Marchers turn out to say farewell to Ontario’s sketchiest McDonald’s

by Erica Commisso for Post City Posted: March 21, 2023 Photo: Chuan C. / Yelp

Many Torontonians have complicated feelings about the Queen and Spadina McDonald’s, touting it as one of the sketchiest fast food joints they’ve ever seen. But, for many years, Ottawa natives raised the stakes, offering up the Rideau Street McDonald’s as a serious contender. But, Ottawa can retort no more, as the infamous location is set to close its doors this spring–much to the dismay of locals.

Ottawa residents are not overjoyed with the decision to close the doors, regarding the sketchiest McDonald’s in Ontario as a piece of history and folklore. In protest and commemoration, people took to the streets dressed in Ronald McDonald costumes and holding raccoon signs to pay homage to the location that has been open since 1985. Hundreds of rallyers made their way to Ottawa’s Confederation Park on Sunday in a show of support for the sketchiest McDonald’s in Ontario, which was the home of a 2016 brawl that saw one combatant bring a raccoon. The brawl shot the fast-food joint to national recognition, and highlighted all of the after-dark questionable activity that happens at 99 Rideau Street.

 

According to a CTV report, “police say they were called to the restaurant more than 150 times in 2022,” though it was still “significantly lower than the more than 800 calls for service in 2018 that prompted the location to change its hours.” The hour change came after then-Ottawa Police Chief Charles Bordeleau wrote to the President and CEO of McDonald’s Canada in 2o19, expressing concerns and fears about “ongoing criminal activity and social disorder” at the Rideau Street outpost. The fear was real–on any given day, staff could expect a police call roughly 2.20 times per day. So, the once-24 hour location then changed its hours in an attempt to reduce questionable and criminal activity.

The same report notes that the location is not closing because of the incidents, but rather for a much more mundane reason: the owner decided not to renew the lease. The location at 99 Rideau Street can now be officially leased starting in the third quarter of 2023, and the McDonald’s will officially close next month.

courtney.crowder/Instagram

The march recognized that the closure means that many people who hung out at the Rideau Street McDonald’s and used it as a refuge from the cold or as a place to find relatively inexpensive food and shelter. In recognizing this, one of the organizers, 22-year old University of Ottawa, Keith de Silvia-Legault, told the CBC  that the march morphed into something more, encouraging the crowd to bring non-perishable food items to be donated to a local charity, Shepherds of Good Hope.

An official closing date for the iconic fast-food spot has yet to be announced.

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