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Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched on Parliament Hill on Saturday in one of the largest such rallies in Ottawa since the Israeli invasion of Gaza began in October.

Waving the ubiquitous green, red, white and black Palestinian flag and banging drums, the group demanded an arms embargo and political sanctions on Israel and an immediate reinstatement of funding to the UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Work Agency.

Saturday’s March for Gaza on Parliament Hill was one of dozens of similar rallies around the world. The Ottawa march drew busloads of demonstrators from Montreal, Toronto and elsewhere. Police closed Wellington Street during the protest. Numerous fireworks were set off as well as red and green smoke grenades.

The Buddhist Congress of Canada is one of the co-ordinators of an online GoFundMe launched Friday to assist families of the victims of the mass killing of six people, including a mother and her four children, in Barrhaven late Wednesday.

“Our wish is to raise ($200,000),” organizers wrote on the post. The fund has raised about $20,000 as of Friday morning.

“The financial support for the victims’ families will be coordinated through the local Buddhist Temple (Buddhist Congress of Canada, 1481 Heron Road, Ottawa, Ontario. K1V 6A6).

Donations can be made at the site (below) or to the Buddhist Congress of Canada (BCC) by way of cash, cheques made out to BCC or by “e-transferring money to the temple’s email with a small note that it’s for this worthy cause, so that we can manually add it here.”

https://www.gofundme.com/f/an-unthinkable-tragedy-at-ottawa-mar-7?qid=28eddd4a82a424c6c14db70243c89f34

Calls to 911 started coming in at about 10:50 p.m., directing first responders to Berrigan Drive near Palmadeo Drive. It's a residential area close to two schools.

Inside, emergency responders found six people dead and one injured person, who was taken to hospital.

A spokesperson for the Sri Lankan High Commission who did not want to be identified told CBC the deceased include a Sri Lankan woman and her four children, and that the father, also Sri Lankan, survived but was injured.

[…] investigators do not believe it to be a case of intimate partner violence.

Calls to 911 started coming in at about 10:50 p.m., directing first responders to Berrigan Drive near Palmadeo Drive. It's a residential area close to two schools.

Inside, emergency responders found six people dead and one injured person, who was taken to hospital.

A spokesperson for the Sri Lankan High Commission who did not want to be identified told CBC the deceased include a Sri Lankan woman and her four children, and that the father, also Sri Lankan, survived but was injured.

[…] investigators do not believe it to be a case of intimate partner violence.

EDIT:

A previous version of this story called the incident a mass shooting, based on an interview with police Chief Eric Stubbs. In fact, it was not a shooting. The cause of death has not yet officially been released.

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said online that his city hall office was broken into overnight Tuesday, March 5, 2024. The mayor noted that it did not appear politically motivated.

It’s that dreadful time of year again! Here’s your reminder that the clocks are springing forward 1 hour at 2am Sunday morning.

The Canadian Space Agency has confirmed a west Ottawa spacecraft laboratory it calls "Canada's national facility for spacecraft assembly [and] integration" is closing at the end of March 2025.

On April 8, 2024, a spectacular and rare celestial event is set to unfold over Canada, the United States and Mexico – a total solar eclipse. As the Moon aligns perfectly between Earth and the Sun, temporary darkness will sweep across parts of the country, captivating countless spectators.

Bryden Denyes, area roads manager with the City of Ottawa, says maintenance crews remain vigilant to patch-up any road imperfection, and in 2024, have so far have filled around 27,000 potholes.

According to city data, the average number of potholes filled annually over the past three years is about 214,000. However, on a month-to-month basis, there has been an approximately 25 per cent decrease.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/7150449

Fanfiction Community Rocked By Etsy Sellers Turning Their Work Into Bound Books

Etsy sellers are turning free fanfiction into printed and bound physical books, and listing them for sale on online marketplaces for more than $100 per book. It’s a problem that’s rattling the authors of those fanfics, as well as their fans and readers.

Several sellers, easily found on Etsy and very popular, each with hundreds of five-star reviews, are selling copies of fanfiction taken from sites like Archive of Our Own (Ao3) and reselling them as bound books. The average price of these bound copies is around $149. Some sellers claim that they’re simply covering the cost of materials, while others just sell the books, usually with the fanfiction writers’ Ao3 username on the cover.