Despite the recent challenges with the O-Train extension setbacks caused by storms and flooding, OC Transpo has unveiled additional details on its planned service improvements starting August 30. Changes include additional trains for increased O-Train service, a new 500-series of express bus routes, para transport system adjustments and improved connectivity between major transit hubs. OC Transpo has suggested that this comes as part of a broader strategy to handle the anticipated increase in commuter volume, in part due to the mandated return of federal workers to their offices in the downtown core.

Ottawa police are investigating after they were called to the scene of a bagpiper who was injured by a passerby, in what has been ruled to be an unprovoked attack. The incident occurred on Saturday afternoon, along Wellington Street near the Fairmount Chateau Laurier Hotel just after 4pm.  When the Police Service arrived, they found the bagpiper to have suffered a hand injury as a result of the interaction. While they arrested the suspect on the scene and assured that there was “zero risk right now for any public safety”, questions still loom around the motive for the attack in the first place.

A woman was rescued from deep mud following an incident at Rebecca Pond on Sunday afternoon. While fishing, the woman fell into the pond due to a loss of balance and was slowly sinking deeper into the mud within the South Marsh Highlands Conservation Area, when a 911 call was placed by her father. Ottawa firefighters arrived on the scene with the help of the woman’s father who initiated the call, let the rescue team into the conservation area trails, and carefully freed the stuck victim upon locating her. Though she had already gone into mud as far as waist level, paramedics said “she did not suffer any injuries”.