Carleton University, University Ottawa cancels face-to-face classes for remainder of winter semester

Post-secondary schools shut down uOttawa, Carleton, and Algonquin College among Canadian school shut for the season. CTV's Kimberley Johnson reports.

OTTAWA — Ottawa’s two universities have cancelled in-person classes for the rest of the winter semester.

Carleton University and the University of Ottawa announced all classes will be moving to online and other distance learning formats in response to the spread of COVID-19.

Online classes at the schools will start on Wednesday, March 18.

Classes will be cancelled at both Carleton and uOttawa on Monday and Tuesday. Both schools say there will be no face-to-face final exams.

Carleton University

President and Vice-Chancellor Benoit-Antoine Bacon says “the safety of our community is our first priority and we have reached a point where it is advisable to cancel face-to-face-classes and move to alternative modes of instruction for the remainder of the term.”

Carleton University announced the following measures:

On Thursday, Carleton announced is it cancelling several events scheduled for this weekend and March Break, including:

University of Ottawa

President and Vice-Chancellor Jacques Fremont says the decision to cancel all in-person classes comes “in light of the urgent recommendations by public health officials that ‘social distancing’ is the most effective means of protecting students, staff and faculty members of the infection.”

The University of Ottawa announced the following measures:

On Thursday, University of Ottawa announced several events scheduled for March Break were cancelled, including:

Fremont says “these unprecedented measures will be disruptive. I trust, however, that all members of our community will understand that they are necessary and being implemented for the benefit of all.”