OTTAWA – It won’t be just the heat and the smell of barbecued pork attracting tourists and government workers onto the streets today near Parliament Hill.

There’ll also be the sizzle of protest as a popular summer cookoff gets underway and politicians prepare to head out of the capital for the summer.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says three of its members will be parading around nude — painted with a butcher’s diagram — to denounce the opening of the annual Ribfest event, just steps from Parliament.

Here are some other events to keep an eye out for in Ottawa:

— Indigenous elders from Onion Lake in Saskatchewan and Alberta will begin a 12-hour ceremonial gathering called Iskewak Pasikowak (women rising up) on Victoria Island before walking to Parliament Hill;

— Members of the Conservative, Liberal and New Democratic parties will gather for what will likely be their last caucus meetings before the summer break;

— Lawyers for Bruce Carson, the former adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, will be in court fighting a second set of influence-peddling charges;

— The Senate agriculture committee will hold a news conference to discuss its report and recommendations on research and innovation in the Canadian agriculture and agri-food sector;

— Statistics Canada releases the wholesale trade figures for April, police-reported hate crimes for 2012, travel between Canada and other countries for April and Canada’s population estimates for the first three months of this year;

— And former Conservative MP Patrick Boyer will launch his new book investigating the ongoing Senate expense scandal.