Marquis-Bissonnette, who lead the Action Gatineau municipal party, won with just over 51 per cent of the vote, narrowly eclipsing Mario Aubé of the Équipe Mario Aubé, who drew the support of 47 per cent of voters.

Rémi Bergeron finished a distant third with just under 2 per cent.

The vote was held concurrently with elections in all of Quebec’s municipalities.

Former federal Liberal cabinet minister Soraya Martinez Ferrada was elected mayor of Montreal, succeeding Valerie Plante, who opted against running for a third term.

Further east, Bruno Marchand won re-election as mayor of Quebec City.

Marquis-Bissonnette was first elected mayor of Gatineau in a June 2024 byelection, replacing France Bélisle, who resigned earlier that year citing a toxic political environment and death threats.

Quebec holds municipal elections every four years in the fall.

Voters in Ottawa and across Ontario will vote in municipal elections in 2026.

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The announcement came Tuesday morning outside the Barrie courthouse on Mulcaster Street, where tents and makeshift shelters have lined the sidewalks. Nuttall was joined by local MPs John Brassard and Doug Shipley, Deputy Mayor Robert Thomson, and councillors Clare Riepma, Craig Nixon, Nigussie Nigussie and Bryn Hamilton.

“Barrie residents have had enough,” Nuttall said.

“Since day one I have been clear that encampments are not acceptable in the City of Barrie. We are here to help those who want help and there are resources available today. If you refuse that help you cannot stay in these encampments.”

The declaration gives the city expanded authority under Ontario’s Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act to clear camps, hire contractors, and coordinate with outside agencies.

A task force, chaired by city CAO Michael Prowse or his designate, will be formed to coordinate the response to encampments, drug use and social services.

The city is also asking the County of Simcoe to open more shelter beds and review existing supports, including the option of returning unhoused individuals to their home communities.

Barrie will also press Ontario for more funding to expand shelter and social services.

READ MORE: Affordable housing coming to new Barrie rental building

The move follows a series of high-profile incidents tied to encampments, including a double homicide off Victoria Street and Anne Street South and high E. coli contamination levels in Dyments Creek which connects to Kempenfelt Bay. Cleanup is expected to take months and cost several million dollars. Other problems cited by the mayor include arson, overdoses, theft, trespassing, open drug use, assaults and discarded needles in parks.

“While I support council’s plan to deliver new space in the HART Hub, we have simply run out of time,” Nuttall said.

“The City of Barrie did not have control over this emergency until now.”

The HART Hub (Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment) supports the treatment and recovery of individuals who experience homelessness and addiction issues.

Coun. Nixon, who represents the downtown area, said the state of emergency is a needed step.

“I support the actions of Mayor Nuttall, who I believe is taking the necessary steps to assist those in need and to restore safe neighbourhoods for those hardworking, taxpaying citizens who deserve better – this is not simply putting a label on a problem,” Nixon said.

Since 2023, Barrie has tried a mix of shuttle services, housing support programs and partnerships with the county and province. Earlier this year, the city and county cleared the Berczy Park encampment, with 75 per cent of those displaced later finding housing or entering services.

Before becoming Barrie’s mayor, Nuttall raised concerns about the opioid crisis during his time as a federal MP.

In December 2018, as the MP for Barrie–Springwater–Oro-Medonte, he called for an emergency debate in the House of Commons, urging the elimination of barriers to recovery services.

In March 2019, Nuttall appeared before Barrie council to request a series of actions aimed at tackling the opioid crisis locally.

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Dr. Tim Aubry is a professor in the university’s school of psychology and senior researcher at the ​​Centre for Research on Educational and Community Services. He’s been studying homelessness, its causes and the possible solutions for decades, and he says transitional housing facilities that provide long-term housing options on a temporary basis could be perpetuating the problems, despite receiving support from the community and City.

Aubry was part of the research group that studied the Housing First (HF) approach over a decade ago and conducted a report based on engagement with 2,000 people. According to this research, Aubry says the most effective approach is to house people — permanently — and follow up with support and resources. Unlike transitional housing, which has been advertised across the country as a necessary in-between step, HF does not have a time limit for how long people can stay.

To address the ongoing homelessness crisis, the City of Ottawa has opened a new transitional housing facility that will provide temporary housing for up to 140 people. The city has leased the building at 230 Queen St. for a 10-year term to establish a transitional housing facility that will provide “temporary” accommodation for people experiencing homelessness and connect them with employment and housing resources.

“This is technically considered a shelter. It’s not permanent housing, so it sits within the shelter system,” said Kale Brown, director of housing with the city. “The way our system works in terms of who ends up going to this building is you’re assessed by your needs and then we determine a placement, working with our various shelter partners.”

The Queen Street facility will focus on newcomers to Canada but can serve anyone who meets the criteria, Brown said, and will offer supportive temporary accommodations, the building includes kitchens, dining areas, washrooms, showers, laundry facilities, lounge areas, and dedicated rooms for meetings and workshops.

Clients will also have access to settlement and employment support, housing search case management, short-term mental health crisis workers, and weekly life skills workshops

This is the second transitional housing facility for single adults in Ottawa — the other, St-Joseph Transitional Housing Program in the east end, exclusively serves newcomers seeking asylum in Canada who are experiencing homelessness.

While emergency shelters like the Ottawa Mission and Shepherds of Good Hope aim to shelter people for only 30 days, they can stay in transitional housing for up to a year until they “get on their feet”, said Brown.

The “Housing First” program and research followed 2,000 individuals as well as hundreds of service providers across Canada over two years. Across all cities, HF participants obtained housing and retained their housing at a much higher rate than the treatment as usual (TAU) group.

In the last six months of the study, 62 per cent of HF participants were housed all of the time, 22 per cent some of the time, and 16 per cent none of the time. In comparison, 31 per cent of TAU participants were housed all of the time, 23 per cent some of the time, and 46 per cent none of the time.

“The idea is to rehouse people without condition, so they don’t have to go through any kind of transitional process,” Aubry told Ottawa Compass. “This approach targets people with histories of chronic homelessness, particularly histories of mental health problems and often with addiction.”

Transitional models have been useful in the past, he said, and have been used for decades to help people transition from living in psychiatric hospitals, for example, to living independently. 

The Queen Street housing consists of sleeping “pods” with shared living spaces, allowing some independence with plenty of support and resources. But there isn’t a lot of privacy — due to the layout of the building, the pods don’t have floor-to-ceiling walls.

“What we’re seeing here in the city, I think it’s really just more emergency shelter space, just with sort of a different model,” Aubry said.

The Queen Street facility is geared towards newcomers to Canada, as is a facility on St. Joseph Boulevard, and in these cases, Aubry said transitional housing could help as people get on their feet.

But in the context of chronic homelessness, it might be a different conversation.

“Housing First involved housing and support in line with people’s needs. So it can be quite intensive, but the actual rental housing is a big problem,” said Aubry. “Many people who are homeless are on social benefits here in Ontario, and they don’t have enough money to pay the rent in the private market.”

Through Housing First programs, people can receive a housing supplement that Aubry said would “ideally” pay more than 30 per cent of rent. The problem is exacerbated by the lack of affordable housing in Ontario and extremely low vacancy rates.

The report found that HF approaches resulted in savings over time, with the most significant for the participants with highest costs at entry.

For this group, the intervention cost was $19,582 per person per year on average, and over the two-year period following study entry, every $10 invested in HF services resulted in an average savings of $21.72, the report stated.

When the report was first released, the federal government mandated communities across the country to invest in Housing First initiatives. However, in 2017, the Liberals released a new national housing strategy that placed the focus on social housing.

“There was nothing about Housing First in the strategy, so things have stalled,” said Aubry.

“If you look at the last six or seven years, we’ve grown some of the HF programs, but we really haven’t seen any kind of scaling up of them, despite the fact that we know that chronic homelessness has increased significantly,” he continued.

“We have a lot more visible homelessness, a lot more people unsheltered — they’re living in encampments, and they’re really not tied to any kind of system. And this is the kind of approach that could address that.”

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In addition to lengthy prison sentences, the Crown wants to seize Barber’s truck, which was used in the protest.

A forfeiture hearing on that matter is scheduled for Sept. 12.

Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey said Thursday she wants to rule on the mischief sentence and truck forfeiture at the same time so that she does not deliver “piecemeal” decisions.

Lich and Barber were both found guilty of mischief in April for their roles in the convoy protest, which saw activists fill much of downtown Ottawa for three weeks beginning in late January 2022 to protest vaccine mandates and other pandemic measures.

The Crown is seeking a prison sentence of seven years for Lich and eight years for Barber, who was also found guilty of counselling others to disobey a court order.

The lawyers for both Lich and Barber are seeking absolute discharges for their clients, which would mean neither receives a criminal record.

On Thursday, Lich’s lawyer Lawrence Greenspon told the court that Lich has already spent 49 days in jail and has been under strict bail conditions for the last three-and-a-half years.

Greenspon argued that his client and Barber took “unprecedented” steps by working with police and city officials throughout the protest to limit the protest’s impact.

“This is an individual who came to this city with the best of intentions, as recognized by the judge. She has been under strict bail conditions for three-and-a-half years. She spent 49 days in jail for the offence of mischief,” Greenspon said during the hearing’s lunch break.

“And if one looks at the positive impact that she’s had on the lives of many Canadians and the community service that she has continued to do, there’s absolutely no reason for her to not receive an absolute discharge.”

Greenspon read a brief statement on Lich’s behalf that simply said “freedom is not free.” Accused are given a chance to address the court during sentencing submissions.

Barber’s lawyer Diane Magas said Wednesday that she is seeking an absolute discharge for her client because he has been on bail for the last three-and-a-half years without incident.

Greenspon became emotional at times while reading from dozens of support letters submitted on behalf of his client. He read out messages from people who said the convoy protest gave them hope after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health measures they saw as government overreach.

“Tamara Lich, Chris Barber stood up for what they believed in and what many, many people — thousands of people across the country were not capable of standing up (for). And those people were inspired,” he said.

Crown prosecutor Siobhain Wetscher said during her sentencing submissions Wednesday that she is seeking stiff sentences for Lich and Barber because of the broad community harm caused by the three-week 2022 protest in Ottawa’s downtown core.

She said that she is seeking long sentences not because of Lich and Barber’s political beliefs but because of their actions during the protest.

Wetscher said that while Lich and Barber may have come to Ottawa with noble intentions, they continued to encourage people to take part in the protests even when it became impossible for them to ignore the effect it was having on downtown residents and businesses.

Greenspon said Thursday that it’s “facile and inaccurate” to say the Crown’s sentencing proposal sentence is not motivated by his client’s politics. He said Lich continually called for protesters to remain peaceful and can’t be held responsible for the actions of individuals at the demonstration.

Wetscher replied that while some people are fans of the convoy protest, it does not change the fact that it caused harm to people living and working in downtown Ottawa.

The defence raised issues with victim and community impact statements submitted by Wetscher. One of the statements came from fellow “Freedom Convoy” organizer Pat King’s case and others were sworn affidavits derived from a separate $300 million class action lawsuit filed against convoy organizers by downtown Ottawa residents.

Wetscher said that the statements are meant to capture the broad scope of the convoy’s impact.

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A lawyer for one of two leaders of the “Freedom Convoy” facing sentencing told an Ottawa court Wednesday her client should not be left with a criminal record.

Crown prosecutor Siobhain Wetscher said Wednesday she is seeking stiff sentences for convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber because of the broad community harm caused by the three-week 2022 protest in Ottawa’s downtown core.

Outside the courthouse, a few demonstrators gathered with signs that protested vaccine mandates, called COVID-19 a “hoax”, and advocated, “free Tamara”. Among them was a billboard truck owned by far-right media website Rebel News touting an LED sign of Lich, accompanied by the words, “Tamara Lich stood up for democracy. Trudeau threw her in jail.”

The focus on Wednesday was on Barber, with Lich’s attorney set to present Thursday. Inside, the large courtroom was nearly full. Some of the observers gathered carried paper Canadian flags.

Diane Magas, Barber’s lawyer, told the court she wants an absolute discharge for her client because he’s been out on bail without incident for the last 3 1/2 years. That decision would mean Barber would not receive a criminal record.

While Barber did not address the court himself, Magas said “his intention was not to harm the people of Ottawa. It was an unfortunate consequence of what occurred in the protest.”

Magas said that if Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey decides a criminal record is necessary, she wants to see Barber receive a suspended or conditional sentence to be served in his home community.

Lich and Barber were both found guilty of mischief in April for their key roles in the convoy protest, which filled downtown Ottawa for three weeks beginning in late January 2022 to protest vaccine mandates and other pandemic measures.

The Crown is seeking a prison sentence of seven years for Lich and eight years for Barber, who was also found guilty of counselling others to disobey a court order.

Lich’s lawyer Lawrence Greenspon is set to present his submissions Thursday.

Magas called the Crown’s sentencing proposal “cruel and unusual,” adding that Barber has no criminal record and is a respected member of his community.

“Considering all of the circumstances of the offence, given the fact there was no violence, the fact my client was advocating no violence whatsoever,” Magas said outside the courthouse Wednesday.

During her submissions, Magas referred the judge to several mischief sentences emerging from the massive protests that attended the 2010 Toronto G20 Summit — including one six-month sentence for a person who pleaded guilty to smashing windows in two police vehicles.

Perkins-McVey said it’s hard to draw comparisons between the G20 protests and the convoy protest because the crimes in Toronto were “old-fashioned mischief.”

She said that if someone smashes a $400 window, the damage has a tangible cost, while the damage from the convoy protest is less tangible. She said this makes for a difficult sentencing decision, one that she does not take lightly.

The convoy protest ended after the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time ever. The convoy was cleared out of Ottawa’s downtown core in a three-day police operation that began on Feb. 18, 2022.

The Crown is calling for a longer sentence for Barber because he was also found guilty of counselling others to disobey a court order related to an injunction against protesters honking truck horns. Lich was not charged with that offence.

Perkins-McVey said in her April decision that she found Lich and Barber guilty of mischief because they routinely encouraged people to join or remain at the protest, despite knowing the adverse effects it was having on downtown residents and businesses.

Wetscher said she is seeking these sentences because of what Lich and Barber did, not because of their political beliefs.

Wetscher said that while Lich and Barber may have come to Ottawa with noble intentions, they continued to encourage people to take part in the protests even when it became impossible for them to ignore the effect it was having on downtown residents and businesses.

The prosecutor said that while there are mitigating sentencing factors for both Barber and Lich, the overall effect of the protest outweighs them.

Magas also referred to the sentencing of fellow “Freedom Convoy” organizer Pat King for mischief and disobeying a court order in February.

The Crown sought a sentence of 10 years in prison for King but he was sentenced to three months of house arrest, 100 hours of community service at a food bank or men’s shelter and a year of probation.

He received nine months’ credit for time served before his conviction.

Wetscher said that while the protest was not violent, it was not peaceful. She read a summary of victim impact statements that include one from an employee of a downtown Ottawa church who talked about still feeling ill at the sight of large trucks with Canadian flags.

That drew some chuckles from the gallery.

The Crown also emphasized that although Lich and Barber may have had “innocent intentions” when coming to Ottawa, that was not how the demonstration ended.

Wetscher added that the Ottawa Police Service has reported policing the protest cost $55 million, while the City of Ottawa pegged its own convoy-related costs at over $7 million.

The prosecutor said that while Lich and Barber aren’t responsible for every dollar spent because of the protest, those cost figures give the judge a sense of the protest’s impact.

Barber attended court virtually Wednesday, while Lich attended in person.

Both Lich and Barber were found not guilty on charges of intimidation, counselling to commit intimidation, obstructing police and counselling others to obstruct police.

Perkins-McVey said intimidation carries a sense of menace or violence. She said that both Lich and Barber repeatedly called for protesters to remain peaceful throughout the protest.

As for obstructing police, Perkins-McVey said both were arrested without incident and were in custody before the main police operation began to clear downtown Ottawa.

Charges for counselling others to commit mischief were stayed at the request of the Crown.

with files from The Canadian Press

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The city has leased the building at 230 Queen St. for a 10-year term to establish a transitional housing facility that will provide “temporary” accommodation for people experiencing homelessness and connect them with employment and housing resources.

“This is technically considered a shelter. It’s not permanent housing, so it sits within the shelter system,” said Kale Brown, director of housing with the city. “The way our system works in terms of who ends up going to this building is you’re assessed by your needs and then we determine a placement, working with our various shelter partners.”

The Queen Street facility will focus on newcomers to Canada but can serve anyone who meets the criteria, Brown said, and will offer supportive temporary accommodations, the building includes kitchens, dining areas, washrooms, showers, laundry facilities, lounge areas, and dedicated rooms for meetings and workshops.

“It’s much more like permanent housing… You have an occupancy agreement where you’re there and you’re expected to be contributing towards your stay,” said Brown. “Again, this is for people who are actively, independently looking for their housing and just need a temporary place to reside.”

People well-suited to the transitional facility will require less support with addressing chronic, complex and mental health conditions or substance use. There will also be approximately 35 staff members and security, with staff on-site at all times. The facility will be managed and staffed by Catholic Centre for Immigrants (CCI) Ottawa, a local social services organization.

Clients will also have access to settlement and employment support, housing search case management, short-term mental health crisis workers, and weekly life skills workshops.

This is the second transitional housing facility for single adults in Ottawa — the other, St-Joseph Transitional Housing Program in the east end, exclusively serves newcomers seeking asylum in Canada who are experiencing homelessness.

While emergency shelters like the Ottawa Mission and Shepherds of Good Hope aim to shelter people for only 30 days, they can stay in transitional housing for up to a year until they “get on their feet”, said Brown.

There is an occupancy agreement and a “contribution fee” that clients pay in order to access the facility, because transitional housing facilities “must have a source of income,” said Brown.

The conversion project is the first of its kind in Ottawa, one that many community organizations and advocates have been working towards as the downtown core grapples with still-vacant buildings and a lack of affordable or transitional housing.

Office-to-housing conversions have largely been the talk of the town since the pandemic emptied the downtown streets and offices, but Brown said the Queen Street facility is a “unicorn” that will be difficult to reproduce.

“One of the reasons that we have pods instead of actual rooms is because once you put floors to ceiling, walls, around something, it triggers a whole set of additional Building Code things you need to do…” he continued. “So I think there’s a lot of excitement around office-to-housing conversion, but there are a lot of challenges when you’re doing really full conversion to actual residential where someone would have a lease.”

Ottawa Compass has previously spoken with JBPA Developments Inc., an Ottawa-based developer that has been working on several projects converting vacant office buildings into market housing.

While conversion to housing may seem like a no-brainer, Kevin Morris, chief financial officer at JBPA said not every building is suitable for conversion. 

Factors like layout, floor plans and the surrounding infrastructure and community all weigh in, and in some cases, it can be “easier” to just start from scratch.

“I think it’s a really promising model, and there’s a lot of interest around this, but we want folks to understand this was kind of a unicorn site in terms of having the right systems, HVAC, that kind of thing, to be able to do it,” Brown explained. “Not all office buildings are this easy to convert to some type of housing.”

Kaite Burkholder Harris is the executive director at the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa, member-based organization representing 75 agencies in Ottawa, including CCI and providing a “backbone” and “coordinated effort” to ending homelessness.

“We’re really trying to make navigating the system a better experience for the person who’s homeless or in a housing crisis,” she told Ottawa Compass. “And increasingly, we’re trying to really drive and focus on prevention and diversion to reduce the flow into shelter and into the shelter system.”

While she said the conversion of vacant buildings into transitional housing is an “awesome idea”, she echoed Brown’s concerns that it can be a very difficult process.

“Office conversions seem like a really good idea, and then when you dig into it, oftentimes, they just won’t work,” said Burkholder Harris. “And so I think it’s telling that this isn’t actually permanent housing, but that they converted it into transitional housing and a bit of a different model, because that’s what was actually doable with the building.”

In the broader conversation of ending homelessness, she said facilities like shelters and Queen Street are vital when addressing the crisis, but she points to countries like Finland where homelessness has been “functionally ended” by focusing on supportive but permanent housing.

“The next step in our community, and more broadly in the city, is certainly looking towards how we move more and more of our shelter system towards a permanent model, knowing that that is the best model,” she explained. “We’re always going to need emergency shelter to some degree, but how do we both reduce the number of shelter beds that we need in this city, increase our permanent housing, and then look at actually changing the design of shelter?”

She said research has shown that permanent housing — where people can access support but live without a time limit on their stay — is most productive in reducing homelessness by using the “housing first” approach.

“Ultimately, it would be fantastic if we’re able to make that transitional model where you can access those very specific, necessary supports at a shelter level, but it’s a more dignified context where you have a lock and key,” she continued. “So that you get that level of expertise and support to be able to move to permanent housing as quickly as possible.”

The Queen Street facility is substantially complete and is now awaiting “soft items” like dishes and linens, he said, and the City is hoping that people will move in by the end of the summer.

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“We’ve decided not to pull apart and fight, but to come together and to build. Because that’s the Canadian way,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said to thousands of Canadians gathered in Ottawa.

This year’s festivities at Ottawa’s LeBreton Flats Park got the royal treatment, with Prince Edward praising Canada’s unity and accomplishments.

“Seeing this sea of red and white, there is only one sense that I have here,” the Duke of Edinburgh said. “Today is truly a celebration of you, and your home and your land, strong and free.”

Leaders gave speeches interlaced with musical performances, Indigenous cultural demonstrations and multiple flypasts of Snowbirds military jets. The federal Heritage Department counted 8,000 people attending the afternoon ceremony.

Gov. Gen. Mary Simon told the crowd that the country is on a journey of reconciliation that began by listening to each other, by honouring the past and “holding space for the pain and resilience” of Indigenous Peoples.

“Kindness is the thread that weaves our communities together,” she said.

Canadian Heritage said more than 500 volunteers made the event in Ottawa a reality, with 80 artists performing and an estimated 58,000 people in attendance. Everyone braved high temperatures, too, Canadian Heritage added, with weather that felt like 39 degrees Celsius.

In Carney’s first national holiday since taking office in March, the prime minister touched on moments in Canada’s history of coming together, from the Battle of Vimy Ridge to the role of Gander, N.L., in supporting people whose flights were grounded after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“Our economy is being attacked by a trade war we didn’t start,” he said, alluding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s series of tariffs on Canada.

“Our values are being tested by attacks on democracy and freedoms — attacks that we must resist. And once again, as the world is becoming more divided and dangerous, Canadians are uniting.”

Carney used his speech to tout legislation his government passed to speed up the permitting of major projects, despite Bill C-5 attracting controversy from environmentalists, Indigenous groups and democracy advocates.

He called on Canadians to show the same industrious spirit that got the St. Lawrence Seaway built and 1967 Expo in Montreal, and to “build, baby, build” in the face of U.S. economic threats.

Jerome Miousse, director of public affairs at Ottawa Tourism, told Ottawa Compass that while Canada Day is always a major event for tourism in the nation’s capital, the current “geopolitical context” suggests that this year will be a “special” occasion.

“This context brings us together, and it’s conducive to a little bit more of Canadian unity, Canadian pride, and people want to celebrate that this year, I would say, more than other years, possibly,” he said. “So we’re expecting something bigger than the past few years that will bring people together.”

OC Transpo offered free ridership and extended service all day, with the LRT expected to bring a number of attendees into the events from around the city, including the various fireworks shows that were on display in nearly every neighbourhood in Ottawa.

At Ottawa Tourism, Miousse said the goal has been to encourage visitors to extend their Canada Day trips and see everything else Ottawa has to offer. Namely, the organization has been promoting the Ottawa Visitor Pass and the Canada Strong Pass, which allow families to tour Ottawa’s biggest attractions at better prices, allowing people to “curate” their experience, Miousse said.

Canada Day this year coincides with the 60th anniversary of the Canadian flag and the 45th anniversary of the official adoption of “O Canada” as the national anthem.

The ceremony also marked the 45th anniversary of Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope. Federal Canadian Identity Minister Steven Guilbeault noted that Terry’s younger brother Darrell was present, as part of a team of cyclists biking 7,000 kilometres from Vancouver to St. John’s.

He also noted the passing of “remarkable Canadians and Indigenous Peoples we lost” over the past year, including actor Donald Sutherland and the former head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Murray Sinclair.

“Their legacies live on, in the people they inspired, the change they sparked, and the Canada they helped build,” Guilbeault said.

Simon invested five individuals into the Order of Canada during the Ottawa ceremony, including actor Ryan Reynolds and musician Heather Rankin.

An evening show was set to feature artists like Sarah McLachlan, Coeur de Pirate, Brenda Montana, Dear Rogue and Alex Wells.

In Alberta, where talk of separation from Canada has dominated much of the political discussion following the Liberals win in April’s federal election, hundreds soaked up the sun on the legislature grounds in Edmonton.

“I’m proud to be Canadian and standing strong for Canada,” said Alice Rutto, who noted talk of separation is what prompted her to come out for the celebrations.

But Jack O’Brien had mixed views. While he said Canada Day is a day for “everyone to come together” and isn’t the time for independence talk, his views about Canada will be different on July 2.

“This is the time for us to celebrate Canada, correct? But if you ask me tomorrow about separation, it’s a whole different story,” said O’Brien, who lives in a rural community.

“I’m not a fan of the Liberal government and I would think a majority of Albertans are not, and to be honest, if they wanted to separate and wanted my vote, they would get it.”

In Vancouver, hundreds gathered to take in live music on Granville Island, where local shop owner Jaskiran Kaur said she was proud to see the community marking the holiday, after a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the announced discovery of graves at B.C. residential schools.

“I think Granville Island was really consciously trying to be mindful when it came to residential school survivors and the recognition of Indigenous culture,” Kaur said as she waited in line for her children to get their faces painted.

“I think that was why it’s been very toned down the past few years. And I think it coming back, across the board in the country, is very much to do with the 51st state rhetoric,” she said, a reference to Trump’s aspirations to make Canada an American state.

In front of Toronto City Hall, hundreds gathered at Nathan Phillips Square to take pictures in front of the three-dimensional Toronto sign, while enjoying live music and dance performances.

Phoenix Deluca said she drove in from Peterborough, Ont., with her friends visiting from Scotland so they could join the celebrations.

“It’s nice to show off Canada,” she said. “I’m very proud to be Canadian.”

Carlos Gama immigrated to Canada three years ago from Brazil, and said he’s spent every Canada Day since then in downtown Toronto. He said he’ll be celebrating with “poutine and other Canadian foods.”

A few blocks away at Queen’s Park, hundreds protested at an Idle No More rally, opposing Ontario’s own major-projects legislation that has drawn loud opposition from Indigenous groups.

“We have to come together. The Great Lakes are going to be dead within 10 years,” Melanie vanDam, a member of Cutler First Nation, said to the crowd through tears.

In an interview with Ottawa Compass, Guilbeault said recent months have “rejuvenated” a “Canadian sense of belonging and pride in who we are as a people and as a nation.”

“There’s a number of indicators that we’ve seen in the past few weeks and months that are certainly pointing in that direction, [including] polling numbers,” he said. “Anecdotally, the sale of Canadian flags in Quebec… is up by like 75 per cent. That’s saying something.”

During the federal election, he said “hundreds” of voters told him they would be voting Liberal, and that many who would normally vote for Quebec separatism “were saying, ‘not this time’.”

“That’s how transformational what we’ve seen in the past few weeks has been for many, many Canadians, from coast to coast to coast.”

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The protest never happened. Instead, multiple groups — including the Canadian delegation — were stopped by Egyptian authorities, loaded onto a bus, and relocated across Egypt over the course of approximately 12 hours. More than 40 Canadians were allegedly detained. Many were separated from each other and had their passports confiscated.

Kaid, 38, is a student at Ottawa’s St. Paul’s University and former president of the Student Association. She decided to go back to school in September of 2023 to study after she met a Palestinian doctor living in Toronto who shared his lived experiences with her.

Soon after, she became involved in pro-Palestinian advocacy and activism after the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023 and the war that has taken place since, particularly the most recent violence against Palestinians.

“I went back to school to contribute. And what an unfortunate way to be able to do that,” she said. “It started in Palestine advocacy. I now really hate the pro-Palestine label because it isn’t specifically about Palestine. There’s a genocide happening.

“It doesn’t matter where the genocide occurs, it just happens to be in this place that has been experiencing this for the last near century.”

Kaid grew up mostly in Ottawa, but her family is from Yemen, where her father was a diplomat throughout her childhood. Her family then came to Canada during his posting at the Embassy. And she said she was not kidding herself about what she might face in Egypt.

“People were talking about how arrogant and silly it was for us to think that we could go over there and protest, and that we would leave unharmed and safe… But I thought, ‘No, I have thought about every possible scenario before I left’,” Kaid told Ottawa Compass. “I even organized my stuff just in case something happened and Israel decided to treat us like diplomats, or Egypt decided to treat us like Egyptians, or we didn’t come back.

“Those were all possibilities that I thought were very real,” she said. “And I still felt like I couldn’t afford to not go.”

The Global March to Gaza (GMTG) was a civilian-led, international initiative to march from Arish, Egypt, to the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip in Palestine, and was intended to begin on 15 June 2025.

“The continued increase in ongoing violence is what drove many to join the march,” said Kaid. “The International Court of Justice Ruling and lack of action of governments continues to allow for killing and compelled civilians to fly across the planet.”

Protestors with delegations from around the world planned to march on foot, then establish a protest camp on the Egyptian side of the border.

“This is an active war zone, so we were not going to be doing anything that Egypt does not give us permission to do, right? That was 100 per cent clear, and it was shared and communicated clearly,” said Kaid. “If you have any ideas about doing any of this, regardless of the intent or if you want to be a hero, you don’t come.

“We were supposed to be able to march to a certain point. It was a symbolic gesture to bring awareness, to show the people in Gaza that we are willing to go to these lengths,” she continued. “We want to bring awareness to people who have been starving, haven’t had food in for weeks and weeks and weeks.” 

Upon arriving in Egypt, Kaid said she was hearing reports of delegations from Africa being stopped and sent home, but that Egyptian authorities had discouraged the protest from happening.

The group of Canadians was careful to follow rules of gathering and protest in Egypt, she said, and were not trying to cause a disruption to the local laws or culture. 

But a few days before the march was set to begin, one small group of participants, including Kaid, went to check into a hotel when they heard that another group they were travelling with had been “grabbed” by Egyptian authorities from a coffee shop.

“Somebody who was in plainclothes grabbed him by the arm… and then dragged all of them into an area where they already had other people being held,” explained Kaid. 

A member of Kaid’s group had left their passport in a bag that was now with the detained group, so they had no choice but to rejoin their friends, said Kaid.

“There’s no way we were going to leave them, and he didn’t have a passport, so we circled back,” she said. “So we went back to that place, and there were probably 100 people and police who were screaming at them and pushing them and shoving them and trying to get them onto buses.”

Kaid and a few others were speaking to Canadian and international journalists, and were told by police not to be recording or taking video, she said. 

“One of them grabbed me and dragged me, and I said, ‘it’s fine. I’ll get on the bus,’ and then he snatched my phone away, and I thought, ‘Oh my God. This is it.’ My concern was group chats with other people, what if it endangers them?” she said. “I was so much more concerned about people who were of Egyptian background, or people who didn’t have a foreign passport, or people who were in other countries that faced any similar level of repression.

“I was speaking to him in Arabic, and I think this was a saving grace, as I was able to speak to him in Arabic and even shift dialects to try to sound right so that they could relate,” she said.

Once her phone was returned to her, and people were loaded onto buses, “it was absolute chaos”. Delegations were split up among the several buses, which were filled over capacity.

She said the communication between authorities was inconsistent, and many did not know the plan or details of where passports had been placed or where the buses were headed.

Kaid’s bus made a stop for restrooms after seven hours of driving. There were no stops for food or water and people were sitting in the aisles and on top of luggage. Many did not speak English or Arabic and struggled to communicate with each other or the Egyptian authorities.

Throughout the long bus ride, Kaid reached out to the Canadian Embassy in Egypt as well as Global Affairs Canada. She said she did not receive responses to her phone calls or emails, which highlighted that Canadians were faced with an emergency situation.

She said other delegations were on the phone with representatives from their countries, like Spain and Ireland, which were providing them with advice and support.

Family members and friends of the Canadians were trying to find information from home. Kaid said many reached out to their local members of Parliament, but did not hear back. 

Kaid’s MP is Prime Minister Mark Carney, but his constituency office does not have a telephone number listed on its website.

In response to questions from Ottawa Compass, Clémence Grevey, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada (GAC), said that the office was “aware of reports that Canadian citizens were detained in Egypt” and that consular officials were in contact with local authorities.

Grevey also confirmed that all detained Canadians have been released and said that GAC works to provide emergency assistance to all Canadians while abroad.

The consular services listed on GAC’s website tells Canadians who are arrested or detained that “the nearest office or the Emergency Watch and Response Centre, which are available 24/7, will provide more details on how we can assist.” Kaid said she and the Canadians she was with tried emailing and calling, as did their families back in Canada. Nobody heard back.

The buses took detours around the country to avoid checkpoints where other protestors had been stopped and were gathering. Eventually, passengers were dropped off near an airport, but were told it was their choice whether or not to leave Egypt. 

“I don’t know that I expected that they would send planes to pick us up. But I thought, why aren’t you sending out emails that give directions or a helpline,”said Kaid. “There were a lot of people who realized if we’re going to be deported, that was the best-case scenario.

“We just needed to be given direction because there were people who were ready to leave,” she continued. “We came to do one thing, and clearly that’s not going to be a viable option for us.”

Some participants were reportedly handcuffed, taken to secondary locations and even beaten by authorities. One of the organizers of the Canadian delegation was separated from the group, Kaid said, and they were unable to contact him for 48 hours while he was being questioned.

After being dropped off on the side of a highway by a local driver and attempting to navigate the unfamiliar country, Kaid’s group was taken in by a local, with six people staying in the two-bedroom apartment until they could get flights back to Ottawa.

During Kaid’s time in Egypt, the Canadian government issued a travel advisory for “the Middle East”, which was later adjusted to specific countries, including Israel, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Iran. 

The government now recommends that anyone travelling to Egypt exercise a high degree of caution. 

Kaid said she doesn’t know if people will attempt the March for Gaza for a second time, or if the protest will take another form. She also said she’d go to Egypt again for a chance to raise awareness.

She didn’t expect miracles from GAC, but she did not feel supported while in Egypt, and said she was simply grateful that she was detained and not abused by authorities, like some other protestors reported. She also said she’d like to see more engagement from Canada on the International Court of Justice that Israel is conducting a “plausible genocide.” 

A study from Israeli academic Garb Yaakov published by Harvard has stated that more than 300,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, and that more are buried under debris or not included in reporting. This study, which was published in May of this year, allowing motivated civilians to join the march, said Kaid.

“I don’t expect Mark Carney alone to stop the genocide. I don’t think he could,” she said. “Mark Carney could run up and down the streets in a keffiyeh holding a Palestinian flag, and it wouldn’t stop the genocide.”

Rather, she said she expects Canada to use legal tools at its disposal to “uphold international law” and reflect on Canada’s international role in preventing genocide.

“The world that we engage or don’t engage in is going to be what people leave to their kids. What you allowed for other people’s kids will eventually circle back,” she continued. “And for me, this is about being Canadian and upholding our values and our identity.”

The post Ottawa student returns home after being detained in Egypt appeared first on CompassNews.

Jerome Miousse, director of public affairs at Ottawa Tourism, said while Canada Day is always a major event for tourism in the nation’s capital, the current “geopolitical context” suggests that this year will be a “special” occasion.

“This context brings us together, and it’s conducive to a little bit more of Canadian unity, Canadian pride, and people want to celebrate that this year, I would say, more than other years, possibly,” he told Ottawa Compass. “So we’re expecting something bigger than the past few years that will bring people together.”

The federal government’s celebrations will proceed “as usual” with a ceremony at midday followed by entertainment in the evening, both at LeBreton Flats Park. Sarah McLachlan is set to headline the evening festivities and both the noon and evening events will be livestreamed across the country and on screens at Parliament Hill and the Supreme Court.

OC Transpo will also offer free ridership and extended service all day, with the LRT expected to bring a number of attendees in to the events from around the city, including the various fireworks shows that will be on display in nearly every neighbourhood in Ottawa.

“It’s going to be easy for people to make it from wherever they’re staying to the site of the celebrations,” said Miousse. “We are hoping for good weather, that would be a bonus. But all in all, we’re expecting a very lively, very busy and vibrant day in Ottawa.”

At Ottawa Tourism, Miousse said the goal has been to encourage visitors to extend their Canada Day trips and see everything else Ottawa has to offer. Namely, the organization has been promoting the Ottawa Visitor Pass and the Canada Strong Pass, which allow families to tour Ottawa’s biggest attractions at better prices, allowing people to “curate” their experience, Miousse said.

While events like Winterlude and the Tulip Festival are huge attractions for Ottawa, Miousse said “different events attract different visitors,” and Canada Day tends to be attended by the domestic market more than some other events. 

“While the Government of Canada will try to attract everyone to Ottawa for the big national celebration, our role here, beyond just getting people to book in advance, is to fill the gaps once it comes to last minute decisions,” he explained. “So if our hotels are not full yet, then it’s our role to convince people to make the last-minute decision to drive to Ottawa for Canada Day and make it worth their while.

“They can come see our landmarks, our cultural experiences, our outdoors experiences,” he continued. “It’s a city that can offer a lot to people at any pace, any segment of visitors.”

After years of recovery, tourism in Ottawa is back up to 2019 numbers, Miousse said — the goal now is just to continue growing, and with July and August “trending ahead of last year,” Miousse says “we’re looking at the very busy and lively summer in Ottawa.”

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The motion tabled by Capital Coun. Shawn Menard would have put a Lansdowne referendum on the agenda for the next meeting on June 30 and allowed for public delegation on the matter. But the motion was ultimately withdrawn after debate between councillors, discussion with city staff and an opposing motion from Councillor Catherine Curry.

Curry quickly countered Menard’s notice of motion with a motion of her own that would require the matter to be discussed in the current meeting. She argued that due to the ongoing bidding and procurement process for the Lansdowne project, the City could not risk delaying the timeline by waiting until June 30.

However, Menard argued that Curry’s motion was a “transparent attempt to not have delegations come before this committee and speak to this matter.”

He confirmed with city staff that the Lansdowne 2.0 project has yet to be approved by council, a decision that will come in the fall. At that point, staff will have final financial figures tied to the events centre, North stands and air rights to inform councillors. Staff also said that a “pause” in the process could impact those numbers.

But Menard stated that his motion would not cause a pause, but instead “bring an option for information for council to consider allowing residents of Ottawa to have a say on the project.”

Councillors debated how a perceived “instability” from City Hall could impact contractors’ and bidders’ decisions in the market.

“There’s a lot of risks built in that doesn’t change the risk with this,” countered Menard. “This is obviously a transparent attempt not to have delegations come and speak to it.

“Quite frankly, I’m surprised that other councillors would do that sort of thing, and I hope that people vote against that motion…because it avoids scrutiny,” he continued. “We’ve had thousands of people sign a petition on this exact issue, and people want to be heard on this.”

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe verified with staff that public consultation had occurred at the beginning of the process — staff confirmed that the City has held two open-house sessions in-person and two Zoom meetings, attended the City’s Urban Design Review Panel four times, held targeted meetings for the Glebe and surrounding community associations and BIA, and held “robust” public delegations at these events.

Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Lieper said he “doesn’t anticipate” supporting the Lansdowne 2.0 project, but doesn’t support a referendum, either. 

The motion was passed with nine in favour and three opposed (Menard, Leiper and Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Rawlson King), at which point Menard withdrew his notice of motion, meaning that the committee did not need to debate the issue in the end.

The meeting adjourned promptly, but there has been community backlash.

Neil Saravanamuttoo, a local community organizer and executive director of CitySHAPES, reached out to the community via his Substack, the613, to garner support for a “People’s Committee” to be held on June 23.

“[Sutcliffe] is doing everything he can to prevent the public from having their say on whether Ottawa should hold a referendum before deciding to proceed with Lansdowne 2.0.,” wrote Saravanamuttoo. “Sutcliffe must be worried that, if asked a clear question, the public is unlikely to want to spend $493 million to redo the Lansdowne sports facility.”

“And so Mark pulled out all the procedural tricks to prevent the public from delegating at a City Committee on whether we should have a referendum on Lansdowne,” he continued.

Saravanamuttoo told Ottawa Compass he’s received support on the idea of a “People’s Committee”, but is still figuring out next steps.

The Lansdowne project is at the tender for construction stage and estimated to cost $437.7 million of taxpayer money, with $331.3 million being new city debt. Final financial figures will be presented in the staff report to council in the fall, at which point councillors will decide whether to officially greenlight the project.

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