NEW: The Giller Prize boycott has ended. The embattled literary prize confirmed that it is no longer sponsored by groups with ties to Israeli occupation and genocide. I spoke to previous Giller winners and nominees about the news for @thegrindto.bsky.social. www.thegrindmag.ca/organizers-e...

Final days to apply for this amazing opportunity!

@torontotoday.ca now reporting that the TDSB plans to cut 600 teaching roles next year; meanwhile, @wencyleung.bsky.social revealed new data last week showing that in some parts of the city, students are already being taught by non-teachers hundreds of times a year. Such a grim state of affairs.

👉 Tue Apr 7 → 7pm • in-person & online @thelocal.to's @wencyleung.bsky.social on how local journalism digs into the data — Ontario sold Health811 as a great service, but wait times of up to 11 hours tell a different story. ✚ discussions & breakouts! guild.host/events/civic...

@karmicangel.bsky.social with an excellent story on how your local crossing guard is probably underpaid and more at risk than ever before, despite the increasing tax dollars paid to their employers. How much would you accept to step in front of (often speeding) cars dozens of times a day?

So we removed speed cameras, have zero reckless driving enforcement, and privatized crossing guards so that we now rely on a group of poorly paid contract workers to get people safely across the street. It's not going well! thelocal.to/crossing-gua...

Big news at The Local! Come work with us.

Last call to apply for The Local Fellowship 2026! Applications are due tomorrow. thelocal.to/local-fellow...

Come join us this summer+fall, and report on the 2026 municipal election. It's a chance to develop your skills as a magazine writer while also being responsive to a fast-paced election season. There's nothing else like it and I will always be grateful for the incredible time I had as a 2020 fellow!

Got to make an audio version of my @thelocal.to AI journalism scammer story for one of my favourite podcasts, Question Everything. Show: www.kcrw.com/shows/questi... Apple: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/q...

The killing of 165+ students at a girls' school in Iran has also been largely ignored in Canadian media. As far as I can tell, neither the Toronto Star nor the Globe and Mail has run a standalone story on Saturday's attack.

Wency's newest reporting in the School Board Takeover series illuminates vital details about the how provincial funding breaks down from board to board, revealing an imbalance that's been ongoing in some form for nearly 25 years.

No one covers education as thoroughly as @wencyleung.bsky.social A must-read on the discrepancies between the ford govts stated aims in its board takeover —reining in spending —and the historic crisis of chronic underfunding that aim obscures thelocal.to/ontario-scho...

When the province took over some of the largest school boards last June, it vowed to restore financial stability & rein in out-of-control spending. More than 8 months in, there’s little evidence its supervisors have put these boards on firmer footing, @thelocal.to finds. thelocal.to/ontario-scho...

Gorgeous words from my friend @filipouris.bsky.social on finding meaning, catharsis, and queer joy in Heated Rivalry! 💗

“I think a lot of working people in Canada who are contributors to the CPP would be concerned to learn that the entity that invests their pension … is investing in this company that has been responsible for such an egregious treatment of women and minors.” www.thestar.com/business/why...

“Skinner said the aim of the site was to create an atmosphere like that of Chicago in the 1920s, when the public naming of Ku Klux Klan members led many of them to be publicly shunned.”

Fascinating new data findings from @wencyleung.bsky.social in today's final story of the Cost of Care issue, on the failures of Health811, Ontario's health hotline: thelocal.to/health811-te...

"Canada has largely been shielded from this specific flavour of anti-trans rhetoric simply because mass shootings on this level rarely happen here. But this incident shows that the toxic sludge of anti-trans discourse has a firm hold in our political and online sphere here too." #cdnpoli

Vital reporting from @emmapaling.bsky.social: Feds required a Parkdale safe consumption site to create a “community safety plan” approved by police that took responsibility for crime across the entire neighbourhood (!?) The ask led the site to close a year early: www.thegrindmag.ca/exclusive-ca...

The always excellent @rebeccaga0.bsky.social tackles the blurring line between medical and commercial in the world of dermatology. What happens when your health care practition turns a medically-necessary appointment turns into a sales pitch for cosmetic procedures? thelocal.to/dermatology-...

Important read. I fear that the rhetoric around this is going to get very ugly very quickly because of the age we're living in.

NEW from me today: Tumbler Ridge is mourning a horrific loss. But how the shooter's identity is being talked about online, and the dangerous links being made to trans people at large, will have resounding and dangerous impacts in the months and weeks to come. xtramagazine.com/power/tumble...

Maybe I'm biased, but this one-of-a-kind visual guide brought to life by @wencyleung.bsky.social and Michael DeForge might be the most entertaining thing you read this weekend. Don't miss it:

New story in The Grind. Amjad Ramadan, a 52-year-old Palestinian-Canadian, is suing his former employer for wrongful dismissal after he was abruptly terminated for speaking out for Palestine. "There is a campaign to silence us," he told me. @thegrindto.bsky.social

"Failure to mount a serious response to this harassment, and the deference some newsrooms show to the pressure, represents a serious threat to the public perception and practice of journalism at a critical moment." A comprehensive look at the tyranny of Honest Reporting: j-source.ca/honestreport...

This year's going to be a fun one in the Local newsroom, with lots of young talent joining us throughout the year - including the excellent Gabby McMann!

Here's the latest great story from @royinori.bsky.social , explaining the industry behind all those ED and weight-loss drug ads you see on the TTC #ozempic #wegovy thelocal.to/online-pharm...

Investors are betting big on virtual pharmacies selling lifestyle drugs, where a prescription can be just a few DMs away. This sector raises tricky questions about physician ethics, the role of profit in healthcare, and what happens when patients come looking for specific prescriptions. New from me:

@thelocal.to's Cost of Care issue, publishing through last month and this one, offers deep-dives on the intersection of profit and health care. The shared theme of many of these stories is the modern question of a patient as a customer, or a consumer. The issue so far: thelocal.to/winter-2026/

I had a lot of questions about the millions of online pharmacy ads that have popped up in recent years, hawking hair loss treatment and ED medication and weight loss drugs. @royinori.bsky.social answered them! thelocal.to/online-pharm...

It's becoming harder to afford the material costs of a cancer diagnosis, and millions countrywide will someday face this reality. Amidst this strife, the brilliant @wencyleung.bsky.social found a story of uncommon hope: of what happens when a community comes together to buoy a person's final years.

Oh, for fuck's sake.

Good dispatch of life on the ground during an ICE occupation:

The rise in under-qualified hires at childcare centres has shot up more than 1000% in 5 years. Rather than addressing the ECE shortage by improving wages and working conditions, the Ontario government is choosing to "paper over the crisis," advocates say. My latest: thelocal.to/ontarios-day...

Great, startling data story out in The Local today about the growing number of underqualified personnel working in child care roles across the province. No standardized qualifications = no universally understood practices of care & no accountability when existing standards aren't met.

I'm on CBC's Crime Story this week to talk about my @thewalrus.ca story about the swarm killing of Toronto man Kenneth Lee by eight teenage girls. Listen wherever you get your podcasts! www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-p...

It’s been over three months since a ceasefire was announced in Gaza, but Israel’s destruction of the strip still continues. Since the beginning of the ceasefire, Israel has demolished more than 2,500 buildings in Gaza, per a report from @nytimes.com.

We are so far beyond "show us your papers." They don't want to see the papers. We are now into the "give us the names" stage of the occupation.

The Israeli consulate spent nearly $10,000 for Toronto city councillors James Pasternak and Mike Colle to visit Israel in November. The “fact-finding” “peace mission” included airfare, meals and VIP airport service.

Although the health impacts of asbestos exposure are well studied, little is known about the long-term effects of living and working in Cassiar. The consequences of asbestos exposure can take 20 to 40 years to fully appear. @amandafollett.bsky.social reports. #bcpoli

Thrilled and kind of astounded to learn my feature on the peculiar world of the Ontario bait worm industry made it to Bloomberg's 2025 Jealousy List. Nightcrawlers forever 🪱 www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

Looking back a massive year with this wonderful team! 2025 has been good to The Local.

This year we felt the love from readers, from donating their $200 tax rebate cheques for our 7 Years of Doug Ford issue fundraiser, to reaching nearly a million reads for our stories. Look back on this and other 2025 highlights in The Local's Year in Review!

I adore this team.

Great to see our investigation into investigation into "Victoria Goldiee," the freelancer who was not what she seemed, make it into this New Yorker roundup of five things that changed the media in 2025. www.newyorker.com/news/fault-l...

Only now getting around to posting about this— photojournalist Duane Cole and I rode the new Finch West LRT on its opening day Sunday to learn what locals think of the new line. Take a visually immersive trip with us, across the northwest Toronto neighbourhoods waiting decades for rapid transit:

Great piece from @curiouslana.bsky.social: when vulnerable, unhoused people fall through the cracks of the city's straining social infrastructure, they often end up on transit. It's not good for them, nor for the transit staff who are then tasked with the role of social worker.