Hello, fellow denizens of Canada’s London, our superlative city that exists between two lakes, two metropolises1 and a number of states of mind. Here is your local news ROUNDUP to make Friday better, somehow, ensuring you have the need-to-knows to be an engaged citizen.
And this is London, Ontario, where the smoke has cleared and somehow the local weather conditions are tolerable, and let’s welcome that and try not to jinx it. Welcome to London Ontario Online News, where five engaged citizens are gathering like-minded folks to share important information about our city, always in the public interest, and you are so very invited.
You know this part - Matt leads the Monday podcast, which is bringing back Susan Toth this Monday, so BUCKLE UP; while Cedric is leading us through the 14 Wards of London Ontario (latest is Ward 14); and Diana says we should go to Home County and Londonlicious this weekend.
Look out for another great Reflection from Steve, incoming this afternoon.
What a great team, and we are recruiting for Stage Two, y’know.
Thanks for reading our nascent news service and supporting us however you can. We love shares, mentions, interactions and of course subscribers, who are supporting our setup well. And every day has a sponsor - thanks to Hamilton Road BIA, London Bicycle Café, Spero Law, Downtown London and Old East Village BIA for helping us to have a confident beginning.
Let’s get moving with local news. Thanks for being upstanding leader types and giving a damn about what’s going on. Remember this is for skimming, and dipping in if you want more.
Soundtrack of the week
This week, we had a lovely environmental story from CBC London’s Jessica Singer about endangered mussels. You can read it here if you like and, to explain, the reintroduction of 800 kidneyshell mussels to Medway Creek is Canada’s first example of a freshwater mussel being brought back to its habitat. Isn’t that a life-affirming message for Friday?
And it put a song in my head. Here, from 1980, are those lads from Squeeze doing a very listenable tune about a holiday romance, and it happens to mention mussels. It’s got a nice vibe and should ease us through the news this week.
Operating instructions: I recommend reading through the ROUNDUP more than once. The song will play until you click off the page to read a link. For more information, please re-read2. Thank you for participating and feel free to send me requests.
News time. Heck yes.
When construction takes over
Possibly the story of the week, here’s the incredible tale of how construction trapped a disabled woman at home. It’s not complicated: they dug up her whole street, Waverley Place, but have stepped up to help her now.
Opinion alert: There, but for the grace of God, go I - and everyone else in town.
Here are the initial stories from CTV London and LFP, plus a follow-up from the Freeps in which Councillor David Ferreira takes up the case.
Of course, construction has us in its terrible thrall across the city. Here’s another story this week: road closure in Pond Mills. Look out for that in the southeast, along with all the other construction in all the other areas, oh my.
Moving along, let’s cover a series of issues in a burst.
Backyard Chickens and other municipal issues
And these are NOT actual chickens, no. A reader sent me a note this week saying this heading gets their hopes up. It’s a metaphor. At least, I think so3. I have no apologies, or chickens.
Anyway, we covered Tuesday’s Full Council meeting, which produced a lot of important bylaws. Let’s mop up some of that now.
On Wednesday, I offered up this post about it. Issues in that one:
Special constables
Carfax office move
Free AC for seniors
Development charges ‘unfair’
Pet waste in green bins
Heritage designations
And there was much more moving through the process on Tuesday.
I’m happy to see the City of London itself offering an information service on this with its Council Briefs, which you can find here. Often, that’s a fairly basic service - after the June 23 council meeting they reported one item, and after June 2 it was two - but this time we have a paragraph for each of 12 pieces of council business, many of which have not been addressed by the media, at least this week.
I gave them to Uncle Philip and asked for the gaps. To wit:
Federal public-transit funding
Council approved approximately $51-million in federal public-transit funding over ten years, with municipal contributions from approved budgets and conditions involving housing, parking, project selection, capital work, and non-capital initiatives citywide.
Commissioners Road development approved
Council approved a 10-storey development at Commissioners Road West and North Street, adding sidewalk design direction and bird-friendly glazing considerations while debating height, traffic, accessibility, compatibility, and planning policy impacts.
Fanshawe Park Road development approved
Council approved the Fanshawe Park Road East development application with amendments addressing parkland requirements, road access, and traffic monitoring to guide site implementation and manage transportation impacts as development proceeds.
Five-year licence approved for part of municipal parking lot
Council approved a five-year licence granting exclusive use of half of Municipal Parking Lot 8 at 99 Dundas Street for Canada Life Place parking, including termination provisions through 2031 overall.
And there were two more, which I will present after this heading:
Homelessness
Emergency shelter guidelines and procurement
Council referred 2026 Emergency Shelter Guidelines for comparison with 2011 rules and Strategic Plan alignment, while approving remaining procurement work on prequalification, agreements, reporting, oversight, and implementation processes overall citywide.
Proposed 2026–2027 winter response
Council referred the proposed 2026–2027 winter response plan for further committee review, allowing consideration of agency updates, possible federal funding, shelter costs, service locations, and implementation timing requirements ahead.
Important changes for service-providers there, and a lot of local orgs will be picking this apart for some time. I’ll return to it in future, with a deeper dive.
What else is popping in London town? Plenty.
The Coves ESA is getting bigger
How’s that for some good news on a Friday? Local super-reporter Daryl Newcombe of CTV London picked this up from the council agenda on Tuesday. City plans to expand the Coves ESA
This much-loved local beauty spot is getting some more land. We do also have some resident concerns in the story. There’s an image from the city here:
Healthcare
Well, there are 21 new doctors and you can see one, if you need to. This is a massive, massive success for London and people needed it. There’s a CBC story here, interviewing Dan Muldoon, who heads up the clinic.
And another healthcare story: expansion for a pain reduction program for kids when needles are in use. ouch ouch ouch this from LFP.
Tariffs
This isn’t a local story but I’m often tempted to share reporting from a bigger stage when it affects us in Canada’s London. Obviously, President Donald Trump’s poison-frothing pronouncements slop over into Canada in many ways, but right now he’s doing tariffs again, so let’s take a look at that.
From wine to wigs: Here are all the Canadian goods included in new U.S. tariffs
And of course he hit everyone else right after: BBC story here.
The Lightning Round
Let’s strike it rich with some further important stories, presented as quick hits.
Lego arrest: somebody was arrested in apparent possession of 191 identical Lego sets. I expect the cops are building a case4. LINK (Ingersoll story but worth the share.)
Police chief gala: speaking of whom, there was a big party that raised $250K for nonprofits. LINK
Frat house fire: We had the sentencing this week in the dreadful, sad case that left five people seriously injured in a game of beer pong. LINK (This basically amounts to house arrest for a 21-year-old man - click through for full deets.)
And Happy Pride! London had its Pride parade and you can find coverage from the London Free Press’s Allison Young here: LINK.
Enough
Yes it is enough. I have Squeeze in my head and Friday needs to happen, even for the self-employed. I hope your week was tolerable and included the successes you need, or want. I’m working on building new connections in my main business, Kenmore Communications, so folks in my network might see a request for help there soon, please and thanks, if you would be so kind.
And The Loon continues moving along well. We are now incorporated and continuing to set up the dull-yet-important parts of a small business, so we very much appreciate the revenue coming in. As I write, I see 65 of you have agreed to give us money for this service, and we are grateful. We’re building a second-stage approach to recognize Paid subscribers well, while offering a good service to Free subscribers.
More incoming soon. It’s so exciting and we see this as a great opportunity for everyone to make a difference in their community. That’s what gets me out of bed in the morning. Well that and ageing. Nvm.
Let’s go and make the day as good as it can be, shall we?
Happy Friday!
- Mike
The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup
New content every day!
We’ve teamed up to send you a new feature every weekday:
Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown - SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA
Tuesday - Ward Tours with Cedric Richards - SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ
Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie - SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW
Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn - SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON
Friday - Reflecting, with Steve Cordes - SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA
And free on Fridays: the ROUNDUP, briefing you on the stories you need to know, gathered in one place. Regular analysis of the issues affecting London and the region.
In Ward 4, candidate and former councillor Stephen Orser has chickens on his signs, along with the words “FREE EGGS”.
I’M NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT SORRY