Toronto at 3 AM

In this city’s quietest hour, the people who are awake are awake for a reason. From international student security guards to crisis line volunteers, from DJs building fun in an unfun city to palliative care doctors making house calls—stories of the people who are up while the rest of the city sleeps.

Toronto at 3 AM

Short Feature by Max Mertens

Building Fun in a Notoriously Unfun City

With artists getting international recognition and partygoers eager to make up for lost time, the only thing standing between Toronto and a vibrant nightlife scene is Toronto.
Perspective by Emma Healey

Death in the Small Hours

In the middle of the night, palliative care doctor Joshua Wales drives across the city, making house calls to people during the most emotionally complex, vulnerable moments of their lives.

Short Feature by Lygia Navarro

The Night Watchmen

In the booming private security industry, the biggest problem is finding enough guards. Then came a new source of low-wage employees—international students.

Feature by Alexandra Kimball

The Brutish Lives and Hideous Deaths of Toronto Rats

Rats are cunning, ravenous, daring, disgusting. They stand in for everything squalid and dysfunctional about urban life and we will never be rid of them.

Feature by Inori Roy

A Voice on the End of the Line

For the last sixty years, crisis hotlines have been the emergency rooms of the mental health world. But remote work has transformed the already challenging overnight shift into a deeply lonely one.
Essay by Sarah Ratchford

Leaving the Party

Walking late at night, free from the noise of the day and the demands and threats of men, I can finally hear my own thoughts.
Perspective by Lisa MacIntosh

Maybe I’ll See Raymond

For years, I walked the city doing street outreach overnight—handing out socks, listening to people’s stories, always scanning the crowd for a familiar face.

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Recent issues
Issue 17 - Winter 2023

Toronto at 3 AM

In this city’s quietest hour, the people who are awake are awake for a reason. From international student security guards to crisis line volunteers, from DJs building fun in an unfun city to palliative care doctors making house calls—stories of the people who are up while the rest of the city sleeps.
Special Series

Toronto Election 2022

Ongoing coverage of Toronto’s 2022 municipal election. In-depth features on the issues at stake, hyper-local coverage of competitive ward races across the city, and a Candidate Tracker tool to keep you informed this fall.
Issue 15 - Summer 2022

Toronto's Climate Right Now

From heat inequality to invasive species, from an urban bird sanctuary to a brand new Toronto island—stories about vulnerability and adaptation in Canada’s biggest city, a collaboration between The Local and The Narwhal.