SATURDAY, JULY 5, 2014
The annual Carnival of Cultures, a celebration of Ottawa’s vibrant and diverse community of international folk arts performers, took place at Ottawa City Hall on Saturday, July 5..
READ MORE: Photos and Video: Carnival of Cultures
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This was just one of the happenings in the National Capital area to be documented by the Ottawa Citizen’s photojournalists during the week.
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SATURDAY: Shawna Rioux and her son, 17-month old Brady, pose for a photo at the second annual BOOB (Breasts Out for Ontario Babies) celebration at Vincent Massey Park on Saturday July 5, 2014.
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Kalle Matson performs on the Claridge stage to a smattering of people midday Saturday – day three of Bluesfest at LeBreton Flats.
“I live my life with a confident doubt,” sang Kalle Mattson at the Claridge Homes stage in the early afternoon. The line is from the Ottawa-based folk/roots musician’s song Avalanche and pretty much captures what the 23-year-old’s music — and presumably the man himself — is about: a blend of ambivalence and certainty, trepidation and determination.
That mix, a reasonable one in a crazed world, extends to Mattson’s vocals. His voice, occasionally reminiscent of Josh Ritter’s, is appealingly young and vulnerable, but the biting tone in songs like Hurt People Hurt People (on Saturday’s set list) gives his delivery its emotional roundness.
READ MORE: Bluesfest Review: The London Souls, Kalle Mattson
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Fans like Courtney Constable, left, and Sarah Skaare lined up to be in the front row for the Lady Gaga concert on Saturday, July 5, 2014.
Lady Gaga descended on RBC Royal Bank Bluesfest on Saturday at the centre of a confetti-strewn, laser-lit carnival that energized a crowd of some 27,000 with a relentless beat.
In essence, the tiny dynamo straddled the worlds of electronic dance music and pure pop, uniting the vast audience with her over-the-top showmanship and an irresistible string of electro pop hits deployed with the help of a guitar-heavy rock band and a parade of dancers.
In a blonde wig, angel wings sprouting from her shoulders, the New York-born superstar made her entrance atop two male dancers in scuba masks, kicking off the fun with the title track from her latest album, Artpop, the project that inspired this tour, dubbed ArtRave: the Artpop Ball.
READ MORE: Bluesfest review: Lady Gaga dazzles with pulsing, high-energy performance
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SUNDAY, JULY 6, 2014
Lee Hayes conducts the choir practice on Sunday, July 6, 2014. Hayes and the choir will be performing with Procol Harum at the RBC Bluesfest.
Take a legendary rock band, a choir of 24 voices and a symphony orchestra and you just might have the makings of one of the most unusual concerts ever at Bluesfest.
Certainly in terms of the number of performers on stage, about 80, Thursday night’s concert by Procol Harum and 50 members of the National Arts Centre Orchestra conducted by David Firman and featuring a choir assembled by Lee Hayes, late of Malaika and a respected vocal teacher, ranks as one of the most daring pieces of programming the festival has tried.
It’s hard to predict how the crowd will receive the event, but whatever the opinions, they will see something very different.
READ MORE: Classical Bluesfest: Procol Harum teams up with NACO and an Ottawa choir
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SUNDAY: Councillor David Chernushenko, left, and OSEG president Bernie Ashe hold up a sign at TD Place on Sunday, July 6, 2014.
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Ottawa Fury FC #2 Courtney Raetzman is tackled by Quebec Dynamo #15 Florence Duval during the W-league match on Sunday, July 6, 2014.
If you catch Dominic Oliveri in a talkative mood, he will confess that this year’s Ottawa Fury W-League team is special.
This weekend proved that fact. The Fury Women defeated Laval 3-0 on Saturday on the back of two Teresa Rynier goals in the opening 10 minutes and a clinching third from Kayla Adamek 10 minutes from time. That gave it the W-League Central Conference league title with two games to go.
Twenty four hours later the side eased past Quebec 1-0 on a goal from Taylor Townsend.
And you can be certain that next weekend this highly competitive team will be pumped to punish visiting Toronto for having the audacity to take the only point Fury women have conceded during the league season. A win at Algonquin on Saturday will leave the Fury with 11 wins and a draw and home field advantage against the winner of a second versus third playoff game as it bids for a final four place against the three other conference winners from across North America.
READ MORE: Ottawa Fury women twice victorious on the weekend
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Hillary Scott, left, Charles Kelley, centre, and Dave Haywood of Lady Antebellum performed on the Bell Stage during Bluesfest on Sunday, July 6, 2014.
The multi-Grammy winning country/pop group Lady Antebellum opened their headlining Sunday show with the danceable, optimistic Compass. They probably could have sung When the Saints Go Marching In and got the same wild audience response.
The trio — Hillary Scott and the charming Charles Kelley on lead vocals with multi-instrumentalist Dave Haywood on background vocals — could do no wrong. Their new single Bartender, 2011’s ode to chastity (at least in the early stages of a relationship) Just a Kiss, 2007’s Love Don’t Live Here: the sprawling crowd soaked it all up.
Even the badly mixed Dancing Away with My Heart, with the bass too loud and the vocals distorted, didn’t seem to faze Lady A’s fans.
READ MORE: Bluesfest review: Always likeable Lady Antebellum
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MONDAY, JULY 7, 2014
Cody Ceci celebrates a goal from his “team” at the Senators development camp.
The Senators development camp conducted their final 3 on 3 tournament on Monday, July 7, 2014 at the Bell Sensplex..
READ MORE: Photos: Monday at the Senators development camp
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MONDAY: Innes Ward councillor Rainer Bloess, left, and Beacon Hill-Cyrville councillor Tim Tierney say the absence of a bike lane or any other cycling infrastructure along a one-kilometre stretch of busy Ogilvie Road is the missing link for cyclists travelling between eastern and western parts of the city. And now, with the road torn up for water main repairs, is an ideal time to address the problem.
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RB Chevon Walker carries the ball up the field on Monday, July 7, 2014 as the Ottawa Redblacks have their first practice at home since losing their opening season game against Winnipeg.
The Ottawa Redblacks at their first practice at Lansdowne Park’s TD Place stadium on Monday, July 7, 2014 following their season opening game loss against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
READ MORE: Photos: Redblacks practice following loss
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His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston reviews the departure parade at the Canadian War Museum on July 7, 2014 of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members participating in the Nijmegen Marches.
Gov. Gen David Johnston reviews the departure parade at the Canadian War Museum Monday for some 200 Canadian Armed Forces members participating in the International Four Days Marches Nijmegen. The Nijmegen Marches is the world’s largest walking event, attracting civilians and the military for daily marches of 30, 40 and 50 kilometres through the Netherlands.
READ MORE: Marching off to Nijmegen
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MONDAY: Vincent Blanchette won the Alexandre de Tunis golf tournament on Monday, July 7, 2014 held at Rideau View Golf Club.
It’s not often the clubhouse leader is hoping for a pursuer to do well in order to force a playoff, but that’s exactly what happened Monday on the final day of the Alexandre of Tunis at Manotick’s River View Golf Club.
Vincent Blanchette was fresh off his low round of 70 as he waited for the final group of the day to come up No. 18. Included in that group was Stephen Fritsch, the leader after Sunday’s opening round and brother of Brad who is currently playing on the PGA tour.
Fritsch needed a birdie on 18 to force a playoff, and Blanchette was not hiding the fact that he wanted just that.
“It would be fun. I’d love to go one on one with him,” said Blanchette, a member of Pinegrove in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in Quebec’s Monteregie region.
READ MORE: Blanchette wins the Tunis finishing even par
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The new HMCS Carleton building is being constructed next to the old one near Dow’s Lake Pavilion on Monday, July 7, 2014.
A new “stone frigate” is rising near the shores of Dow’s Lake following the demolition last year of most of the original HMCS Carleton buildings.
HMCS Carleton, Ottawa’s naval reserve base, opened in 1943 at the height of the Second World War. In naval parlance, such land-based establishments are known as stone frigates.
The 70-year-old facility had been on the Royal Canadian Navy’s list for replacement for years, but the need became more urgent in 2008 when part of the drill hall roof collapsed under a heavy load of snow.
READ MORE: New ‘stone frigate’ under construction at HMCS Carleton
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Little Italy residents, assembled by Ottawa lawyer Jamie Liew, right, opposed to a developer’s plan to build a nine-storey condo on a short, narrow dead-end street, assembled for a meeting on Norman Street on Monday, July 7, 2014.
A resident set to raise her concerns about a developer’s plan to construct a nine-storey condo building on a short, dead-end street in Little Italy with Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson says his office cancelled the meeting with her.
Jamie Liew lives across the street from where Tamarack Homes wants to put up a 112-unit building, which drawings show would feature townhouses facing Norman Street and a mid-rise tower that steps up from five to nine storeys.
She and other nearby residents, as well as the Dalhousie Community Association and the Preston Street Business Improvement Area, vehemently oppose the project, which they say will add an unmanageable amount of traffic to the narrow side street and destroy the low-rise character of the neighbourhood.
READ MORE: Mayor Watson cancelled on me, upset Little Italy resident says
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TUESDAY, JULY 8, 2014
Emily Symons, Chair of Prostitutes of Ottawa-Gatineau Work Educate & Resist (POWER) following the Justice Committee hearing on Bill C-36 on Tuesday, July 8, 2014.
In 2011, Ottawa police took the unprecedented step of publicly warning local sex workers to take extra precautions because of concerns that a serial killer was targeting prostitutes.
That advice — to work in groups or pairs in well-lit areas and carefully screen customers — will be much more difficult for sex workers to follow under proposed federal legislation, the head of a group representing Ottawa prostitutes told the House of Commons justice committee Tuesday.
“Bill C-36 will put sex workers at increased risk of violence,” said Emily Symons, who chairs a group called Prostitutes of Ottawa-Gatineau Work Educate and Resist (POWER).
READ MORE: Sex work more dangerous under new law, committee hears
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Nature Canada, in collaboration with York University, the University of Manitoba and local bird observatories, began a study of Purple Martin birds on Tuesday, July 8, 2014, at the Nepean Sailing Club.
Putting a “backpack” on an unwilling purple martin is just about as tricky as it sounds. Yet Nature Canada hopes doing so might shed light on the calamitous decline in the birds’ numbers in Ontario in recent years.
“The population is just plummeting,” Nature Canada spokesman Paul Jorgenson said Tuesday at the Nepean Sailing Club, where one of the largest colonies of purple martins in the region nests in two highrise “bird condos.”
Since 2005, the number of purple martins in Ontario has dropped from about 25,000 to an estimated 15,000 today. Similar declines have been recorded across Eastern Canada and the American northeast.
READ MORE: What’s killing Ontario’s purple martins? GPS may hold clues
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#94 Monte Lewis, left, is defended by 81 Patrick Lavoie, 44 Justin Phillips, 90 Andrew Marshall and 29 Chevon Walker, right, during the Ottawa RedBlacks special teams punt kick practice at TD Place on Tuesday, July 8, 2014.
Special teams were definitely not special for the Ottawa Redblacks in their season opener, and there will have to be a marked improvement if the Canadian Football League’s newest franchise is to have any real hope of producing a better result than that 36-28 loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
The numbers don’t lie.
Despite having played just one game, the Redblacks rank last in the nine-team league in “big plays” allowed with 11, including eight returns of either 30-plus yards on punts and missed field goals and 40-plus yards on kickoff returns. No other team has allowed more than two.
READ MORE: Not so Special: Teams require some extra attention from Redblacks
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Houman Moteshareie, a PhD student from Iran, plans settle in Canada once he graduates and will be applying for permanent resident as soon as he can, in January 2016.
Houman Moteshareie says he and his wife, both Iranian citizens, want to play by Canada’s immigration rules. He says they are not trying to pull a fast one because that would hurt their chances of settling here permanently.
But Immigration has raised concerns about the seriousness of their marriage and says Elham Ali Asghari might try to remain in Canada if she is granted a visitor’s visa. Immigration has rejected two applications from Ali Asghari to allow her to visit Moteshareie in Ottawa, here on a student visa and working toward a doctorate in molecular genetics at Carleton University. Carleton is contributing $80,000 toward his studies and research.
“I know I’m in debt to Canada for giving me this opportunity … I want to serve Canada,” says Moteshareie, whose brother arrived in Canada two months ago and works as geophysicist in Calgary.
READ MORE: Adami: Immigration fears block Iranian woman’s visit to husband in Ottawa
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Filipe Faleiros, Fan of Brazilian team for FIFA World Cup 2014 watches the match against Germany at Heart and Crown in Byward market on Tuesday, July 8, 2014. Brazil lost to Germany 7-1. (James Park / Ottawa Citizen)
After Brazil’s humiliating 7-1 loss to Germany in the first of the FIFA World Cup semifinals, soccer fans could be seen trickling out of bars in Ottawa’s ByWard Market on Tuesday night, yellow jerseys slung sadly over shoulders.
But inside the Heart and Crown, where many Brazilian fans had congregated, if a person had taken a three-hour break from Twitter or television, it could have looked like a victory.
In the back, yellow-and-green-wigged fans banged on makeshift drums, chanting and singing, with big-screen televisions in the background. Drinks in hand and chatting, many of the faces no longer showed the sombre silence exhibited by most while watching the final minutes of the game. About 350 people packed in the pub’s backroom to watch the game, bar managers estimated, and many stayed after their team’s slaughter.
READ MORE: Brazil fans party on despite team’s terrible World Cup loss
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Foreigner lead singer Kelly Hansen on the Bell Stage at Bluesfest.
Bluesfest morphed into Nostalgiafest Tuesday night as three vintage acts — Foreigner, Styx and Don Felder (former lead guitarist with the Eagles) — pulled out the golden oldies. The three acts have been touring together this summer.
Foreigner, whose rocking ways date back almost four decades, headlined the main stage as fog machines worked overtime. Kelly Hansen, lead singer since 2005 and a fan of the waving-mic-stand move, open-to-the-navel shirt and flashy jewelry, led the boys through their paces on Double Vision, Cold as Ice and others.
“I see a lot of love out there tonight,” said Hansen at one point (he’d earlier forged his way down the centre aisle, slapping audience hands). It was hard to tell if all the cheese was sincere or meant to be ironic, but the audience, feeling that love, wasn’t about to quibble over details.
READ MORE: Bluesfest review: Foreigner and Styx light the fire of nostalgia
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WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 2014
WEDNESDAY: City Manager Kent Kirkpatrick answers questions as city Auditor Ken Hughes presented the long-awaited audit of the Orgaworld contract to Ottawa city council Wednesday morning, July 9, 2014, drawing disappointment and further questions from city councillors.
The controversial green-bin recycling contract with Orgaworld cost the city more than $7 million in unnecessary costs — and that figure could rise even higher in the coming years, auditor general Ken Hughes has found.
In 2008, the city entered into a 20-year contract with Orgaworld that was worth more than $140 million to handle between 80,000 and 100,000 tonnes of organic waste per year.
The contract was structured in such a way that the city had to pay for a minimum of 80,000 tonnes, even though that volume has never been reached.
READ MORE: Auditor says Orgaworld contract has $7M in ‘unnecessary costs’
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Six police departments and five Aboriginal youth groups got together to spend the day in the 14th Annual Flotilla on Wednesday, July 9, 2014. Friendship. (James Park / Ottawa Citizen)
It’s just about the most Canadian activity you can imagine. Ottawa-area police and Aboriginal youth embarked Wednesday on a friendly canoe trip down the Rideau Canal and Ottawa River Wednesday for the Flotilla for Friendship’s 14th year. Officers from RCMP, OPP, Sûreté du Québec, Gatineau, Lac Simon, Akwesasne Mohawk Police and Ottawa Police Service padded with youths participating in programs at Odawa Native Friendship Centre, Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health, Minwaashin Lodge and the Ottawa Inuit Children’s Village.
READ MORE: Police and Aboriginal youth embark on annual canoe trip
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Dana White, CEO of the UFC, delivered the keynote speech at the Canadian Sponsorship Forum held at the Westin on Wednesday, July 9, 2014.
In the beginning there were two guys in a field, says Dana White.
“Before a guy kicked a ball or hit a puck with a stick, there were two guys throwing punches and a third guy ran over to watch. I don’t care what colour your skin is. I don’t care what country you come from and what language you speak. Fighting is in our DNA. Fighting was the first sport on Earth.”
And that is the essence of what is the fastest growing sports empire in the world today.
White is the current president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship better known as UFC. The promoter features caged battles pitting male and female fighters mixing various martial arts in a sport that has captured the eyeballs of billions of viewers.
READ MORE: Dana White and UFC: Building a brand, punch by punch
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Redblacks players get pumped up at the official opening of TD Place at Lansdowne Park on Wednesday July 9. 2014.
Thousands of Ottawa Redblacks season-ticket holders got their first look at the team’s sparkling new home Wednesday night at the grand opening of TD Place at Lansdowne.
While the event was a chance for fans to tour the stadium and meet Redblacks players, it also served as a test run for team officials madly preparing for the team’s July 18 home opener.
Some season-ticket holders took public transportation, as the city had hoped, and while the Glebe was noticeably busy, traffic was still moving. Others took shuttles leaving from various park-and-ride locations throughout the city.
READ MORE: Fans, players give TD Place at Lansdowne a loud welcome
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Zac Delamont, left, cheering for Netherlands reacts at Hooley’s during the FIFA World Cup 2014 match between Netherlands and Argentina on Wednesday, July 9, 2014.
Local fans of the Netherlands soccer team gathered at Hooleys on Elgin Street on Wednesday, July 9, 2014 to watch as their team fell to Argentina in a shootout at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
READ MORE: Photos: Netherlands fans watch as team loses in shootout
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Fans of the band “Tyler, the Creator” on the Claridge Homes Stage at Bluesfest on Wednesday, July 9, 2014.
“Who the f–k threw bacon?” shouted rapper Tyler, the Creator to the raucous Bluesfest crowd below. “I appreciate it, but it’s not a f—–g stove or microwave up here.”
At his best, Tyler deals in absurdist theatre; his concerts are a rapid-pace embrace of the unexpected that’s difficult to find anywhere else at the festival. One such moment happened around mid-way through the 40-minute set at the Claridge Stage on Wednesday, when a fan chucked a store-bought pack of sealed bacon on stage.
Tyler threw the bacon back halfway through the next song, which was caught by 18-year-old Ryan Johnson. Johnson was then hauled on stage for the last few songs to jam out in awe-struck glee in front of the massive, bouncing crowd. Tyler rewarded Johnson with $50 for the bacon snag, just because.
READ MORE: Welcome to the bizarre, profanity-laced world of Tyler, the Creator
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THURSDAY, JULY 10, 2014
NDP MP Don Davies, the Official Opposition Critic for International Trade, spoke at a protest outside the Ottawa Delta Hotel on Thursday, July 10, 2014.
Protesters gathered outside the Delta Hotel in Ottawa Thursday morning where trade talks are underway among Trans-Pacific Partnership members.
Protesters held signs that said, “secret deal being negotiated here” and “stop the TPP,” while the Raging Grannies, an Ottawa-based satirical singing group, performed outside the hotel.
Canada is one of 12 countries involved in the talks, with meetings held behind closed doors.
READ MORE: Protesters cry foul at secrecy around Trans-Pacific Partnership talks
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Greg Reynolds pilots his 1940 Waco biplane over the Ottawa River and the city.
Greg Reynolds pilots his 1940 Waco biplane over Ottawa Thursday. Reynolds took the Ottawa Citizen along for the ride to promote his sight-seeing flights, which he flies from the Canada Aviation and Space Museum seven days a week. He also flies out of Carp airport on weekends. Flights can be arranged by calling 613-316-7229.
READ MORE: Open skies Ottawa
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The Band Perry – Neil, left,, Kimberly, centre, and Reid – performs at Bluesfest on Thursday, July 10, 2014.
The fresh-faced sibling trio from Tennessee known as The Band Perry may have released their debut album a scant four years ago, but they’ve already carved out a big spot in contemporary country music.
That’s thanks in large part to lead vocalist Kimberly Perry, who treats performance like a high-impact exercise class and is the high-energy group’s centrepiece. Pumping and bouncing through tunes like the big opener Done and Night Gone Wasted, she’s accompanied by brothers Neil and Reid on guitars and backup vocals and a tight backing band.
Only a curmudgeon would gainsay the Perrys’ talents, including their harmonizing on songs like You Lie, an aggressive attack on a cheating man.
READ MORE: Bluesfest review: Country harmony, and a classic shade of Procol Harum
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FRIDAY, JULY 11, 2014
Workers finish up last minute touches as the long awaited official opening of the Strandherd-Armstrong Bridge, connecting the communities of Barrhaven and Riverside South over the Rideau River, is set to take place on Saturday, July 12, 2014.
Deputy Mayor Steve Desroches says that after this weekend he’ll no longer be the only city councillor who had to leave his ward to get from one end to the other.
Nearly two decades after it was first proposed, and two years after its expected completion day, the Strandherd-Armstrong bridge will finally connect Barrhaven to Riverside South, he said.
The $48-million bridge, which connects Strandherd Drive to Earl Armstrong Road, will officially open Saturday at 1 p.m.
READ MORE: Strandherd-Armstrong bridge completion is good news for councillor
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Mark Ertel, lawyer for Misbahuddin Ahmed, speaks to reporters outside the Elgin Street courthouse after the verdict on Friday, July 11, 2014.
Misbahuddin Ahmed sat stoic and grim-faced Friday as an Ottawa jury found him guilty on two of three terrorist-related offences, ending one phase of Canada’s most extensive domestic anti-terrorism investigation since 9/11.
The 30-year-old former Ottawa Hospital technician, who had been on bail since shortly after his arrest in August 2010, was allowed to spend time with his tearful wife Alya, their three young daughters and other family members before three police officers took him into custody.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Colin McKinnon rejected a request from defence lawyer Mark Ertel that Ahmed be allowed to remain on bail until his sentencing, likely in the fall.
“Mr. Ahmed is a convicted terrorist,” said Justice McKinnon. “I never enjoy sending people to prison but it is appropriate in this case.”
READ MORE: Guilty verdict in Misbahuddin Ahmed terror trial
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Slash, featuring Myles Kennedy (vocals) and the Conspirators, perform on Friday night, July 11, 2014 at Bluesfest in LeBreton Flats.
Slash and the Conspirators played the Bell Stage at RBC Bluesfest on Friday, July 11, 2014. Later in the evening Third Eye Blind played the Claridge Homes stage.
READ MORE: Photos: Friday at Bluesfest