Thirty Years Ago in the Glebe Report

This retrospective is filed bi-monthly by Ian McKercher of the Glebe Historical Society. The society welcomes the donation or loan (for copying) of any item documenting Glebe history (photographs, maps, surveys, news articles, posters, programs, memorabilia, etc.). Contact Ian at 613-235-4863 or ian.s.mckercher@gmail.com.

Note: All back issues of the Glebe Report to June 1973 can be viewed on the Glebe Report website at on the following link. Click here.

Volume 20, Number 5,

May 3, 1991 (36 pages)

 Plastic recycling a hit

As part of Earth Day celebrations, a plastic recycling depot was set up at Corpus Christi schoolyard on April 13,14, 20, 21. Approximately two metric tons of plastic were collected. The event was organized by Arbour Recycled Products of Fourth Avenue. Waste Management Industries of Hull provided trucks and volunteer drivers. Visitors to the depot were asked to sign a petition asking the city to begin a blue-box, plastic-recycling program and to write to the mayor and members of city council for support.

Lansdowne dispute

The Glebe Community Association (GCA) took strong issue with the City of Ottawa’s proposals to develop commercial and trade show space at Lansdowne Park. No community representatives were consulted in preparation of reports to City Council. The city was proposing to spend $19,500,000 to build a parking garage for 2,400 cars at Lansdowne to service commercial tenants and an Exhibition Show Complex. The Horticulture Building was to be torn down. The GCA believed that the whole proposal was too large for the site in terms of traffic and parking constraints and that recreational space was being sacrificed.

Glebe author profiled

Roy Macskimming wrote a full-page profile highlighting the writing accomplishments of 45-year-old Glebe author Clive Doucet. Doucet had already published three works of fiction plus a memoir of his ancestral Cape Breton and had four plays professionally produced.

His latest book, The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene, was praised by the Globe and Mail as a “brilliant juggling act of craftsmanship.” The novella grew out of a year (1987-88) that Doucet spent with his family in a hillside villa in the south of France near the village of Rousset.

Doucet was currently working on a play collaboration with Ottawa South author Claire Harrison. They co-founded the lively professional group, Ottawa Independent Writers.