Ottawa news

• Full steam ahead for Gatineau LRT: City to ask Quebec for funding

  18-04-2018 23:56 via ottawacitizen.com
  In an unanimous vote, Gatineau city council gave the go-ahead on Tuesday to pursue plans for a light rail transit system that would connect Aylmer to the downtown core. 
  The city will now ask the Quebec government for assistance in funding the project, which the Société de transport de l’Outaouais estimates will cost between $700 and $900 million. 
  At a press conference prior to the vote, Gatineau Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin said a unanimous vote by council would si
  
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• City hall blog: Transpo isn't predicting a bike overload on the Confederation Line

  18-04-2018 23:40 via ottawacitizen.com
  OC Transpo isn’t predicting trains full of bikes with the opening of the Confederation Line.
  The transit agency this week provided council with numbers after Coun. Keith Egli asked about bike statistics in February when the transit commission and council approved a plan to allow bikes on LRT trains during all operating hours.
  The Confederation Line is scheduled to open in November.
  Transpo said it believes there will be about one bike per Confederation Line train, on average, at any g
  
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• Reevely: Wynne labels Ford 'just like Trump' — and Tory leader unveils simplistic jobs plan

  18-04-2018 23:00 via ottawacitizen.com
  The Progressive Conservatives rear up in fury when they hear their leader, Doug Ford, compared to Donald Trump, but dammit if his newly announced jobs policy isn’t straight from the Trump book.
  Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne kicked off Ontario’s political day Wednesday by comparing Ford to U.S. President Donald Trump. She accused him of all but leading Ford Nation in chants of “lock her up” when he said Tuesday that in the private sector, people who behaved like Liberals w
  
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• Power surge protectors the best option, says electrical safety expert

  18-04-2018 23:00 via ottawacitizen.com
  An investigation into whether a failed electrical surge protector led to a Stittsville house fire on Monday should not cause homeowners to worry their own homes might go up in smoke any time soon, a safety expert says.
  David McConnell, general manager of the Electrical Safety Authority of Ontario, which enforces the province’s electrical safety code, said Wednesday that while “every device has its limitations,” especially during a storm or power failure, he’s rarely seen
  
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• City bus service at the 'peak of the peak of detours'

  18-04-2018 22:39 via ottawacitizen.com
  OC Transpo’s top manager says the service is “at the peak of the peak of detours” because of downtown construction, creating a “fragile” network that relies heavily on buses redirected to routes in response to demand changes.
  “I’m sensitive to how important this is for our customers because any cancelled trip or any impact to our customer is important because we’re here to serve them and we care very much about their service,” John Manconi sa
  
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• Another budtender charged in pot shop raids pleads guilty, avoids criminal conviction

  18-04-2018 22:08 via ottawacitizen.com
  Another former marijuana store clerk has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and been spared a criminal conviction.
  Nova Coates, 39, a former employee of Weeds Glass & Gifts on Bank Street, was given a conditional discharge in Ottawa court on Wednesday. 
  Her fellow “budtender” at Weeds, Ayesha Cassandra Morrison, also pleaded guilty but her sentencing was delayed until she completes the community service agreed to as part of the plea deal.
  Both were arrested during a police r
  
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• Cornerstone project of Ottawa River action plan six months behind schedule

  18-04-2018 22:03 via ottawacitizen.com
  The $232-million crosstown sewage interceptor being built under downtown is behind schedule by six months, the city says.
  The six-kilometre tunnel network will capture overflows from combined sewers before the diluted sewage enters the Ottawa River. The intercepted wastewater will be sent to the sewage treatment facility.
  In a memo sent to council Wednesday, infrastructure director Alain Gonthier says heavy construction was expected to be done in late 2019, but now it looks like it will last abo
  
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• Michael Barclay on his unauthorized Hip bio: "I didn't feel the need to sanitize anything"

  18-04-2018 21:30 via ottawacitizen.com
  Toronto music writer Michael Barclay comes to Ottawa on Friday to launch his fascinating, comprehensive and unauthorized new book, The Never Ending Present: The Story of Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip. Here are excerpts from Lynn Saxberg’s recent interview with the author. 
  Q: What got you started on this book?A: I interviewed many of their peers for a piece I was writing for Macleans, and I put the Q & As online figuring they would mainly appeal to Hip geeks. A lot of pe
  
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• Orléans man charged with accessing child porn

  18-04-2018 21:23 via ottawacitizen.com
  Ottawa police have charged a 51-year-old Orléans man after receiving a tip concerning alleged illegal access of child pornography websites.
  The tip came from a member of the public in late March. The police’s internet child exploitation unit later obtained a search warrant to analyze a laptop seized from a workplace.
  Joel Orr, 51, was arrested and charged with accessing child pornography.
  He was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday afternoon.
  
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• Going out best bets, April 19 to 25

  18-04-2018 21:00 via ottawacitizen.com
  Rock
  The Ottawa rock trio dubé is making the most of their recent brush with notoriety by kicking off their North American tour with a newly added hometown show on Friday that also marks the debut of an all-ages concert series at Makerspace North. The newfound notoriety stems from an old newspaper article about dubé that was part of last week’s province-wide high-school literacy test. But when students went to find out more about the band, instead of a wholesome family a
  
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• Recent snow, ice raises flood risk for low-lying parts of the Rideau

  18-04-2018 20:07 via ottawacitizen.com
  The snow and ice that’s landed on the region over the last few days has increased the risk of flooding on the Rideau system as warmer temperatures finally arrive Friday.
  Rain and some melting have already increased stream levels. Now melt waters may cut off access to low-lying communities on the Long Reach of the Rideau between Kars and Kemptville, the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority warned Wednesday.
  Tributary streams such as Stevens and Cranberry creeks in the North Gower area can b
  
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• Jonathan Pitre's mother @BoileauTina posts this heart wrenching photo from her son's grave today on social media. T… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…

  18-04-2018 20:05 via twitter.com
  Jonathan Pitre's mother @BoileauTina posts this heart wrenching photo from her son's grave today on social media. T… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…
  
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• Rise up songbooks come to life on concert tour

  18-04-2018 19:55 via ottawacitizen.com
  As the story goes, Peter Blood was a camp counsellor in Vermont in the early 1970s, when the camp songbook ran into peaceful protest.
  Seems the teen campers wanted to sing the popular folk songs of the day — by Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary and Pete Seeger.
  The songbook
  Blood and a group of campers spent the summer working on a new songbook, having no idea where it might lead. After years of additional research and copyright wrangling, that initial camp exercise in song coll
  
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• Glavin: Despite Syria's latest gas attack; some will always back Assad

  18-04-2018 19:30 via ottawacitizen.com
  With the benefit of several days’ hindsight, one might have thought that the hysteria attending to the largely performative, perfunctory and pinprick 70-minute air strikes that the United States, Britain and France carried out on Syrian targets last Friday night would have subsided somewhat by now.
  For a while there, you’d have thought we were on the cusp of the Apocalypse. In the lead-up, so many people were wetting their pants about U.S. President Donald Trump’s falling out w
  
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• Orléans man charged for accessing child porn

  18-04-2018 18:41 via ottawacitizen.com
  Ottawa police have charged a 51-year-old Orléans man after receiving a tip concerning alleged illegal access of child pornography websites.
  The tip came from a member of the public in late March. The police’s internet child exploitation unit later obtained a search warrant to analyze a laptop seized from a workplace.
  Joel Orr, 51, was arrested and charged with accessing child pornography.
  He was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday afternoon.
  
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• ‘A real community effort’: Ottawa woodturners make 177 wig stands for cancer patients

  18-04-2018 18:02 via ottawacitizen.com
  Every time Julie Booker uses her wig stand, she’s reminded of her mother, who battled cancer 40 years ago.
  Booker, a cancer survivor herself, received her handcrafted wig stand while undergoing chemotherapy several years back. She still wears a wig today because a medical condition after chemo prevented her hair from growing back. When she uses her stand, she said she’s reminded of how cancer took her own mother’s life.
  “Nearly 40 years ago, imagine the terrible wigs
  
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• The @rick_gibbons Show for Wednesday, April 18th: 1:17: @Debi_Daviau 1:30: @jmestuckle 1:45: @CMHA_NTL 2:05:… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…

  18-04-2018 17:45 via twitter.com
  The @rick_gibbons Show for Wednesday, April 18th: 1:17: @Debi_Daviau 1:30: @jmestuckle 1:45: @CMHA_NTL 2:05:… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…
  
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• Coming up on the Power Lunch at noon: Alex Lewis & @mrsloulou join @_MarkSutcliffe live in studio: Listen: 📻:… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…

  18-04-2018 17:45 via twitter.com
  Coming up on the Power Lunch at noon:Alex Lewis & @mrsloulou join @_MarkSutcliffe live in studio: Listen:📻:… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…
  
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• Next Monday is expected to be sunny with a high of 16 C (expect more flurries today)

  18-04-2018 17:43 via ottawacitizen.com
  Wednesday is wintry with fresh flakes on windshields, gusting winds and a 60 per cent chance of more flurries or showers.
  The high is blustery 6 C with westerly winds at 20 km/h gusting to 40 and the low is -2 C.
  For Thursday, expect morning flurries turning into possible rain showers in the afternoon with northwest winds and a high of 5 C.
  There’s also a 30 per cent chance of overnight rain or flurries and a low of 0 C.
  April 2018 in Ottawa. A placeholder for coming years where we will st
  
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• Coming up at 11:45: @PatriciaTreble joins @_MarkSutcliffe on why this is one of the most important weeks of Queen… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…

  18-04-2018 17:40 via twitter.com
  Coming up at 11:45:@PatriciaTreble joins @_MarkSutcliffe on why this is one of the most important weeks of Queen… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…
  
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• Melting glaciers are revealing murder and misfortune

  18-04-2018 17:22 via ottawacitizen.com
  These cold cases are starting to heat up.
  Rising temperatures and melting glaciers are allowing authorities to discover bodies long hidden by ice and snow.
  A couple who suddenly – and mysteriously -vanished 75 years ago.
  A 5,300 year-old murder.
  What else will be revealed?
  
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• In 1983, a plane flying from Montreal to Edmonton ran out of fuel mid-flight. Here's what happened

  18-04-2018 17:03 via ottawacitizen.com
  Sometimes things go wrong.
  Sometimes things go wrong at 40,000 feet.
  The most recent case of this was Tuesday’s deadly explosion on a Southwest flight that killed one woman.
  The steady hands and calm flying of a former U.S. navy fighter pilot saved the lives of the 148 other people onboard.
  In 1983, when a plane flying from Montreal to Edmonton ran out of fuel, the pilots once again played hero.
  Watch the above video to find out the full story of the Gimli Glider.
   
  
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• Bank of Canada holds benchmark interest rate as economic growth moderates: bit.ly/2qMsXnx https://t.co/IVzEcD1SMr

  18-04-2018 16:46 via twitter.com
  
  Bank of Canada holds benchmark interest rate as economic growth moderates: bit.ly/2qMsXnx https://t.co/IVzEcD1SMr
  
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• Coming up at 10:45: @steffanwatkins joins @_MarkSutcliffe on how he tracks the world's military and spy ships fro… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…

  18-04-2018 16:40 via twitter.com
  Coming up at 10:45: @steffanwatkins joins @_MarkSutcliffe on how he tracks the world's military and spy ships fro… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…
  
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• Denley: Ontario NDP's Andrea Horwath has a plan. Now, does she have momentum?

  18-04-2018 16:35 via ottawacitizen.com
  Wavering Liberal voters, take note: The NDP has just produced a platform that offers somewhat enhanced versions of what your own party is proposing, with less debt attached, and the bonus that you could try to stop Doug Ford without having to vote for Kathleen Wynne again.
  NDP leader Andrea Horwath clearly hopes that value proposition is enough to send anti-Wynne voters her way and give her party a real shot at winning the June election. Rationally, she should be right, but the biggest challenge
  
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• Coming up at 10:30: @DownGoesBrown joins @_MarkSutcliffe to talk NHL playoffs: Listen: 📻: 1310 💻:… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…

  18-04-2018 16:25 via twitter.com
  Coming up at 10:30:@DownGoesBrown joins @_MarkSutcliffe to talk NHL playoffs: Listen:📻: 1310 💻:… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…
  
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• Coming up on the 10 O'Clock Talk: @AGMacDougall, @1310JasonWhite & @1310Alexblack join @_MarkSutcliffe live: Li… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…

  18-04-2018 15:50 via twitter.com
  Coming up on the 10 O'Clock Talk: @AGMacDougall, @1310JasonWhite & @1310Alexblack join @_MarkSutcliffe live: Li… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…
  
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• Officer at Canadian Forces leadership school charged with sex assault, drunkenness

  18-04-2018 15:40 via ottawacitizen.com
  The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service charged a member of the Canadian Forces Wednesday with sexual assault under the Criminal Code, as well as two related offences under the National Defence Act. The charges relate to alleged incidents in April and September 2017 at the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., involving another member of the Canadian Forces, according to the NIS.
  Major Timothy Abbott, a staff officer at the Canadian
  
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• Coming up at 9:45: @ofdhockey of @OttFire joins @_MarkSutcliffe on the challenges faced by first responders in th… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…

  18-04-2018 15:39 via twitter.com
  Coming up at 9:45: @ofdhockey of @OttFire joins @_MarkSutcliffe on the challenges faced by first responders in th… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…
  
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• Purported California boyfriend bilks Leeds woman out of $60,000, police say

  18-04-2018 15:13 via ottawacitizen.com
  The online lover told an Elizabethtown-Kitley woman he’d met on an online dating site that he just needed to clear up some tax trouble before he could move from California to be with her.
  Two transactions and nearly $60,000 later, the victim has been left with a “broken heart and bank account,” as OPP in Leeds County hunt a con artist who could be across the street or across the globe.
  The force warned that the criminals behind “romance scams” hunt dating websites a
  
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• 'Comey’s God complex has hindered his impact' @LMartinWashDC joins @_marksutcliffe live at 9:15: Listen: 📻: 131… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…

  18-04-2018 15:10 via twitter.com
  'Comey’s God complex has hindered his impact'@LMartinWashDC joins @_marksutcliffe live at 9:15: Listen:📻: 131… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…
  
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• Buffy Sainte-Maries urges patience, empathy on road to reconciliation: bit.ly/2HwOgmo https://t.co/KFJ35el35e

  18-04-2018 15:00 via twitter.com
  
  Buffy Sainte-Maries urges patience, empathy on road to reconciliation: bit.ly/2HwOgmo https://t.co/KFJ35el35e
  
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• POLL: Should we decriminalize all drugs in response to the opioid crisis? Story: dlvr.it/QPxZH3

  18-04-2018 14:55 via twitter.com
  POLL: Should we decriminalize all drugs in response to the opioid crisis? Story: dlvr.it/QPxZH3
  
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• Shots fired in Heron Gate area Tuesday night

  18-04-2018 14:42 via ottawacitizen.com
  Police got “numerous” 911 calls Tuesday night alerting them to shots fired in the Heron Gate area.
  Responding officers found shell casings in the area of Cedarwood Drive and Walkley Road but no victims or suspects in the 10:40 p.m. incident.
  Police were continuing to canvass for witnesses Wednesday morning.
  
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• Small earthquake felt near Mont Laurier

  18-04-2018 14:37 via ottawacitizen.com
  There was an earthquake north of Mont Laurier on Tuesday evening, and while some people reported feeling it, there was no damage.
  The earthquake happened about 15 kilometres north of the town at 6:59 p.m. Tuesday, said Earthquakes Canada.
  This region is part of what geophysicists call the West Quebec Seismic Zone, where the bedrock is prone to many small earthquakes and a few larger ones.
  Tuesday’s event was a magnitude 3.5, which some people would notice as a minor vibration and some woul
  
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• Kingston man, 59, identified as victim of Highway 401 hit-and-run

  18-04-2018 14:28 via ottawacitizen.com
  Frontenac OPP has identified the pedestrian who died in an apparent hit-and-run on Highway 401 in Kingston as 59-year-old Charles Thistlethwaite.
  The Kingston man was pronounced dead at the scene of the April 13 crash of injuries that were consistent with being struck by a vehicle, although no vehicle remained at the scene, police said Tuesday. 
  Police believe it was Thistlethwaite who was seen walking westbound on the paved shoulder of the westbound lane of Highway 401, about a k
  
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• Antiques: Mermaid Continues to Draw Attention

  18-04-2018 14:00 via ottawacitizen.com
  Q I bought this mermaid figure at an antique store and was told it was used in an amusement park display at Crystal Beach, Ont. (now part of Fort Erie). It stands about 183 cm tall (72 inches) and looks to be painted on pine and hand-carved in an art deco style with an aboriginal style headdress. The paint is becoming more and more delicate. I would like to know if what I have is a true treasure (which I do love anyway) or an item I overpaid for. I’m very grateful for your insight.
  —
  
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• Spoiler alert: Next Monday is expected to be sunny with a high of 16 C (expect more flurries today)

  18-04-2018 13:42 via ottawacitizen.com
  Wednesday is wintry with fresh flakes on windshields, gusting winds and a 60 per cent chance of more flurries or showers.
  The high is blustery 6 C with westerly winds at 20 km/h gusting to 40 and the low is -2 C.
  For Thursday, expect morning flurries turning into possible rain showers in the afternoon with northwest winds and a high of 5 C.
  There’s also a 30 per cent chance of overnight rain or flurries and a low of 0 C.
  April 2018 in Ottawa. A placeholder for coming years where we will st
  
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• 'I don’t know how to live without him': Jonathan Pitre's mother, Tina Boileau, talks about his death

  18-04-2018 13:22 via ottawacitizen.com
  During these, the worst weeks of her life, Tina Boileau has managed to find solace in only one thing: the knowledge that her son, Jonathan Pitre, is no longer in pain.
  “That’s the only thing I can try to take comfort in, because he was way too young. He had so many plans,” Boileau said in an interview at her Russell home, two weeks after her 17-year-old son died in a Minnesota hospital from a runaway infection. 
  Jonathan lived with the ravages of epidermolysis bullosa (EB)
  
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• Today's letters: Helping Herongate, helping the planet

  18-04-2018 13:00 via ottawacitizen.com
  Put down the phone, help the planet
  Re: Students set example on recycling, April 14.
  I have been making bags out of the newspaper and lining my green bin with the same paper for years. It’s really not a big deal to do this.
  I have one suggestion for many of you who say you don’t have the time: Maybe if you put down your cellphone for a while and make a change, you really could help the environment and put this so-called problem to rest.
  Jim Fermoyle, KanataMake Herongate housing affo
  
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• Kassam: Facebook saga holds privacy lessons for health care

  18-04-2018 13:00 via ottawacitizen.com
  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent time recently testifying before U.S. Congress about his company’s role in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. In a bewildering scene, the scion of social media was sworn in while surrounded by dozens of photographers, whose invasion of his private space was emblematic of the very concerns his juggernaut network has helped to create.
  More concerning, Zuckerberg revealed that even his own private information was sold to third parties, similar to that of 8
  
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• The man was treated by paramedics on scene and was listed in stable condition in hospital. #ottnews twitter.com/OttawaMatters/…

  18-04-2018 12:18 via twitter.com
  The man was treated by paramedics on scene and was listed in stable condition in hospital.#ottnews twitter.com/OttawaMatters/…
  
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• Annual 4-20 pot protest still has point to make ahead of legalization: spokesman: bit.ly/2HGShlW https://t.co/XQhT1YDQRW

  18-04-2018 11:55 via twitter.com
  
  Annual 4-20 pot protest still has point to make ahead of legalization: spokesman: bit.ly/2HGShlW https://t.co/XQhT1YDQRW
  
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• Shell casings were found at the scene but there are no reports of any victims. #ottnews twitter.com/OttawaMatters/…

  18-04-2018 11:47 via twitter.com
  Shell casings were found at the scene but there are no reports of any victims. #ottnews twitter.com/OttawaMatters/…
  
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• The earthquake registered at 3.5 on the Richter Scale. twitter.com/OttawaMatters/…

  18-04-2018 11:37 via twitter.com
  The earthquake registered at 3.5 on the Richter Scale. twitter.com/OttawaMatters/…
  
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• Bank of Canada to make interest rate announcement, predictions for the economy: bit.ly/2vuk1HQ https://t.co/NbwGYu94et

  18-04-2018 11:30 via twitter.com
  
  Bank of Canada to make interest rate announcement, predictions for the economy: bit.ly/2vuk1HQ https://t.co/NbwGYu94et
  
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• City to collect homeless numbers, looking to better serve population: An amendment to Ontario's Housing Services A… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…

  18-04-2018 05:52 via twitter.com
  City to collect homeless numbers, looking to better serve population:An amendment to Ontario's Housing Services A… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…
  
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• City's first permanent supervised injection site opens at Sandy Hill Community Health Centre

  18-04-2018 05:42 via ottawacitizen.com
  The room is spotless, the tabletops gleaming of polished stainless steel that matches the sleek, stylish desk lamp. At each of the five booths, a round cosmetics mirror is affixed to an adjustable arm.
  “We wanted these mirrors here in case people wanted to do some neck injections,” says Rob Boyd, director of harm reduction at the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre, site of Ottawa’s first permanent supervised injection site.
  “We don’t encourage people to do that
  
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• Widow of Quebec mosque massacre victim calls for exemplary sentence ottawamatters.com/national-news/…

  18-04-2018 05:07 via twitter.com
  Widow of Quebec mosque massacre victim calls for exemplary sentenceottawamatters.com/national-news/…
  
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• Central library plans moving forward with shortlist of designers ottawamatters.com/local-news/cen…

  18-04-2018 04:45 via twitter.com
  Central library plans moving forward with shortlist of designersottawamatters.com/local-news/cen…
  
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