On February 2, at approximately 1:05 p.m., at the 2200 block of Riverside Drive, a suspect approached two elderly women who were walking in the area, one of whom was using a walker. The suspect assaulted both women before fleeing on foot. One of the women sustained minor injuries. The suspect is described as a White man, approximately 20 to 25 years old, with a thin build. At the time of the incident, he was wearing sunglasses, a dark tuque, a blue and green jacket, dark pants, and mismatched shoes, one black and one white. The investigation remains ongoing and the OPS are requesting anyone with information to contact Detective Vianney Calixte from the East Criminal Investigations Section. 

In March 2026, the Ottawa Police Service’s Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit (SACA) arrested and charged Donald McNeil, 42, after police launched an investigation in December 2025 with allegations of Sexual Assault and Sexual Interference involving a child from 2013 and two adults in 2025.  McNeil is charged with the following: Sexual Interference x2, Invitation to Sexual Touching, Forcible Confinement, and Sexual Assault x4. SACA investigators are concerned there could be other victims in and around the Ottawa area. Anyone with information is asked to call the Ottawa Police Service Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit.

In a related story, Constable Goran Beric was found guilty of assault and assault with a weapon in October 2023 in connection to an incident involving a man at an Ottawa Community Housing building in August 2021. He received a suspended sentence with 30 months probation. In 2025, Beric pleaded guilty to three counts of discreditable conduct and two counts of insubordination under the Code of Conduct for police. A hearing officer ordered Beric to resign from the force within seven days or be fired. Beric appealed the penalty, and a hearing was held on Jan. 15. Beric’s representative in the appeal process asked for a “range of demotion to Third Class Constable for twelve months and upon completion will be returned to Second Class Constable for twelve months and then return to First Class Constable”. In a decision released on Friday, May 8, the Ontario Police Arbitration and Adjudication Commission panel dismissed the appeal, ruling the hearing officer’s “decision on penalty was reasonable.” This outcome confirms that Williams must resign within 7 days or face dismissal. As reported by Josh Pringle of CTV, Beric earned $131,149 in 2025 while suspended.

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On April 26th, at approximately 11:38 p.m., a canine officer conducted a traffic stop near the Vanier Parkway and Highway 417 overpass for a traffic-related offence. During the interaction, the officer formed grounds to search the vehicle for cannabis. With the assistance of the Vanier/Overbrook Neighbourhood Resource Team, officers searched the vehicle and located several Schedule I substances. Among the drugs seized was a considerable quantity of cocaine.As a result of the investigation, the driver was charged with three counts of Possession of a Schedule I substance for the Purpose of Trafficking. The Drug Unit has assumed carriage of the ongoing investigation.

On April 30, 2026, the Break and Enter Unit with the assistance of the OPS Canine Unit, West Neighbourhood Resource Team and frontline patrol, arrested two suspects following another break and enter that had just occurred at an electronics retail store in Kanata. The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) launched an investigation in February 2026 into a series of commercial break and enters targeting retail stores across the city. The Break and Unit identified a pattern of thefts involving high‑value merchandise, including high‑end cosmetics and fragrances, electronics, and cannabis products. Dave Marseille, 25 years old and Sakyka Simpson, 25 years old were charged with Break and Enter, Assault Police, Wearing a Disguise with Intent, Possession of Break‑In Instruments, Resist Arrest, Obstruct Justice, and Mischief. The investigation remains ongoing, and police anticipate that additional charges may be laid as further links to other incidents are examined. Anyone with information that may assist investigators is asked to contact the OPS Break and Enter Unit.

In an adjacent story, it was recently announced that the Ontario government will be granting authority to O.C. Transpo Special Constables to make arrests. The Ontario government recently introduced amendments to the Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act, which have also been approved by Ottawa City Council in a 17 to 7 vote in February, would grant the constables the authority to stop individuals from using illegal substances on transit and in transit areas, and issue tickets or make arrests if individuals refuse to comply.

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On April 25th at approximately 6:20 p.m. a collision occurred at the intersection of Barnsdale Road and Borrisokane Road. Multiple injuries were sustained. One woman in her 70’s is in life-threatening condition. Two women, one in her teens, and one in her 30s, were transported to a hospital for treatment with minor injuries.Police would like to speak to anyone who witnessed or may have dashcam footage of the collision that occurred.

An update to a previous story regarding the Ashbourne Crescent stabbing death of a 60-year-old woman and attempted murder of another person. The Ottawa Police Service Homicide Unit has notified next of kin and can now confirm that Party Shah, 30, has been charged with second-degree murder and attempted murder. The victim has been identified as 60-year-old Farnaz Farahani, with the surviving victim having been transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The accused appeared in court on April 24. This homicide is being classified as a femicide and is the City’s first femicide and fifth homicide of 2026.On April 26th, The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) Hate and Bias Crime Unit investigated a hate-motivated incident that occurred on an OC Transpo bus on that day. At approximately 10:35 a.m., a woman boarded a bus at the OC Transpo Station located at 1360 Bank Street and began verbally confronting two passengers, uttering racial slurs and making threats. When another passenger intervened, he was assaulted. OC Transpo Special Constables attended and arrested the suspect, who was then held for the OPS until their court appearance on April 27th. The 19 year old Ottawa woman was charged with Criminal Harassment (2 counts), Mischief – interfering with lawful use, enjoyment, or operation of property (3 counts), Uttering threats (2 counts), Assault, and Breach of Peace Bond. She is scheduled to appear in court on April 30.

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Council’s public works and infrastructure committee on Monday agreed to advance a staff recommendation for a new transportation plan for the central Ottawa neighbourhood.

This includes a 12 to 15 month pilot project to create rush-hour bus-only lanes on a stretch of Bank Street from Highway 417 to the Rideau Canal. The proposal also calls for four segments of permanent bus-only lanes near Lansdowne Park.

The target start date is summer 2027.

Staff originally proposed the pilot would run 15 months, but Coun. Shawn Menard — whose ward includes the Glebe — asked for it to be trimmed to a year.

City council will ultimately decide on the length of the pilot when the proposal is brought forward for final approval.

Setting up bus-only lanes will cost $250,000, and the broader strategy — which will include what city staff call pedestrian and cycling improvements — will total $2.5 million.

Menard called the pilot a “long-time coming,” and praised staff for comprehensive consultations with businesses and residents in the Glebe.

“I think we’re in a much better spot now than we were before, and [I’m] very interested to be around, hopefully, when these results come out, and to see that proven data utilized in a good way for this streetscape.”

Transit advocates who spoke at the committee meeting on Monday largely supported the plan, saying buses running through the Glebe are often slowed by traffic along Bank

But Ajay Ramachandran of advocacy group Better Transit Ottawa called on the city to go further than having bus-only lanes in peak directions in the morning and afternoon. He warned that bus delays in one part of the city create a “cascade” effect elsewhere.

“If there are bus lanes only in the peak direction, the buses in the peak direction will still be canceled or delayed because of the non-peak direction buses,” he said.

Still, Ramachandran said it was “exciting to finally see this proposal getting close to being implemented,” and urged council to fast-track the plan to “give riders the relief they deserve during our bus reliability crisis.”

Darrell Cox, executive director of the Glebe Business Improvement Area, said his members opposed removing on-street parking spots for the bus-only lanes.

City staff said the permanent segments would eliminate 17 on-street parking spots, and the pilot project would restrict 146 spots in peak periods in the morning and afternoon.

Cox warned that most trips to Glebe businesses are made by car and making it more challenging to park could turn away customers. While there are spots available in nearby parking garages, he said the BIA’s research shows that customers overwhelmingly prefer on-street parking.

“Ensuring that the Glebe remains easy to reach is not a matter of convenience. It is matter of economic necessity,” Cox said, adding that some 80 members of the BIA signed an email petition opposing the project.

“At the end of the day, if access becomes too difficult, customers will not adapt. They will leave. If we get this wrong, we won’t just lose parking spaces, we lose businesses.”

Responding to a question from the committee, Cox said there are roughly 290 businesses located between Holmwood Avenue and the Queensway, but suspected more would sign the petition if BIA members went door-to-door.

A motion from Barrhaven East Coun. Wilson Lo to make the pilot conditional on the approval of two-thirds of businesses along the strip was handily defeated. Only Lo and Orléans East-Cumberland Coun. Matt Luloff voted in favour.

Coun. Laine Johnson, who supported the pilot, said she believed the goal is “to try and unlock the potential for this site for as many people as possible.”

“Right now, different users are being shut out or avoiding it for… a whole host of reasons, and right now, the city is making an investment to try and figure out how to maximize the potential for this site,” she said.

Johnson said proposals like bus-only lanes in the Glebe are needed to ensure that city investments in transit bear fruit, likening it to buying a pricey Peloton bike but only using it to hang your clothes on.

“I think as the city we do need to start being a little less apologetic about putting transit first,” she said.

Johnson also commended staff for promising to set up a website to update residents on developments on the pilot, and asked for regular updates during the length of the project.

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The transit provider said that trains had return to running the full-length of the line between Tunney’s Pasture and Blair stations shortly before 8 a.m. on Sunday.

Trains had been halted from moving east past the UOttawa station on Wednesday after an overhead catenary cable snapped and one vehicle experienced a power issue just before Lees, the next station east of UOttawa.

Video on the day showed sparks coming from the cable.

It came after the city experienced a freezing rain storm.

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The federal government has committed to cutting the number of public service jobs by about 40,000 from a 2023-24 peak of 368,000 as it looks to find savings.

Departments and agencies across the public service have started notifying staff of coming job cuts.

Barb Couperus, a spokesperson for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat — which oversees government operations — said the office does not collect information centrally on the impact of workforce adjustment on employment equity designated groups.

Equity groups include women, Indigenous people, people with disabilities and members of visible minorities.

Couperus said heads of departments are responsible for managing their workforces.

She said departments will continue to pay “close attention” to maintaining representation and meeting their obligations under the Employment Equity Act.

The act requires federally regulated employers, including the government itself, to take steps to eliminate employment barriers and maintain proportional representation in the workplace for members of equity groups.

During layoff periods, Couperus said, departments can prioritize keeping staff from equity groups if there are gaps in representation.

Nicholas Marcus Thompson, president and CEO of the Black Class Action Secretariat, said he is “disturbed” to learn the Treasury Board isn’t tracking the impacts of job cuts.

“What that suggests is that this is not a priority for this government,” he said.

Over the past five years, the government has hired approximately 5,000 Black workers throughout the entire federal public service, said Thompson. It also has increased the number of Black executives from around 99 in 2020 to more than 220, he said.

“What we’re seeing now is that those gains are being lost as a result of workforce adjustment,” said Thompson, adding his organization has started tracking data on workforce adjustment. “Many folks have reached out to us to find out what their rights are.

“Usually with workforce adjustment, the first to go are folks that were the last to come … So far our data is showing that, despite these equity gains, it’s now turning out to be equity losses.”

Thompson said his organization wants to see the government require equity impact assessments before workforce adjustment decisions are made. It also wants the government to be transparent about the process and publish data on which demographics are being affected.

Rabia Khedr, national director of Disability Without Poverty, said people with disabilities working in the public service will be feeling anxious.

“Generally speaking, a lot of times people with disabilities may be at an entry level position, so that makes them vulnerable,” said Khedr.

The most recent employment equity report for the public service says that as of March 2024, 9.7 per cent of federal executives were people with disabilities, up from 4.6 per cent in March 2019.

Khedr also said she’s unhappy about the lack of central tracking of the impacts of job cuts on equity groups.

“That then leaves it to the individual leadership within departments to make those critical decisions,” she said.

“It really depends on the leadership and their commitment to diversity and inclusion … There’s a risk that equity-denied groups might be more vulnerable in terms of who gets cut and who stays.”

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The plan focuses on enhancing security, improving pedestrian spaces and revitalizing the main market building at 55 ByWard Square.

While business owners are largely supportive of these changes, there’s some concern over whether any of this will come to be.

In an interview with the Ottawa Compass, Deek Labelle, the owner of the  Chateau Lafayette, the city’s oldest pub and a staple of the Market, said there’s optimism about the proposed improvements but she would like to see action first.

“They have been talking about this revitalization for 10 years now, they have put some money on the table, but there has been no plan to actually start doing the work,” said Labelle.

Labelle’s hardly alone.

David Mangano, a co-owner of The Grand, one of the Market’s most well-known restaurants, said support from the city for businesses has dried up and called on city hall to listen to those who have a stake in the area.

Still, he’s hopeful about what comes next.

“It’s good to see programs coming into place it’s long overdue,” said Mangando.

Sueling Ching, the CEO and president of the Ottawa Board Trade, said while there have been promises of revitalization in the past, the pandemic and its after-effects have slowed down plans.

But she credited the city for working collaboratively with key partners on this latest effort, pointing to efforts to reach out to the Ottawa police, social housing providers and the Royal mental health hospital to address issues such as chronic homelessness and mental health.

“I’m actually very proud of our civic and private sector leaders for working together, and I believe it’s a competitive edge and should give confidence to our business owners and to our community as a whole,” said Ching.

Coun. Stéphanie Plante, who represents the Market and surrounding neighbourhoods at city hall, said this latest plan has to go beyond platitudes and start delivering results.

“Residents and business owners have been patient. They deserve timelines and transparency, not just frameworks,” she said in a statement.

City council’s finance and corporate services committee will discuss the plan in March.

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Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe announced the strategy at an event at the Rogers Centre on Thursday, promising investments to pedestrianize streets in the neighbourhood, revitalize public spaces and address concerns around safety. 

“When people hear that we’re talking about creating new attractions, new spaces, that’s going to attract more private sector investment, and it’s going to bring more people to the market,” Sutcliffe said, adding the new plan would make sure “people are feeling safer going to the Byward Market.”

The Market, as it’s known to residents, is one of Ottawa’s busy tourist haunts, known for its produce and gift vendors in the summer and holidays, as well as its concentration of trendy restaurants and nightlife spots.

But it’s hardly immune to the challenges with crime and addictions issues seen across the country, and as the centre of the city’s nightlife, has a reputation of being rowdy on the weekends.

With the action plan, the city is looking to taking some big leap forwards on redeveloping the district in advance of its 200th anniversary in 2027.

Victoria Williston, ByWard Market District Authority executive director, said the association is already advancing plans for main thoroughfare George Street to be more pedestrian-friendly, and bringing tother social service partners, law enforcement, businesses and residents for their public safety initiative.

The city has also committed $1 million dollars over the next two years towards private security to supplement Ottawa police services. 

“The goal is to create an environment where people feel comfortable staying, not just passing through,” Williston said. 

Social challenges 

Aside from the progress in building more businesses in the market, Sutcliffe acknowledged there are social challenges in the Market the city has yet to address. 

The district is home to some of the city’s largest homeless shelters.

Sutcliffe said the city has taken steps to build more transitional housing beds in other parts of the city to “reduce the pressure on Byward Market.”

According to the city’s Point In Time Count, 2,952 people experienced homelessness in October 2024 in one night. 

Sutcliffe added that ByWard Market can’t be fully revitalized until the city has provided solutions to people who are suffering from the drug crisis. 

Coun. Stéphanie Plante, who represents the district at city hall, had a more measured response to the unveiling. She raised concerns about governance, transparency and the nearly $200-million capital assumptions underlying the proposal. 

In an interview with iPolitics, Plante said that while she’s “happy that there’s a plan,” the city still needs an “actual strategy” to address placemaking and safety. 

Specifically, Plante said the city must confront the concentration of “low barrier” services in the area, such as shelters, injection sites, and day programs. She said transitional housing alone does not address the needs of the broader population experiencing homelessness, as it typically serves people who meet specific eligibility criteria. 

“Nothing will change until we spread out social services,” Plante said. 

When asked how having private security could help revitalize the ByWard Market, Plante said the city needs to deal with the core issues by addressing community needs. 

“We have parks, libraries, schools spread out all over the city, because there’s a need everywhere for those services. We have to look at social services in that same capacity,” she said. 

In a statement emailed to iPolitics, the Ottawa Police Service said they are developing a downtown core safety plan that aims to strengthen visible policing and enhance prevention efforts. 

“This plan builds on existing initiatives already underway and will bring our operational and community resources together in a focused, sustainable approach,” Ottawa Police Services spokesperson Fern John-Simon wrote.

They will be presenting the strategy to the Ottawa Police Service Board in April. 

The plan for financing will move to the city’s financing committee in March before heading to the council. A financing plan will then be finalized in 2027.

A full report of the action plan will be released this Friday.

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The corridor between Quebec City and Toronto aims to carry up to 24 million riders annually by 2055 to boost economic growth, foster tourism and expand access to jobs by slashing travel times on dedicated electric tracks.

But as plans become clearer, so too does the need for large amounts of energy to power the line. Experts say planning needs to start now.

The proposed network would host 72 trains a day running along a 1,000-kilometre track at speeds of up to 300 km/h. It would make for a three-hour trip between the country’s two largest cities and less than an hour between Montreal and Ottawa.

Construction on the first phase between Ottawa and Montreal is currently expected to start in 2029 or 2030. Conceived as a public-private partnership, Crown corporation Alto will oversee the project while a consortium dubbed Cadence will design, build and operate the line.

Alto CEO Martin Imbleau is aware of the challenge the line could pose to already burdened power grids. But he says part of the project’s design phase now underway with utilities looks to head off any potential power shortages.

“It’s a significant block,” Imbleau said in an interview, referring to the amount of energy the line would consume daily.

“But we’re already in discussion with Hydro-Québec to make sure the capacity is there, and there’s no issue either in Ontario.” At least not at the moment.

Ontario expects electricity demand to soar 75 per cent by 2050, while Hydro-Québec aims to boost capacity by 100 per cent within a quarter century, as grids come under strain from artificial intelligence processing sites, electric vehicles and population growth.

The planned rail line would drain between one and three per cent of Ontario and Quebec’s current electrical capacity, said University of Ottawa associate professor Ryan Katz-Rosene. In percentage terms, that puts it on a rough par with steel plants or AI data centres in Ontario, or a large aluminum smelter in Quebec.

That owes partly to the sheer number of trains on the tracks — nearly twice Via Rail’s current average of 39 along the various legs of the Quebec City-Toronto corridor.

Speed plays a big role too. Approaching 300 km/h, the trains would require roughly double the energy of standard electric ones, given the power needed to reach high velocity and sustain it in the face of much greater drag.

Hence the need for high-capacity electrical substations for exclusive use by the rail line along the corridor.

Imbleau expects to build up to a dozen substations, which act as intermediaries between the grid and the railway, allowing electricity to be transmitted at different voltages.

“I haven’t done the calculations on a yearly basis, but at any one point in time we need 50 megawatts of power to supply a train running at 300 kilometres safely,” Imbleau said.

Asked Katz-Rosene: “Each of those little substations is like powering a small town. So then the question becomes, can the existing grid handle it?”

Documents obtained by The Canadian Press through an access-to-information request point to where that power will flow from.

One-third would come from Hydro-Québec and the rest from Ontario’s Hydro One, according to an overview from a 2023 study by Alto’s precursor. At that point, the project was still envisioned as high-frequency rail — with speeds of only up to 200 km/h — rather than high-speed rail and its much heftier electrical demands. But experts expect the proportions from the two provinces to remain roughly the same.

While Alto has declined to lay out a hard timeline, it has projected passenger figures for 2055. By then, many other sectors will already be guzzling energy from the provinces’ grids.

And the need for more juice is urgent. Last month, extreme cold forced Hydro-Québec to temporarily suspend its energy exports to Massachusetts. There is also less water in the utility’s reservoirs at the moment due to a three-year drought.

Once overflowing with excess electricity, Hydro-Québec has rejected several industrial development projects that would have required 21,500 megawatts of power — less than half of the rail line’s threshold — because it lacked the energy to supply them.

In Ontario, pressure on the grid driven in part by EV battery plants and data centres has caused demand projections for the coming decades to skyrocket. Industrial demand in the province is expected to grow 58 per cent by 2035, the Independent Electricity System Operator said in October 2024, marking a big leap from outlooks the year prior.

Experts say they hope the emissions reduction achieved as travellers abandon cars and planes for trains will make up for the high electricity consumption.

Construction of the rail line, with all of its attendant carbon emissions, habitat erosion and use of raw material — not least a 1,000-kilometre ribbon of steel, whose production is emissions-intensive — will take a hefty environmental toll.

“Building something of this scale requires huge amounts of ridership in order to cover those proverbial carbon costs,” said Matti Siemiatycki, director of the Infrastructure Institute at the University of Toronto.

“The way you pay off that bill, so to speak, is by having a ton of people ride this and transfer from more polluting modes of transportation,” he said.

“If it’s people shifting from the bus and the existing train, that’s actually not a huge win for the environment.”

As for financial costs, no business case specifying the precise route, budget, ridership forecast and fare projections has been presented to the public, though one is expected in the coming years.

Alto estimates the full project will cost between $60 billion and $90 billion. The government has not yet made a final decision approving funding for the entire rail line.

Hydro-Québec and Hydro One say they’ve had preliminary talks with Alto, but that specific energy use projections have not yet been made because a precise route remains to be finalized.

“Once Alto identifies its energy needs for the project, Hydro One, along with the province’s energy planner the Independent Electricity System Operator, will have a clearer understanding of potential impacts to the electricity system and the requirements to energize this project,” said Tiziana Baccega Rosa, a spokeswoman for the provincial utility, in an email.

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However, the frigid temperatures Ontarians are currently experiencing likely aren’t going away any time soon.

Environment Canada meteorologist Mitchell Meredith said cold warnings could return to large swaths of southern Ontario next Saturday as the next wave of cold air comes in.

Sub-zero temperatures in southern Ontario could stick around until mid-to-late-February, Meredith said, marking a noticeable long stretch of cold temperatures not seen in the region in recent years.

In Toronto and Ottawa, for instance, temperatures have been below freezing since Jan. 18. By the time temperatures rise above 0 C, those cities may have a month or more of continuous freezing temperatures in the books, the meteorologist said.

The current cold snap is a consequence of the polar vortex, according to Meredith, a large area of frigid Arctic air that commonly stretches south during the winter and causes temperatures to plummet in Central Canada.

Record snowfall in Toronto may also be dragging temperatures down in Ontario’s capital.

“When you get a lot of snowpack and ice on the ground, that can also help keep things cold,” Meredith said.

Some Torontonians, undeterred by the cold, have been continuing to take advantage of the snow leftover from last Sunday’s historic storm.

Nicolas Zucco, an urban planning consultant from Toronto, was armed with a red toboggan Saturday afternoon, ready to sled again for the first time since he was a kid.

Zucco said he’s been mostly staying at home amid the cold warnings but was drawn outside by mostly sunny conditions on Saturday.

“It definitely feels like the coldest winter in Toronto we’ve had for a long time,” he said. “But it’s too depressing if you stay at home.”

Toronto could see a wind chill of -25 overnight before temperatures are forecasted to warm to a high of -8 C  Sunday, Meredith said. In Ottawa, temperatures were expected to drop to -31 with wind chill overnight before rising to a high of -11 C Sunday.

As cold warnings persist in southern Ontario, Environment Canada has warned of frostbite, which can develop within minutes on exposed skin and cause numbness, a tingling sensation or swelling.

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