Recent Posts

Analysis by Matthew Molinaro

The Creeping Threat to Trans Rights in Toronto

Toronto is seen by many as a progressive bastion, but as anti-trans sentiment grips right-wing politics abroad and in Canada—including here in Ontario’s biggest city—local advocates are bracing themselves.

Feature by Wency Leung

Trouble in the Principal’s Office

The problems in Toronto schools end up in the office, where principals and vice-principals say they’re overwhelmed and struggling to keep up.

Feature by Wency Leung

Fewer Caretakers, Dirtier Schools

Sticky floors, rodent infestations, uncleared ice, overflowing toilets—Toronto schools are showing the effects of years of slashing caretaker jobs.

Feature by Wency Leung

How Decades of Underfunding Eroded Toronto’s Schools

In the largest city in one of the richest countries, Toronto's public school system should be world class. So why are students heading back to school in crumbling buildings without enough staff to meet their needs?

Editor's Letter by Nicholas Hune-Brown

Failing Our Students

Toronto’s public education system has been underfunded for decades. Kids are paying the price.

Feature by Sam Rosati Martin

When Environmentalism is Weaponized Against the Unhoused

From a proposed pollinator garden at St. Stephen-in-the-Fields to tree trimmings and ‘grass remediation’—how the city uses green rhetoric to displace the homeless.

Investigation by Sakeina Syed

Excluded: The Legal Loophole Barring Hundreds of Ontario Students From School

A little-known provision gives school principals blanket authority to exclude “detrimental” students from class. Advocates say it’s being abused, and the province isn't paying enough attention.

Feature by Alice Boyle

Making Space for Queer Community, Between Banquet Tables and Dim Sum Carts

For many queer, racialized Torontonians, Church and Wellesley doesn’t feel welcoming. As they push for inclusion, they’re also building their own spaces far from the Village.

Analysis by Emma McIntosh

The Flow of Money: What Southern Ontario’s Nature Is Worth

Talk about a green economy might evoke images of solar panels and carbon capture. But work to conserve and restore ecosystems is already driving economic activity

Investigation by Fatima Syed

Enbridge Gas Is ‘Fighting For Its Survival’—That Means Keeping Ontario on Fossil Fuels

The energy giant is lobbying Ontario municipalities to ensure efforts to reduce emissions don't threaten its bottom line.

Feature by Inori Roy

More Electric Vehicles Are Coming to Toronto’s Streets, But Who Gets to Fix Them?

As the federal government introduces ambitious goals for all new cars to be zero-emissions by 2035, mom-and-pop garages are wrestling with EV manufacturers and dealers over the right to repair them.

Analysis by Wency Leung

What We Found at Three Canadian GFL Locations

Dead fish in North Stormont, conflicting stories in Abbotsford, and a mysterious, unbearable stench in Hamilton.

Feature by Dhriti Gupta

Toronto Homes Can’t Go Carbon-Neutral Unless Developers Get On Board

Buildings are Toronto's largest source of greenhouse gases. The city has ambitious plans to fix that, but developers are balking at the price tag.

Analysis by Carl Meyer

Royal Bank of Canada on the Defensive Over Criticism of Fossil Fuel Financing

Accused of being Canada’s biggest financial backer of fossil fuel projects, the bank is feeling the heat—even if it doesn’t say that publicly.

Investigation by Wency Leung

GFL Says It’s ‘Green For Life’—Its Neighbours Disagree

The GTA waste management company projects a green image. But a history of fires, water contamination, regulatory violations, and the complaints of neighbours from North Carolina to Hamilton tell another story.

Editor's Letter by Nicholas Hune-Brown

Toronto’s Green-ish Economy

If we want to write about the environment, we need to write about business.

Stories About Housing

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Recent issues

The Green* Economy

*allegedly green, or green-ish, stories from the GTA businesses that could make or break our environmental goals. In collaboration with The Narwhal, this issue digs into some of the biggest corporations in the country, visits small business owners trying to ride the wave of a green transition, and looks at all the ways climate commitments and business imperatives collide in Canada’s biggest city.

Art + Money

Can you make art and still make a living in Toronto? Stories about international students-turned-popstars, indie filmmakers, radical visual artists, Indigenous painters, and the rest of the playwrights, gallery workers, cultural critics and workers keeping Toronto arts alive.

The Aging City

Toronto is getting old. Today there are more people over 65 than under 15, and by 2041 it’s estimated that one in five Torontonians will be a senior citizen. In our new ongoing series, we examine life in an aging city—with stories about home care, transit, seniors who wander, LGBTQ2S+ discrimination, and more.

Nominated for National Magazine Awards
Feature by Ashley Okwuosa

The Realities of Renting While Black

Black renters have always faced discrimination in Toronto. The rental crisis makes it worse.

Profile by Nicholas Hune-Brown

Where Has Olivia Chow Been?

After almost a decade out of public life, years spent training grassroots organizers, the former NDP MP is leading the polls for Toronto mayor. What does Chow’s time out of government say about what she might do if she finds herself back in?

Feature by Richard Trapunski with photography by Christopher Katsarov Luna

“Canada’s Worst Obstacle Course”

Metrolinx has promised Toronto a more interconnected tomorrow. As it rips up some of the city’s busiest streets, is it paying enough attention to the safety and wellbeing of Torontonians today?

Data Feature by Adin Wagner

In Small Claims Court, Justice Delayed

While Ontario’s other court systems bounce back from their pandemic-era backlogs, analysis by The Local shows that “the people’s court,” where many low-income people seek justice, is lagging far behind.