Hour 1 of Ottawa Now for Wed. March 18th, 2026

We are revisiting a story from Tuesday’s show, and a topic we have occasionally tackled on Ottawa Now. That debate surrounds today’s tipping policies. A new survey from H&R Block Canada suggests that Canadians may have reached their breaking point. To be more precise, 67 percent of surveyed Canadians believe it's time to abolish the practice, with a staggering 93 percent acknowledging that the practice has gotten out of control. Toronto Metropolitan University professor Wayne Smith says we got really generous with tipping during COVID times, and that never really stopped. But because it’s so heavily engrained into our culture, it would take a lot for tipping to be abolished. Kristy Cameron tries to make sense of it all with Kelly Higginson, the President of Restaurants Canada. Meantime, the Canadian government is appealing a recent ruling by the country’s Court of Appeal. The appeal found that the use of the Emergencies Act to shut down the 2022 Freedom Convoy was illegal. And now, the feds are taking that fight to the Supreme Court of Canada. CFRA’s Andrew Pinsent delivers the details in Hour 1. But first, we bring you up to speed on today’s top headlines.