Toronto Public Health is warning that this holiday season saw a sharp uptick in opioid overdose calls compared to previous years.
The organization said Monday that there have been 122 reports of suspected opioid overdoses between Dec. 20 and Dec. 28, a 35 per cent increase over similar periods in the last two years. However, this surge in calls has not resulted in a corresponding rise in fatalities; officials reported fewer than five opioid-related deaths, a figure consistent with last year.
There is a push to convince the public that crime is down and that things are not as bad as you think — don’t fall for it. Over the past several weeks, we’ve heard from police, politicians, and even a screaming headline in the Toronto Star, that crime is down and your perception is all wrong.
The headlines have been merciless.
“Toronto man outruns newly opened Finch LRT by 18 minutes.” – CBC.
“‘Slower than buses’: Toronto’s new Finch West LRT under fire for sluggish travel times.” – Global News.
“We raced TTC’s Line 6 on a bus and it was so slow we had time to stop for a snack.” – blogTO.
This week, mezuzahs were ripped off the doors of multiple units in a Toronto condo tower. The victims included Jewish seniors, among them Holocaust survivors. Police attended, interviews were conducted, and the incidents were correctly treated as hate crimes.
Two weeks earlier, similar acts occurred elsewhere in the city.
More than half a decade after the COVID-19 pandemic emptied Toronto’s buses, subways and streetcars, the city’s transit agency is still struggling to recover and hit its ridership targets.
The Toronto Transit Commission has frozen fares for three years, slowly ramped up service and opened a new rapid transit line, but ridership is still lower than in 2019 and falling below expectations.
According to the agency’s 2026 budget document, hopes that more mandatory return-to-work orders would result in more passengers were misguided.
I suggest they have the insane and drug addicted make room for the homeless asylum seekers to boost ridership.
How Olivia Chow and John Tory might do with voters if an election were held today
Mayor Olivia Chow would hold a narrow lead over former mayor John Tory if Torontonians headed to the polls today, according to a new public opinion survey.
The latest poll by Liaison Strategies put Chow — who has yet to announce whether she will run for re-election next October — at 39 per cent among decided voters. Tory, who is mulling whether to run, was the first choice of 35 per cent of decided voters.
The past year has seen heartbreaking tragedy and bloodshed in Toronto.
The shooting of eight-year-old JahVai Roy, struck by a stray bullet in the perceived safety of his home this summer. The stabbing death of grandmother Shahnaz Pestonji, 71, as she loaded groceries into her car on a Thursday morning in July.
But despite such incidents that have seized the public’s attention, 2025 is in fact on track to hit a 50-year low for the number of homicides committed in a single year in the city.
Perception is influenced by quality of life issues and Toronto fails on many fronts.
The transit system is sketchy and used as an insane asylum/homeless shelter while the police are viewed as compromised by a murder cult.
Toronto’s mayor is widely regarded as the dim witted racist puppet of special interests that hate Canada.
Thanks to the federal government’s deliberately harmful mass immigration policy Toronto now resembles a 3rd World Dumpster fire where over 40% of foodbank users are non-citizens.
All of this adds up.
OTTAWA — They aren’t buying it.
That’s the response from Toronto’s Jewish community to a tweet Friday from Toronto Police, assuring the city’s Jewish community — reeling from years of harassment, abuse and assault from Islamist and far-left radicals — that they face “no known threats.”
Is there a way out? That was the question“EMPz 4 Life” asked as it followed Brian Henry’s efforts to help a group of troubled Toronto boys.
Jordan Mendez doesn’t flinch as the jury foreperson reads the verdict.
Guilty of first-degree murder.
He stands, expression unreadable, as his co-accused lowers his head and the victim’s mother rocks in her seat, before rising and glaring at the two men who took her son’s life.
“I’ve been in this situation before,” says Mendez, smirking, as a court officer slips handcuffs around his wrists. It’s true — he has. Years ago, the verdict was manslaughter. And yet another murder trial still lies ahead for him.
The most basic job of government, at all levels, is to keep citizens safe. That is twice as true when it comes to government-operated transit systems. Unfortunately, the latest national investigation into transit violence paints a troubling picture that reflects what riders in Toronto and across the country experience every single day. According to new data released in a CBC feature story, the number of reported assaults on Toronto-area transit has risen by 160 per cent since 2015. Overall, violent incidents are up 127 per cent.
Like so many Toronto transit efforts the second entrance to Museum Station was a project that seemed forever under construction. Open now, commuters can exit the station directly into Queen’s Park. A subway-to-city transfer this elegant and unique, into the city’s premier park, with trees that have existed more than a century and before the subway was tunnelled underneath, is rare.
Toronto’s top baby names in 2024: Muhammad and Emma
Muhammad leapfrogged to the top of baby names for boys born in Toronto in 2024 while Emma edged out Olivia as the most popular among girls.
According to a list of names provided Tuesday by the Ontario government, Muhammad moved up from fourth spot in 2023 and ahead of Noah as the most popular baby boy name in the city.
h/t MP
There is no joy in Hogtown. Public transit has struck out. Again. After many years of construction and $3.7 billion spent, there is a new light-rail line on Finch Avenue West, in the city’s north end. It is 10.3 kilometres long, and almost entirely at grade. (For $360 million per kilometre, many places in the world can build fully underground heavy-rail subways. But the mystery of the North American infrastructure surcharge is a subject for another day.)
Can they both be telling the truth?
It’s a he-said, she-said scenario involving Mayor Olivia Chow, Police Chief Myron Demkiw and a Toronto Police lawyer.
Whoops. @fancypants_s https://t.co/trGDNQ4dw3
— Patti Jo (@TheSupeHero) December 16, 2025
h/t Patti Jo
A Toronto man challenged the newly-opened Finch Light-Rail Transit to a race — and he won.
The Toronto Transit Commission’s Line 6 was riddled with service disruptions and disappointment from commuters during its opening week, particularly as advocates and councillors called for signal priority and faster trips.
Mac Bauer, who regularly races TTC vehicles, decided to take it upon himself to see if the new line truly was as slow as people described it to him.
