work, you guys!). Coldest Night of the Year walks support actions against homelessness all across Canada, our group fundraising was designated for Cornerstone Housing for Women. 

We truly appreciate the donations and we hope to repeat this success next year. Thank you. 

We'll see you tomorrow – Martha and Darren


#STATS

Weather: ❄️ Snow, at times heavy. High of -1° 

Number: 2,000. The number of parcels that have been piling up in Ogdensburg, NY. Many Ottawa businesses use mailbox services in Ogdensburg to receive mail and parcels from companies that won't send to Canada, or to save money on shipping. Canadians have not been able to pick up their mail across the border for a year now. [CBC

Ottawan of the Day: Donnell Taylor. The artist was a fixture on Elgin Street, where he sold his paintings drawn from his Ojibwa Cree heritage. Taylor passed away, age 59, after surgery.  [Ottawa Citizen

Quote: “We strongly object to your role in using that process to promote negative stereotypes of homeless people and encouraging the harassment of our staff by community members” – From a letter by Ottawa Inner City Health to the NIMBYest city councillor, Mathieu Fleury. Fleury has opposed the creation of an COVID-19 isolation centre for homeless people at Le Patro Community Centre, and co-chaired a community meeting about it. [Ottawa Citizen]

Sports: Ottawa Senators 3 – Montréal Canadiens 2 last night. The two teams meet again tomorrow.


CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

Vaccination tracker by Andrew Lam (@socialvizcanada)

No change.

556,533 doses have been administered in Ontario (81% of the doses available)

? At this rate, it would take 159.2 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 14,349 confirmed cases of COVID‌-19, an increase of 198 since Friday, and 436 deaths, one new report.
 

OUTAOUAIS

Outaouais Public Health dashboard

There have been 6139 confirmed cases of COVID-19, an increase of 52 since Friday, and 158 deaths, no new reports.
 

EASTERN ONTARIO

Eastern Ontario Health Unit dashboard

There have been 2701 confirmed cases of COVID-19, an increase of 27 since yesterday, and 67 deaths, one new report.
 

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.


⭕ New rules says kids with headaches and runny noses must stay home and get a COVID-19 test before returning. [Ottawa Citizen]

⭕ The Canada – US land border closure has been extended until March 21. Truckers, essential workers, and Canadians returning home can still cross.  [Huffington Post]

⭕ The Federal Government is extending the time limits of the emergency COVID-19 benefits, as many people would be running out of weeks. The Canadian Recovery Benefit will be extended 12 more weeks, people on Employment Insurance can continue to collect for up to 50 weeks (up from 26), the sickness benefit, for those who can't work because they caught COVID-19, will increase to four weeks from two weeks, and the Caregiver Benefit will also receive an extra 12 weeks. The changes to EI will need to be approved by Parliament first. [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

We’ve made t-shirts of iconic Ottawa logos. 

Printed in Canada.

BUY

 

And don’t forget: you can also buy official ottawan t-shirts

#WHAT OTTAWA IS TALKING ABOUT

▪️ Gatineau-based Telesat receives $400 million investment from Quebec government. Telesat plans to launch 300 satellites into low orbit to provide Internet access in rural and remote regions. The company expects to add 320 high-tech jobs. [CBC]

▪️Court upholds green space agreement between the City and Kanata golf course. Forty years ago, the former City of Kanata made an agreement that the Kanata Lakes Golf and Country Club must remain green space open to the public. Fast forward to now, and the current owners of the club want to develop some of the property into homes and argued that the previous agreement didn't apply. The City, having long since absorbed the City of Kanata, successfuly convinced the court that the agreement was still valid and the green space will remain. [Ottawa Citizen

▪️City of Gatineau tries to weasel out of $18,000 fine for racial profiling by police. A man in Gatineau was awarded $18,000 after being wrongfully arrested for a domestic violence incident. Police had the name, physical description, and clothing of their wanted suspect but – other than being Black – the arrested man did not match the profile. He was subsequently charged with distrubing the peace, for which he was later acquitted. The Mayor of Gatineau says the City is appealing the ruling. [CBC]

▪️This happened before we moved back to Ottawa, so maybe it's old news and not as interesting to you. Last year, Bruce McConville said that he burned $1 million in cash to prevent his ex-wife from having access to it. He was subsequently jailed for not paying spousal and child support. Now released, he still hasn't paid anything – including for the support of a disabled child – because the court cannot figure out his finances. The Judge said he didn't think McConville actually burned the money, which was taken out in 25 separate withdrawals. The ex-wife – her name has been redacted – has set up a GoFundMe. [Ottawa Citizen] [Go Fund Me]

▪️The Fulcrum, the students’ newspaper at the University of Ottawa, did well in the John H MacDonald Student Press Awards. The awards, named after the first president of the Canadian University Press newspaper coöperative, 83 years ago, recognises excellence in student newspapers across Canada. The Fulcrum won Best Sports Reporting for ‘U of O discouraged Gee-Gees social media accounts from posting about Bell Let’s Talk’ and Best Science Reporting for ‘Students with poor Internet left behind in online learning atmosphere’

THE OTTAWAN

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