{"id":168664,"date":"2018-07-02T01:59:03","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T05:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=168664"},"modified":"2018-07-02T01:59:03","modified_gmt":"2018-07-02T05:59:03","slug":"scorching-heat-wave-keeps-canada-day-crowds-low-on-parliament-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/07\/02\/scorching-heat-wave-keeps-canada-day-crowds-low-on-parliament-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"Scorching heat wave keeps Canada Day crowds low on Parliament Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OTTAWA \u2014 \u00a0A scorching heat wave has kept crowds on Parliament Hill smaller than usual for Canada Day festivities in the nation’s capital.<\/p>\n

Paramedics in Ottawa have been busy responding to holiday revellers in distress, mainly due to the heat. Temperatures were above 34 C with a humidex that reached 47 C in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

By 2 p.m., paramedics had attended to 54 patients at Canada Day events. Seven people were taken to hospital with heat illnesses or heart problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of what we’re seeing is mostly due to heat,\u201d said Marc-Antoine Deschamps, a spokesperson for the Ottawa Paramedic Services.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have been pretty good to follow our advice … so it has kept our call volume fairly low, but it’s still busier than usual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Ottawa police and the parliamentary police force report that there have been no security incidents on or around Parliament Hill.<\/p>\n

But officials do say they’ve noticed a drop in the number of participants this year, which they attribute mainly to the heat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve noticed there’s a smaller crowd out there and probably the biggest logic behind it is the heat itself,\u201d said Const. Chuck Benoit of the Ottawa Police.<\/p>\n

Police officers themselves were also affected by the heat, and took shorter shifts to hydrate and seek air-conditioning relief throughout the day.<\/p>\n

Canadian Heritage said only 6,000 people attended the noon-hour show on Parliament Hill, which is thousands less than last year.<\/p>\n

Later in the day, a spokeswoman for the department said more than 19,000 people had attended the day’s festivities.<\/p>\n

However, Natalie Huneault said the numbers couldn’t be directly compared to previous years because of the use of a new security system that tracks entrance numbers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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