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    • O-Train Line 1 to be partially closed Aug. 25 for Stage 2 work

    A train car pulls into Blair Station on O-Train Line 1 in this undated image. (CTV News Ottawa) A train car pulls into Blair Station on O-Train Line 1 in this undated image. (CTV News Ottawa)
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    The eastern end of the Confederation Line LRT will be offline for one day this month as crews connect it to the eastern Stage 2 extension.

    A memo to city council, sent Friday, says Stage 2 work will require service to be offline between St. Laurent and Blair stations on Sunday, Aug. 25. Full service is scheduled to resume the next day.

    "The Stage 2 contractor, East-West Connectors, will connect the existing train control systems to the new extension, east of Blair Station. While this work is underway, service will not be able to operate on the section of the line between Blair and St. Laurent," the memo said.

    On Aug. 25, Line 1 will operate between Tunney's Pasture and St. Laurent stations. R1 buses will run between St. Laurent and Blair stations every 10 minutes, and a shuttle bus service will run between St. Laurent and Cyrville stations every 15 minutes.

    The Stage 2 east extension will expand Line 1 east from Blair Station, adding 12 kilometres of track and five new stations at Montreal Road, Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard, Convent Glen (Orléans Boulevard), Place d'Orléans, and Trim Road. It is expected to be complete in 2025.

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    A man who has brain damage has a murder conviction reversed after a 34-year fight

    A man who has brain damage and was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a shopkeeper in London had his decades-old conviction quashed Wednesday by an appeals court troubled by the possibility police elicited a false confession from a mentally vulnerable man. Oliver Campbell, who suffered cognitive impairment as a baby and struggles with his concentration and memory, was 21 when he was jailed in 1991 after being convicted based partly on admissions his lawyer said were coerced. “The fight for justice is finally over after nearly 34 years," Campbell said. “I can start my life an innocent man.” Campbell, now in his 50s, was convicted of the robbery and murder of Baldev Hoondle, who was shot in the head in his shop in the Hackney area of east London in July 1990. He had a previous appeal rejected in 1994 and was released from prison in 2002 on conditions that could have returned him to prison if he got into trouble. Defense lawyer Michael Birnbaum said police lied to Campbell and “badgered and bullied” him into giving a false confession by admitting he pulled the trigger in an accident. He was interviewed more than a dozen times, including sessions without either a lawyer or other adult present. His learning disability put him “out of his depth” and he was "simply unable to do justice to himself,” Birnbaum said. He said the admissions were nonsense riddled with inconsistencies that contradicted facts in the case. At trial, he testified that he was not involved in the robbery and had been somewhere else though he couldn't remember where. A co-defendant, Eric Samuels, who has since died, pleaded guilty to the robbery and was sentenced to five years in prison. At the time, he told his lawyer Campbell was not the gunman and later told others Campbell wasn’t with him during the robbery. Lawyers continued to advocate for Campbell that he wasn't the killer and his case was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission which investigates potential injustices. The three judges on the Court of Appeal rejected most of Birnbaum's grounds for appeal but said they were troubled by the conviction in light of a new understanding of the reliability of admissions from someone with a mental disability. The panel quashed the conviction as 'unsafe,' and refused to order a retrial.

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