Ottawa Police have arrested 17 people connected to shoplifting complaints at a downtown Ottawa business. The series of police operations executed at the business in the 300 block of Rideau Street took place between July 12 and August 18, through the Central District Neighbourhood Resource Team and the business’s loss prevention counterparts. In total, 17 criminal charges and seven Provincial Offence Notices were issued, with the help of a spread approach in surveilling and actively deterring theft during the operations. The Police Service is continuing its investigations and reminds businesses to report suspicious activity and theft-related incidents promptly in order to receive timely police support.

As the start of the new school year approaches, classes are set to begin as usual, but the unions representing Ontario teachers have not yet reached a new agreement with the province due to stalled talks. Strike action has been threatened by the unions if agreements are not reached in time, and some have begun to engage the Ontario Labour Relations Board for answers. In spite of the pressure, Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra said on Thursday that he remains “very optimistic” about a deal eventually being reached before going deep into the school year. The teachers’ unions, still, have expressed frustration at the “broken process” of provincial negotiations and recent moves by Calandra to lessen the power of trustees, local unions and boards in bargaining decisions.

Almost anyone can place mobile orders on deliveries, but almost anyone can also come to deliver them. This rang true in a very unsettling way for an Ottawa mom who said that her daughter and a friend were recent targets of an overly friendly Uber Eats delivery driver, leaving porch favours marked as coming from a “secret admirer” for the children. After having security cameras installed following the first noted incident on August 3, where the driver returned about an hour later to leave a favour, the family observed several instances of the delivery driver’s car passing by their Kanata home on several occasions, with the daughter eventually identifying him as the same older man after a second instance of the porch drop-off on August 16. The driver’s access to the Uber Eats app has since been removed, and Ottawa Police are investigating alongside a team from the delivery service.