MORE ARSONS ON BANK
Lightning might not strike twice — but arsonists do.
Fire fighters were left scratching their heads Oct 1 after putting out a fire at the corner of Bank St and Somerset, in the heart of Ottawa’s fledgling gay village.
The four-storey building at 275 Bank houses Gabriel’s Pizza, TrueForm Fitness, and the women’s credit union. It has been closed since a Sep 15 fire, where arsonists lit up both the second and the fourth floors. The Oct 1 blaze also targeted the fourth floor.
Reports have focussed on one of the building’s high-profile tenants, a US military procurement agency which handles $90 billion in contracts each year.
PRIDE AGM POSTPONED
Capital Pride planners agreed to postpone their annual general meeting after community members complained that the Sep 25 date was not widely advertised.
The AGM is scheduled for Oct 30 at 6:30pm at City Hall.
According to Pride’s bylaws, members in good standing must be contacted two weeks before the meeting. But a second policy attached as an appendix details a more rigorous notification process: 30 days notice, plus posting on Pride’s website and in local newspapers.
“I know this is a pain in the ass,” says longtime volunteer Eileen Murphy, who asked that the AGM be rescheduled. “But it preserves the good name of Pride.”
POLITICAL PITCH HORRIFIES
A religious extremist running as an independent federal candidate in northern Ontario says that gays should be executed.
David Popescu made the comments at a Sudbury high school debate, after a student asked what he thought about gay marriage. Students booed the candidate after his response and called for him to be cut off, reports the Sudbury Star.
Sudbury Police received a complaint following the debate, and Canwest reports that police are investigating whether Popescu’s comments broke hate crime laws.
Popescu received 54 votes in the 2006 federal election.
—Brent Creelman
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