Star stories were passed down orally through generations providing instructions to future generations about the origins of creation, the timing of the seasons, when to hunt and more.

“If you want to understand Indigenous peoples, you need to know the geography,” says Will Morin, an Anishinaabe astronomy knowledge keeper from Michipicoten First Nation. “My elders speak of Indigenous knowledge as human knowledge and if I went to Africa and spoke with Indigenous tribes, their knowledge would be Indigenous knowledge from their geography.”

Recognition of Indigenous astronomy has grown in recent years as Indigenous people reconnect with their cultures and learn about Indigenous constellation stories. Through learning about these stories, they hope to revive Indigenous culture and languages to be able to share with future generations.

When European settlers arrived in the Americas, they imposed their own ideologies on the land including their astronomy, disregarding the star stories that Indigenous people had told for over 10,000 years that were sensitive to their geographical location and ecosystem.

Repression of Indigenous teachings has had dire consequences for the natural environment and the wellbeing of other species that live alongside humans in the Americas, says Morin.

“There are multiple examples right across the Americas of Indigenous tribes, but also other Indigenous tribes in Africa, Australia and Asia, where there is old knowledge that has been the guide and the instrument of the value systems of many of these peoples, but has been oppressed for generations now,” Morin says. “And some of that knowledge is getting lost. So both non-Indigenous and Indigenous peoples are suffering.”

A prime example is climate change. Many Indigenous constellations stories teach humans how to live alongside other species to ensure the wellbeing of the natural world. However, Morin says that settlers have mostly dismissed Indigenous knowledge as primitive, believing their ways of knowing are superior.

“It’s a call for humility for the main dominant society to recognize that there are other ways of seeing in this geography called the Americas,” says Morin.

Kahante Horn-Miller, who is Kanien:keha’ka/Mohawk from Kahnawake, says Indigenous cultures are bringing life back to old traditions.

“Colonization has hugely impacted our ability to know our traditions,” says Horn-Miller, an Indigenous studies professor at Carleton University. “We have managed to survive but a lot has been lost. So we’re now in a time of change and revitalization where we are working really hard to bring back our language, our traditions, our culture and help our people survive into the future.”

An important constellation that many Indigenous cultures use throughout the winter is the Pleiades. For both the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee, the constellation marks the wintertime and the door to the spiritual world.

For the Anishinaabe, Michael Waasegeiizhig Price explains that the Pleiades is known as the marker for winter in addition to the Bagone-Giizhig hole in the sky which tells their creation story.

He said the universe has four layers: earth, sky, stars and spirit world — all connected by a cedar tree. At the beginning of creation, ancient ancestors climbed down the tree from the spirit world to populate the earth.

Waasegeiizhig Price said that he learned about this story in his 30s after hearing stories from an Anishinaabe elder from Winnipeg. He was raised in Oklahoma with his father’s family, but his mom was Anishinaabe from the Wiikwemkoong First Nation in Manitoulin Island, Ont.

Waasegeiizhig Price came across the story of the hole in the sky when he was trying to figure out what his last name meant. He found that “Waase” meant bright and “geiizhig” meant both sky and cedar tree. At first, he was confused about how “geiizhig” could mean both sky and cedar tree until an elder explained to him that “it goes back to an old creation story we don’t tell anymore, and it talks about how our ancient ancestors came down from the star world,” he said.

“I have a much deeper appreciation of the skies and the cedar tree and the stars just by hearing these couple of stories,” he says.

Samantha Doxtator, Haudenosaunee Oneida, tells the story of the story of seven young men who danced through the doorway to sky world and became the cluster of stars known as the Pleiades.

The men had wanted to have a feast in the forest, but their moms didn’t want them to be taking food into the woods. So the young men said to each other, ‘Don’t worry, we will still dance without our feast,’ and started drumming and dancing with so much energy that they started to lift off the ground. Knowing their mothers would call them home if they looked back, they kept dancing all the way into to the stars.

“Even though there’s some grief in that story, where those parents had to lose their children, those children became a huge marker for our people,” Doxtator says. “They represent the doorway to sky world.”

Doxtator started learning about Haudenosaunee astronomy after her sister, Sasha, who was interested in this research, passed away from cancer in July 2021. She says that continuing Sasha’s work has helped her make peace with her sister’s passing.

“It’s part of my grief recovery, that I can continue my sister’s work,” she says. “In the stars, when we talk about them, we talk about birth and death because stars have that same life cycle. Stars are born, and when a star passes away, it explodes and it turns into dust and it’s called the supernova.”

She says this story has helped her understand that the ceremony of death is just as special as the ceremony of life.

“It’s a reciprocal relationship,” she says. “We come from the stars and then we go back to the stars.”

And yet, outside The Merry Dairy – an ice cream shop in Hintonburg – a line of customers, some still wearing pajamas, forms soon after sunrise.

Ice cream? In the dead of an Ottawa winter?

Yes, says the shop’s owner, Marlene Haley.

“People think it’s too cold for ice cream,” she said in an interview. “But ice cream in the winter is a great treat.”

“We have a line of customers waiting outside in their snow suits, winter coats and caps in the cold, hoping to receive a hot chocolate, coffee or ice cream on a freshly-made waffle.”

The annual event, dubbed IC4B, which stands for Ice Cream for Breakfast, is just one of the innovative ways The Merry Dairy tries to remain in the hearts of its customers in the off-season.

The winter months are hard for many small businesses in Canada, grappling with a variety of difficulties, including low sales, labour shortages and supply disruptions. But it can be a particularly challenging time for small businesses that depend heavily on or are generally associated with warmer weather.

To confront this challenge, many small businesses use the winter months to get ready for the upcoming spring, explore new merchandising opportunities or take advantage of e-commerce to reach customers who don’t want to leave the warm and cozy confines of their homes.

Stocking up or shutting down?

Brandon Chin Quee, who manages Tall Tree Cycles, an independently-owned bicycle shop on Sunnyside Avenue in Old Ottawa South, said one big challenge during the winter is that business is slow, with the majority of the shop’s sales made in the spring and summer seasons.

Since there are hardly any sales during the winter, he said the business has to refocus and plan for the warmer months, which are its busiest periods. “Winter season is a time we stock up on bikes for sale. The season is tough for small businesses,” he said.

A 2023 survey from KPMG reported by the Canadian Press said 60 per cent of small businesses are affected by the weather, with 44 per cent seeing a direct hit to revenue.

Artistic Landscape Design, a garden centre on Bank Street near Greenboro station, is another business that feels the drop in temperature, both physically and in its sales.

Mostafa Fallah, the garden centre’s horticulturist and general manager, says the outdoor gardening industry during the winter is non-existent because most plants cannot survive the cold weather. That sometimes forces shops like his to make difficult decisions.

“Sometimes shutting down is better than not because a huge amount would be spent on labour and operations, which are more expensive,” he said.

Fallah said the garden centre has ventured into the sale of Christmas trees and decorations. But unfortunately, according to the horticulturist, there is not a big demand in Ottawa for artificial or regular Christmas trees, hence, the business is not making a lot of sales.

Exploring innovative solutions to thrive in winter

Josephine Mensah, a business advisor at Oneness Career Coaching Inc. in Ottawa, urged small business owners to proactively develop solid plans for the winter season to avoid being caught off guard.

“Businesses should carefully evaluate their business plans and have exceptions for these kinds of emergencies,” she said. “They should have an inventory where they take stock of the business activities and confirm the kind of verification they have on their website.”

Mensah also said close monitoring of the weather and anticipating the losses that can occur during the winter season would enable business owners to plan adequately.

The use of e-commerce has helped boost small businesses, said Bowen James, a professor at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa.

James, whose research work is focused on small businesses, including start-ups, as well as teaching practical applications of technology, said buying and selling goods and services over the internet has helped small businesses achieve a large clientele.

In his opinion, e-commerce sales platforms would help to expand the reach of small businesses during the winter. “The commerce environment is one of the attractions in the wintertime because of free shipping or the emphasis on same-day delivery,” he said.

Another method of survival for small businesses is reducing prices to keep customers coming, he added.

“People want to go somewhere warm and have an interesting shopping experience,” James said. “Small businesses should reinvent their business and start selling beverages and food products so that when people go to the store, they can have some hot apple cider.”

James said the challenge of the winter months is that an interruption of the customer’s buying pattern could be permanently disruptive, adding that what small businesses need to do is reestablish those buying patterns as quickly as possible.

Thriving despite the storm

While many businesses slow down or shut down during the winter, some reinvent themselves.

Haley, whose shop, The Merry Dairy, is known for its hand-made, original-recipe premium ice cream and nut-free frozen custard, uses clever marketing to capitalize on the winter season.

The Merry Dairy has attempted to adapt and overcome the winter lull by introducing festive flavours just in time for Christmas. In addition to the holiday-themed flavours and annual Ice Cream for Breakfast event, Haley has delved into business ideas like delivery services, as many individuals find it difficult to leave their homes at night during the colder months.

“We offer ice cream delivery from Wednesday through Saturday, which has significantly increased our sales,” she said.

Storytelling is also part of the strategy the business has explored, using beautiful photographs of ice cream that make people excited to want a taste, evoking a strong sense of nostalgia.

Haley pointed out there are few businesses making ice cream cakes, and that’s something she sells a lot of in the winter because people still have birthdays in the winter.

“Every single winter has been different,” she said. “And that has influenced customer buying patterns for ice cream.”

“One in three women will face gender-based violence in their lifetime,” Sutcliffe told the audience of city councillors, MPs and advocates, who had been invited to witness the signing of an official declaration marking 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, an annual campaign lasting from Nov. 25 to Dec. 10.

Ottawa City Council previously declared intimate partner violence an epidemic on International Women’s Day back in March, following a recommendation that came out of an inquiry that investigated the deaths of three women who were killed in the Ottawa Valley in 2015.

Meanwhile, in the past 12 months, at least 62 women in Ontario were victims of femicide, according to a report from the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses. This means, on average, one woman has been killed in Ontario every five days  since November 2022. The report does not account for unreported deaths and disappearances.

Monday’s event in the mayor’s office came weeks after city council announced its 2024 draft budget, which includes a $13.4-million increase to the Ottawa police. In fact, council will vote on the budget on Dec. 6, the 34th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, in which 14 women were killed at l’École Polytechnique.

Gender-based violence is a critical issue in Ottawa, Ontario and globally. With community members and organizations working tirelessly in the fight against sexual violence, some criticize the substantial increase to police funding. In a time when intimate partner violence is an epidemic, advocates instead are calling for culturally appropriate response initiatives, early intervention and a critical look into the systemic issues behind these acts.

‘Much more we need to do’: Sutcliffe

Here in Ottawa, there have been 5,815 reports of intimate partner violence in 2023 so far, compared to 6,544 in 2022 and 6,385 in 2021.

Insp. Peter Jupp, a specialized investigator for the Ottawa police, said the current statistic does not mean there is less domestic violence. “There’s so many things that can impact reporting,” he added.

Jupp explained one of the OPS’s biggest problems is people not reporting due to lack of faith in the authorities. He said the force is currently working on a new strategic plan that specifically addresses domestic violence.

“We’re consistently told from our community and advocacy groups that domestic violence is one of our biggest community concerns,” he said, pointing out the importance of working with advocates.

In his comments during Monday’s event, Mayor Sutcliffe said the increasing rate of gender-based violence in Ottawa was a priority in hiring new police officers. “We know there is so much more we need to do.”

The 2024 budget draft proposes a hiring of 555 new police officers and civilian employees over the next three years.

Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women publicly critiqued the funding increase, calling for more funding to community-based initiatives, affordable housing, transit and immigration support.

Prevention must address root causes

Other advocates say more work needs to be done to prevent gender-based violence instead of relying on a police response.

“Police don’t prevent anything, they react,” said Marlihan Lopez, an activist and expert who worked on the development of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. “The first thing is deconstructing what prevention is and the idea that police prevent violence.”

Lopez said prevention looks like “addressing the root causes of gender-based violence,” like intergenerational trauma. “Our communities need a lot of healing,” she said. She noted a way of prevention is having access to mental health and resources that help engage healing while acknowledging cultural and historical factors.

Lopez also mentioned the importance of youth and how, by enforcing their agency, they can be empowered to interrupt violence.

“If you go to a youth that comes from a racialized background and you tell them their culture enforces less women’s rights or is more misogynistic, that’s not going to empower them to interrupt violence,” Lopez explained.

Alexandra Bishop, a social worker with CALAS de l’Outaouais, expressed a similar sentiment, pointing out how education and early intervention is necessary for prevention.

CALAS de l’Outaouais is a non-profit organization fighting against sexual violence in Ottawa-Gatineau. Bishop said her organization educates secondary and mature students, social workers and police to ensure everyone knows what sexual violence is and how to prevent it.

“Every student, every person should have the same content,” she said, pointing out the importance of consistency in education.

She said CALAS is working towards more wide-scale events to get the message across. Recently in September, CALAS co-hosted the Take Back the Night March, an annual action encouraging people to stand against sexual violence.

 “A lot of prevention is necessary,” she pointed out.

Meanwhile, the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre is providing over 500 survivors of sexual violence with crucial supports, according to service navigator Caron Cuff.

Cuff said the organization is trying to be as preventive as possible but mostly works with survivors. “Our role is to support them as an individual through counselling, access to safe accommodation, basic needs,” she explained.

She said a lot of clients choose not to report to the police and instead seek support in the community.

Cuff said healing looks different for everyone. “We support whatever that individual’s perspective of healing looks like in any capacity that we can.”

She noted some survivors do wish to report to see a measure of accountability, but for some, it’s not that important. Cuff noted sometimes the perspective changes, depending on where someone is in the healing process.

According to Statistics Canada, 94 per cent of sexual assaults are not reported to the police. Fifty-seven per cent of sexual assault survivors said their primary reason for not reporting was not wanting to involve the police or the criminal justice system.

Jupp said the mandatory charging guidelines in Ontario, established in 1999, do not allow police to suggest a non-criminal resolution to incidents of domestic violence.

Police-alternative approaches needed

Those advocating against gender-based violence are asking for more non-police involved approaches to intervention and response.

For Lopez, responding to gender-based violence looks like equipping survivors with what they need to leave violent situations, like urgent financial support, secured Canadian citizen status and secure housing. Lopez said transformative prevention involves addressing the systemic issues that allow for gender-based violence to occur.

“The only response that governments really are invested in are responses through the criminal legal system, which does not prove to reduce or address gender-based violence, and according to most survivors, do not provide healing that they need,” she explained.

When it comes to restorative justice, Indigenous leaders are looking to return to the original teachings.

Carol McBride is the president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada. She said getting back to a “cultural approach” of serving justice is important to renewing law enforcement’s credibility.

“Indigenous people are overrepresented in police-involving death. That’s serious,” McBride explained. “Indigenous people represent one third of people shot to death by police. There’s definitely something wrong there.”

Murder is the third leading cause of death for Indigenous women, with more than four out of five Indigenous women and girls experiencing sexual violence in their lifetime.

McBride said restorative justice looks different for each community. “We have not been at the same level of trauma, of cultural shock or identity,” she said. “On an Indigenous level, lawmakers need to engage in a meaningful and collaborative discussion with the community they serve.”

She mentioned there is money allocated to develop a legislative framework for First Nations policing. She said she hopes the discussions reflect the community they serve and are culturally- and trauma-informed.

“I think that they have a long way to go,” McBride added. “I’m feeling hopeful.”

McBride said communities must be actively involved in the discussions to ensure they receive appropriate services.

“I’m a grandmother and I have four grandchildren that are growing up,” McBride said. She added she “wouldn’t want them to go through a lot of the discrimination” brought on by assimilation and settler-based approaches in the criminal-justice system.

A vigil for The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in remembrance of the l’École Polytechnique massacre will be held in Minto Park on Dec. 6.

Thomas, a former Paralympian and power-chair user, knows the long travel times all too well. A lot of Para Transpo riders in Ottawa share the feeling. Though the system is designed for Ottawa residents who cannot take conventional transit due to varying disabilities, many riders often feel frustrated over its lack of punctuality, inflexibility and restrictive, outdated booking system.

In October, Thomas invited Coun. Glen Gower, the chair of the Transit Commission, to join her in a ride-along to understand how a small errand can be a time-consuming ordeal for Para Transpo riders.

The pair went out to pick up a bottle of distilled water for their test. It took them two hours for a journey that would normally take less than 15 minutes by car, because the transit service does not allow customers to book two trips within a 90-minute window, forcing riders to wait for a return trip after they have finished shopping. Thomas had to book two separate trips.

“After that trip, I contacted OC Transpo staff and I said, ‘What’s the rationale for this? Why can’t you book within a one-hour window?’ I haven’t heard back from them yet,” Gower told The Capital Chill.

The 90-minute waiting period is just one roadblock for Para Transpo riders.

“People in this community say you should be grateful that there is a service. But it’s not much of service. It’s not providing what I need on a regular basis and it’s very inconsistent,” Thomas said.

Punctuality woes

In November, OC Transpo released a report that boasts an on-time performance of over 90 per cent for Para Transpo service in 2023 to date. The satisfaction among riders paints a different picture.

“They are always late,” says Jay Baldwin, a Carleton student who uses Para Transpo every week. They were interviewed while waiting more than 30 minutes for their ride to the pharmacy. OC Transpo would consider the ride only three minutes late because the clock doesn’t start until after the first half hour.

For riders like Baldwin and Thomas, a recurring issue is that their rides may technically meet the company’s criteria for punctuality, but that often does not align with their needs.

“If a person with a disability is 30 minutes late to work as often as Para Transpo is 30 minutes late to pick me up, they would not have a job,” Thomas explained.

Kyle Humphrey is another long-time Para Transpo rider and disability advocate. Para Transpo’s delayed service has put his employment at risk in the past by making him late for work. He says he will take the LRT if he lands an interview during his current job search. “I want to get there on time,” he said.

Long-standing requests for same-day booking unmet

When it comes to providing service for Para Transpo riders, the city has come a long way from when it limited riders to only booking four trips a day. Despite this progress, the reservation-only policy remains a problem for some: riders must book buses at least one day in advance, creating yet another barrier on their journey to independent mobility.

“People with disabilities also need to go to work and school and hang out,” Baldwin said. “But the system considers us as unproductive people who never go out.”

Unlike able-bodied people, Para Transpo users are still routinely excluded from moving spontaneously, whether for work or entertainment.

During the Ottawa Accessibility Advisory committee meeting last month, Humphrey said that he hopes people with disabilities could also have “equity in terms of transit,” which is why he has been pushing for a same-day booking system for more than four years.

For some, the struggle has been even longer. “We’ve been demanding same-day bookings for decades, and it hasn’t happened,” said Jerry Fiori, the former chair of Ottawa Disability Coalition.

Winter brings additional challenges

Para Transpo riders “have major issues year-round, but especially in the wintertime,” Fiori said.

Para Transpo’s application form for registering as a customer says that Ottawa’s conventional transit service “may be a better alternative for those who want greater independence and flexibility.” Some riders do use conventional buses. But in the winter, Para Transpo can be the only option for a lot of them.

Thomas explained that she cannot use conventional buses at all when there’s snow on the ground. She said she cannot get to the bus stop on her power chair “as soon as it snows more than a centimetre,” and only Para Transpo can provide “door-to-door service” helping riders to and from the buses.

Fiori seconds Thomas’s experience. “Getting about is really difficult when we have more and more snow and ice events,” he says. “And sometimes you cannot actually get out because there are no rides available for you in the wintertime at peak periods.”

Para Transpo could always use more investment

The city is set to spend more than ever before on public transit in 2024. According to the Transit Commission’s 2024 budget plan, $195.9 million is earmarked for “Bus and Para Transpo.” However, the lion’s share of this budget would be spent on the “Zero Emissions Bus Program” for buying new conventional buses, which would cost $179.7 million.

The city is going to increase Para Transpo’s services budget in line with inflation and purchase new Para Transport buses in the next two years, Gower says.

However, the specific budget allotment for Para Transpo is not clear because spending is “buried into other line items,” he says.

“If we roll out same-day booking, you have to make sure you have the resources to provide that service. And in a city as big as Ottawa, that could be a real challenge,” Gower says.

OC Transpo is “studying the feasibility of overnight service, same-day booking,” according to a written statement from Pat Scrimgeour, director of transit customer systems and planning. 

Para Transpo riders will persist in their efforts to turn the longstanding study of the issue into a reality.

Humphrey and Thomas have been running a Facebook group named “Let’s Make Ottawa Accessible.” Humphrey says that he wants to include more people in the conversation.

“At the end of the day, this shouldn’t be a battle of ‘us versus them,'” Humphrey says. “This shouldn’t be a battle of ‘LRT versus Para Transpo.’ This should be a battle of ‘Let’s make Ottawa accessible’.”

The section, called the Canadian Mortgage Charter, outlines non-binding recommendations to ease financial stress due to increasing mortgage rates.

Housing-industry analysts say the charter, which compiles existing initiatives into one document, could put pressure on financial institutions to ease the strain for homeowners who are in mortgage trouble. However, since it’s a non-enforceable package mainly comprised of existing measures, they assert that it probably won’t make a lot of difference in the lives of homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages.

“I think it’s kind of the government saying, ‘OK, given the situation we’re in here are the ground rules that we want you to operate under,’” said Jason Burggraff, executive director of the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association.

The stress of being able to afford a mortgage is a growing problem for many Canadians. Mortgage Professionals Canada reported in late November that 73 per cent of mortgages are uninsured, and one in five Canadian mortgage holders are up for renewal in the next year.

In a recent survey, the Angus Reid Institute found that the number of mortgage holders struggling to make payments has escalated this year. The October data showed 15 per cent said they found paying their mortgage was “very difficult,” a figure that doubled since last March.

Burggraff said the charter could create a framework to help those in the housing market. 

“We want homeowners to have every reasonable opportunity to stay in their homes, even if they experienced financial distress,” he said. “It’s infinitely better for everybody: for banks, for the government, for the general population to stay in our home if at all possible,” he said.

While some may feel the charter is a step in the right direction for mortgage owners, others disagree.

“Overall, I think it’s a political stunt,” said Robert McLister, an interest-rate analyst and mortgage planner. “I think it doesn’t deliver much new value to Canadians.”

Despite his concern, McLister noted that there’s a new, potentially helpful element in the charter that financial institutions should contact homeowners four-to-six months before their mortgage renews. “That was one new thing I noticed,” said McLister, who is a contributing writer for The Globe and Mail.

While the Canadian government asserts in the charter that they will closely monitor financial institutions’ implementation of and compliance with relief measures, McLister shares the concern that the charter is nothing more than a reiteration of already existing provisions.

The federal government wants “to make it look like they’re doing something positive,” he said. McLister added that many of the provisions had been previously announced but were packaged into a charter because it “has connotations of protecting people’s rights and looking out for the little guy.”

Another concern is whether the charter can have a legitimate impact on the average Canadian. Housing and mortgages “may be the number one issue in the mind of Canadians and the government is responding to that in any way they can,” said Dan Eisner, CEO of TrueNorthMortgage, a firm that helps clients find the best possible interest rates.

Eisner said he thinks clients would look favourably at the charter. “I would imagine they would see this as a good thing, the government’s responding to their worries,” he said.

Eisner said he envisions the charter as a way that Canadians can feel both heard and supported by the government, even though it is out of federal jurisdiction.

Burggraff, however, said the charter acts as an informal agreement between all parties involved in the mortgage process.

For Burggraff, the charter addresses financial institutions, and the government’s expectations that they will use the document as a guide to help people afford their mortgages, thus allowing Canadians to keep their houses.

Despite this, Eisner, Burggraff and McLister emphasize the charter is not legislation and cannot be enforced as such.

Instead, they say this is a way to remind Canadians what they can do about their mortgages, and for the federal government to remind financial institutions, mortgage brokers and those with mortgages that there are ways to remedy — if only temporarily — certain issues caused by mortgages because of the ongoing housing crisis.

To that end, the charter may prove useful to those facing challenges, as it reminds those involved in the process that there is a uniting factor and everyone can be “a bit more flexible in the difficult economic situation we’re finding ourselves in, especially with high interest rates,” Burggraff said.

The taskforce was designed to create “emergency shelter services for single adults experiencing or at risk of homelessness,” according to a memo sent to the mayor and city council on Nov. 1. Demand for emergency shelters, the memo said, is “outpacing supply,” painting a grim picture for Ottawa’s future.

“There are over 250 people currently living unsheltered, a large portion of whom will seek to access shelter services through the winter,” the memo said, noting 187 additional beds may be required.

While the needs of homeless adults were considered, the memo does not explicitly mention homeless youth once. That’s a striking omission since young people between the ages of 13 and 25 make up 20 per cent of Canada’s homeless population.

“Youth are the poor cousin within the homelessness sector,” said Kaite Burkholder Harris, the executive director of the Alliance to End Homelessness. “They’re often not part of the conversation.”

The reality of youth homelessness in Ottawa

Officially, Ottawa has more than 100 documented homeless youth, but “we know the number is larger than that,” Burkholder Harris said.

Michael Wade, the assistant director of community services for the Youth Services Bureau (YSB), agreed the number is likely higher, and added calculating an exact number of homeless youth is complicated because “there is no accurate measure of it in Ottawa.” For example, some youth shelters are not financially supported by the city and thus are not included in Ottawa’s “official” numbers.  

What is clear is that only 32 beds in shelters are specifically designated for youth, Wade said.

As the demand for youth shelters far outweighs the supply, young people are often turned away, Burkholder Harris said. This introduces them to significant risks on the streets and often exposes them to certain dangers.

Survival sex is one danger on the streets when there is nowhere else to go. Burkholder Harris said people sometimes think they’re just going to stay overnight at a person’s house but find themselves pressured to have sex in exchange.

Nearly 60 per cent of street-involved youth report violent victimization, meaning they are six times more likely to be victimized compared to the general population, according to Homeless Hub, an online research library created by the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness.

“We know that homeless young people are at increased risk of becoming victims of criminal activity, sexual exploitation or substance abuse,” Wade said.  “In that sense, homelessness is a danger to young people.”

Adult shelters not suitable for youth

Not only are unsheltered youth facing dangers on the streets, but unaddressed youth homelessness often results in chronic adult homelessness.

Homeless youth could become “a substantial portion of a city’s chronically homeless adult population,” Wade said.

The Emergency Shelter Crisis taskforce provides a short-term solution for the bed shortage, but does not provide the environment youth desperately need for healthy development, said Jason Pino, executive director of Restoring Hope Ministries, a Christian ministry that operates an emergency shelter in a church on Laurier Avenue. The space can hold at least 20 youth.

Pino says youth do not belong in adult shelters.

“They’ve experienced having their things stolen or being harassed there or being intimidated,” said Pino, explaining how youth have voiced fear in staying in Ottawa’s established adult shelters. Some individuals, who have aged out of Restoring Hope’s program, “are still afraid of going to the adult shelter,” and have chosen to sleep near the church that houses Restoring Hope instead.

Burkholder Harris agrees. “When there are young people in adult situations, it’s not great,” she said, describing how oftentimes, youth in these situations are exposed to “more substance use,” as well as exposure to “higher levels of trauma.” 

Emergency shelters set up by the city’s taskforce, some of which are located in community centres, are adult-centric and could pose similar risk.

Youth need specific support for healthy development

In order to eradicate the cycle of homelessness before it becomes chronic, advocates told The Capital Chill, youth need specific developmental and emotional supports that adult centres and emergency shelters do not provide.  

Youth shelters take a developmental approach, Wade said. YSB hires youth workers specifically for their youth-oriented skillset. “Adult shelters don’t take into consideration that an 18-year-old, while technically an adult, is still developing into adulthood and they are, quite frankly, missing a lot of basic skill sets.”

Youth need emotional support and a feeling of safety to properly develop. “I think what can’t get overlooked for homeless youth is the mental and emotional support that they need,” said Pino. Some youth may feel “anxiety or trauma around being in that large environment around a lot of adults.”

If their emotional and mental needs are not being met, youth are “more likely to become long-term homeless,” he added.

Looking beyond short-term solutions

While Pino, Burkholder Harris and Wade all nod to the efforts of the city and its taskforce, a long-term solution is necessary for vulnerable youth in the community to receive adequate care.

In order to mitigate youth homelessness, advocates say that certain measures must be taken. More transitional housing and not-for-profit housing is needed in the city because “homelessness is a housing problem, it’s not a person problem,” Burkholder Harris said.

She added reforming the child-welfare system and providing youth with sufficient employment strategies so that they learn how to support themselves is also essential.

Advocates added emergency shelters are simply inadequate to provide homeless youth with the safe environment that is needed for proper development.

“It’s a stop gap,” Burkholder Harris said.

“We have an emergency room at the hospital for a reason. But at the end of the day, we need a hell of a lot of primary care. And right now we have a system that doesn’t have enough primary care.”

Mazlum Gunes survived the powerful 7.7 earthquake that struck in the morning hours of Feb. 6, but his house in Kahramanmaraş province was destroyed.

In the aftermath, the Canadian government fast-tracked temporary and permanent residence applications for those affected by the disaster. They also made it easier for Turkish citizens already in Canada to extend their stay.

Gunes applied to come to Canada after hearing the news and arrived in September.

“I left my family, my friends, my job,” the 29-year-old said. “I left everything behind, but here I am trying to provide a better future for my family.”

At first, Gunes worked in construction in Toronto, where he said his employer forced him to work for below the minimum hourly wage. “People who immigrate for forced reasons do not have much time for research. You want to start working and earn money as soon as possible,” he said. “But you should be careful of people who try to cheat you and rob you of your labour.”

Meanwhile, immigrants whose families remain in Turkey’s earthquake zone are worried.

Tarik Dirikolu, a civil engineering graduate student at Carleton University, arrived in Ottawa a month before the earthquake. His family lives in Malatya province, which was hit hardest by the earthquake.

“When the earthquake happened, I didn’t hear from my family for a few days because there were problems with the communication lines,” the 26-year-old said. “My family and relatives are fine, but many of my friends died in the earthquake and I am trying to cope with the negative effects of this pain.”

Dirikolu said his goal is to return to Turkey after graduation to study how buildings can be designed to better withstand earthquakes. He has already received a job offer from the Turkish government.

Newcomers like Gunes and Dirikolu who came to Canada as a result of the earthquakes now find themselves preparing for harsh winter conditions and other challenges. However, members of the vibrant Turkish diaspora community already established in Canada – which the federal government estimates at about 65,000 people – are now stepping up to offer newcomers helpful suggestions to settle comfortably.

Advantages, challenges of immigration

Umut Safir, a business student at Algonquin College in Ottawa, moved to Vancouver after graduating from high school in Turkey. When he first arrived, there were numerous public-health measures, making it difficult to meet people. He overcame this issue by meeting Turkish immigrants on social media.

“I had many friends who came Ottawa by taking advantage of the visa facility provided to earthquake victims, but many of them returned,” Safir said.

He said he would like to gain work experience in Canada and then continue his career in Turkey. “The health system is not adequate, taxes are too high. Your career and education in Turkey are not valid here. You have to start everything from scratch,” he added.

Safir, 23, explained bills, mortgages and car loans put too much pressure on workers, a problem reason enough to return to his country.

Dirikolu expressed the advantages and challenges of immigration. He said living in a multicultural environment and meeting new people raised his awareness. He noted the cold weather is challenging, so newcomers must maintain their mental health during the long winter.

“Newcomers don’t want to go out too much because of the harsh winter conditions. But spending time at home all the time prevents newcomers from socializing and puts them in a psychologically difficult situation,” he said.

“Ottawa’s winter makes immigrants who arrive here alone feel even more alone.”

Dirikolu said immigrants should plan ahead and prepare for the worst.

“Everyone who comes to Canada thinks they are going to pick up money from the ground. No one should immigrate to another country with these illusions and without a plan,” he explained.

Newcomers advised to mentally prepare for challenges

Omer Yuzgulec was the director of a news agency in Turkey, but faced accreditation issues in Canada. After five years in Ottawa, the 43-year-old is now a Canadian citizen and owns a furniture store in Billings Bridge Shopping Centre. He said Turkish immigrants who have bought the furniture he imported from Turkey felt like they were at home.

“The biggest issue of being an immigrant is missing the land where you were born and raised,” he said.

Yuzgulec said the pandemic transformed many habits and it is now more difficult to find a job and survive. “Yesterday was easier than today. Tomorrow will be harder than today.”

He added immigrants should prepare themselves mentally for immigration and be aware of the difficulties. “Success for newcomers will come over time. Countries such as Australia and Canada are highly preferred destinations by immigrants,” he said. “Turkey also has high living standards. The biggest difficulty I see for newcomers is that they cannot achieve these living standards here.”

For those who arrived after the earthquake, he suggested they should make their career plans very carefully. “Avoid making sudden decisions. Coping with the negative effects of the earthquake and trying to get used to a new country may cause them to make wrong decisions,” he said.

Yuzgulec said it is challenging for people to come to Canada and start all over again. Since most immigrants cannot transfer their experience, they must gain Canadian experience to move ahead.

“Blue-collar people with technical skills adapt more easily. White-collar workers, on the other hand, have a harder time adapting,” he said.

Yuzgulec and his wife are unsure if they will spend the rest of their lives in Canada but plan to stay in Ottawa for a while, he said.

“Immigration is a state of being on the road. After settling down in one place, your soul wants to explore new places.”

Advice for Ottawa’s harsh winter

In terms of preparing for the upcoming winter, Safir said winter coats and boots are very expensive in Turkey due to inflation and advised people coming from Turkey to buy their winter gear in Canada. “There is a lot of variety and prices are cheap in Canada. But inflation is getting annoying here too,” he said.

Yuzgulec said Turkish immigrants should buy their winter jackets and boots in Canada. “Many of my friends who purchased winter products in Turkey found that they were inadequate when they came here. Winter in Canada can affect you mentally more than it affects daily life,” he said.

“Even if the weather is minus 20 degrees, seeing the blue sky will make you feel better.”

Experts deem Ottawa particularly poised for conversions, with ten federal government buildings actively being considered for disposal. In early November, the federal government announced three of its former office buildings in central Ottawa will be converted into housing units.

City council approved recommendations to incentivize office-to-housing conversions on Nov. 8, anticipating future similar plans. These projects seem attractive on paper, but unique case-by-case considerations often make or break their financial viability. Industry insiders say the measures passed by city council are far from enough to convince developers to take on expensive renovations. As the city looks to increase the housing supply, office-to-residential conversions offer a niche solution rather than a panacea, advocates say.

City council evaluated what conversion incentives it could offer in light of the housing need and the availability of office buildings, according to Coun. Jeff Leiper. “We’re in a housing crisis,” he said. “There is not enough housing for everybody in Ottawa.”

The city pledged to create 151,000 new housing units over the next 10 years. Conversions are one way of building “more housing more quickly” in a “more sustainable way,” Leiper said.

Converting buildings produces a much smaller carbon footprint than re-building from scratch, as renovations saves the concrete, a CO2-heavy material, in the existing building structure.

The approved incentive measures target conversions where no new storeys or major additions are proposed. Qualifying projects could potentially save over $50,000 in fees and benefit from reduced processing time when applying for building permits.

Leiper said these measures are all that city council is planning to offer. “There isn’t a thrust to go further.”

Leiper said he expects market forces to guide developers to turn underused office space into housing sooner or later, though demolition and re-building from scratch may prove more popular than conversion for buildings with outdated infrastructure.

The city’s incentives are likely too small to entice developers to go through with conversions, according to Dean Karakasis, executive director and CEO of the Building Owners and Managers Association Ottawa.

“You’re talking about million-dollar projects. What is $56,000 relative to that?” Karakasis said. “Your architecture alone will easily eat that up.”

New recommendations to remove red tape, such as a zoning amendment to push certain proposals through faster, are not game changers either, he added. “We’d like to see the city offer a better fast track if they really want buildings to convert,” Karakasis said.

It would take some extraordinary measures to incentivize mass conversions. In many cases, they aren’t as attractive as the buzz may suggest, Karakasis said.

If a building is paid off, keeping a partially vacant office may be more profitable than a complete, costly renovation. “It isn’t just because the building is technically capable of converting that it’s a logical candidate,” Karakasis said. “It’s all about the money.”

New buildings are cheaper to renovate, but often, it’s 50-year old buildings being considered for conversion efforts. Those buildings fall under class C, a designation that involves extra conversion costs.

As with any conversion, their layouts need to be adapted to housing needs, but they also need to be brought up to current building code standards according to Ian Lee, associate professor of management at Carleton University.

“A lot of these C buildings are tear-downs,” he said. “Because it’s not worth the cost.”

Every building is unique so, for some, conversion makes more sense. District Realty converted the former Red Cross offices at 170 Metcalfe St. in 2018. The building, now a luxury apartment complex bearing amenities such as a theatre room and a fitness centre, used to be “somewhere in between” class B or C, according to CEO Jason Shinder.

The cost of the Metcalfe project was comparable to re-building from scratch, Shinder said, noting that in some cases, re-building can be cheaper than conversion. “It just becomes a little bit faster, a little bit better for the environment.”

“The rent for apartments in Sandy Hill would be greater than the rent for office space in Sandy Hill,” he said, explaining which buildings make good targets. “If you already own the building, and it’s going to be fully empty or almost empty, or you’re struggling to find commercial tenants for it, then it’s probably a good candidate to be an apartment building.”

Nevertheless, elements like floor plans, plumbing and windows can render an empty a building too complicated or expensive to retrofit.

For the amount of subsidies needed to make some trickier class C buildings viable for conversion, Karakasis said all three levels of government — federal, provincial and municipal — would need to pitch in. Yet, on a country-wide scale, those efforts would not be viable either, Lee explained. “It will run into the hundreds of billions of dollars, because there’s so many buildings.”

That’s without the cost to put renovated units on the market at affordable housing prices.

For housing to be considered affordable, rent needs to sit at or below the average market rent for similar units in the area. That’s $1,347 a month for a one-bedroom apartment in Ottawa.

“Developers just can’t make housing truly affordable and make profit on it, especially in the current market conditions,” said Brandon Bay, board chair of Make Housing Affordable, an Ottawa-based advocacy group. He cited the elevated cost of construction as a defining factor of the problem. “It needs to be levels of government leading.”

As the federal government evaluates selling off some of its vacant properties, proponents have high hopes for more residential conversions. However, Bay said the effort to offer financial incentives has been lacking.

He said the government is not showing enough leadership in discounting their vacant buildings to sell them to developers, or in funding their conversion into affordable housing “like they ought to be.”

Lee said policies likely to help with affordable housing include rent subsidies directly to consumers or increasing government-owned housing. In contrast to private development, the latter is funded through taxation as opposed to being profit-oriented.

The city estimates there are over 10,000 people on the social housing waitlist, with wait times exceeding five years in some cases. “We’re not moving fast enough to clear that up,” Bay said.

O’Keefe, a member of the Ottawa Gay Men’s Chorus since 2022, said that the mission of the choir is to provide love and light during what can be a dark time of year.

“The energy created between the choir and the audience during the performances is one of unity, and shows that no matter who you are and where you come from, love prevails.”

This holiday season, the Ottawa Gay Men’s Chorus and the Tone Cluster choir are two music ensembles made up of people from the LGBTQ community that are putting on events to bring people together and provide a safe space to celebrate the holidays, which can be a particularly lonely time of year.

While some people view the holiday season as the most wonderful time of year, others, especially some people within the LGBTQ community, may feel displaced and alone. The celebrations around the holidays are also distinctly organized around togetherness, but such joyous unity is not the reality for all people.

“We all have our unique hang ups around the holidays. That is especially true for LGBTQ+ people,” said Alexandra Mintha, a masters of anthropology student at the University of British Columbia, whose research involves queer theory and lesbian asylum seekers in Vancouver.

Mintha, who identifies as queer, emphasizes that notions of family gatherings are not viable for some people as they are not always safe or accepting spaces during the holidays.

“I think on top of that, you look at the iconography of Christmas, holiday movies, holiday music,” she added. “It’s all kind of heteronormative, heterosexist and that’s what you see displayed and idealized.”

“You wonder, as a queer person, where you fit into all of it.”

Promoting inclusion

Both the Ottawa Gay Men’s Chorus and Tone Cluster are hosting holiday-themed concerts at the Gladstone Theatre in December. Organizers say the concerts are a chance to gather and feel included, as well as enjoy the unique choral arrangements from these local groups.

The ethos of these concerts is to connect to as many people and emotions as possible, said Deirdre Kellerman, the artistic director and conductor of Tone Cluster. Kellerman added the choir is a diverse group of members from different generations and different cultural and religious backgrounds.

“It’s a really varied group of people and life experiences, and the thing that kind of holds it together is the fact that most members of the choir identify as queer and everyone loves to sing.”

“It’s a real community.”

Tone Cluster, which turns 30 next year, is putting on a Holiday Extravaganza concert, with performances by local drag artists along with the choir.

“Hopefully we’ve prepared a program that is really inclusive in music and tone, not just for the performers but also for the prospective audience,” Kellerman said.

Guy Delorme, the president of the Ottawa Gay Men’s Chorus, said that since it was founded, the choir has always been about building community – and, of course, music. The non-audition choir currently consists of about 40 choristers, most of whom identify as gay or transgender.

The choir has performed a holiday concert every year since its start in 1986. 

“It began during the AIDS crisis, with people still being in the closet and scared,” Delorme said. “There was a gay men’s choir that had been started in Vancouver, and a man here [in Ottawa] named Gordon Johnson took the idea and started to gather a couple of people to learn some songs and perform around the holiday season.”

A more secular approach

While the choir originally would rehearse and perform in churches, it has moved out of churches to the Gladstone Theatre. Delorme explained this was to remove barriers that might prevent people from joining the choir or coming to its shows. 

“A lot of people did not feel comfortable being around religion, and there were choristers who were not necessarily happy or OK with singing in a church.” 

Kellerman echoed this sentiment about performing in a more secular space.

“People come to a show at a church and I think sometimes they’re a little distracted by the venue that they’re in, especially if it’s not a venue they’re comfortable in,” she said. “But you come to a theatre and the energy is really high and there’s a bar. I think it’s a great space for us.”

Kellerman added that the Tone Cluster show, which takes place Dec. 16 at 7:30 p.m., will not exclude traditional or religious tunes, as religion is important for many of the members. Instead, the choir will interpret and sing these pieces through a more inclusive lens.

Also included in the choir’s arrangement are crowd favourites such as “Deck the Halls” and “Let it Snow.” Overall, Kellerman said the show will be “campy and fun,” and added concertgoers can expect to see some festive attire like colourful ugly Christmas sweaters.

The Ottawa Gay Men’s Chorus holiday show this year will take place at the Gladstone Theatre on Dec 10, with a matinee show at 3 p.m. and an evening concert at 7:30 p.m. In terms of what to expect, Delorme said with a twinkle in his eye: “a lot of fun.” 

 The group will perform a mixture of more earnest holiday songs and some funny songs that will give the audience a good laugh. Delorme said even the show’s name, “Nut Cracker,” is a playful double entendre.

“Whatever you want it to mean, it’s open for interpretation,” Delorme said with a laugh. 

Still, he reiterated that events like this mean a lot to the LGBTQ community, especially during the holiday season. “I don’t know the percentage, but many people in the community are alone around the holiday season, so the concert is a chance to gather. It’s a time to get together and see friends,” he said.

“And for those who have had negative holiday experiences before, it’s a moment of joy and celebration.”

Mintha said the idea of safe spaces and chosen family is a large part of the LGBTQ community. She added that being able to access and attend events during isolating times, such as the holidays, that promote acceptance is a special thing for a lot of people. 

“When we do think of the holidays, it’s often thought of as joyful, and I think any way to celebrate and come together and just experience queer joy is something that is really important.”

Tickets for both events are available on the Gladstone Theatre website.

Advocates for improving winter mobility say disabled and aging Ottawa residents aren’t often considered in snow and ice removal policy. This inaccessibility leads to more people being unable to go outside.

The City of Ottawa Winter Maintenance Quality Standards, which turn 20 this year, prioritize roadways but there is little mention of accessibility for residents with mobility problems. The standards have been under review for years, but updates have been delayed.

Sandra Stec, a community leader in Centretown for the volunteer group Snow Moles, said the snow piled on the edges of sidewalks last winter made them unpassable.

“You couldn’t go down the street, even if you were in an emergency vehicle,” Stec said. She explained how people with mobility aids, or even strollers, would be forced to walk in the road due to sidewalk conditions.

She also said she’s seen a disparity with snow removal in residential versus suburban neighbourhoods. “They clear out the snow in Kanata far sooner than they would do here,” Stec said.

Snow Moles, a six-year-old project created by members of The Council on Aging and Age Friendly Ottawa, engages volunteers who share their winter navigation experiences with the City of Ottawa.

The council says snow and ice removal is often done haphazardly, leaving narrow crossing paths, uneven terrain and slippery conditions. Disabled and/or aging residents are left to devise their own strategies on how to keep safe.

For Jay Baldwin, a Carleton University student who uses a power chair, advocacy is a daily task in a world that doesn’t consider disabled voices. “People will ask if I ever get tired fighting for the rights of people like me,” said Baldwin, who minors in human rights and disability studies. “Do you think disabled people have an option? We can’t wake up one day and hope that other people will fight for us just as hard as we do – that just doesn’t happen,” they said.

Baldwin recounted a time in first year when they were stuck in the middle of the road because of the snow. “Four sweet angels of human beings stopped and saw that I was stuck. They had to lift my whole chair out of the snow,” Baldwin said. “This is a heavy chair. Without me in it it’s already 400 pounds.”

Uneven snow clearage on sidewalks also gives Baldwin a hard time. “I brace myself every time I go on the sidewalks for bumps. It’s hard to do that since my spine is fused,” they said. This leads to them staying indoors for most of the winter.

This has led to them forming a book club, “Disabled Babes Book Club” and a queer Facebook group “Disabled, Queer and Fabulous” for the sole purpose of “bringing people like myself and my community together,” Baldwin said.

On Carleton’s campus, a tunnel system can be a much-needed refuge from the snow. For Jessica Ursitti, it makes it easy for her to get to her classes in the winter, but off campus is a different story. Ursitti, who studies history at Carleton, uses a power chair.

Ice poses a significant challenge to Ursitti, especially since sidewalks aren’t typically cleared for it. “I can’t get around ice very much. My wheels just keep turning,” Ursitti said. “I have a lot of instances where people have to push me, which is really uncomfortable.”

Ursitti explained she needs a power chair in the wintertime since manual wheelchairs can easily get stuck. “Manual chairs are totally different, you can’t do snow at all,” said Ursitti “Slush gets stuck between the wheels on a manual chair, and then you’ll get it on your hands. It’s not doable.”

Another problem, she said, is when snow isn’t fully cleared off the sidewalk and accessibility ramps on OC Transpo buses can’t lower completely.

“I’ve had to ask people so many times to kick the snow out of the way. They do it, and they’re nice about it, but you don’t want to ask,” Ursitti said. “You just want to be able to do this stuff and not bother people — it’s annoying.”

Joel Harden, MPP for Ottawa Centre, has been fighting for a more accessible Ottawa. He said winter mobility conditions can mean “house arrest the moment we have a massive snowstorm.”

He said the ability of municipalities to raise money for city maintenance has been drastically cut because of new Ontario legislation adopted last year that waives development charges that otherwise would go to municipal funding, such as snow removal and sidewalk safety.

The City of Ottawa declined a request for comment.

The following photo sliders show what Ottawa streets look like with and without snow. To use the photo sliders, drag the white circle across the image to reveal the difference.