Pellerin: Ottawa People's Summit shares ideas for a better city
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On Tuesday evening, I was downtown for the first People's Summit, put together by Better Ottawa and supported Horizon Ottawa as well as by other community organizations including a few I've written about before, such as Ottawa Community Land Trust and the Urbanism Book Club.
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The sold-out crowd packed Impact Hub on Slater Street. This in itself was impressive given that the event wasn't advertised very much, and there was a $25 admission fee. Organizer Neil Saravanamuttoo told me he was hoping for 30 or maybe 40 people. Nearly 100 bought a ticket, including Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper, who said he went to listen.
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People came for different reasons, including networking with like-minded folks and debating issues that are front of mind. I walked around the room listening to conversations, and I heard 'Lansdowne' mentioned more than once. Urban gardening and LRT were often heard, too.
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Mostly I think people came because, as Saravanamuttoo said in his opening remarks to enthusiastic applause, 'we love this city, but we don't like what's happening at City Hall, and we want to do something about it.'
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The crowd was treated to a live recording of the Better Ottawa Municipal Panel with the fantastic duo of municipal journalism experts Joanne Chianello and Jon Willing. They answered questions from the audience covering subjects such as leadership, engagement, security, public bathrooms (or rather, the ever-frustrating lack thereof), and why councillors' emails often provide better information than anything the city puts out, regardless of platform.
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Events such as this People's Summit help address a challenge that activists often face when dealing with a large city that is so bureaucratic it moves at a glacial pace — when it moves at all, that is. It takes years to approve simple changes like allowing residents to grow carrots in their front yard. Now imagine more complicated matters like, I don't know, running a transit system that works or building sidewalks that aren't full of badly patched cracks.
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National Post
32 minutes ago
- National Post
Raymond J. de Souza: Trump pledged to end Ukraine war in 24 hours. How's that working out?
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. U.S. President Donald Trump, right, greets Russian President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska on Friday. Photo by Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo U.S. President Donald Trump never did specify in which 24-hour period he would end the Ukraine war. Eventually, the war will end, and he will brag that THE DAY HAS COME. After all, the First World War ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Given that bombing continued even that very November morning, it ended in one hour! THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS Enjoy the latest local, national and international news. Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events. Unlimited online access to National Post. National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE ARTICLES Enjoy the latest local, national and international news. Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events. Unlimited online access to National Post. National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Trump's much-promised day was not in February when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the White House at the end of a month-long campaign by Trump and Vice-President JD Vance to force a Ukrainian surrender, in which they blamed Ukrainians for starting the war in the first place by not pre-emptively surrendering. The day did not come last week in Alaska, when Trump literally rolled out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump had demanded a ceasefire from Putin, promising severe consequences otherwise. Putin instead continued bombing even while Trump capitulated to him in Anchorage. The 'severe consequence' was the honour of a military flyover and a ride in the presidential limo. This newsletter tackles hot topics with boldness, verve and wit. (Subscriber-exclusive edition on Fridays) By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again What would have happened had Putin ordered a ceasefire? Perhaps we were spared the osculatory intimacy of the late Soviet period, when Leonid Brezhnev and East Germany's Erich Honecker creeped out the world with the socialist fraternal kiss. That is not Trump's style, but for Putin his affection is extravagant. Putin pines for the late Soviet period. He wants Ukraine back, he has de facto got Belarus back and Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia know he wants them back, which is why they joined NATO the first chance they got. His foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, arrived in Alaska wearing a white 'C.C.C.P.' sweater — the Cyrillic spelling of U.S.S.R. Somewhere in China, President Xi Jinping's factories are making 'Make the U.S.S.R. Great Again' hats to ship to his ally in Moscow. Trump had planned a lunch for Putin, but the meeting was cut short. The Russian bear was likely already full, having gorged himself on the TACOs already provided. TACO stands for 'Trump Always Chickens Out,' but in Alaska it meant 'Trump Abandons the Ceasefire Obligation.' Alarmed at what further severe consequences Putin will be granted for continuing to bomb Ukraine, Zelenskyy and all of Europe — the leaders of NATO, the European Union, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Finland — rushed to Washington on Monday. It was an unprecedented diplomatic display, a united front desperately trying to persuade Trump to abandon last week's position on Ukraine — TACOs are served! — in favour of his ceasefire position of the previous week. It's now wholly impossible to determine what Trump's Ukraine policy is, so rapidly does it change. Perhaps Putin abbreviated the meeting because he got all that he could reasonably imagine getting — no ceasefire, no additional sanctions, no confiscation of frozen assets, no severe consequences, implied American approval for the annexation of Ukrainian territory. This advertisement has not loaded yet. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The only apparent concession Putin made — claimed by the Trump administration — was a promise to accept American security assistance after the most strategic parts of Ukraine are sacrificed. But Russia and the United States made security assurances to each other, and to Ukraine, in 1994. Twenty years later, Putin began his 11-year war against his neighbour. Had Trump even a fraction of the moral courage and diplomatic competence of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan — whose motto he mimics, while understanding neither 'peace' nor 'strength' — he would have insisted that Putin return at least some of the 20,000 Ukrainian children he has kidnapped. The forced removal of Ukrainian children — some indoctrinated against their own homeland and forced into Russian military service — is the grounds on which Putin was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. TACO again: 'Trump Absent on Children's Outrage.' Instead, Trump hid behind the skirt of the first lady, delivering an anodyne letter from Melania Trump generically in favour of sparing children the horror of war. During the Reagan administration, every high level Soviet-American meeting included the mention, by name, of specific dissidents. At his 1988 summit with Mikhail Gorbachev, Reagan insisted on meeting publicly with Soviet dissidents, to the great annoyance of his hosts. Reagan defended their human rights in Moscow; Trump could not speak for abducted children on his own Alaskan soil. Trump is fundamentally sympathetic with Putin's cause, even if he's frustrated that Putin is an obstacle to his lust for the Nobel Peace Prize. Recall that when Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama and John Kerry, then secretary of state, repeatedly inveighed against his '19th-century thinking' — a worldview of imperial expansion. Putin batted that away, arguing to the Russian Duma that this was about the 10th-century, that Russia and Ukraine were a single spiritual, fraternal and cultural entity that must be ruled politically, even tyrannically, from Moscow. Obama and Kerry considered '19th-century' to be a criticism. Trump loves the 19th-century. 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CTV News
an hour ago
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Gabbard says U.K. scraps demand for Apple to give backdoor access to data
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2 hours ago
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Despite a flurry of meetings on Russia's war in Ukraine, major obstacles to peace remain
Published Aug 19, 2025 • 4 minute read President Donald Trump, centre, walks in the Cross Hall with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, followed by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, at the White House, Monday, Aug. 18, 2025, in Washington. Photo by Alex Brandon / AP Photo The second Oval Office meeting in six months between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went off smoothly Monday, in sharp contrast to their disastrous encounter in February. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account European leaders joined the discussions in a show of transatlantic unity and both they and Zelenskyy repeatedly thanked Trump for his efforts to end Russia's three-year war on Ukraine. 'I don't want to hide the fact that I wasn't sure it would go this way,' German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in Washington. 'But my expectations were not just met, they were exceeded.' But despite the guarded optimism and friendly banter among the leaders, there was little concrete progress on the main obstacles to ending the war — and that deadlock likely favours Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces continue to make steady, if slow progress on the ground in Ukraine. 'Putin cannot get enough champagne or whatever he's drinking,' Gabrielius Landsbergis, a former foreign minister of Lithuania, said of Monday's meeting. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. As NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told Fox News: 'All the details have to be hammered out.' Here is a look at the issues that need to be resolved: Security guarantees for Ukraine To agree to a peace deal with Russia, Ukraine wants assurances that it can deter any future attacks by the Kremlin's forces. That means, Zelenskyy says, a strong Ukrainian army that is provided with weapons and training by Western partners. It could potentially also mean offering Ukraine a guarantee resembling NATO's collective defence mandate, which sees an attack on one member of the alliance as an attack on all. How that would work is not clear. Additionally, Kyiv's European allies are looking to set up a force that could backstop any peace agreement in Ukraine. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. A coalition of 30 countries, including European nations, Japan and Australia, have signed up to support the initiative, although the role that the U.S. might play in such a force is unclear. European leaders, fearing Moscow's territorial ambitions won't stop in Ukraine, are keen to lock America's military might into the plan. Trump said he'll help provide protection but stopped short of committing American troops to the effort, instead promising U.S. 'coordination.' Russia has repeatedly rejected the idea of such a force, saying that it will not accept NATO troops in Ukraine. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron co-chaired an online meeting Tuesday of the coalition countries. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Once officials have discussed proposals in more detail, Rutte said, a virtual meeting will take place with Trump and European leaders. Agreeing on a ceasefire Ukraine and its European supporters have repeatedly called for a ceasefire while peace talks are held. Putin has balked at that prospect. With his forces inching forward in Ukraine, he has little incentive to freeze their movement. Ahead of his meeting with the Russian leader last week, Trump threatened Russia with 'severe consequences' if it didn't accept a ceasefire. Afterward, he dropped that demand and said it was best to focus on a comprehensive peace deal — as Putin has pushed for. Trump said in Monday's Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy that a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine was 'unnecessary.' But after his closed-door meeting with European leaders and Zelenskyy, Trump told reporters that 'all of us would obviously prefer the immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Where Trump ultimately falls on that issue is important because it could affect how much Ukrainian land Russia has seized by the time the two sides get around to hammering out how much it could keep. Occupied Ukrainian territory Zelenskyy and European leaders said that Putin has demanded that Ukraine give up the Donbas, an industrial region in eastern Ukraine that has seen some of the most intense fighting but that Russian forces have failed to capture completely. Moscow's forces also hold Crimea as well as parts of six other regions — all adding up to about one-fifth of Ukraine. Zelenskyy has long noted the Ukrainian Constitution prohibits breaking up his country. He has also suggested the demand for territory would serve as a springboard for future invasion. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Rutte said the possibility of Ukraine ceding occupied territory to Russia in return for peace wasn't discussed in Monday's talks. That is an issue for Zelenskyy and Putin to consider together, he said to Fox News. A Putin-Zelenskyy meeting Zelenskyy has repeatedly suggested sitting down with Putin, even challenging the Russian leader to meet him as part of direct peace talks between the two sides in Turkey in May. Putin snubbed that offer, saying that significant progress on an agreement would have to be made before the pair met in person. On Monday, Trump appeared to back Zelenskyy's plan. 'I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy,' Trump said in a social media post. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. He said he would join the two leaders afterward. But when discussing a phone call held after the meeting between Trump and the Russian leader, Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov gave no indication that either a bilateral or a trilateral meeting with Ukraine had been agreed. European leaders know that Putin doesn't want to meet Zelenskyy and that he won't allow Western troops in Ukraine — but they're expressing optimism that these things could happen in the hopes of forcing Putin to be the one to say no to Trump, according to Janis Kluge of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. 'Europeans hype up expectations to create a reality in which Putin disappoints,' he wrote on X. — Associated Press writers Sam McNeil in Brussels and Emma Burrows in London contributed. Read More Toronto Blue Jays Canada Sunshine Girls World Columnists
