In 2025, The Local published more stories than ever, with a higher readership than ever. Here are our most-read stories of the year. thelocal.to/the-locals-m...

I adore this team.

For @nationalobserver.com. One funding stream for free AC units in Toronto is failing the people it’s meant to protect. Just 25 recipients in 2 years. One case: an 85-year-old with multiple chronic illnesses denied for having $700 in his bank account.

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:

I love everything about this post by @thelocal.to on the opening of the Finch West LRT - local reporting, talking to the people whose lives have been and are affected by this transit project, and their hopeful skepticism that just seems so Toronto thelocal.to/finch-west-l...

Worth going back to read @thelocal.to's Finch West issue if you didn't catch it when it came out: Fall 2023 | The Local share.google/RcT3xhMHHAAp...

The team was out pretty early and up pretty late yesterday putting this package together. Come ride along.

Two years ago, @thelocal.to did an issue on how this long-awaited transit line promised to transform northwest Toronto. Yesterday, @royinori.bsky.social and photographer Duane Cole rode the line with locals to try to find out if the LRT can keep up with its promises. thelocal.to/finch-west-l...

After years of delay, the Finch West LRT is now running across a historically isolated part of the city. At its launch, politicians posed, transit enthusiasts assembled, and some locals wondered if it was worth the wait. @royinori.bsky.social and Duane Cole on opening day thelocal.to/finch-west-l...

Immunity debt's "...explanatory power has faded as the number of non-covid infections has kept rising each year... A growing number of scientists believe that the SARS-CoV-2 virus may instead be subtly altering our immune systems." 🛟😷medsky

Guess where The Local is today!

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.

I don't get it. On the one hand, you have employers pushing workers back to the office. At the same time, you have employers keen on replacing workers' jobs with AI. What gives?

Three horses euthanized at Woodbine last weekend. www.thestar.com/news/gta/thr.... A reminder that this industry is wholly dependent on government subsidy. thelocal.to/breakdown-at...

Great story from @curiouslana.bsky.social. “We don’t have enough social care, we don’t have enough supportive housing, and we have a lot of people under a lot of stress... So who is going to have to deal with that? At the moment it looks like the TTC." thelocal.to/ttc-mental-h...

With rising homelessness, decreased mental health support, and fewer public spaces than ever, the TTC is being asked to fill gaps in a dissolving social safety net. @curiouslana.bsky.social on how transit work became more like social work. thelocal.to/ttc-mental-h...

It's Giving Tuesday, a great day to help us keep our public-interest journalism free and accessible to everyone! Every donation comes with a tax receipt, and recurring donations of $10 a month or $100 annually come with our coveted "Local Journalism Matters" tote bag. thelocal.to/support/

I can’t think of a more existential threat to journalism right now than AI-generated content masking as original reporting. Once the well is poisoned we’re all toast. @thelocal.to is taking a stance with our new AI policy. thelocal.to/ai-policy/

It's reassuring there are publications that fact-check and aren't driven by the need to push out more content for the sake of more content. The folks at RE:PUBLIC reached out to @nickhunebrown.bsky.social after their own brush with "Victoria Goldiee" www.republic.land/imposter-syn...

I never would've imagined having to affirm that my wonderful colleagues and I are real humans, and our journalism is created by us and not some AI bot. Nevertheless, here we are!

Since publishing our investigation into "Victoria Goldiee" at @thelocal.to, I've heard from editors from around the world who've had their own run-ins. A quick follow-up, plus a conversation with @cstarnino.bsky.social about journalism in a world of AI fakery. thelocal.to/fallout-from...

In the wake of our AI freelancer investigation, The Walrus editor-in-chief @cstarnino.bsky.social got the Local’s @nickhunebrown.bsky.social on Zoom to talk about the future of journalism in a world of “Victoria Goldiees.”

"You can’t have a mix of things that are true and not true in your news publication or the whole thing is destroyed." Smart, thoughtful Q&A between @nickhunebrown.bsky.social and @thewalrus.ca's Carmine Starnino about AI's creep into journalism thewalrus.ca/the-phantom-...

I spoke to @thewalrus.ca EIC Carmine Starnino about Victoria Goldiee, fake reporters, and what the hell journalists are supposed to do in this AI slop era. thewalrus.ca/the-phantom-...

Your #WeekendRead: Victoria had a promising pitch, and bylines at The Guardian, New York Magazine, Dwell, Architectural Digest, and more. But something wasn’t right. thelocal.to/investigatin...

This is a stunning article in @thelocal.to & a tribute to @nickhunebrown.bsky.social's integrity/investigative skills as an editor. It describes an open pitch that led to an "author", who pitched stories with bogus quotes & previously published articles that don't exist. thelocal.to/investigatin...

📣SOURCE CALL OUT📣 Has your dermatologist tried upselling you? (Like, trying to sell a cosmetic procedure when you're in for a mole). Or, have you struggled to land an OHIP-covered appt but was able to get in fast for something not covered? I'd love to chat for a story in @thelocal.to DMs are open!

Since I started reporting on education, I've puzzled over why the official version of how things work at the TDSB is often at odds with the experiences I hear from families. Nowhere is this gap more apparent than in special education. This story is an attempt to get at why.

ICYMI, this stellar piece by @nickhunebrown.bsky.social demands a reflection of where the journalism industry is going, and how we got here. thelocal.to/investigatin...

"Victoria Goldiee” had freelanced for The Cut and The Guardian. After Nicholas Hune-Brown, executive editor of The Local, greenlit her pitch, the red flags started popping up. www.niemanlab.org/2025/11/ever...

NEW: Bill 33, which Education Minister Paul Calandra has indicated he will use to take over more school boards and replace trustees with supervisors, has passed third reading and is set to become law. #OnPoli globalnews.ca/news/1153148...

As MPPs vote on Bill 33, check out @royinori.bsky.social's analysis of what it would mean for colleges and universities thelocal.to/bill-33-onta...

"Every media era gets the fabulists it deserves." You will want to read this investigation on how The Local's Nick HUne-Brown uncovered what seems to be an ambitious AI journalism scam that's hit major publications worldwide.

Love a good mystery in the hands of @nickhunebrown.bsky.social

"Every media era gets the fabulists it deserves." Brilliant essay/investigation by @nickhunebrown.bsky.social into journalism scammers in the age of AI. thelocal.to/investigatin...

"Every media era gets the fabulists it deserves." This @nickhunebrown.bsky.social piece about journalism grifters in the age of AI slop is fantastic, bonkers & sad on so many levels thelocal.to/investigatin...

A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor @nickhunebrown.bsky.social to investigate their past work. In the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, removed articles from their sites. thelocal.to/investigatin...

A few months ago @thelocal.to got a promising pitch from a writer with bylines in whole bunch of reputable publications—The Cut, The Guardian, Dwell, Architectural Digest, etc. Then I started investigating. Here's a story about fabulists in journalism's AI slop era. thelocal.to/investigatin...

Attention Black and/or Indigenous early-career journalists! The Local is partnering with The Philanthropist for a $10,000 fellowship. The fellow will write about issues that matter to their community and civil society, and will be offered mentorship and industry guidance. thelocal.to/early-career...

And at @thelocal.to, here in Toronto, we have one, too! A new, part-time, flexible fellowship for Black and/or Indigenous journalists thelocal.to/early-career...

Our friends at @thenarwhal.ca have a fantastic fellowship for Indigenous journalists in B.C.!

@pressprogress.ca needs your solidarity and support right now more than ever We’re raising money to pay our legal bills – and to be blunt, we’re going to need a lot of help If you’re able, please help us out and support our Journalism Defence Fund: pressprogress.ca/journalism-d...

In our final Higher Education story, Olivia Bowden checks in on campus sexual violence prevention and response services eight years on from the Me Too movement. Survivors and advocates say progress has been hindered by austerity and growing conservatism on campuses: thelocal.to/university-o...

I'm finding it harder and harder to keep an open mind about AI with stories like this. We're using up vast amounts of our precious fresh water resources for what, exactly? www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Grief. Good grief.

I'm curious to hear about people's experiences with Health811 (formerly Telehealth Ontario), good or bad. Please DM or email me: [email protected]

Applications for our Early-Career Journalism Fellowship are now open! The fellowship, a joint undertaking with @thephilanthropist.ca, provides one Black and/or Indigenous journalist an opportunity to write about issues that matter to their community and civil society. thelocal.to/early-career...

This is a story in which the vulnerable hurt the vulnerable. It's about power, attention, and group violence. It's also a story of race, girlhood, substance use, and growing up during COVID. I wrote about the killing of Kenneth Lee by eight teenage girls in downtown Toronto. A thread:

Have you caught up on this week's big stories from The Local? Our higher education issue continues, first with a deep-dive into the deteriorating relationship between York University and its community: thelocal.to/york-univers...