Sherry Morrison blames herself for her daughter’s arrest on drug trafficking charges.

Her daughter, Cassandra Morrison, is among 17 Ottawa “budtenders” who have been charged in police raids on illegal marijuana dispensaries over the last four months.

Morrison says her daughter was inspired to become a cannabis activist after she saw first-hand how medical marijuana helped her mom cope with chronic pain.

Related

• 'Budtenders' arrested for drug trafficking speak about working at pot dispensaries

Sherry and Cassandra, along with a handful of others, protested outside the Ottawa courthouse on Wednesday, calling on the federal government to move quickly to legalize recreational pot and to stop arresting people on marijuana-related charges in the meantime.

Cannabis protester Sherry Morrison outside the Ottawa courthouse Wednesday. Sherry’s daughter Cassandra was arrested at the Weeds shop on Bank Street on Jan. 31 and charged with multiple counts of drug trafficking. Tony Caldwell

Sherry’s son Taryn Morrison, 25, carried a placard reading “Let us Be Free.” He just got a job at Ottawa’s newest pot shop, Cannabis Culture on Bank Street, which opened last week.

“I felt like, why not join the movement?” said Taryn, a recreational user.

He switched in the last year from heavy drinking to just smoking pot, and says he’s much calmer. “With alcohol, I was always fighting all the time, in and out of jail. With weed, it’s been a total turnaround. I’m calmer, more relaxed.

“And the medical side is also beautiful.”

The Morrisons aren’t concerned about the quality or safety of the cannabis sold at illegal dispensaries. Most of the dried weed, oils and edible products are from illicit growers and bakers in B.C. The federal government warns the products are unregulated and may be unsafe.

Taryn said he’s more scared about buying weed from sketchy street dealers “pushing out the dime sacks” or from people in unfamiliar houses.

“When I walk into a dispensary I don’t have to deal with a criminal and bunch of his criminal friends in a house, sitting around smoking. It’s a nice, clean, safe environment.”

Two other budtenders arrested in pot shop raids also joined the protest, while another was inside the courthouse making an appearance.

“I don’t know how it’s going to go with us,” said one protester, a 21-year-old woman who was arrested at a raid of 613 Medicinals on Montreal Road in December. She was working part-time at the shop while finishing high school.

“I’ve heard, just from people talking, that they may drop the charges. I’ll probably just get a fine.”

She said she hopes to go to college next year for horticulture and eventually have a career growing cannabis. “I support legalization of marijuana and freedom of choice.”

Ottawa police have refused to release the names of the 17 people charged in the 11 raids conducted so far, saying it would interfere with their drug investigations.

But the Citizen has identified and traced the court records of seven of the budtenders, and no charges have been dropped.

Ottawa police have said they consulted with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, the agency responsible for prosecuting drug crimes, to make sure charges could be viable before any raids were conducted. They also issued warnings that the dispensaries were illegal and drug laws could be enforced.

There are about 15 dispensaries in Ottawa, and their operations vary widely.

At one of the newest shops, Trees Dispensary Society on Montreal Road, the 21-year-old clerk on duty Tuesday said he took the job because that’s all he could find. He arrived from Montreal a couple of weeks ago looking for work, and is staying on a friend’s couch. He dropped off a pile of résumés, but the pot shop was the only business that responded, he said.

“You gotta do what you gotta do. I needed the job.”

He didn’t know who owned the shop or the name of the manager who hired him. He was not warned he would risk drug trafficking charges if police raided the shop, although he knew the business was illegal.

How much is he paid? “They didn’t tell me.”

At another shop tucked into an industrial mall on Canotek Road in Gloucester, owner-operator Charlie Cloutier says he only sells “award-winning, quality products” to people who have a doctor’s note proving they need medical marijuana, or who are already signed up to buy it legally from a Health-Canada licensed producer.

“We don’t deal in recreational sales,” says Cloutier, who works in the shop himself. “I don’t hire teenagers. I’m taking the risk.

‘”I am very worried about police raids. I’ve got a family, I’ve got children. But I feel strongly about this.”

The store is a franchise of the Victoria-based Beard Brothers Society, but Cloutier says he plans to change the name and run it independently soon.

jmiller@postmedia.com

twitter.com/JacquieAMiller

A Crime Stoppers initiative aimed at getting fentanyl off the streets could soon be coming to the capital, as a deadly opioid crisis sweeps across the country.

Durham Regional Crime Stoppers launched its program Wednesday, offering a $1,000 cash reward to anyone whose tips directly result in the seizure of illegal fentanyl or its derivatives, or to the arrest of fentanyl traffickers.

Richard McMullen, president of the National Capital Crime Stoppers, confirmed a similar program will be unveiled in the coming days, with the local Crime Stoppers planning a rollout with law enforcement partners and other Crime Stoppers agencies across Eastern Ontario.

Durham Crime Stoppers will initially run its fentanyl tip line through the end of April, following initiatives in North Bay, where there was a similar campaign in late 2016, and Simcoe-Dufferin-Muskoka Crime Stoppers, currently in the midst of a two-month reward program for the Barrie area.

McMullen said that once the local Crime Stoppers initiative is launched, “We’d like to extend that timing and potentially offer a greater amount (in a cash reward).”

McMullen said the local agency will be coming out with more information in a matter of days.

According to OPP Sgt. Peter Leon, the Barrie Crime Stoppers initiative was launched partly in response to five fentanyl-related overdoses in Barrie in a single night in October. He said he expects other Crime Stoppers agencies will adopt similar strategies in the fight against fentanyl.

“I’ve been seeing an expansion of this idea happen and it’s very encouraging to provide this type of outlet for people who have information, because, ultimately, it’s about getting this drug off the street before any more loss of life takes place,” Leon said.

In Ottawa there have been a pair of high-profile overdose deaths publicized in recent weeks, Chloe Kotval and Teslin Russell.

McMullen said the local initiative is not in direct response to the recent opioid-linked overdoses in the Ottawa area, but rather to the larger issue of fentanyl and counterfeit opioids.

McMullen said National Capital Crime Stoppers has already had measurable success in taking drugs off the streets, saying “millions of dollars in street value” drugs have been seized from local Crime Stoppers tips.

Anonymous tips to the local Crime Stoppers led police to seize more than $280,000 in narcotics in last year alone in Ottawa.

“It’s a pretty significant amount if you look back from 1985 to today,” said McMullen. “That’s a significant impact to the folks who are distributing and trafficking narcotics.”

McMullen said the majority of the tipsters do not even claim their reward.

“For us, frankly, it’s not the tip that’s the big enticement, it’s (media attention) and awareness and raising the profile,” he said. “(Fentanyl) is a terrible drug and it’s made a significant impact on our local community, and it’s something we hope we can help curtail.”

— with files from The Canadian Press

ahelmer@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/helmera

Ottawa’s largest school board began the long, tortuous process of ridding itself of half-empty buildings with the decision Wednesday to close six schools in the west end of the city.

The vote comes after six months of public debate and save-our-school campaigns by parents and students.

Five schools will close in September: Leslie Park and Century, both English-only elementary schools with declining enrolment; Grant Alternative School; and D. Aubrey Moodie and Greenbank Middle Schools, which were targeted because the board has decided to get rid of that grade configuration.

“It was a done deal,” said dejected parent Gemma Nicholson, who had fought to keep Century PS open. Those students will be sent to Carleton Heights PS.

The sixth school — J.H. Putman Middle School — will close in about two years,  as soon as the province provides money to build an addition to house intermediate students at Agincourt Road PS.

Most trustees supported the closures, although they tinkered with a few details.

Several Putman parents, for instance, suggested the flow of students should not be choked off as the school awaits closure, as originally recommended.

“Our children are still there for two years,” said parent Janice Felman. “Please  don’t treat us as if the school is already closed.”

Trustees agreed to an amendment that would increase the number of students directed to Putman until it closes.

Only one school from the original staff closure list of seven was spared: Regina Street PS, which will be transformed into an alternative school with a specialty in outdoor education.

Over three evenings of debate that began last month, it was clear most trustees felt they had little choice but to close schools, given the board’s financial problems and pressure from the province, which is anxious to stop paying for empty pupil spaces.

The closures are part of a package that also includes program and boundary changes at many of the 26 west-end schools that were part of the “accommodation review.”

The changes will be disruptive for many students, but hopefully the re-arrangements will ensure the board does not have to embark on any more reviews in the area anytime soon, said veteran trustee Lynn Scott.

One of the most notable changes to programming is the expansion of three high schools — Bell, Merivale and Sir Robert Borden — to includes grades 7 to 12. Some parents had expressed concern about mixing younger students with older teenagers. Staff said renovations are planned to create space for the younger students.

At the English Catholic board, high schools already follow that configuration.

During public meetings, many parents warned trustees it would be short-sighted to close schools that may be needed later as populations shift. Others mounted passionate pleas on behalf of neighbourhood schools that have become the heart of many communities. Some parents warned they would switch to a Catholic school if it meant their kids could walk rather than being bused out of their neighbourhood.

On March 7, trustees make a final decision on whether to close Rideau High School. That debate has been divisive and emotional, with supporters warning that vulnerable kids from low-income, refugee, aboriginal, Inuit and Metis backgrounds will be hurt if the school closes.

Over the next five years, trustees plan accommodation reviews in areas across the district. Next up is a study of schools in the Alta Vista area.

jmiller@postmedia.com

Police investigating the deaths of Chris LeCouvie and his girlfriend — both found dead Monday in their Hull apartment — have told his family that the couple overdosed and had been dead for at least two days while his three-year-old son fended for himself in the second-floor unit.

“I was surprised that it was an overdose because he had been doing so good for so long and had been sober for a long time,” said sister Kelly Gould.
 
She said police told her they are still waiting for toxicology results to determine what drug or drugs caused the untimely deaths.

Chris LeCouvie.

By all accounts, LeCouvie, 33, had a troubled life, bouncing around foster homes as a child, and later jail cells as an adult. But he managed to turn his life around when his son was born three years ago.

“His son was his life and he loved him more than anything. His son saved his life and gave him purpose,” Gould said.

LeCouvie was always trying to help people even when he couldn’t help himself, his sister said.

LeCouvie and his new girlfriend, Amelie-Audrey Gauthier, were found dead Monday. The young boy was unharmed and healthy.

LeCouvie’s friends have been devastated by the news, remembering him as inspiring. 

“He lived a very rough life but in the last five years, he had turned his life around,” said longtime friend Joni Reed. “He was amazing and he really did everything for that little boy,” said Reed, who said LeCouvie was in recovery.

Though police have not yet officially determined the cause of the deaths, they have ruled out foul play and said there will be no criminal investigation.

LeCouvie had recently moved to Hull from Ottawa. 

gdimmock@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/crimegarden

The family of an Ottawa man who died in a scuba diving accident in the Dominican Republic last week is still trying to learn about Allen McGuire’s last moments of life.

McGuire, 53, was on vacation with his wife, Luanna Cappuccino, when he died in a scuba diving accident on Feb. 22.

News of his death has devastated his friends and family.

“Today is one week since he’s been gone and my days will never be the same. But I will never be alone. He will be with me forever and always,” said Cappuccino, who is still in the Caribbean, grieving with McGuire’s daughter, Victoria.

A GoFundMe campaign was launched to help the family make arrangements to bring his body home.

McGuire was found unresponsive in the water and others on the excursion tried to resuscitate him. He died from asphyxiation, his family said.

“He filled a room with joy. He was full of enthusiasm at all times … and was very loved by many,” Cappuccino told the Citizen.

She wasn’t on the doomed scuba-diving tour and has spent the past week in a desperate search for answers and has so far been unsuccessful in getting local authorities to investigate.

“Getting answers to what happened has become a battle I’ve accepted I will probably not win,” Cappuccino said.

Opioid talk leaving out one point: just don’t do it
Re: Tough talk over opioids, March 1

I read with some interest Coun. Allan Hubley’s list of ideas to harness the momentum around the community to address the “opioid crisis” in Ottawa.

Interestingly, I did not see the following concept: If the pill in your hand was not prescribed by your physician and dispensed by your pharmacist, don’t injest it, because in this day and age you stand a very good chance of being killed.

Identifying gaps, changing the Criminal Code, they all become moot when the proffered advice is followed.

Eric R. Stephen, Ottawa

Civic hospital needs a wonderful design, not just the library
Re: Let’s make the library a true architectural gem; The city must follow the correct design process, March 2

I strongly support Rhys Phillips’ recommendation that Ottawa must run an “exhilarating, open international competition for its central library, (so that) it can reignite its status as one of the country’s leading creative cities.”

An even more significant building is our $2-billion new Civic hospital; it will be built on an outstanding piece of landscape. It also needs an exhilarating international architectural competition.

Richard Asselin, Ottawa

Courthouse in L’Orignal could use some time management
Re: More judges without a new courtroom won’t clear backlog, L’Orignal judge says, Feb. 24

Last Friday’s Citizen commented on the requirement for a new courtroom to accommodate the new judge to be employed in L’Orignal. Perhaps they should consider running the proceedings in two shifts using the existing courtroom until a new one can be found. One judge could do an eight-hour shift from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the other could do a shift from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Since the situation is dire, they should try something new and this would result in no added costs for new facilities, and the savings could then be used to hire additional court staff.

The biggest barrier is likely that the justice system would have to get up a little earlier and go to bed a little later, a problem that could be overcome if there is a little good will and accommodation.

Robert John Patten, Orléans

Keep close eye on rise of right-wing populism in Canada
Re: Tories shouldn’t turn down populism road; That path heads straight to the political margins, Feb. 24

Populism, especially from the right, is inherently divisive. Its black or white reasoning can exclude the rights and expressions of minorities: you’re either with us (all that’s good for you) or against us (all that’s bad).

An elected populist government finds the checks and balances on what they feel they are compelled to do as mere annoyances, and often resort to undermining the judiciary and the opposition (“fake courts”; “fake news.”) If the governing political party can be kept onside, masked as a “movement,” in the extreme it can lead to fascism, which needs whipping boys as targets to bolster and popularize, such as certain religions, nationalities, the media and gender identity.

That is what we should be aware of creeping into Canada through the guile of certain Conservative leadership hopefuls.

Peter Haley, Ottawa

Ottawa police have reopened westbound Fallowfield Road in Barrhaven near the Via rail station after a car collided with an electrical pole.

The closure previously stretched from the Via Park Place to Holitman Drive.

The collision took place around 1 p.m., according to police. There was no word on the cause of the crash, and a police investigation is ongoing.

The City of Ottawa is revamping the way it handles ambulance dispatches after an extensive review by officials with the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.

The results of the investigation, released in November, found Ottawa’s paramedic service has “an overall, ongoing and systemic problem” that can leave patients waiting for ambulances coming from great distances, even though closer vehicles are available. The report also noted violations of rules and standards for how ambulances should be dispatched.

An update to those findings, provided to the city on Feb. 24, clarified that the city’s dispatching issues were coming at a time when the Ottawa Paramedic Service was “using all the tools available to them to dispatch the closest ambulance based on their regional knowledge, existing local operating policies, directives and paramedic service deployment plans.”

In a statement released to city council Wednesday night, Peter Kelly, acting Ottawa Paramedic Service chief, said the service will revise by Friday some of the dispatching policies flagged by the ministry’s investigation.

Ottawa allows its paramedics 30 minutes to file paperwork, restock and clean up their ambulance after dropping a patient off at an area hospital. Other paramedic services don’t have such a policy, according to the ministry. The standard down time recommended by the ministry, where an ambulance cannot be dispatched after bringing a patient to hospital, is 20 minutes. Kelly recommended the city “update” its policies.

Similarly, a city policy that prevents ambulances from being dispatched to an emergency when the paramedics are 30 minutes from the end of their shift would also be revised, Kelly said.

The ministry’s report found that the city’s current policy “does not allow for a seamless ambulance service and negates Ottawa Paramedic Service’s own mandate of sending the closest ambulance to all high priority calls.”

Kelly was not specific about how the city planned to change the policy regarding the final 30 minutes of a paramedic’s shift but said changes would be communicated to emergency responders on Friday.

“(Ottawa Paramedic Service) has agreed to comply with the direction of the (ministry), as required, and both the new … policies will be communicated to staff and implemented on March 3, 2017,” he said in his report to council.

In December, Anthony Di Monte, Ottawa’s general manager of emergency and protective services admitted that paramedics are hitting “level zero” daily, meaning that there are no ambulances within the city available for dispatch, requiring outlying municipalities such as Prescott-Russell to send ambulances to Ottawa addresses.

The news comes as the city has announced plans to hire 24 new paramedics in June. 

Ottawa’s ambulance-dispatching centre broke provincial standards when it followed provincially approved rules giving Ottawa paramedics time to recover after dropping patients at hospitals, the provincial government says.

Yeah, it’s a mess.

It’s described in the latest official report on how Ottawa has been borrowing its rural neighbours’ ambulances without paying for them. Those neighbours complained and the Ministry of Health investigated and found that yes, Ottawa has to shape up, but also that the province itself created an impossible situation that the dispatching centre couldn’t resolve.

That’s in a new supplement to a first report the ministry produced last November, based on a second-by-second reconstruction of one especially busy night last August.

“Ambulance Communication Officers (ACOs) were using all of the tools available to them to dispatch the closest ambulance based on their regional knowledge, existing local operating policies, directives and paramedic service deployment plans,” the ministry found.

The investigators found that the dispatchers pulled county ambulances into Ottawa a lot but not improperly. So far, so good. 

But “by adhering to requirements in the Ottawa Paramedic Service deployment and plan and implementing local operating policies (End of Shift and Transfer of Care) that reduce the availability of ambulance resources and restrict the ability of the ACO to assign the closest resources, the Ottawa (dispatch centre) is found to be in default of their performance agreement with the province of Ontario.”

“In default of their performance agreement with the province of Ontario.” Not so good.

Stay with me here. Paramedic services are run by municipal governments across the province, following provincial rules and under provincial supervision. Dispatch services are more of a patchwork, but the dispatching for Eastern Ontario is run out of Ottawa by a different branch of our paramedic service, under a contract with the provincial government. Dispatchers in Ottawa co-ordinate both Ottawa’s paramedics and the paramedics for neighbouring counties.

Rules set by the province say that in the interest of saving people’s lives, the closest available ambulance goes to a call regardless of municipal boundaries. If a nursing home catches fire in Bourget, ambulances from across Eastern Ontario race to help — not just because that’s the right thing to do, but because that’s the law. 

If there’s a bad car crash on Woodroffe Avenue, same thing — even if that help consists of an ambulance based in Rockland covering a call in Orléans because Orléans’s paramedics have gone west. You’re needed, you’re close, you go.

But the Ottawa paramedics have had unusual deals for extra-long recovery times after they transfer patients to hospitals — time to clean up their ambulances, restock their supplies and take care of their patient records. They’ve also had a 30-minute period at the end of each shift to return to their bases and have their ambulances prepped for the next crew, a half-hour during which they can’t be sent out to new calls. They’re on the clock but off the roster, unavailable to the dispatch centre.

(There’s a whole other set of worrying behaviours by Ottawa paramedics, too, related to stretching out those already long turnaround times. They either made long breaks for themselves or were extremely sloppy with their record-keeping about when they handed patients off, on a night when they knew the service was slammed.)

The other paramedic services the Ottawa dispatching centre handles, including those for Prescott-Russell, Renfrew, Lanark and Leeds-Grenville, have shorter turnarounds and no built-in pauses at the ends of their shifts. It’s been known for paramedics based in, say, Smiths Falls to work past the ends of their shifts to treat Ottawans while Ottawa paramedics head back to base to clock out.

Ottawa, especially populous downtown Ottawa, became a black hole for ambulances across the region, constantly called in to help on routine calls.

Earlier this year, Ottawa stopped paying for the neighbourly help because the province — again, doing sterling work — repealed a regulation saying it had to. Ottawa argues that rural ambulances are less busy than city ones. Also, big-city residents pay more income taxes than rural-county people do, and since the province covers half the cost of ambulance services everywhere, pulling paramedics into Ottawa from outside is nothing more than Ottawans’ due.

No wonder the neighbours are upset.

The city is hiring more paramedics, albeit slowly, and as of Friday, on provincial orders, it changed its rules to shorten turnaround times at hospitals and cut out the end-of-shift ghosting.

Clearly, though, there’s plenty of responsibility to go around.

dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely

Ottawa firefighters quickly got a bedroom fire under control on Friday evening at 463 Cambridge St. South.

At 5:59 p.m., Ottawa Fire Services received multiple calls about flames and smoke coming from unit 109 at the location, and a working fire was declared six minutes later. By 6:17, the fire was under control.

The Salvation Army and Red Cross were at the scene, assisting two adults and a cat.

OC Transpo also sent a bus to Cambridge Street to shelter those who had to leave the building because of the fire.

A fire investigator was also at the scene, but the cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Frontenacs 4, 67’s 0

The Ottawa 67’s are still clinging to an Ontario Hockey League playoff position despite a 4-0 loss at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston on Friday night.

The Niagara IceDogs and North Bay Battalion, the other two clubs attempting to finish either seventh or eighth in the Eastern Conference, also came up short on Friday. Niagara was no match for host Erie, losing 10-1, while North Bay fell 4-1 in Mississauga.

The 67’s (22-32-6) and IceDogs (20-31-10) remained tied for seventh with 50 points, but Ottawa, with eight games to play in its regular-season schedule, has a game in hand. North Bay (22-34-5) trails by a point and has seven games remaining.

On Friday night in Kingston, Jason Robertson had a hat trick for the Frontenacs, who went up 1-0 in the first period and 2-0 in the second en route to outshooting the visitors 38-22. Leo Lazarev was in goal for Ottawa while Jeremy Helvig was perfect at the other end of the ice.

Breaking down the remaining games for those in the three-way race for the final two Eastern playoff spots, it appears North Bay might have the most favourable schedule. The Battalion will play all their games against Eastern opponents, with none of those teams currently in the conference’s top three. Four of North Bay’s remaining seven games will be at home.

The 67’s will get five of their remaining eight on home ice and all of their games will be against Eastern competition, but they will face conference-leading Peterborough twice and No. 2 Oshawa another two times.

Niagara has home-ice advantage working for it — only one of its remaining seven will be on the road — but it still has to play Western Conference powerhouses Erie and Owen Sound, and will face off against Central Division-leading Mississauga twice.

The key matchup for the remainder of the season could be a March 12 meeting between visiting North Bay and Niagara.

Ottawa will continue with a three-in-three weekend on Saturday at 2 p.m. in TD Place arena, again against Kingston, before finishing off at home on Sunday in a 2 p.m. start against Barrie.

There is surely an art to being a spectator at the Red Bull Crashed Ice event atop the Rideau Locks this weekend.

Just don’t look to this space to find out what it is.

Here, you will only see how a well-seasoned sports writer manages to string together 800 words or so tackling perhaps the most difficult assignment he’s had in 32 years.

But first, let’s talk about the people who didn’t really have to attend the Ice Cross Downhill World Championship held next to the Château Laurier 17 days ahead of the official start of spring.

Most of them might have been there for the free Red Bull, which the younger set likes to mix with vodka. A good stiff drink would have come in handy on what felt more like a night in the middle of winter than one 2 1/2 weeks from the best season on the calendar.

Those who could actually see competitors travel at speeds of up to 70 km/hour down the steep, twisting track that took workers 10,000 hours to construct actually know the art of spectating at one of these things.

They figured out the precise time to claim a spot along the boards, which wasn’t easy. Get there early, and you risked serious frost bite waiting for the races that started at 6:30 p.m. and ended with the crowning of the junior champions about three hours later. Show up on time, or late, and at least you found a little body heat while squished like a sardine into the estimated crowd of 20,000.

But then, the only actual action you observed was the quarter of a second it took for the competitors to zip by the little opening you could find. 

And forget about getting to the finish line, which is generally a point of interest in races, right? It was blocked by a dead end of masses who couldn’t move forward and were wondering what to do next.

Now, you might think that a person from the media who was there to cover the event would have some sort of access to the winners, but you would be wrong. Reporters were turned back, too, and while winners in Saturday’s finals will get to share their stories at the podium in the Drawing Room at the Château Laurier, the only way you could talk to the best juniors was by getting to them at the finish line.

I had concerns about the organization from the moment I arrived at 5 p.m. When picking up accreditation, and stating my name clearly three times, I was told I had to sign a waiver form.

This was a first. 

“Just in case something happens, so you won’t file a suit,” said the nice young girl on the other side of the table. 

Ok, I said, knowing there was zero chance I was going onto the track.

“Can you put down a number of someone to contact in case of emergency?” the girl asked.

“Hey,” I said to Postmedia photographer Errol McGihon, “give me a number to call in case I get hurt.”

Without missing a beat, Errol replied: “911.”

I left the space blank.

Putting the pass around my neck, I bundled up and headed outside. Waiting for the races to begin, I chatted with another photographer who pulled a Red Bull out of his bag. He went to take a drink, only to find it had frozen solid. That’s how cold it was.

After half an hour or so, which was still half an hour before the action would start, I went back into the hotel. I ran into Senators centre Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who was looking for his friend “Cody.” If Ceci was as smart as I think he is, he stayed home.

A couple of minutes later I bumped into my neighbours, Darren and Lise. They stared at the pass hanging around my neck, then broke into a chuckle.

Apparently, when I said Don Brennan, it came out Melissa Lamb. Oh well, the CTV Morning Live weather host probably wouldn’t need the pass. She would have known it was too damn cold to be outside.

If I sound bitter, I’m not, really. It’s great that the Red Bull Crashed Ice is part of the 150th anniversary celebration of our country. The competitors, well, they are something else. That track looks ridiculously dangerous up close. Especially out of the starting gate, which I believe someone said was 35 meters above the Rideau Canal.

The first drop is a doozy.

Just as they are obviously very athletic, those who take part in this particular extreme sport have to be fearless. 

It would have been nice to talk to some, to find out how they got started and learn more about their backgrounds, but for that you would need access. And while they could make their way to the finish line, that was impossible for those of us who tell their stories.

Still, the Red Bull Crashed Ice men’s and women’s finals are on Saturday, and they will certainly be worth a watch. But may I suggest you do so from the comfort of your living room, as they will be televised. 

Darned if I could find someone around here who knows what channel.
 

Ottawa police officers turned into copsicles Saturday, leaping into a massive dumpster full of ice water at Algonquin College.

The third annual Polar Plunge benefited Special Olympics Ontario, with participants crowdsourcing sponsors to back their icy dip.

Law enforcement and others from around Ottawa shed their winter boots in favour of flip-flops as they climbed the frozen steps to the water-filled dumpster.

“It’s always been on my bucket list to do a polar plunge,” said participant Matt Hachey.

He said he didn’t regret doing it, while simultaneously trying to reintroduce circulation to his frozen feet.

“When I hit the water, I think my heart stopped for a second.”

The -20 C temperature seemed to affect the number of participants, but there was still a steady stream launching into the tank.

Nicholas O’Connell, the top individual fundraiser, did the jump twice.

“I just knew I had to do it because I raised $1,800 for the cause,” he said.

Several top-level officers were on the scene.

As jumpers rushed out of the tank, the paramedics on standby shouted, “Don’t touch the railing!”

Soggy jumpers leaving the bin had been sticking to the frozen metal scaffolding, the same way you got your tongue stuck to a pole as a kid.

“The worst part wasn’t even the water, it was going down the metal stairs because you stick to them,” said O’Connell.

Many jumpers said the air was so cold, the water actually felt warm.

About 105 people, the most ever, had signed up for the frigid dip, raising a total of $18,967.

“If we don’t fundraise, the athletes won’t get to compete,” said Insp. John McGetrick.

The Ottawa Polar Plunge raised $20,000 last year. All of the money goes directly to the Law Enforcement Torch Run for the Special Olympics.

Nicholas O’Connell, left, jumps with his colleague into the tank. Their third friend (background) was more hesitant. Elise Schulzke

Paramedics are on standby to give towels to the frozen fundraisers. Elise Schulzke

Two female police officers shout ‘the punishment for your crimes is to jump’ before taking the plunge. Elize Schulzke

Icicles formed instantly on the metal scaffolding after the jumpers climbed out. Elise Schulzke

The Ottawa police dive team was onsite, spending the entire morning standing by inside the massive bucket. Elise Schulzke

The dumpster was lined with a tarp before being filled with ice water.

The Ottawa Redblacks football roster remains far from settled for the 2017 season, given that the start of training camp remains several weeks away, but the Canadian Football League club’s cheerleading and dance team lines have been finalized following weekend tryouts at the Delta Hotel and Rideau Centre.

The volunteer groups will cheer/dance at all Redblacks home games at TD Place stadium. As well, team members attend weekly practices from March through November and participate in community, charity and corporate events as well as team fundraisers and team/CFL events, including the 105th Grey Cup game festivities in Ottawa in late November.

The Ottawa Redblacks Cheer and Dance team held it’s auditions at the Delta Hotel Sunday March 5, 2017. Alexandria Orr performs during the auditions Sunday.

Kayla Troughton during the Ottawa Redblacks Cheer and Dance team’s auditions at the Delta Hotel Sunday March 5, 2017.

The Ottawa Redblacks Cheer and Dance team held it’s auditions at the Delta Hotel Sunday March 5, 2017.

Katrina Vallianatos during the Ottawa Redblacks Cheer and Dance team’s auditions at the Delta Hotel Sunday March 5, 2017.

Genevieve Becker-Pepin takes part in the Ottawa Redblacks Cheer and Dance team’s auditions at the Delta Hotel Sunday March 5, 2017.

Riley Keindal in the splits during a break in the auditions for the Ottawa Redblacks Cheer and Dance team at the Delta Hotel Sunday March 5, 2017.

Lisa Lampron takes part in the Ottawa Redblacks Cheer and Dance team’s auditions at the Delta Hotel Sunday March 5, 2017. Ashley Fraser/Postmedia

Janda Shamess snacks on an apple while in the splits during a break in the auditions for the Ottawa Redblacks Cheer and Dance team at the Delta Hotel Sunday March 5, 2017.

Kayla Troughton in the middle of a crew of ladies auditioning for the Ottawa Redblacks Cheer and Dance team’s auditions at the Delta Hotel Sunday March 5, 2017.

#35 Janda Shamess during the auditions for the Ottawa Redblacks Cheer and Dance team at the Delta Hotel Sunday March 5, 2017.

Britt Shaule in the splits during the auditions for the Ottawa Redblacks Cheer and Dance team at the Delta Hotel Sunday March 5, 2017.

Caitie Campo during the Ottawa Redblacks Cheer and Dance team’s auditions at the Delta Hotel Sunday March 5, 2017. Ashley Fraser/Postmedia

The Ottawa Redblacks Cheer and Dance team held it’s auditions at the Delta Hotel Sunday March 5, 2017. Small photos of each of the girls and their numbers sat on the table with the coaches and judges.

The Ottawa Redblacks Cheer and Dance team held it’s auditions at the Delta Hotel Sunday March 5, 2017. #14 Britt Shaule along with others auditioning were cheering on some of the others as they danced.

#26 Kayla Troughton during the Ottawa Redblacks Cheer and Dance team’s auditions at the Delta Hotel Sunday March 5, 2017.

Ottawa firefighters were battling a blaze at a two-storey home on Borden Street near Crystal Bay in the city’s west end.

Fire services said residents of the home called 911 at 9:16 p.m. Sunday to report a chimney fire, then called back saying smoke and flames were inside the house.

Crews on scene said the fire had reached the roof and eaves.

In celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday, the Citizen is rolling out one fact each day for 150 days until July 1, highlighting the odd, the fascinating and the important bits of Ottawa history you might not know about.

Did you know that downtown Rideau Street was once enclosed in a giant, hideous piece of glass? The $4.2-million Rideau bus mall was one of the worst design boondoggles in the history of the city. It opened in 1983, not long after the jazzy new Rideau Centre. The enclosure extended from the front of buildings on Rideau to cover the sidewalk. Carefree shoppers were supposed to stroll there in winter. Instead, the shelter became a “grimy meeting place for teens and transients,” a place pedestrians feared to tread, especially at night. The merchants who had originally promised to pay for the mall demanded it be torn down and the street re-opened to traffic. They got their wish a decade later, when the mall was removed and carted off to the town of Perth, where it was rechristened The Crystal Palace. It’s now used for a farmers market and other events.

— Jacquie Miller

Though the term Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are sometimes used interchangeably, they aren’t the same thing. 

Dementia is an umbrella term used to describe a brain disorder characterized by difficulties with thinking, problem-solving, language or memory. It’s progressive condition that can affect mood and behaviour. Vascular disease, strokes, Parkinson’s disease, some medications and even certain vitamin deficiencies can contribute to dementia.

Related

• When they wander: The nightmare scenario if someone you love has Alzheimer's

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, however, accounting for about two-thirds of cases. Alzheimer’s is a progressive, fatal disease that destroys brain cells. It is strongly correlated to aging although there is a definite genetic link as well, though having a parent with Alzheimer’s does not guarantee that you will get the disease.

There are four stages to Alzheimer’s disease.

Early Stage symptoms may include forgetfulness, mood changes or communication problems. Often the disease goes unnoticed at this stage.

In the Middle Stage, the memory and communication problems increase and the person will begin to need assistance. It’s here that wandering begins to occur although, in some cases, the disease can still go unrecognized. The stage may last the longest and spouses and caregivers will often need help caring for their loved one.

Late Stage Alzheimer’s means the person will begin to need 24-hour care and will have a greatly reduced mental capacity. They may be unable to communicate and become ill and frail. Families face hard decisions at this stage of the disease regarding care and housing in long-term facilities or other supportive housing.

By End of Life stage, most patients are living in care facilities with the goal of providing care and comfort as death approaches.

The Alzheimer’s Society of Ottawa and Renfrew County is holding workshops The Best Friends Approach to Dementia Care with author and Alzheimer’s expert David Troxel at Germania Hall in Pembroke on Tuesday  and at St. Elias Centre in Ottawa on Wednesday. The workshops run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Registration is $75. More information is available at alzheimerottawa.ca

Source: Alzheimer’s Society of Canada

The City of Ottawa’s plan to deal with the opioid drug crisis is a model for the rest of the province and the Ontario government is ready to fund it with $2.5 million, Premier Kathleen Wynne said Monday.

“We are prepared to work with them to fund their plan,” Wynne said. “We’re prepared to make sure that Ottawa has those resources.”

“We talked about global numbers. Our public health department thinks it’s about $2.5 million to help (Ottawa) by, for instance, more detox spaces, more treatment spaces, money to give firefighters and police naloxone kits. That’s about $55,000. There are specifics like that,” Mayor Jim Watson said, speaking at Wynne’s side in Toronto.

The premier said the province will call a summit of mayors very soon to talk about opioids and will use Ottawa’s estimates for the help it needs as a starting point for working out what has to be done elsewhere.

The health unit itself is still working on those specifics, said program and project management officer Dan Osterer.

“Over the last weeks we have heard from the community that, amongst other things, withdrawal management space and enhanced education and prevention (including in schools) are needed,” he said by email. “These are important elements of the Ottawa approach, along with addressing other urgent needs such as enhanced access to naloxone, and improving real-time surveillance.”

Treatment beds, especially places with medical supervision for withdrawal that can be so severe as to be deadly in itself, are very expensive. Mostly they’re run by non-profit agencies that between them offer a patchwork of programs — short-term, long-term, specializing in women or Aboriginals or teens, and so on.

Watson was leading a mission to Queen’s Park for the day, with a loaded agenda that included touting Ottawa as a research hub for self-driving cars, explaining the revised plans for the next stage of light-rail construction, and getting Wynne to a picnic celebrating the 150th anniversary of Confederation with Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard on the Alexandra Bridge in July. Opioids are the only thing on the list that’s actively killing people.

Drugs in the opioid family — codeine, morphine, heroin, oxycodone — aren’t new. Even fentanyl, the powerful cousin to those drugs about which we’re currently freaking out, has been around for decades. What is new is fentanyl’s widespread availability in powdered form, which makes it easy to transport and to consume, and to cut into pills masquerading as pharmaceutical-quality drugs like Percocet.

There’s a minuscule difference between a dose that makes fentanyl useful as a prescribed painkiller, a dose that gets you high and a dose that shuts down your breathing, which makes it especially dangerous to people who don’t even know it’s in the pill they’ve just taken.

Dr. Isra Levy, Ottawa’s top public-health doctor, pins a sudden rise in Ottawa’s overdose deaths in 2009 on powdered fentanyl, an increase that was key in convincing him that Ottawa needs a supervised injection site for drug addicts. Most drug overdoses don’t have to be deadly as long as there’s someone around to help.

Ottawa had 36 deaths from accidental overdoses in 2014 and 48 in 2015, most of them from opioids. The health unit is still compiling figures for 2016 but Levy said last June the main reason the number of deaths was so low before was luck, plus the distribution of hundreds of kits of naloxone, an antidote drug that can reverse an opioid overdose if it’s given quickly enough.

Watson is against supervised injection sites that protect needle-drug users. He finally said last summer he’ll yield to Levy’s and the health unit’s expertise, though, and stand aside if they’re sure.

But now we’ve seen overdose deaths of teenage girls in the suburbs. Hundreds of parents packed into a room at the Kanata Rec Centre at the end of February to talk about them and their anxieties about their own children. That gets politicians’ attention.

“It is a crisis throughout the country. Certainly we’ve seen some tragic deaths in the City of Ottawa in the recent past several weeks,” Watson said in Toronto.

The federal government handles big-picture health policy, border control and criminal law, but public health is a city-level responsibility mostly funded by the provinces. Some addictions begin with legitimate prescriptions for pain, which implicates doctors, pharmaceutical companies and pharmacists. Responsibility for opioids is all over the place.

The mayors of Canada’s big cities had a conference with federal ministers a couple of weeks ago but that’s not enough.

“We also need a provincial-municipal strategy and that’s why I want to thank the premier for agreeing to call mayors together — not just of big cities, because there are smaller cities, smaller municipalities grappling with the issue of becoming addicted and not having detox or treatment facilities and literally people dying every week in the province of Ontario,” Watson said.

 dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely

There has been another bungle with the city’s new communications system, with several departments, including transit, losing radio service for more than three hours on Friday.

Denis Crete, system manager of the city’s corporate radio system, confirmed the radio service was down between 8:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m., and full service wasn’t completely restored until 1:32 p.m.

The departments affected by the radio outage were transit, the 311 centre, public works, Ottawa Public Health and environmental services.

When transit radios go down, the standard procedure involves using cellphones to communicate, just like workers did on New Year’s Eve when the “leap second” knocked out the radio system for about an hour.

The city is in between radio networks but it’s having a tough time implementing a new Bell-supplied radio system for 5,900 users across all departments, while also maintaining an outgoing radio system that’s actually past its end-of-life age.

Ottawa police and fire services will be switched over to the new system, but not until it’s stable. The city has pushed back the police and fire implementation to the third quarter of this year, instead of going live this spring. Users at the Ottawa International Airport are also expected to be transitioned to the new system later this year.

The new radio system was originally supposed to be running across all departments by July 2015.

The city is paying $5.5 million annually to Bell for the new radio system in a council-approved 10-year contract. The city has also spent $10 million for new radio equipment on the new system.

The city and Bell have been talking about the company’s responsibilities under the contract.

The city was looking into potentially activating penalty clauses in the agreement, but it’s not clear if it was pursuing compensation.

“The city is taking appropriate action within the terms and conditions of the contract,” Crete said in an email.

jwilling@postmedia.com

twitter.com/JonathanWilling

An elderly Crystal Beach couple escaped a fire that caused $100,000 damage to their home Sunday night thanks to a working smoke detector that gave them an early warning.

It’s a timely reminder to change the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, Ottawa Fire Services said Monday.

Firefighters got a 911 call from the homeowner at 10 Borden St. at 9:16 p.m. Sunday after their smoke alarm sounded.

Dispatchers told them to get out as neighbours reported heavy smoke and an orange glow coming from the home.

Firefighters attacked the fire, which broke out in the chimney and rapidly spread in part of the attic, limiting the spread to the rest of the home.

The elderly man and woman were displaced but unhurt.

Without the working smoke detector, “this scenario could have proven far more devastating,” the fire department said, noting that it dubs this kind of incident a “smoke alarm save.”

They’re taking it as an opportunity to remind people to make sure every home has working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and to change the batteries along with the clocks when Daylight Savings Time comes into force Sunday.

Fire officials also note that:

• New construction standards require that smoke alarms be installed in each room where someone sleeps, especially if there is a baby or sound sleeper using it.

• Smoke alarms should be installed outside each separate sleeping area and on every level of the home, including the basement. Larger homes may need extra smoke alarms to provide a minimum level of protection.

• New smoke alarms are available with an audible alarm and/or a strobe light.  These strobe smoke alarms have been found most effective for sound sleepers or persons with hearing disabilities.

• Test smoke alarms at least once a month using the test button.

• Make sure everyone in the home understands the warning of the smoke alarm and how to respond.

• If the alarm chirps, this is a warning that the battery is low so replace it immediately.  

• Replace all smoke alarms when they are 10 years old or sooner if they don’t respond when tested.