Marchers mourn end of a McEra as notorious Ottawa McDonald’s will soon be McGone-ald’s
On a chilly however sunny Sunday in mid-March, tons of of hearts had been as damaged as an ice cream machine.
An period in Ottawa will quickly come to an finish and about 200 folks turned out downtown to pay their respects to a infamous establishment steps from Parliament Hill.
In January, news broke that the McDonald’s at 99 Rideau St. would shut in April after almost 40 years in business as a result of the franchise proprietor determined to not renew the lease. It prompted an outpouring of response and reminiscences from long-time Ottawans who remembered the restaurant as chaotic entity within the midst of a metropolis usually thought-about to be a sleepy authorities city.
The Rideau McDonald’s Farewell March introduced folks from throughout the town, some wearing costumes, who wished to say their goodbyes to part of what makes Ottawa Ottawa.
“Other than Parliament Hill, I would say it’s our largest landmark,” stated Keith de Silvia-Legault, a University of Ottawa scholar who organized the march. They got here dressed as none apart from Ronald McDonald. “Every good story deserves a good ending.”
The Rideau Street McDonald’s was something however sleepy. For a few years, it was open 24 hours a day, and have become a well-liked snack spot for crowds getting out of the bars after final name. Shady, sketchy, scary; all phrases used to explain the place, which was no stranger to police. Officers visited so usually that, in 2019, then-police chief Charles Bordeleau wrote to the top of McDonald’s Canada to say the exercise at 99 Rideau was getting uncontrolled. The restaurant then minimize its in a single day shift. The COVID-19 pandemic later compelled its eating room closed.
“Before 2019, it was 24 hours. If you were coming back from a night out, you’d go to that McDonald’s—well, you wouldn’t go to that McDonald’s because it would be crowded. It would be very hectic, there’s a lot of fights there, it’s a crime hot spot, but at the same time, it’s kind of a funny place. It’s a running joke in Ottawa,” de Silvia-Legault stated.
Rideau Street McDonald’s Farewell March organizer Keith de Silvia-Legault speaks to CTV News. (Jackie Perez/CTV News Ottawa)
The McDonald’s gained specific notoriety when a 2013 video depicting a person pulling a child raccoon out of his sweater whereas others had been brawling within the restaurant went viral, cementing it as an iconic establishment within the metropolis. Think of essentially the most prestigious areas within the nation’s capital; the Rideau Street McDonald’s grew to become the darkish to that mild, the sesame-seedy underbelly of the staid and stoic metropolis that enjoyable, allegedly, forgot.
That raccoon was a well-liked theme for the marchers and mourners on Sunday. Marchers carried printed indicators with a raccoon’s face over the golden arches and a flag with that very same picture waved within the bitter breeze.
“We’re gathering here today not to protest it closing but to remember all the good memories and raise money for a great cause,” stated scholar Ian Reid. He was dressed as a raccoon and was holding a framed portrait of his “brody” Rody the Raccoon.
“He was involved in a brawl here many years ago,” he stated.
Ian Reid holds up an image of a raccoon as he takes half within the Rideau Street McDonald’s Farewell March. The Rideau Street McDonald’s achieved worldwide notoriety after a viral video confirmed a person pull a raccoon from his sweater throughout a brawl contained in the Ottawa restaurant. (Jackie Perez/CTV News Ottawa)
While the McDonald’s had its status, it was nonetheless a spot the place anybody may discover a little bit of shelter.
“I worked for years in homelessness services and, for two bucks, you could get warm for an hour and that meant a lot to a lot of people,” stated group organizer and former council candidate Laura Shantz. “For all the bad stuff, to just simply have a spot where you could go and sit down and mind your own business and warm up, like, that’s been a huge meeting point for a lot of people across the city from all walks of life and that’s something that will be missed.”
Shantz got here dressed because the Hamburglar, including the march was an opportunity to have a little bit of enjoyable.
“We have the reputation as the city fun forgot and, honestly, an event organized by young people for the sake of having fun, what’s not to love?”
Community organizer Laura Shantz, dressed because the Hamburglar, attended the Rideau Street McDonald’s Farewell March Sunday, March 19, 2023. (Jackie Perez/CTV News Ottawa)
The march was not only a little bit of ironic humour, it additionally aimed to usher in donations of non-perishable meals provides for the Shepherds of Good Hope shelter, simply blocks away. An on-line fundraiser can also be elevating cash for native charities Operation Come Home and Voice Found, which assist homeless and at-risk youth and survivors of human trafficking and youngster sexual abuse.
“We’re making it a food drive because it fed people,” stated de Silvia-Legault. “We’re donating to Operation Come Home because a lot of young people have been in that McDonald’s and we want to make sure that we’re keeping people off the street as best we can, and Voice Found because it has been a human trafficking site.”
The on-line fundraiser arrange for the march sought a aim of $1,500 and had raised greater than $1,700 by Sunday. The fundraiser is on till Thursday.
“As much as it’s a silly idea, I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t silly just for being silly, it was silly for a good cause,” de Silvia-Legault stated.
It’s not recognized but what is going to go within the area as soon as the lease runs out and the McDonald’s closes for good, however members Sunday will at all times have their reminiscences.
“I once had five dollars in my bank account and I went to the McDonald’s and I got a burger in my hand and just as I was leaving a seagull snapped it out of my hand, and I didn’t get to eat the burger,” stated de Silvia-Legault. “It was very typical of the Rideau McDonald’s.”
–With recordsdata from CTV News Ottawa’s Jackie Perez.
