A new report looks at how the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is changing Toronto’s patterns.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford puts his mask on after announcing new lockdown measures at a press conference at Queen’s Park in Toronto on April 16, 2021. The government later walked back some of the announced restrictions.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
As the third wave ravages Ontario, there is public confusion and mistrust. Premier Ford’s flip-flops on restrictions indicate not just poor risk communications, but the lack of an informed plan.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford posted a photo of himself making cheesecake on Twitter on May 14, 2020.
Doug Ford/Twitter
COVID-19 has shown us that we are not “all in this together” despite what politicians may want us to think.
Survivors and victims, along with their family and friends, share a moment outside the courthouse after Alek Minassian had been found guilty for the Toronto van attack.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
The judgment document in the Toronto van attack case pointed out that the attacker’s motivations were unclear but related to other ideologically informed violent acts.
After an extensive renovation, an old house in a laneway in Toronto became a new two-bedroom home.
(LGA Architectural Partners, Ben Rahn/A Frame)
Laneway suites could increase rental stock in established neighbourhoods without affecting their character. Toronto has lagged behind other cities in Canada and North America.
Our social lives are complicated and interdependent — social bubbles and physical distancing are difficult to sustain.
(Shutterstock)
Our lives consist of a complex and dense web of interactions that ultimately make physical and social distancing attempts impossible. And this has always been the case in human society.
Poet Miriam Waddington (left) participated in the rise of modernist Canadian poetry and Helen Weinzweig (right) wrote the classic feminist novel ‘Basic Black with Pearls.’
(John Reeves/ /Image (cropped) courtesy Archives & Special Collections, University of New Brunswick)
A rich diversity of Canadian Jewish experience is reflected in the poems of Miriam Waddington and the prose of Adele Wiseman, Fredelle Bruser Maynard, Helen Weinzweig and Shirley Faessler.
The Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto. After the SARS pandemic in 2003, Toronto hotels faced a recovery period.
(Shutterstock)
After SARS in 2003, an effort was made by Toronto’s tourism and hospitality industries to stimulate the sector’s recovery. But measures weren’t put in place for future pandemics.
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen an increase in people cycling as an alternative to public transit.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
An increase in cyclists due to the COVID-19 pandemic means that cities need to look at what it means to develop and maintain inclusive bicycle infrastructure.
New DNA analysis revealed that Calvin Hoover killed Christine Jessop in 1984. Toronto Police Chief James Ramer sits next to a screen displaying photos of Calvin Hoover during a news conference on Oct. 15, 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Christine Jessop was murdered in 1984 and, 36 years later, DNA evidence finally identified her killer. But the police investigation’s use of genetic genealogical databases raised questions about privacy.
A homeless woman sits outside a fenced-off camp in Vancouver after a 12 p.m. deadline for the park to be vacated in Vancouver on May 9, 2020. The province relocated hundreds of people from tent encampments in Vancouver and Victoria to hotel and community centre accommodations.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Without sufficient safe shelter space and universal testing, cities are forcing homeless people into encampments, limiting their ability to stay safe and violating international human rights laws.
Anti-racism demonstrators take a knee near Toronto Police Headquarters during a march, June 6, 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
There is no good police versus bad police. Police are police. They are the states’ organ of repression. There are a myriad of better scenarios than the current one.
New research suggests many Canadians cannot afford to forgo public transit during the COVID-19 pandemic — or ever.
Jed Dela Cruz/Unsplash
Many of Canada’s residents, including essential workers, have no choice but to ride transit. Service cuts may cripple their access to essential destinations if governments do not intervene.
The 235 Gosford Apartments, one week after the tragic Nov. 15 2019 fire.
Jack Rozdilsky
A fire in Toronto’s Black Creek neighbourhood displaced hundreds of people. One person died of smoke inhalation. The after-disaster response reveals some of the challenges faced by urban communities.
Independent bookstores are places where culture is collected and disseminated. The gentrification of city centres makes their existence increasingly precarious.
Kévin Langlais on Unsplash, CC BY-NC
The demands of gentrification in some neighbourhoods are proving deadly for some independent businesses, including local bookstores, often forcing them to close.
An artist’s rendering of Toronto’s shoreline in 2050. Regulating the future city poses new challenges for different levels of government.
Picture Plane/Heatherwick Studio for Sidewalk Labs
Regulating Sidewalk Labs proposed developments poses new challenges for assigning responsibility and oversight.
Politicians from all parties should be asked tough questions about their support of Toronto’s Sidewalk Labs Quayside project while on the campaign trail. This is an artist’s rendering of the project.
Sidewalk Toronto
If governments can’t get something like Quayside right, that bodes ill for Canada’s digital future. The election gives us a chance to see where the parties stand on vital data governance issues.
The proposed Quayside neighbourhood in Toronto will collect data from individuals in public spaces, but getting consent is a tricky issue.
Picture Plane for Heatherwick Studio for Sidewalk Labs
A report based on public consultations conducted by Sidewalk Labs has still not answered many pressing concerns about privacy and consent in Toronto’s Quayside development.
An artist’s rendering of the proposed Quayside neighbourhood in Toronto.
Alphabet Inc. Sidewalk Labs
More planning time to better estimate the risks for gun violence and enact strategies like restricting crowd sizes at the end of the Toronto Raptors parade route would have served the city well.