Ottawa Citizen
RICHEST SENATOR
Ottawa Senators winger Drake Batherson signed an eight-year, $86-million contract extension with the NHL club on Wednesday. The contract, which includes $30 million in bonuses, is the richest in team history.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Rising cost of aluminum cans squeezing microbreweries
Twenty-eight days from grain to glass. It's a common phrase in the homebrewing circles Marc Plante and his now business partner, Justin Macneill, used to frequent. “That's what we call it,” Marc Plante, co-owner of Stray Dog Brewing Company, says....
Read Full Story (Page 1)
LOST DIAMOND HIDDEN FROM NAZIS HAS BEEN IN QUEBEC ALL ALONG
When Karl von Habsburg first placed in his hand the Florentine Diamond — a champagne-yellow gem the size of a peach pit, thought lost but actually safe in a Quebec bank vault for more than 80 years — he was not quite sure what to make of it. “Can I...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
SIGNS OF AN ELECTION
Volunteers install election signs for Bay ward candidate Theresa Kavanagh on Friday morning. Yard signs and other campaign advertisements started popping up overnight, with candidates doing a signage blitz shortly after midnight.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Weekend Bikedays breath of fresh air, new study shows
A recent Carleton University study has found that closing Queen Elizabeth Driveway to vehicles reduces particulate air pollution by 60 per cent and noise by 50 per cent. The research was overseen by Liam O'brien, a professor of civil and environmental...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Glebe rolls out accessibility upgrades
At Irene's Pub, a sign with the bar's phone number is plastered on the window. The poster lets customers know the neighbourhood pub is accessible to wheelchair users despite the step at the front entrance. “If anybody is out there, the bar is busy...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Ottawa shoppers look to buy Canadian amid trade dispute
A patriotic resolve influenced the purchasing decisions of many shoppers in downtown Ottawa on Labour Day as Canadians braced themselves for a new round of counter-tariffs in the U.S. trade war. Whether they were looking to exercise their...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Mayoral candidate vows to remove paid on-street parking across city
Mayoral candidate Alex Lawson is pledging to make paid on-street parking a thing of the past in Ottawa if he's elected in the fall. After watching local businesses lose out on revenue due to evolving street-parking regulations across the city over the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Ottawa 200: What did a day on Rideau Street look like decades ago?
Throughout time, storefronts have been a window into what a community or city can offer, according to Bytown Museum's exhibition and collections manager, Chloe Dennis. Dennis and a team at the Ottawa Art Gallery spent countless hours flipping through...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Ottawa artist cancels Boston exhibit after U.S. applies 50% tariff on work
An Ottawa artist was forced to cancel an upcoming exhibit in the United States after the latest escalation of the trade war expanded to include tariffs on Canadian artwork. Michael Harrington, an Ottawa-based visual artist, recently announced he had...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Living standards sink further behind U.S.
Canada's economic performance has fallen further behind that of the United States over the past quarter century, with the gap in gross domestic product per person more than doubling and the Americans pulling ahead on income, employment, investment and...
Read Full Story (Page 11)
NO RAIN ON THIS PARADE
Ottawa's downtown core was packed Sunday as members of the LGBTQ+ community, public figures and supporters attended the Capital Pride Parade. The parade started just after 1 p.m. at the intersection of Wellington and Booth streets. The parade...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO
For decades, Canadian governments both Conservative and Liberal sought greater economic integration with the United States, the world's spendiest buyer of imports, including Canadian energy, machinery, lumber and wheat. But now, as U.S. President...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
STUCK IN BUREAUCRATIC LIMBO
Melana Paronyan-iasinsnka's family came to Canada from Ukraine in 2022. She wants to study architecture, but Carleton University, closest to her Barrhaven home, considers her an international student. Unless she gains permanent resident status, tuition...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
`Crowd sleuthing' website suggests Sutcliffe's social posts celebrate NCC
Mark Sutcliffe often gets knocked by critics for maintaining a tightly scripted public profile. The blue button-down, a politician's haircut, the unmodulated delivery of a prepared speech — this is the mayor Ottawa has come to know from Sutcliffe's...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Exhibit explores decades of drag and queer history
When Morgan Mercury looks at photographs of queer people in Ottawa from decades ago, the faces may be different and the clothes belong to another era, but something feels familiar. “This would have been us,” the local drag performer said. “It's us...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
AN UNLIKELY TRUMP CARD
Jim Hedges started a barrel-making company in the 1990s, inspired to revive a lost art. Now, at this particular geopolitical moment, small Canadian craft distillers from Vancouver Island to Eastern Ontario ask: Could barrels made from Canadian oak be...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
A PROUD DANCER'S NEW PERSPECTIVE
Artin Avaznia brings his Underground Pride show, with its critique of the movement's commercialization, inclusions and exclusions, and treatment of the queer BIPOC community, to Club SAW.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Sharp rise in youths seeking support for mental health
When Orléans resident Raissa Amany was struggling with anxiety and depression as a high school student, getting help was not always straightforward. Amany, who now serves on Kids Help Phone's national youth council, remembers trying to navigate mental...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
New phone, same bad cell service
One of the surest signs of camaraderie in Angela Savard's Riverside South neighbourhood isn't a smile or a wave. Friendship is measured by immediate Wi-fi connectivity, she says. “If you walk in their house and your phone connects to Wi-fi...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Byward Market authority fires its executive director
The Byward Market District Authority (BMDA) says it has terminated the employment of executive director Victoria Williston. “The Board of Directors of the Byward Market District Authority (BMDA) has decided to move in a new direction, which will...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
THE BOOZE BATTLE OVER HANS ISLAND HOLDS LESSON
Battered by fresh U.S. threats of tariffs and annexation, Canada is turning toward Europe, with speculation among some that we might one day even join the European Union. After all, Canada does share a land border with an EU country. This is the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
WHO OWNS THIS ROAD?
New cottage neighbours arrived. Then they closed the only right of way. Hundreds of pages of court filings, all over a dirt road barely wide enough for a single car, unravel what constitutes “private property.”
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Jittery residents mopping up again after back-to-back major floods
For Adrienne ten Cate, every rainy day now comes with the unwelcome ritual of running down to the basement to make sure more water hasn't managed to find its way in. After around 50 centimetres of water poured into her basement during the massive July...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Abandoned Syrian Embassy continues slide into disrepair
A couple of years have passed since Golden Triangle resident David Turnbull walked by the former Syrian Embassy and noticed some unexpected signs of life within the 100-year-old heritage building. The building had been vacated in May 2012, when...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Glitchy locker app frustrates cyclists
When Hintonburg resident Eric Warren needs to leave his bike downtown, he knows exactly where he wants to park it. Instead of locking it to a bike rack on the street, Warren uses one of Ottawa's secure public bike lockers. He considers himself one of...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Byward vendors face eviction threat
Long-standing businesses in Ottawa's Byward Market Building received notice letters from their landlord after they put up posters that the Byward Market District Authority claimed were in breach of their tenancy agreements. The posters were put up...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
A WORLD ON FIRE
Toronto and New York choked under orange and white skies. Madrid and Bordeaux had flames licking at their doorsteps. Vast forests, rural communities and ranchlands full of livestock in Western Canada and the U.S. have burned — and all in the month of...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
VENDORS BOXED IN
Sales have been poor and customer traffic low at Rahimullah Samandar's stall in the Byward Market's new Vendor Village. Frustrated merchants renting the converted shipping containers say the market authority hasn't done enough to support the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Flypast was `requested' by U.S.
The Canadian Forces says it wasn't its idea to conduct a flypast over the U.S. ambassador's residence in Ottawa on July 4 and it was only responding to a request from the Americans. Two Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 fighter jets and two U.S. F-35s...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Safety of ride-sharing questioned
When moving around Ottawa, Astara van der Jagt says, it's very common for women and gender-diverse people to plan their routes primarily around what makes them feel safest. That could mean choosing to walk on well-lit streets, even if it adds 10...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Craig Henry park stabbing raises fears of increasing Islamophobia in the area
Though a man was stabbed in Nepean's Craig Henry Park on July 23 when intervening in an argument between young girls, Deidre Guy isn't worried about her neighbourhood's safety. What concerns the Craig Henry neighbourhood resident most after the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Ironman athletes and supporters don't let soggy weather stop them
It was a long day in the rain for the Ironman athletes. As if swimming almost four kilometres, cycling more than 180 km and then capping it all with a 42.2 km run wasn't ridiculous enough, participants in Sunday's Ironman Canada-ottawa sloshed through...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
CHELSEA'S MIDAS TOUCH
When Manuela Teixeira bought the Chelsea Pub almost two decades ago, it needed a big makeover. It was about time. For that matter, that heritage building on Old Chelsea Road had undergone multiple transformations during the previous 130 or so years....
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Ottawa emergency services transition to Next Generation 9-1-1 network
Most Ottawa residents won't notice anything different the next time they call 911. Operators will still answer the phone, ask where the emergency is and dispatch first responders, as they always have. But behind the scenes Ottawa has joined...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
With no central terminal in Ottawa anymore, are we missing the bus on intercity travel?
When Charles Anderson and his son Matthew decided to take the bus from Ottawa to Montreal recently, they first got a lift from their homes in Pakenham to Laurier Avenue and Waller Street, where Charles expected to find a proper bus station. Instead,...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Volunteers dig in for battle against invasive plants in city's parks, forests
The Clyde Bee and Butterfly Patch is a labour of love for volunteers like Sharon Boddy and Nora Lee. Up to three times a week, they tend to the 2,000 square-foot garden alongside a small group of volunteers, removing invasive plants and replacing them...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
THOM'S GOLD MEDAL SHINES AGAIN IN PARK
When I sat with Linda Thom in the Old Ottawa South park that honours her last May, the mood was hardly celebratory. The replica medal commemorating Thom's Olympic gold in women's pistol shooting at the 1984 Los Angeles Games had seen far better days —...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
CBSA PLANS REVIEW AFTER $13.2M COCAINE CASE TOSSED
Canada's border agency says it is considering policy changes after a Windsor, Ont., judge dismissed a $13.2-million cocaine-smuggling case over what she called “egregious” violations of a truck driver's Charter rights. The ruling found border officers...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
MAKING YOUR MEDICINE
Renu Pillay is owner and pharmacist at a compounding pharmacy in the Glebe that can prepare patient-specific medications based on a doctor's prescription. As Ontario faces drug shortages, advocates say facilities like Pillay's can help fill the gap....
Read Full Story (Page 1)
How can Ottawa resolve construction season chaos?
It often seems like you can't walk 10 steps in Ottawa during the summer without stumbling across large orange and black pylons encircling a construction site. The city says it manages about 700 municipally funded infrastructure projects each year,...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
City testing street closures around schools at peak times
During drop-off and pickup, the road in front of École élémentaire catholique Des Voyageurs is a chaotic place, according to Rob Attrell, whose three kids attend the Orléans school. He remembers one day in January 2026, when, just after a snowfall,...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Meet the new CEO of the Ottawa Food Bank, who faces challenge of unprecedented demand
As the devastating derecho ripped through Ottawa in May 2022, Natalie Spooner wasn't watching the storm. She was watching Hydro Ottawa's outage map. Spooner wasn't concerned about the lights in her own home. As the Ottawa Food Bank's director of...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
That's a wrap on Bluesfest 2026
In a year when festivals around the world are paring down or going under, Ottawa Bluesfest has just wrapped up one of the most successful editions in its 32-year history. “Every night has been very successful,” said Bluesfest CEO and co-founder Mark...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
INTERNAL TRADE BARRIERS STILL COSTING CANADA: CFIB
A leading business group is giving some provinces and the federal government good grades for trying to break down Canada's costly internal trade obstacles, even as those barriers continue to cost Canadians billions of dollars a year. In its annual...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
ANSWERING THE CALL
The DJS are spinning tucked away at Bluesfest along the river somewhere between the RBC Main Stage and the River stage in a self-described “Big Chill” zone, but the vibes through the night could get anything but chill. The Sleepwell Big Chill is an...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Bluesfest fans sing along and squeal for Conan Gray's whimsy-filled show
Bluesfest resumed Wednesday after a two-day break, rising back to life with a slice of emotional pop fare headlined by Conan Gray, a 27-year-old musician who's already an icon to his devoted following. The thousands of fans in the crowd sang, bounced...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Ottawa colon cancer survivor applauds province's earlier screening as lifesaver
For Michael Groves, what began as stomach pain turned into a diagnosis that changed his life. The then-49-year-old thought he might have appendicitis when he went to the emergency room in early 2021. A scan ruled that out, and after the pain subsided,...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
OCDSB reverses Pride parade decision
The Ottawa-carleton District School Board has reversed its decision and will now participate in this year's Capital Pride parade in an official capacity. Capital Pride executive director Callie Metler confirmed to the Ottawa Citizen that OCDSB CEO...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
No mandatory evacuation of storm-damaged building
No hydro, no water and no food — that was the reality for Olivia Allan after the Canada Day rainstorm flooded thousands of basements and roads across Ottawa. Allan was among the hardest hit, as a resident of Park West at 30 Mcewen Ave. The 24-storey...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
SPENDING NEEDED FOR `GROWTH,' MINISTER SAYS
The federal government plans to pay for its recent big-ticket spending through a combination of economic growth and deficit increases, Finance Minister François-philippe Champagne says. Prior to officially kicking off the government's pre-budget...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
OTTAWA'S HIDDEN CRISIS
Reuben Khaemba, 23, has faced housing instability since he was 18 or 19, but didn't consider himself homeless at first. He now lives at the Ottawa Mission, but is waiting to hear about an apartment. Nobody is sure how many homeless youth are in Ottawa,...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Dad wants to see daughter's legacy keep others alive
Kevin Williamson remembers the exact moment his world came crashing down. On March 17, 2025, months of unanswered questions about his daughter's constant fatigue, unexplained pain and unusual discharge finally started making sense. The cause was a...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Storms make for tight-knit community
If extreme weather brings out any positives, Marina Petrovic says it will frequently bring her neighbourhood together. She referred to it as a sort of trauma bonding in the Graham Park community, located southeast of Bayshore. “In every big disaster,...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Can Stittsville shops survive Carp Road widening project?
After a few years of operating a food truck, Craig Beaudry and his wife, Monique Haugen, went “all in” when they opened Wiches Cauldron Sandwich Shoppe in 2023. From their hearty soups to their rotating sandwich menu, the owners like to “keep regulars...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Stittsville deli owner `exhausted' as power returned after four days
Ivan Saric rarely takes a day off. But it was while relaxing at home on Canada Day that the business owner noticed the temperatures of his walkin freezers climb. The app that helps Saric monitor temperature levels at his Stittsville meat and deli...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
OLAND MURDER STILL OPEN 15 YEARS LATER
For those who were in the packed, fifth-floor courtroom of the Saint John Law Courts on Dec. 19, 2015, it was a scene that cannot be forgotten. Dennis Oland, on trial for the second-degree murder of his dad, Richard, stood next to one of his defence...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
`I FEEL BETRAYED'
Some weeks ago, a boarded-up stretch of Bank Street went up for sale for $14.5 million. It is a storied length of downtown Ottawa — the whole of the eastern side of Bank between Nepean and Lisgar streets. Wallack's Art Supplies and Framing occupied...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Last Canada Day for country's beloved Snowbirds
For generations of Canadians, Canada Day in Ottawa has included a familiar ritual: looking skyward for red-and-white jets. With Wednesday's 1 p.m. flypast — heavy rains forced the cancellation of their 4 p.m. demonstration — the Snowbirds' iconic...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Two kids die in suspected murder-suicide
Ottawa police are investigating a suspected murder-suicide after two boys were found dead inside a home in Findlay Creek, and their father was found dead, roughly 45 kilometres away in Kemptville. Police said officers were called to a home on...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
The Clemow's noise problem is back this summer, Glebe neighbours say
Neil Pearson used to spend summer nights with his windows open and relaxing on his front deck. Now, he says, he's often forced to shut the windows instead. “We have to close our windows on the front of our house,” said Pearson, who lives near The...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
A cruel irony of the war on drugs
It took Corey Tochor three years to get to this point. The Conservative MP turned heads on Parliament Hill when, in the midst of the House of Commons' final dizzying days of passing legislation before adjourning for the summer, he emerged with an...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
TURFED FROM MARKET
Has the city, in its haste to “reimagine” the Byward Market through activations, programming, placemaking and other fashionable planning jargon, forgotten the businesses that have helped make the market worth visiting in the first place? The question...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
WORTH REMEMBERING HOW THESE DRUG USERS GOT WHERE THEY ARE
I want to tell you about an eightyear-old girl and her pet dog, Scooby. But first I want to tell you about one recent Friday. It was the day before the last of Ontario's supervised consumption sites were closed by government fiat, when people with...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
An ongoing fight for inclusiveness
Celeste Constantineau knows the amount of time, planning and preparation that goes into attending a social event. Showing up to her six-year-old daughter's “seemingly benign” after-school events meant sitting down her oldest, Evelyn Zanivan, and...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Parents sour on `sweet' school water
The walk to Fallingbrook Elementary is a short one. Two minutes tops, said Crystal Mask, who accompanies her daughter to school with her husband, Garrett Hansen, every morning. But since March, the Orléans couple has been forced to rejig their morning...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
TKACHUK FLIES SOUTH
The Ottawa Senators have traded captain Brady Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers, where he will play alongside his brother, Matthew. The team said Monday the Olympic gold medallist asked to be dealt in a meeting at his New Jersey home last month.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
FORMER EDMONTON COUNCILLOR WARNS FEDERALISTS AGAINST COMPLACENCY IN REFERENDUM
Former Edmonton city councillor and mayoral candidate Michael Walters is back on the doorknocking circuit. He's not currently running for political office. But he is travelling through neighbourhoods in the southside area he used to represent, talking...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
MORE OVERDOSES FEARED
Dean Dewar, director of the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre, says the June 13 closure of the centre's supervised consumption site means more people will be injecting harmful drugs unsupervised on Ottawa's streets. Olivia Belovich reports.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
7 YEARS SINCE REPORT
Bridget Tolley is five years older than her mother was when a Sûreté du Québec police car struck and killed her in October 2001. She remembers rushing to see her mom, Gladys Tolley, shortly after she found out, along with her family and community...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Hospital patients get house calls — from tattoo artist
On a recent afternoon in a family room on the fifth floor of the Bruyère Health Centretown campus in Chinatown — formerly St. Vincent Hospital — Hollis Peirce got his fifth tattoo. The new ink, on his right bicep, shows an opened zipper, underneath...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Homeowner stuck between a root and a hard place
Nicole Robert doesn't usually work out of Ottawa's City Hall, but now she's hunched over on the floor next to security, writing code on her laptop. Robert doesn't work for the city — she's a statistical analyst for the Medical Council of Canada. On a...
Read Full Story (Page 1)