Toronto Star
Beginning of the end for blight on the Bluffs?
The Scarborough Bluffs mansion has been an eyesore for years: a decrepit, mouldy mess. Now it may finally be coming down, if the city approves a new plan with a famous name attached. The owner is seeking approval from the local committee of...
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An auspicious beginning
It's a testament to Kawhi Leonard's commitment to winning in the playoffs that the two-time MVP of the NBA Finals once likened the NBA'S regular season to “82 practices.” Good thing, then, that he's got the option of 81 more. Not that Leonard is...
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`TIME TO MOVE FORWARD'
EDMONTON Alberta Premier Danielle Smith slammed the door on holding any further referendums on independence, declaring in a speech Tuesday night that Albertans have spoken and want to remain in Canada. “I want to make it clear tonight that for as long...
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Albertans go to polls after divisive campaign
A turbulent campaign that pitted federalists against separatists over Alberta's future in Canada was drawing to an end Monday, with questions lingering about how unified the province can be in its aftermath. Results of Alberta's referendum on whether...
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A Canadian tragedy
WAINWRIGHT, ALTA. When Chuck Powell heard sirens, he knew something was wrong. Posted to Wainwright, Alta., in 1987 as a military policeman, the 72-year-old, like many retired servicemen who call the small Prairie town home, is used to the blasts and...
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Final push before vote
EDMONTON A key separatist leader rejected calls to end the campaign for Alberta's secession if the province's independence movement loses the vote in Monday's referendum. “That's not happening,” Keith Wilson told a crowd of about 1,000 supporters...
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Ontario hid study on problem gambling
The government agency responsible for online gambling in Ontario secretly shelved a research study intended to track rates of problem gambling in the province. Igaming Ontario commissioned the study in the months before the province launched its...
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`Decisive result' needed, Carney tells Albertans
CALGARY Prime Minister Mark Carney blitzed through Calgary on Thursday as part of a whirlwind trip through Alberta days before the province's referendum on separation, telling a packed evening rally of federalist supporters that only a decisive result...
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`Two different cities'
Olivia Chow is attracting renters and others worried about housing while Brad Bradford backers are most concerned about property taxes, according to the most recent Vote Compass data that shows taxes, crime and cost of living are top of mind for...
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Cyclists block removal
The Ford government's removal of bike lanes on a 1.2-kilometre stretch of Bloor Street on Tuesday evening was temporarily thwarted by cycling advocates. Four construction trucks left Green Lanes and Bloor Street West in Etobicoke to chants of “get...
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Classroom upheaval
Lindsay Thompson's daughter started the school year excited and eager to go to class each day because “she loved school so much.” But when she learned her Grade 5 class was being dissolved, and she would be moved into a class with children she doesn't...
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No passing fancy
Franco Bisceglia bought this pigeon, the one he is holding now with both hands in his Mississauga backyard, for several thousand dollars. One of its aunts sold for 52,000 euros this year. The other sold for 48,000 euros. And this pigeon, with a...
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The end … or the beginning
OTTAWA If Mitch Sylvestre is worried about losing, he isn't letting it show. In fact, the avowed separatist offers a blunt prediction for his side should Alberta's Oct.19 referendum results confirm a loss. “It will get stronger,” he told the...
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Lives lost in Tesla `death trap,' suit claims
After flying halfway around the world to spend time with their son in Toronto, Digvijay Ausarkar's parents returned to India with high hopes for his promising future as an engineer in Canada. Four weeks later, they got a call from police, telling them...
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A classic example
Anne Carson was eating crackers and drinking a cup of tea in Iceland, thinking about how the floor needed sweeping, when she got a phone call. Then another. And another. When she finally picked up, the Canadian poet and author learned she had won the...
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Wrong teens, real trauma
Two 16-year-old boys were tackled to the ground by plainclothes Toronto police officers on a busy LRT platform earlier this month in a case of mistaken identity. One of the boys faces charges for assaulting a peace officer after he came to the aid of...
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Rivals go one-on-one
Olivia Chow and Brad Bradford traded blows over each other's character, consistency and commitment to public service Tuesday night, as the leading candidates to be mayor of Toronto faced off oneon-one for the first time this election. “How can people...
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Preserving the future
Within weeks of getting diagnosed with cancer, Ishtar Samano was already tallying her losses. She was just 21 years old when doctors told her she had advanced Hodgkin lymphoma, forcing her to drop out of her London, Ont., college. The treatment left...
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Safety concerns cited before girl's fatal fall
Deepali Kashyap and Rakshit Chauhan were playing with their two-year-old daughter inside their North York highrise. The couple, who had moved into their 19th-floor unit on Graydon Hall Drive two months earlier, said they were just steps away from...
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Debris located from missing air ambulance
The U.S. Coast Guard says it has found debris from a Hamiltonbased air ambulance jet carrying six people, including four from the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas, that disappeared off the coast of Nantucket early Saturday. The missing Gulfstream...
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Backstage turmoil rocks prestigious choir school
At St. Michael's Choir School, a semi-private institution in downtown Toronto with fewer than 300 students, a typical parent council meeting may draw 15 to 20 attendees. But on Sept. 24, just three weeks into the academic year, nearly 40 parents...
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Inside the secret mayors' group chat kept under wraps
It was kept under lock and key for two years: a secret chat room for the mayors of Ontario's biggest cities. That secrecy was pierced Thursday after a provincial freedom-ofinformation adjudicator ruled in favour of the Star's request to view and...
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Still fighting for the truth
OTTAWA Indigenous leaders struck a resolute tone Wednesday as the country marked the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation following reports of a white supremacist demonstration in a First Nations community in the B.C. interior. “Survivors have...
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A long wait for justice
Hours after being acquitted of manslaughter in the death of her infant son, Jennifer Gaskin expressed no bitterness — only relief at being cleared of the label of “monster” and reuniting with the children she'd lost for more than two decades because of...
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There and back again
He left so he could say goodbye to loved ones and welcome others to the world. Family resonates with Kawhi Leonard more than anyone here could have imagined. The tug of family and the proximity to them played a role in driving Leonard from Toronto and...
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Star takes voting tool across Ontario
My first trip to Greece could not be more perfectly timed — it feels almost fated that I would be sitting on a patio in Athens, the birthplace of democracy, as the Star launches the largest civic engagement project in its history. In the days ahead, I...
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`ONE SHOOTER ISN'T GOING TO STOP US'
BELLEVILLE Nearly every other Friday for the past 70 years, the Sons of Jacob congregation has gathered inside a small Belleville synagogue for a Kabbalat Shabbat service. The ceremony, a traditional service that welcomes the Jewish Sabbath before...
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The burden they share
As soft beams of light filter through the trees, Sarabjit Rana and Kim Prosser speak about life, loss, pain and hope. The two have walked distinct paths to get where they are, but they now find themselves with an unbreakable bond. It comes out of...
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HIGH-STAKES SUMMIT
WASHINGTON Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met for high-stakes talks on Thursday at an urgent moment for the U.s.-china relationship, with the world's preeminent powers divided on the war in Iran and still grappling to find common ground on...
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FACES OF GRIEF
Leonardo Bedoya Forero strives to cling to joyous memories of his daughter, Jeshennia BedoyaLopez. The celebrations, the milestones, the ordinary days. But no matter how hard he tries, there's an image he can't escape — finding her pale and cold body...
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Traffic driving people away
Torontonians mostly agree the city is a good, safe place to work and raise a family, but scratch the surface of civic pride and there is a deep well of pessimism. A wide-ranging Ipsos poll has found respondents were a little more optimistic this year...
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Community in shock
BELLEVILLE, ONT. As Norm Weddum walked into his synagogue Sunday evening for the Yom Kippur service, he thanked the police officer parked outside for watching over his congregation. Inside Belleville's Sons of Jacob synagogue, where Weddum is...
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`We're sorry. Have patience'
KALAMAZOO, MICH. While U.S. President Donald Trump was insulting Canadians, a Kalamazoo woman in white work boots with red maple leaves on the toes was feverishly plotting to celebrate them — which is why, on one of the last nights of summer, Rush...
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Your car checks out
Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un are in a grey Jeep Grand Cherokee driving around hotel parking lots in the middle of a winter night, looking for cars to steal. They split up, each with their own ride, keeping in touch on the encrypted...
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GRAND THEFT TORONTO
With the grace of a major league pitcher, Naz Tokhi's partner-incrime plants his feet, transfers his weight back, then explodes forward with a snap of his right arm, firing a carefully selected rock through the glass of a front door. He reaches in,...
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`Collective resilience'
STRASBOURG, FRANCE Canada is ready to enter a more formal partnership, including associate membership, with the European Union to strengthen sovereignty and resist global pressures, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday as the U.S. president...
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`There's no cops like (me)'
Toronto Const. Timothy Barnhardt was unaware a recording device had been hidden inside his police cruiser as he invited an alleged drug dealer into the passenger seat. Barnhardt showed the man the computer screen attached to the centre console, where...
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FLYING PRIVATE?
OTTAWA The federal government will allow private investment in the operation of four major airports — including Toronto's Pearson — in a move to “unlock” billions of dollars for infrastructure spending, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced...
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Candidates clash over housing, police
Olivia Chow defended her record on affordability issues but faced strong attacks from her opponents, as the three leading candidates for Toronto mayor squared off against one another for the first time Monday evening. The race officially started in...
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From pain to possibility
Most of Carmelina Crudo's life has been etched in pain. At 21, a major car accident left her with a spine injury. Then came fibromyalgia. A slipped disc. Lyme disease. More bacterial infections than she can count. At one point, she was taking 52...
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`God's work … the devil's price'
Four years ago, Bill Lake, a retired engineer and avid beekeeper from Battersea, Ont., was told he had incurable colon cancer. By the time a CT scan revealed tumours had spread to his lymph nodes, doctors at Kingston General Hospital didn't think they...
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Solemn remembrance
OTTAWA It was a tough message, cast as the hard truth Americans need to hear right now from their Canadian friends. Former prime minister Jean Chrétien, speaking in Gander, N.L., during a day of emotional tributes to the victims of the 9/11 attacks,...
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Carney keeping line open to Trump
OTTAWA Tension? What tension? Prime Minister Mark Carney donned a cloak of indifference Thursday toward the memes and insults lobbed his way by U.S. President Donald Trump, and downplayed the latest round of American tariffs and import bans about to...
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Statue of litigation
When the towering statue of a female grizzly bear seated like Abraham Lincoln was unveiled in North York last year, an artist who says he was instrumental in creating it had no idea it was finished — and now he's asking a court to make sure he's fairly...
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Nuggets of wisdom
Outside Thorncliffe Park Public School and Fraser Mustard Early Learning Academy on Tuesday morning, hundreds of parents gave their children some last tidbits of advice before letting go of their hands and sending them off to a new academic school...
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Test scores dip for Canadian students
Canadian students are still outpacing most of the developed world when it comes to math, reading and science, but their scores continue to slide, according to international test results released Tuesday. Canada's decline mirrors a global downward...
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The damage done
By Thursday morning, it was clear the “red alert” storm inflicted staggering damage across Toronto and much of southern Ontario. Violent winds ripped out centuryold trees and tossed them across roads all over the city. Floodwaters rushed onto the Don...
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Choppy waters
CAPE VINCENT, N.Y. It's just after 7:40 p.m. when news of the executive order reaches the squat white cottage underneath the lighthouse. Pat Schamerhorn is locking up the gift shop. She lives just down the road, in the house with the picket fence,...
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LAKE ONTARIO, FOREVER
Donald Trump sat in the Oval Office at the White House on Thursday and used his signature Sharpie to sign an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America.” I expect there'll be a flood of commentary mocking this as absurd, ridiculous,...
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`Everyone's heart is broken'
Members of Toronto's NepaliCanadian community have been unable to reach family members living in affected areas after flash floods tore through the NepalChina border region Wednesday, killing at least 160 people and leaving hundreds missing while power...
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GOODBYE, DOLLY
NASHVILLE, TENN. Dolly Parton, the country music icon whose soaring vibrato vocals, poignant songwriting and sparkling costumes defined her rise from a log cabin in the Tennessee mountains to the height of stardom and acclaim, has died. She was 80...
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Ford takes aim at Trump Premier calls U.S. president a `dictator' as stakes escalate amid another round of tariff threats
OTTAWA The trade war with the United States has descended into open acrimony, with Ontario's premier trading personal insults with Donald Trump as Prime Minister Mark Carney warns that the U.S. president's new tariff threat on Monday shows Washington...
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`He has no clue what we are going through'
For months after the crash, even through grief, pain and rehab, Preetha Varma refused to hate the driver whose vehicle killed her husband, Santhosh, and left her with permanent injuries. She assumed he was young, frightened and remorseful. “I'm also...
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ALL-OUT TRADE WAR
OTTAWA The United States tried to undermine Canadian sovereignty with last-minute demands attacking Canada's auto sector, cultural protections and the ability to make trade deals with other countries, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Saturday,...
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THE EX FACTOR
The Canadian National Exhibition is back and so are the rides, games, deep-fried everything you can think of — and the question of how much bang you can get for your buck. In 2022, the Star sent three reporters to the CNE with $90 and 90 minutes to...
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Battle on two fronts
OTTAWA Canada's premiers were split Thursday over a looming trade deal with the United States that would leave damaging tariffs in place, as the Carney government sought to convince a divided provincial front that accepting painful concessions now is...
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Ottawa faces test in defending trade deal
OTTAWA Prime Minister Mark Carney faces a tough political challenge to explain to Canadians why a deal that retains lower but punishing tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos and would put American booze back on Canadian shelves was the best trade deal...
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Toronto feels the Fever
The Fever's Caitlin Clark tries to get past Ornella Bankole in Indiana's 10195 win over the Tempo on Tuesday night.
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Mensa member at five
Arjun Prajapati bursts through the doors of his local Scarborough library branch and dashes for his favourite shelves with the urgency of a child who knows exactly what he wants. His parents, Vishal and Mahita, watch as their five-year-old gathers...
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Zanzibar gutted by fire
A fire gutted the roof and upper floors of Zanzibar Tavern early Sunday morning, leaving one of Yonge Street's most storied adult entertainment clubs facing an uncertain future. Toronto firefighters were called to Yonge and Elm streets shortly after 6...
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BONDS OF STEEL In U.S. industrial heartland, Canada finds some allies against Trump tariffs
An improbable show of support for Canada came recently, from amid the hollowedout streets and rusting mills of Pennsylvania's steel country. The people who work at the few remaining steelmaking facilities in the Pittsburgh region's Mon Valley have...
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Life in the fast lane
On Sunday, the cars at the Honda Indy in Markham will race at speeds approaching 380 km/h. On Thursday, buckled into the back row of a bus from her retirement home, 77-year-old Rose Chen went decidedly slower. She peered out the window at the sights,...
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Cop shot during arrest
A man on bail for a weapon-related offence and wanted in connection with violent offences last month is facing new charges after a Toronto officer was shot attempting to arrest a suspected thief of an e-bike, police said. Police said multiple officers...
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Dark side of the sun
Millions of people crowded cloudless cities and towns in Spain on Wednesday in search of the best views of a total solar eclipse, when the alignment of the sun, moon and Earth briefly plunged parts of the planet into darkness. The crowds brought lawn...
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$34 BILLION Ontario Line cost skyrockets
The cost of Toronto's Ontario Line has once again ballooned beyond initial estimates — and it's expected to grow even more in the near future. A $4.3-billion contract awarded last week for the construction of Pape and Cosburn stations, including...
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Twin pillars of hope
Racing down the curving halls of their inpatient unit, 10-year-old twins Milayna and Naya Soares barrel forward in their walkers, egging each other on. A short distance behind, nurses Joshua Legaspi and Michael Feir act as cheerleaders for the sisters...
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`It was a huge success'
The air above the city was infused with music and the savoury smells of street food as more than a million Torontonians turned out for the array of street festivals that dotted the city over the weekend. The gun violence at Salsa on St. Clair last...
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THE murder lawyer
The trial of Becky Hamber and Brandy Cooney was a place of unrelenting darkness. Week after week, a Milton courtroom heard how the Burlington couple starved and neglected a 12-year-old boy until he died in his basement room, hungry, cold and alone....
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Prey for hate
Aiden was 13 and scrolling Tiktok when he came across a bizarre video. It was riddled with obscure symbols and military imagery — a black sun, fighter jets from the Second World War — but also a goofy UFO with “funny-looking people.” Amused, Aiden...
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`It brings people back'
Years of cancelled festivals, budget shortfalls and encroaching corporate vendors nearly strained Taste of the Danforth to the point of extinction. But dedicated organizers and volunteers — along with half a million dollars in government seed funding...
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