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What Ottawa is talking about

☎️ 988

•  The new 988 mental health emergency number is open and the Distress Centre of Ottawa is part of it. The Federal government has created the nationwide 988 phone – or text – service to help anyone in crisis or knows someone in crisis. The 988 number is available 24 hours per day, in both English and French. The Distress Centre of Ottawa, which has provided a similar service for the capital region for 50 years, will be one of the centres answering the calls. (William Eltherington at CTV) (988.ca)

🔍  Federal Public Employees

•  Thirteen Federal departments have software tools that can extract personal data from their employees' phones or computers. The various software tools can retrieve ‘text messages, contacts, photos, travel history, a person’s internet search history, deleted content and social media activity’. Some departments say they use it only after gaining a warrant, some say it is for internal investigations for fraud, others say it is for ‘security purposes’. The president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada says she has ‘grave concerns’.
  
  The departments and agencies concerned are: Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, Canada Revenue Agency, Global Affairs Canada, Shared Services Canada, Competition Bureau Canada, Transportation Safety Board of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Correctional Services Canada, Canada Border Service Agency, Department of National Defence, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
  
  (Brigitte Bureau at Radio-Canada)  

🏈 Ottawa RedBlacks

•  The RedBlacks will play a special regular-season match in a non Canadian Football League city, Victoria. ‘Touchdown Pacific’  will be played Saturday, Aug 31 at Royal Athletic Park in British Columbia’s capital, with an expansion of the stadium to 14,000 seats from 10,000. The RedBlacks' opponents will be the BC Lions, naturally. (Canadian Press)

🚨 Man Identified

•  A man who drowned in the Ottawa river six years ago has finally been identified. The man, born in 1966, was identified through Forensic Genealogy DNA testing and no foul play is suspected. Ontario Provincial Police have notified his family but will not be releasing his name. (Josh Pringle at CTV)

🛻 Convoy News

Convoy co-organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber are currently on trial for mischief and intimidation, amongst other things, over the Convoy occupation.

•  Chris Barber’s lawyer presented more newly released text messages, some showing that the former premier of Saskatchewan, Brad Wall, was in contact, giving reasonable advice. (David Fraser at CBC) 
•  The Ottawa Citizen is live blogging the trial.