Ottawa news

• Broken ski lift stranded dozens of kids at Ski Vorlage as temperature dropped

  27-02-2019 23:45 via ottawacitizen.com
  Dozens of grade school students were left stranded on a lift at Ski Vorlage, outside Wakefield, on Tuesday night as temperatures plunged below -20.
  The students were from Ottawa-area schools including Kars on the Rideau Public School, St. Leonard Catholic School and St. Philip School. The students, who are enrolled in grades 4 through 8, were taking part in a ski club program operated by Snowhawks Ski & Snowboard School.
  Snowhawks director Harvey Brodkin said that at least 20 kids became stu
  
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• LeBreton Flats redevelopment talks have failed; Melnyk says 'alternative' arena locations could be explored

  27-02-2019 22:23 via ottawacitizen.com
  A last-gasp effort has failed to rescue the $4.1-billion redevelopment of LeBreton Flats, sidelining the prospect of an NHL arena downtown to anchor an ambitious remake of the western core of the city.
  The National Capital Commission announced Wednesday morning that mediation talks led by retired judge Warren Winkler couldn’t reach a settlement in a dispute among partners of RendezVous LeBreton, a consortium that has spent four years and more than $4 million in planning work.
  The failure,
  
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• Editorial: It's time to expand our vision for LeBreton Flats

  27-02-2019 22:17 via ottawacitizen.com
  Well, that time-waster is over and done with.
  We refer, of course, to the failed “mediation” on LeBreton Flats – the last-gasp, two-month process that was supposed to somehow re-establish peace between the warring factions in the original RendezVous LeBreton development proposal and save the day for an NHL hockey arena.
  It was always hard to see how this struggling marriage could be patched up. While the feuding partners, Eugene Melnyk of Capital Sports Management Inc. and John
  
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• Ottawa's annual inflation rate drops to 1.7% in January - Ottawa Business Journal

  27-02-2019 22:14
  Ottawa's annual inflation rate drops to 1.7% in January  Ottawa Business JournalOttawa's annual inflation rate dropped to 1.7 per cent in January, though the capital's rising prices continue to outpace the rest of the country.
  
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• Ottawa peewee hockey team rallies support in final days of contest, would donate $100K prize to tornado relief - Global News

  27-02-2019 21:23
  Ottawa peewee hockey team rallies support in final days of contest, would donate $100K prize to tornado relief  Global NewsThe local West Carleton Warriors peewee hockey team is rallying for support in the final days of a contest that could see them win $100000 to donate to Ottawa ...
  
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• Two charged as police raid illegal west-end pot shop

  27-02-2019 20:43 via ottawacitizen.com
  Two people face charges after police seized cannabis items with an estimated value of more $40,000 in the raid of an illegal storefront on Athlone Avenue Tuesday.
  City police and the OPP’s provincial joint forces cannabis enforcement team executed the search warrant, the OPP said in a release Wednesday.
  The OPP took the lead because the raid used the joint forces team’s resources, a spokeswoman said.
  Officers seized what are believed to be processed cannabis, hash, shatter (a cannabi
  
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• Two charged as police raid illegal west-end pot shop - Ottawa Citizen

  27-02-2019 20:37
  Two charged as police raid illegal west-end pot shop  Ottawa CitizenTwo people face charges after police seized cannabis items with an estimated value of more $40000 in the raid of an illegal storefront on Athlone Avenue ...
  
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• Trucker charged with careless driving after Highway 401 crash, spill

  27-02-2019 20:28 via ottawacitizen.com
  A 60-year-old La Baie, Que. man was charged with careless driving after he lost control of the tractor-trailer he was driving and landed in the ditch on the eastbound Highway 401 near Napanee Tuesday evening.
  Napanee OPP officers were called to the crash scene just before the Shannonville exit at about 8:58 p.m.
  Trucker Alain Thibeault was taken to the hospital with minor injuries,
  The Ministry of the Environment was called in because about 50 litres of diesel spilled in the crash before firefig
  
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• After 12 weeks and $10M, tornado-damaged Merivale transmission station is fully repaired

  27-02-2019 20:27 via ottawacitizen.com
  It’s taken $10 million and 12 weeks for Hydro One to repair the Merivale transmission station that was decimated when tornadoes hit Ottawa last September, plunging large swaths of the city into two days of darkness.
  “I’m happy to say now, the station’s in great working order,” said Jason Fitzsimmons, Hydro One’s chief of corporate affairs, at a Wednesday media briefing.
  The Merivale station is one of two critical junctures in the national capital’s power
  
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• Two sent to hospital as crews battle fire at Nepean commercial garage

  27-02-2019 19:34 via ottawacitizen.com
  Ottawa Fire Services has asked people to stay away from Bentley Avenue where they’re fighting a fast-moving fire that engulfed a commercial garage and spewed thick, black smoke visible from kilometres away.
  The road is closed between Merivale Road and Sunderland Street as firefighters launch a “defensive” attack at 50 Bentley Avenue and try to reduce the risk of tanks kept on the site.
  The fire did not escalate to a second alarm but firefighters called in more ladder trucks so
  
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• Wilson-Raybould set to 'speak my truth' in Ottawa - APTN News

  27-02-2019 19:32
  Wilson-Raybould set to 'speak my truth' in Ottawa  APTN NewsWhen she speaks today, Jody Wilson-Raybould could answer some big questions on the minds of First Nation leaders.
  
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• Kassam: Global Affairs Canada owes diplomats answers on Cuba illness

  27-02-2019 19:22 via ottawacitizen.com
  The story of Canadian diplomats suffering brain injuries in Cuba has all the trappings of a Tom Clancy novel. A clandestine foreign service. Mysterious sonic phenomena. Suspicions of hysteria. Severe cognitive derangement. The intrigue surrounding this geopolitical whodunit has New York Times best-seller written all over it.
  Except, this is real. Very real.
  Announced recently, 15 people – five diplomatic staff members, their spouses and children – have launched a lawsuit against the
  
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• Glavin: Chrystia Freeland is doing the right things on Venezuela

  27-02-2019 19:18 via ottawacitizen.com
  It may be one of the greatest triumphs in Canada’s efforts at multilateral diplomacy in decades, and yet, at least in Canada, the central role that Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland has played in the urgent and ongoing international effort to rescue Venezuela from its failed-state agonies has largely escaped public attention.
  The easiest explanation for this odd state of affairs is that the effort undertaken by the Lima Group – an alliance that Canada founded in August,
  
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• Geimer: Canada’s policy toward Venezuela is shameful

  27-02-2019 19:17 via ottawacitizen.com
  In the morning, I saw the Spanish nurses distributing milk to the youngest victims of the U.S. proxy war on Nicaragua. Later, I saw a half-naked child with the effects of dysentery flowing from his tiny body as he ran through the refugee camp outside San Juan Del Rio Coco, on the border with Honduras.
  It was 1985, and I was there with a group called Witness for Peace. I was an American then and the idea was that if a bunch of U.S. civilians were put in the most active part of the war zone, viole
  
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• Ottawa think tank predicts rosy growth for Atlantic provinces – especially PEI - The Globe and Mail

  27-02-2019 18:52
  Ottawa think tank predicts rosy growth for Atlantic provinces – especially PEI  The Globe and Mail*Service*-sector stability, rising imports in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and rising oil production in Newfoundland and Labrador are among what's contributing ...
  
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• LeBreton Flats redevelopment talks have failed; Mayor points to 'frustration' dealing with Melnyk

  27-02-2019 18:39 via ottawacitizen.com
  The mediation efforts to rescue the $4-billion LeBreton Flats development have failed, the National Capital Commission announced Wednesday morning.
  A day before the official deadline, the NCC said it has been advised by mediator Warren Winkler that he was unsuccessful in reaching a settlement to save the plan put forward by RendezVous LeBreton Group, which included a new NHL arena as the centrepiece on 55 acres of derelict land downtown.
  The NCC board, which has members from all over Canada, is
  
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• Gatineau police seek further victims in drugged sex assaults case

  27-02-2019 18:17 via ottawacitizen.com
  Gatineau police arrested three men Tuesday who they allege drugged and sexually assaulted victims who were found on Tinder and Bumble dating apps.
  Police suspect the victims were dosed with GHB, sometimes referred to as the “date-rape drug.”
  Three complaints were received in 2018, one of them still under investigation, but the force “has reason to fear there will be other victims” and wants to alert the public to take care when meeting strangers online.
  Charged are Michel
  
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• Outaouais man, 18, fined $1,132 for 'driving Ace Ventura style'

  27-02-2019 17:55 via ottawacitizen.com
  The 18-year-old Lochaber-West driver had a perfectly reasonable explanation when he was stopped by police who spotted him driving with his head out the window due to a shattered windshield.
  The vehicle also had a flat tire and extensive body damage.
  And the exhaust system was dragging along Doherty Road in Ange-Gardien when MRC des Collines police pulled the vehicle over last week.
  “You try hitting a snowbank at 120 km/h!” the driver explained, according to an MRC des Collines news r
  
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• Ottawa Firefighters battle fire at west end commercial garage - CTV News

  27-02-2019 17:29
  Ottawa Firefighters battle fire at west end commercial garage  CTV NewsOttawa firefighters are on the scene of a blaze at a commercial garage on Bentley Ave. in the west end.
  
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• Ottawa firefighters battle Nepean garage blaze - Global News

  27-02-2019 16:51
  Ottawa firefighters battle Nepean garage blaze  Global NewsOttawa firefighters attempt to put out a fire at a commercial garage on Bentley Avenue in Nepean on Wednesday. Seven people were assessed by paramedics ...
  
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• Baseline Road building evacuated due to smoky haze

  27-02-2019 16:40 via ottawacitizen.com
  An office building on Baseline Road was evacuated Wednesday morning as firefighters investigated the source of a smoky haze.
  Crews also detected an electrical odour when they responded to a call at 9:57 a.m. from a federal government complex at 1341 Baseline Rd. reporting visible smoke in an electrical room.
  They found no flames and the building had already been evacuated with workers taking shelter in adjacent buildings or in a coffee shop across the street.
  The investigation continues.
  Crews o
  
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• Brockville woman accused of $20,000 identity theft scheme - CTV News

  27-02-2019 16:24
  Brockville woman accused of $20,000 identity theft scheme  CTV NewsOntario Provincial Police say a 35-year-old Brockville woman has been arrested in what they're calling a case of “familiar fraud.”
  
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• Organized crime in India behind CRA phone scam: RCMP

  27-02-2019 16:20 via ottawacitizen.com
  The RCMP has worked with police in India to take down about 40 call centres and arrest 60 people allegedly behind a scam that targets Canadians with claims they owe the Canadian tax folks.
  But the force’s Toronto-based financial crime section and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre is still warning the public to be on the alert for the scam and asking for helping bringing more fraudsters to justice.
  International efforts to against the illegal call centre network in India between Sept. 2018 and
  
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• Ottawa has room to cut deficit, taxes or spend in budget: Economist - BNNBloomberg.ca

  27-02-2019 16:13
  Ottawa has room to cut deficit, taxes or spend in budget: Economist  BNNBloomberg.caThe federal Liberal government's fiscal balance is showing a “remarkable pace of improvement,” suggesting that Finance Minister Bill Morneau may have some ...
  
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• Brockville woman's 'friendship' cost Ottawa man $20,000, police say

  27-02-2019 16:02 via ottawacitizen.com
  A Brockville woman “befriended” a 41-year-old Ottawa man then stole his identity and used his personal information to bilk him of about $20,000, Grenville County OPP’s crime unit alleges.
  Katrina Gilmour, 35, was charged Wednesday with fraud over $5,000, two counts of making a forged document, two counts of fraud under $5,000 and four counts of identity theft.
  She was released on a promise to appear in court in Brockville April 12.
  Police call it “familial fraud” wh
  
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• Brockville woman's 'friendship' cost Ottawa man $20,000, police say - Ottawa Citizen

  27-02-2019 15:41
  Brockville woman's 'friendship' cost Ottawa man $20,000, police say  Ottawa Citizen"If you suspect that you have become a victim of identity theft contact your local police *service* or the OPP."
  
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• House Works: Your questions on septic systems and workshop walls

  27-02-2019 15:30 via ottawacitizen.com
  Septic system solutions
  Q: What should I do about my failing septic system? Whenever someone lets water out of the bathtub, I can see it bubble up out in the yard. Should I dig down into the ground to find the top of the tank or let a septic company dig it up for me?
   
  A: Digging down to the tank won’t do any good since you need much more than a pump-out.
  It sounds like you’ve got a classic case of a failed leaching bed. This is an area downstream from your septic tank with perf
  
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• Traffic: Watch out for icy patches – half a dozen fender-benders already reported

  27-02-2019 14:56 via ottawacitizen.com
  Pedestrians, watch your step on slick sidewalks!
  And drivers, remember that you’re in a nice warm bubble while walkers hobble along a moonscape.
  Otherwise, the city’s traffic centre was silent Wednesday morning, with most school buses running and OC Transpo was reporting relatively few cancelled trips.
  One choke-point was the westbound Queensway near Bayshore.
  The biggest traffic tie-up so far was south of Ottawa.
  A crash closed the westbound lanes of Highway 401 at Highway 2 near Ga
  
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• Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson takes a shot at Senators owner over arena dispute - The Globe and Mail

  27-02-2019 14:50
  Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson takes a shot at Senators owner over arena dispute  The Globe and MailOttawa Mayor Jim Watson has expressed disappointment in Senators owner Eugene Melnyk now that a proposed new downtown arena for the NHL team is in ...
  
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• Sober up (from drink and/or drugs) before commuting, police warn after 6 a.m. crash

  27-02-2019 14:13 via ottawacitizen.com
  When city police responded to a two-vehicle crash in Orléans Wednesday, they arrested one of the drivers for allegedly being impaired.
  The original suspicion was alcohol, but “further investigation” established the driver was allegedly impaired by drugs.
  It was 6:44 a.m. and it’s still a no-no, police said.
  Drug-impaired driving is still impaired driving.
  “Thankfully, there were no injuries,” police said.
  The tweet followed an earlier caution:
  “If you h
  
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• Sober up before commuting, police warn after morning crash

  27-02-2019 13:43 via ottawacitizen.com
  When city police responded to a two-vehicle crash in Orléans Wednesday, they arrested one of the drivers for allegedly being impaired.
  It was 6:44 a.m.
  “Thankfully, there were no injuries,” police said.
  “If you have been drinking, you need to allow yourself enough time to sober up before commuting to work the next morning.”
  Impaired driving is one of the offences being targeted for traffic enforcement in March, Sgt. Mark Gatien reported.
  “There will be a numb
  
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• Deep freeze leaving town (but snow coming in for weekend visit)

  27-02-2019 13:42 via ottawacitizen.com
  OK, there may have been a wind chill feels like reading of -32 when you woke up Wednesday.
  And Ottawa Public Health says there’s a risk of frostbite “for the foreseeable future.”
  And the forecast is for a 60 per cent chance of light snow Wednesday afternoon. And Wednesday evening.
  But really, the weather’s looking kind of positive for the rest of the week.
  Eleven full hours of daylight starting Wednesday! Of course this will also be the coldest night of the year. You win
  
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• Traffic: It's a bitterly cold, but quiet, commute so far

  27-02-2019 13:37 via ottawacitizen.com
  Pedestrians, watch your step on slick sidewalks!
  And drivers, remember that you’re in a nice warm bubble while walkers hobble along a moonscape.
  Otherwise, the city’s traffic centre was silent Wednesday morning, with most school buses running and OC Transpo was reporting relatively few cancelled trips.
  One choke-point was the westbound Queensway near Bayshore, where
  The biggest traffic tie-up so far was south of Ottawa.
  A crash closed the westbound lanes of Highway 401 at Highway 2 n
  
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• The Havana Syndrome, Part 3: Insiders say ordeal has 'struck a nerve' in Canada's diplomatic community

  27-02-2019 13:27 via ottawacitizen.com
  Hardship and danger are nothing new for the Canadian foreign service. Its members have served through wars, diplomatic crises and acts of terrorism — but what happened in Havana is different than anything they’ve seen before.
  And despite the fact that risk is generally accepted as part of the job, this newspaper interviewed several diplomatic insiders who charged that the mysterious injuries suffered by Canadian diplomats and their families in Cuba have shaken a community that isn&rs
  
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• An Ottawa woman hits the jackpot at Casino du Lac-Leamy - OttawaMatters.com

  27-02-2019 12:49
  An Ottawa woman hits the jackpot at Casino du Lac-Leamy  OttawaMatters.comThe unnamed woman won almost $1.8 million on Monday.
  
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• Today's letters: Senators lose their star power

  27-02-2019 12:38 via ottawacitizen.com
  Ottawa Senators can’t fool us again
  Re: In huge deal, Ottawa Senators trade Mark Stone to Las Vegas, Feb. 26.
  Eugene Melnyk bought the Ottawa Senators in 2006. The following 11 players, largely developed by the Senators, have left in since 2006. Of the 11, all but one has played for his country and at least six have been NHL All Stars: Zdeno Chara, Mike Fisher, Daniel Alfredsson (twice), Jason Spezza, Mika Zibanejad, Jakob Silfverberg, Kyle Turris, Mike Hoffman, Erik Karlsson, Ryan Dzingel
  
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• Molepo: Ottawa school boards must do more to teach Black history - Ottawa Citizen

  27-02-2019 12:31
  Molepo: Ottawa school boards must do more to teach Black history  Ottawa CitizenAs Black History month wraps up, here's one takeaway: Black students need to see themselves represented in the curriculum and to learn about leaders and ...
  
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• The Havana Syndrome, Part 4: What it could be and how experts will try to crack the case

  27-02-2019 12:30 via ottawacitizen.com
  Eric Arts was a university student in the 1980s when the world was struggling to understand the illness we now know as AIDS, and he recalls the sense of bewilderment among those looking for its cause.
  It’s an enigma he compares to the current mystery of Canadian and American diplomats who became sick while serving in Havana, and who have suffered from pain, memory loss, dizziness and brain damage.
  “Sorting out HIV and how it was transmitted, and the disease it caused, took a long tim
  
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• Molepo: Ottawa school boards must do more to teach Black history

  27-02-2019 12:30 via ottawacitizen.com
  Last week, Ottawa’s Rideau Club held its Distinguished Speaker Series, co-organized by The MATCH Fund. The Hon. Jean Augustine, the first Black woman elected to Parliament, was the event’s distinguished speaker, and she spoke about how she made history in 1995 when she led the adoption of a unanimous motion in the House of Commons, designating February as Black History Month. While, many years later, Canadians observe Black History Month across the country, schools in Ottawa need to
  
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• Brown: Yes, doctors have a vital role in toughening gun laws

  27-02-2019 12:30 via ottawacitizen.com
  Earlier this month, a new organization announced its existence: Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns (CDPG). The group is co-chaired by Dr. Lynn Wilson, a family physician and vice-dean at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine, and Dr. Najma Ahmed, a trauma surgeon at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital. Some gun owners have expressed frustration with the CDPG, but its existence and positions are not unusual when placed in historical context.
  The CDPG believes gun v
  
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• Jensen: How we're starting to connect Ontario's skilled health workers

  27-02-2019 12:29 via ottawacitizen.com
  When Canadians are not talking about the weather, it seems there is a second topic they like to fall back on as they chat to a stranger at the bus stop or catch up with a neighbour over the back-yard fence: our health-care system.
  Sometimes we are positive in our conversations, justifiably proud of one of the best health-care systems in the world. Often we are also highly critical — and there is no question that there is still work to be done.
  More often than not, though, we discuss health
  
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• Ottawa airport rail link would cost Transpo $4M annually compared to current bus service - Ottawa Citizen

  27-02-2019 12:00
  Ottawa airport rail link would cost Transpo $4M annually compared to current bus service  Ottawa CitizenOC Transpo will have to eat $4 million in annual operating costs for running trains on a Trillium Line spur to the Ottawa International Airport, but the city still views ...
  
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• Ottawa now has room 'to cut the deficit, spend on new programs, or (gasp!) cut taxes' - The Globe and Mail

  27-02-2019 10:55
  Ottawa now has room 'to cut the deficit, spend on new programs, or (gasp!) cut taxes'  The Globe and MailWhat the latest fiscal numbers show for the Liberal government ahead of March 19 budget.
  
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• Meet Ottawa-Gatineau's 2019 Bootstrap Award winners - Ottawa Business Journal

  27-02-2019 09:00
  Meet Ottawa-Gatineau's 2019 Bootstrap Award winners  Ottawa Business JournalAn Ottawa-made hydroponics system, a solution for healthier eating in the workplace and a sport hijab maker are among this year's best bootstrapped firms.
  
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• Capitals score seven straight goals to whip Senators - Ottawa Sun

  27-02-2019 05:35
  Capitals score seven straight goals to whip Senators  Ottawa SunHow many games will the Senators win in their final 20 games? And how many goals will they score? Those were the questions we asked ourselves before ...
  
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• Gibbons makes Senators debut on 31st birthday - Ottawa Sun

  27-02-2019 04:45
  Gibbons makes Senators debut on 31st birthday  Ottawa SunWASHINGTON — Brian Gibbons and Oscar Lindberg have more in common than making their Senators debut on the same night.They were acquired in ...
  
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• Montsion trial halted a second time following defence objection to contentious video evidence

  27-02-2019 03:56 via ottawacitizen.com
  Defence lawyers for Const. Daniel Montsion complained they are still “learning as we go,” as issues surrounding contentious video evidence resurfaced Tuesday, bringing the officer’s manslaughter and assault trial to an unexpected halt for a second time.
  Justice Robert Kelly had already granted a two-week adjournment to deal with issues surrounding the video, a two-minute “slowed-down” excerpt taken from CCTV footage of the July 24, 2016 fatal arrest of Abdirahman Ab
  
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• Ontario sets stage for health-care transformation

  27-02-2019 02:10 via ottawacitizen.com
  The Ontario government began its long-anticipated health-care overhaul Tuesday, tabling legislation to create a super agency and setting the stage for an integrated “patient-centred” system to replace LHINs.
  “Right now, we are leaving Ontarians behind because we have a system that is disconnected,” said Health Minister Christine Elliott, announcing the biggest provincial health reform in more than a decade.
  Elliott sketched a vision of a new health system in which patient
  
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• Ottawa police, OSPCA probe man's dog abuse boasts on social media - Ottawa Sun

  27-02-2019 01:48
  Ottawa police, OSPCA probe man's dog abuse boasts on social media  Ottawa SunAn Ottawa man's social media boasts of abusing his dog are under investigation by police and the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
  
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• Explainer: Ontario health-care reform

  27-02-2019 01:29 via ottawacitizen.com
  What are Ontario Health Teams? Made up of local health-care providers working as a co-ordinated group, the teams will guide patients between providers and through transitions, Health and Long-term Care Minister Christine Elliott said on Tuesday. Teams will likely include family doctors, hospitals, home care, long-term care and may include other providers such as support for mental health and addictions. The teams will be funded for a given population of patients, and will be responsible for care
  
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