The National Capital now has a municipal protest buffer that reaches beyond school gates. Per the City of Ottawa’s Engage Ottawa summary of the completed Vulnerable Social Infrastructure By-law review, Council adopted a Safe Access By-law that took effect 1 August 2026, creating 50-metre safe-access zones around entrances to designated properties.

Application-based 50-metre zones can ban demonstrations near daycares, worship sites, and care homes — and Ottawa’s first public list needed address repairs before it was even a month old.
Citizen impact: Inside a designated zone it is an offence to conduct or participate in a demonstration/protest, obstruct access, counsel someone not to use the facility, or discharge fireworks/pyrotechnics, plus noise restrictions aimed at people using the facility. Hours generally run from one hour before opening to one hour after closing; hospitals and residential-care facilities can be 24-hour. Facilities apply at no charge; zones expire after one year unless renewed. Pair with Calgary’s appellate bubble fight and Vaughan’s CCLA challenge — Ottawa is the newest live municipal file.

What Engage Ottawa documents

The city’s consultation close-out states the by-law covers vulnerable social infrastructure such as places of worship, schools, daycares, medical facilities, and residential care homes. Designation is application-based — operators request protection; the city does not require proof of a prior harm incident as a published condition on the Engage page. Signs are to be posted at designated facilities.

September list — typos and a CMHC clarification

Centretown BUZZ reported (9 September, substantially updated 15 September 2026) that the designated-facility list appeared on ottawa.ca around 8 September after repeated inquiries. The initial list had three clear address errors (private house vs Ottawa Torah Centre; missing daycare street number; “Russel” vs Russell Road for Perley Health). After BUZZ notified the city, the addresses were corrected and a further zone was added, bringing the reported count to about 13. Lawyer Paul Champ, quoted by BUZZ, said incorrect addresses would undermine enforceability. The city also told BUZZ that a “700 Montreal Road” listing (CMHC national headquarters complex) applies only to specified daycare access points — not the whole federal administrative building — consistent with the by-law’s stated carve-out logic for federal admin buildings.

Contested: Proponents cite harassment prevention and access to care/worship/childcare. Opponents (including Champ and prior CCLA critiques of similar tools) call application-based buffers an arbitrary chill on Charter expression. This piece tracks the adopted by-law text as summarised by the city and the on-record list corrections — not invented ticket counts.

Bottom line

Do not write “Ottawa banned all protests downtown.” Do not invent a Charter judgment striking the by-law. Verified: Safe Access By-law in force 1 August 2026; September designated-facility list posted and corrected after address errors; zones are renewable one-year designations.