Are we ready for Blackout? Also, who is covering this story for us and with funding from whom? - From Meta (formerly Facebook)...

65,000 households in Ottawa remain without power for the second day after ice storm hit yesterday. My house is one of them. Luckily we have camping gear - to keep ourselves warm and cook food...

UPDATE (11 April 2023):

• The services were fully reinstated in our neighborhood in Ottawa (and 90% of all affected households) within less than 30 hours

• In Quebec many were without electricity for more than five days.

• Montreal power outage: several dead, many hospitalized because of carbon monoxide poisoning - https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/police-investigate-second-death-in-relation-to-quebec-ice-storm-1.6347138

So, the answer to the question in the title:

• The city of Ottawa was well prepared for this Blackout. It was more difficult in larger cities.

• For ourselves, this new Blackout showed us that we need to get more propane and maybe a better quality propane stove, and - MOST IMPORTANTLY - we need to remind ourselves that the use of propane stoves inside the house can lead to deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning.

  • Residents should be careful before bringing outdoor appliances inside.

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From: https://hydroottawa.com/en/outages-safety/outage-centre

Outage reporting (10 a.m.) 6 April 2023

We continue to experience several outages affecting approximately 65,000 customers. 

Today, our crews are focused on restoring power to 20 large clusters that account for over 45,000 of the 65,000 customers who remain without power. Once these clusters are restored by noon, we will work on restoring power to a number of smaller areas and individual outages across the city. 

Conditions continue to be extremely poor and unsafe for our crews, due to downed trees and branches. The safety of our crews and the public remains a top priority for us. 

Here’s the map. Quite a lot, is not it? My house is in the upper right corner of the map.

Last year (after the storm in May), we were lucky - it was warmer, and we got electricity reinstalled within three days, while our neighbors - closer- to the river - had the power back only in more than a week. Lets see how things turn out now.

Full respect and appreciation for all those workers who are doing their job to get all the infrastructure fixed.

Now, something seemingly unrelated - about who and how bring news to our lives.

As I went on Google to find out more on what is going in Ottawa, I found an article, which was republished in several main national outlets covering this story.

It was published in the National Post (here), who are in known to be more critical/objective of current government (see, for example, articles of one of the titans in the field of professional journalism in Canada, Rex Murphy - to see what he thinks about what’s going on in the country for last two years)

https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/passengers-stranded-as-ottawa-lrt-shuts-down-yet-again-amid-freezing-rain

And then it was also published by the Global News (here), who appear to be a much more pro-government outlet.

The article is pasted below. And there’s nothing special in it… Except that then I noticed the footnote that was included in the National Post , but which was NOT included in the Global News. Here it is:

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

For those who don’t know, Meta is formerly known as Facebook.

So now you know who is preparing (or paying for) the stories for you! So, be aware of that. This could be just the start (Think of Bill C-11).

Also, you know now which outlets provide more transparency and which do not - related to who is paying for the news stories they publish and they you read…

Appendix:

No timeline to reopen Ottawa LRT, trains still stuck after freezing rain shutdown

Author of the article:

The Canadian Press

Cindy Tran

Published Apr 05, 2023  •  Last updated 17 hours ago  •  2 minute read

There is no timeline in sight to get Ottawa’s light rail transit up and running again, city staff say, after a freezing rain storm on Wednesday shut down the system for the second time this year.

Five trains were still stuck on the tracks as of late afternoon, after what OC Transpo initially described as a “power issue” on social media earlier in the day.

The last time a freezing rain storm shut down the LRT, in January, commuters were out of luck along a stretch of the east-west corridor for six full days.

Renee Amilcar said earlier Wednesday in an emailed update to city councillors that because of the expected bad weather, 13 trains were kept running overnight, 10 of which have winter carbons to reduce ice buildup on overhead wires.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 5, 2023.