Police chief vows no repeat of convoy protest

Good morning!

Welcome to your penultimate regular newsletter of 2022. It’s been quite the year — more on that in the last and not-so-regular newsletter of 2022 — but we’ve almost made it. A quick reminder that next week we won’t be publishing on our normal schedule, and won’t return to full-time newslettering until Jan. 4.

Here’s a fun CBC interactive where you can see how often Ottawa — and a bunch of other Canadian cities — have had a White Christmas over the decades. There’s a huge amount of really interesting information in there, and two bits stuck out to me: compared to the 1960s, we’re about 20 percent less likely to have snowfall during Christmas, while at the same time the average daily low has increased 4.4C.

Anyhow, let’s get to the newsletter.

— Robert Hiltz, managing editor

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Weather Report

Wednesday: -1 🌡️ -11 | ❄️

Thursday: -1 🌡️ -1 | ❄️

Friday: +7 🌡️ -9 | 🌧/❄️

CONVOY

Police force prepares for possible new convoy protests

What happened: New Police Chief Eric Stubbs said his force has already been in contact with other police forces around the country and has brought in new equipment for if a second convoy rolls into town this winter.

• “The ultimate goal of all this planning and preparing is to ensure that what happened last year doesn't happen this year,” Stubbs told CTV

Part of that preparation is to prohibit vehicle protests into the downtown core, CBC reported. “There is zero tolerance for disturbances and/or criminal behaviour or for individuals who attempt to disrupt our communities with vehicles," Stubbs said in a memo to council.

Convoy 2.0? One of the organizers of the original convoy said recently a new convoy should reconvene for an “olive branch” edition of the protests. The organizer, who was arrested at last year’s protest, is barred by his bail conditions from returning to the city.

• Stubbs said in the memo to council police had already reached out to potential protest organizers, “to understand their intent, ensure they are informed of our city's expectations as it relates to lawful assembly,” according to CBC.

Expanding lawsuit: Paul Champ, the Ottawa lawyer at the head of the class action suit against convoy organziers, wants to add new people to the list of defendants of the suit, the Ottawa Citizen reported.

Among those he has asked the court to add are trucker and Niagara regional councillor Harold Jonker, who claimed he was the first truck to park on Wellington Street.

• Jonker’s trucking firm had at least 10 trucks parked downtown, two of which were impounded by police.

Champ also asked to add the fundraising company GiveSendGo, its CEO, and a New Brunswick businessman who donated $75,000 to the convoy.

OTTAWA BY THE NUMBERS

🧠 $88,000: Local law firm Borden Ladner Gervais raised this much for brain cancer research in honour of their late colleague Marc Jolicoeur. [OBJ]

🧣 $280,000: The CityNews Snowsuit Fund 50/50 draw has hit this amount. You’ve got until Jan. 20 to get tickets, with half of the proceeds going to buy kids in Ottawa snowsuits. [CityNews]

OUTSIDE DOWNTOWN

🥇 Sara Hyami, a 16-year-old ringette player from Barrhaven, won a gold medal with the US women’s team at the World Ringette Championships. [Barrhaven Independent]

🏆 Thanks to a visit from the Stanley Cup, the Allard Family was able to raise $10,000 for the local civic centre in Petawawa. [CTV]

🍦 Rather than enter the corporate world after business school, this Carp entrepreneur preferred to start her own company. [OBJ] 

📚 Parents of victims of antisemitism at Nepean’s Sir Robert Borden High School said the school and the board did not follow through on promises to let the families know when the perpetrators would return to school. [Ottawa Citizen]

⛪️ The parish of St. Luke’s Anglican Church in Chinatown voted to disestablish their congregation after a century on Somerset. [CBC]

🕯️ The community of Deep River came together for a vigil for Sommer Boudreau, who was recently killed. [CBC]

HUNGER

Food Bank releases emergency funds

What happened: The Ottawa Food Bank released a grant of $500,000 to the community food banks within its network. Demand has skyrocketed for food bank services in town. Last month, the number of visits increased by 24 percent in November 2021 to 40,500.

• Food Bank CEO Rachael Wilson told CTV, “I'm not quite sure how much worse it can get before we really recognize that this is a crisis.”

Donations down: To make matters worse, donations to the Food Bank are down about eight percent this year, according to the Ottawa Citizen. The grant is for their partner agencies to buy more food, because demand was high enough that they were in danger of running out.

Hunger Report: The Food Bank’s annual report was released this week and paints a stark picture of hunger in the capital. It was a record year in the worst way possible, with 400,000 total visits, the most in its nearly four decades of operation. The report said one in seven — about 15 percent — of Ottawans reported experiencing food insecurity this year, more than double the rate of one in 15 five years ago.

The cause: While inflation is rising, people are having to turn to the Food Bank to keep from going hungry. ‘Wages and social assistance rates haven’t kept up, and people rely on our network of food banks to make ends meet,” Wilson said.

You can donate to the Ottawa Food Bank here.

HOUSE OF THE WEEK

We love a good old house around these parts. Here’s a lovely home built more than a century ago. A great modern kitchen and upgraded interior with four bedrooms spread across three floors. It even has the plumbing roughed in for an in-law suite.

Check out the listing to see more of the great features on this home.

THE AGENDA

🚇 Transit advocates hope city hall’s new LRT sub-committee will build confidence in the system, especially in the wake of another failure over the weekend. [CityNews]

🧊 Roads could become treacherous Friday as a winter storm starts with rain before turning to snow. Flash freezing is a major concern for drivers… [CBC]

✈️ …and it couldn’t come at a worse time for the busiest few days of the year at the Ottawa airport. [CBC]

🥤 The plastic ban has now come into effect. Businesses can no longer buy or import items like plastic shopping bags or straws. A full ban on their sale goes into effect in a year. [CTV]

🏥 During November, CHEO’s busiest month, four times as many kids were admitted to critical care, and three times as many were admitted to the ICU compared to earlier peak respiratory illness periods. [Ottawa Citizen]

🚨 A carjacking attempt on Riverside Drive during rush hour was caught on a dashcam video. A pregnant woman was minorly injured in the attack. [CTV]

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS

• Old newspapers are so hot right now. A Reddit user posted a 1930 Ottawa Evening Journal they found in the wall of their house. It turns out housing was also a problem then. [Reddit]

• The Westboro Beach pathway will be closed until December of next year for redevelopment by the NCC. [CityNews]

• A few neighbours in Kanata made the most of the snow and built a 16-foot-tall snowman. [Reddit]

• Jewish residents continue to celebrate Haunnakah with a nightly lighting of the menorah in front of city hall. [CTV]

• Bus stops don’t quite get the care the roads do when winter comes along. [Reddit]

• Want to have your announcement featured? Contact our partnership team for more info.

BOOKS

The most-read library books of the year

What happened: The Ottawa Public Library’s annual most-read list was released. Delia Owens’ 2018 novel Where the Crawdads Sing is the most requested book of the year. The library said it had been popular since its publication, but the release of a film adaptation pushed its popularity even higher. It’s also very popular with book clubs.

The top 10 adult books:

1. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

2. The Maid by Nita Prose

3. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

4. Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

5. It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

6. Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover

7. Verity by Colleen Hoover

8. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

9. Atomic Habits by James Clear

10. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Online popularity: Social media, TikTok in particular, seems to be driving the popularity of several books, the library said.

• “Many Ottawa readers are getting their book recommendations from social media—Colleen Hoover, with three books on the list, is a rising literary star due to recommendations from TikTok users. Similarly, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, originally published in 2017, has seen a huge resurgence in popularity sparked by TikTok!” the library said in a press release.

How it’s measured: The library curated the lists of most-popular books based on the number of hold requests from Jan. 1 to Dec. 1 of this year.

Teen fiction:

1. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

2. Heartstopper - Volume 1 by Alice Oseman

3. The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Kid’s fiction:

1. Dog Man (series) by Dav Pilkey

2. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (series) by Jeff Kinney

3. Wings of Fire (graphic novel series) by Barry Deutsch

You can see the full lists at the library’s website.

SPORTS

🥅 The Hamburglar himself, former Sens goalie Andrew Hammond, announced he would retire because of an ankle injury. Hammond led the team to the playoffs in 2015 after being called up from the minors. [CTV]

⚾️ The Ottawa Titans re-signed their No. 1 pitcher Zac Westcott, after he posted 11 wins last season. [CityNews]

🏈 Redblacks defensive lineman Kene Onyeka signed a two-year deal to stay with the team. [CityNews]

🏀 Ottawa BlackJacks announced James Derouin will stay on as head coach. Derouin was appointed interim head coach in June. [CityNews]

Upcoming games

Senators vs Capitals | Thursday, Dec. 22, 7 pm | At home | Tickets

Senators vs Red Wings | Friday, Dec. 23, 7 pm | At home | Tickets

Senators vs Bruins | Tuesday, Dec. 27, 7 pm | At home | Tickets

OTTAWA GUESSER

Congrats must once again go to Adam, who knew the last Green Christmas in the city was 2020. Apologies to Mary Lou, Sonia, and Irenka who were close, but not quite right with their guesses. Better luck next time!

We don’t normally do this, but we figured this week we’d give a hint for the OttawaGuesser: It’s a bridge. The first five people to respond correctly with what bridge get their names mentioned in the next newsletter.

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