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Toronto, Ontario
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The Local is no longer posting on X. Find us on the other site, where we're sharing the launch of our new Federal Election 2025 issue. Or better yet, subscribe to our newsletter and get in-depth coverage straight to your inbox! thelocal.to/subscribe/
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Introducing RAT Tracker—a citizen-powered tool for anonymous reporting of rapid antigen test results for Toronto students. The data collected will fill a gap in our understanding of Omicron’s spread and inform the COVID-19 situation at each Toronto school. thelocal.to/rat-tracker/
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Olivia Chow is going to be Toronto's first racialized mayor, first woman in the role since amalgamation, and first progressive in more than a decade. In a tight race, Chow won by a 5% lead, or 33,000 votes. Here's a breakdown of her win across the city:
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In the five Toronto neighbourhoods worst-hit by COVID, all in the northwest, there are no pharmacies offering vaccines. The five neighbourhoods with the fewest infections have 12. @royinori on how COVID hot-spots have become vaccine deserts. thelocal.to/plenty-of-pharma…
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In collaboration with researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital, The Local has produced the first-ever neighbourhood-level analysis of life expectancy at birth in Toronto. The results are striking. thelocal.to/life-expectancy-…
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We congratulate the team behind the Thorncliffe Park vaccine clinic who administered a record-breaking 10,470 doses yesterday. Here are photos from the final hour (from @taimhuynh).
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Before it was slated to become a spa, Ontario Place was home to a bold experiment in children's design that, for a brief moment, promised to revolutionize the way kids play. #LocalArchives thelocal.to/childrens-villag…
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It takes only 30 seconds to complete and asks for four pieces of information: date of test, age, result, and school. If you would like to contribute, please fill out RAT Tracker here. thelocal.to/rat-tracker/
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Nearly 100 of Ontario’s embattled care homes are run by third-party operators. Analysis by The Local has found that death rates at facilities outsourced to Extendicare, the largest operator in Ontario, are 81 percent higher than the industry average. thelocal.to/whos-actually-ru…
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Please share RAT Tracker as widely as possible. The more contributors we have, the better the data and the more information parents, students and education staff have regarding the safety of Toronto's public schools. thelocal.to/rat-tracker/
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We're proud to announce that Fatima Syed's groundbreaking coverage of the pandemic in Peel has been awarded the 2022 Press Freedom Award by World Press Freedom Canada. The prize was jointly awarded to @fatimabsyed and our editor-in-chief @taimhuynh. thelocal.to/the-locals-peel-…
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📢Reintroducing Candidate Tracker: the only place to find reported, fact-checked biographies, platforms, and voting record analysis for every candidate running for Toronto mayor. With regular updates until voting day, bookmark it now. #TOpoli thelocal.to/toronto-mayor-ca…
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Please submit both positive AND negative test results! thelocal.to/rat-tracker/
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The closure of the Ontario Science Centre, @AlisonMotluk writes, was a murder. Then devastated staff were given four months to dispose of the body. The former Science Centre employee takes readers inside the final days of a beloved institution. thelocal.to/ontario-science-…
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Huge news at The Local: we're hiring! We're looking for a Toronto-based, full-time, permanent staff reporter to tackle beats like education and labour. Pays $70,000-$80,000 depending on experience. Apply by July 28. Find out more on our website! thelocal.to/staff-reporter-t…
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Photojournalist Nick Kozak has spent 4 years photographing unhoused Torontonians. Now, with unprecedented in-depth reporting, years of photos & exclusive data, Kozak & @Bren_Doherty chronicle Toronto’s futile encampment policies through the life of one man.thelocal.to/toronto-encampme…
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Last week we published our Indigenous Toronto Issue, an all-Indigenous issue led by our Guest Editor, @KellyBoutsalis. An important collection of stories and a great read on #IndigenousPeoplesDay thelocal.to/issue-11/
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"Maybe we're not invisible. Maybe we're just too tired to realize how important we really are to Canada." Story by @fatimabsyed, 📷 by @GuzmanYader. thelocal.to/the-labour-of-im…
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In Toronto’s floundering arts institutions, argues @sorayaroberts, the story is always the same: “executives with disproportionately high salaries corporatizing what had once been valuable art havens into unmanageable business ventures.” thelocal.to/hot-docs-canadia…
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RAT Tracker update: In less than 48 hours, we’ve received 2,000 results, spanning across 94% of the postal codes in Toronto. Thanks everyone for stepping up. But we need more from Scarborough and Toronto’s northwest. A FAQ 🧵1/
thelocal.to/rat-tracker/
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The Local’s Candidate Tracker is your one-stop shop to get informed about who's running in Toronto's municipal election. We've researched every candidate—their stances, platforms, experience—and created a central, fact-checked database. (1/4): thelocal.to/candidate-tracke…
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We congratulate the teams behind the Scotiabank Arena vaccine clinic who administered a record-breaking 26,771 doses yesterday. Here are behind-the-scenes photos from massive event (from @taimhuynh).
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We're excited to announce The Local's Journalism Fellowship, a paid 10-week opportunity for emerging journalists from underrepresented communities. No formal training required. Applications are now open. thelocal.to/fellowship2020/
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Last August, Toronto Public Health generated a shortlist of schools considered to be “high-risk” for COVID. No such list exists this year, so we made our own. thelocal.to/different-school…
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📢 Candidate Tracker is now a printed handbook, available at all 100 branches of the Toronto Public Library.
Part of our effort to make fact-based election info more accessible, especially in areas with historically low voter turnout.
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In case you missed it — Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster’s salary has risen by hundreds of thousands of dollars during his tenure. His critics wonder: why is the leader of a provincial agency being so richly rewarded despite failing to deliver what he promised? thelocal.to/phil-verster-met…
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It’s our birthday! 🎂 Five years ago today we launched The Local as an independent non-profit publication. Thanks for reading, and look out for some big anniversary projects later this year! 🎉
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With the average one-bedroom at $2,500 and people leaving the city, the rental crisis has never been more dire. Today we’re launching a new series about the barriers preventing the almost 50 percent of Torontonians who rent from making a life here. thelocal.to/issue-18/
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We're thrilled to introduce our 2021 Local Fellows! The fellowship is a 10-week, paid opportunity for emerging journalists from communities underrepresented in Canadian media. This year's fellows will work with us on our fall issue on precarious labour. thelocal.to/meet-the-2021-fe…
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This is pop up clinic coordinator Tennisia Rowe, here for M1J, one of the hardest-hit areas in Scarborough.
Our t-shirts have no celebrity endorsements. Support local journalism and we’ll send you one.
thelocal.to/support/
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“My first days in Toronto were overwhelming,” writes @MOHAWKEMOTIONS. “But I was comforted by the thought that my home in the city was part of the lands my ancestors have existed in for generations.” thelocal.to/from-six-nations…
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In the midst of a rental crisis, new property management companies like Urby Housing are using rental agreements that try to sidestep the protections of the Residential Tenancies Act in creative, increasingly brazen ways. @JayCockburn investigates. thelocal.to/urby-rental-cris…
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RAT Tracker update: it’s been less than 24 hours, but we’ve received 1,000 reports! Thanks Toronto for stepping up. Please continue to share within your networks and help us get to 10,000. #RATtrackerTO thelocal.to/rat-tracker/
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How the neighbourhoods hardest hit by Covid became the least vaccinated. thelocal.to/the-vaccine-roll…
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Phil Verster’s tenure as Metrolinx CEO is defined by delays, overspending, and an $856,000+ salary. @nickhunebrown goes behind the curtain, and into Verster's past, to understand the “bulldozer” bureaucrat whose fingerprints touch every corner of Toronto. thelocal.to/phil-verster-met…
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The Local is thrilled to welcome our new staff reporter @wencyleung. Wency, a veteran reporter who has worked everywhere from Cambodia to Prague to Vancouver, will be covering health and education. thelocal.to/meet-wency-leung…
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Introducing “Precarious,” our series about the way we work in 2021. Stories from nurses doing gig work and mothers working under the table, from college instructors, sex workers, and nail salon techs—launching today and rolling out over the next month. thelocal.to/issue-12/
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We're here at the Canadian Association of Journalists awards where the incredible Daysha Loppie, one of our 2023 fellows, has won the Student Award of Excellence for her Local essay, Growing Up on the 36 Finch West. Congratulations, Daysha! thelocal.to/36-finch-west-bu…
The recipient of our Student Award of Excellence:
🏆 Daysha Loppie, @TheLocal_TO & TMU
Her winning piece: thelocal.to/36-finch-west-bu…
Congratulations, Daysha!
#cajawards
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Olivia Chow is Toronto’s Mayor. She’s the first progressive mayor in 13 years, first woman in the role since amalgamation, and first non-white leader in Toronto history. Here’s what you need to know about where she won, and how the other candidates fared. thelocal.to/olivia-chow-mayo…
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End-of-year round up! In 2021, The Local transformed from an online quarterly into something entirely different—jumping into breaking news, creating data blogs, and trying any other experiment we could think of to tell the stories we thought were important. 🧵
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The Neighbourhood Land Trust has been snapping up buildings across Toronto, taking them off the market and into the community. Over 200 units later, they say they’re ready to do much more. thelocal.to/neighbourhood-la…
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Shagufta Zia, a worker at Amazon, took the day off work, unpaid, to volunteer at the community clinic. She still hasn’t been vaccinated and didn’t have a booking at the clinic. thelocal.to/the-chaotic-race…
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The Neighbourhood Land Trust has been snapping up buildings across Toronto, taking them off the market and into the community, writes @jasonmcbride68. Over 200 units later, they’re ready to do much more. thelocal.to/neighbourhood-la…
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After receiving nearly 100 applications for our fellowship program, we finally narrowed it down to 4 talented individuals. We're proud to welcome Brannavy Jeyasundaram, Furqan Mohamed, Yader Guzman, and Inori Roy as our 2020 Local Journalism Fellows! thelocal.to/2020-fellows/
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🚨🗞️ New issue alert! This week we're launching "Toronto's Climate Right Now," a series about vulnerability and adaptation in Canada's largest city and a collaboration with our friends @thenarwhalca. Watch for the first stories tomorrow!
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We’re thrilled to receive three nominations for @caj awards, a huge achievement for our small team! 🧵
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Scarborough’s bus routes are already overcrowded and often delayed—the TTC’s new cuts are only going to make commutes longer and more difficult. @Bren_Doherty speaks to riders worst impacted by changes rolling out later this month. thelocal.to/ttc-bus-delays-r…
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📢 ANNOUNCING 📢 The Local Journalism Fellowship, a paid 10-week opportunity for emerging journalists from communities underrepresented in Canadian media. No formal training required. Applications are now open. thelocal.to/the-local-journa…
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With classes starting this week, The Local is launching "School Tracker," a new data blog to track COVID-19’s footprint across Toronto’s 800 public schools. thelocal.to/school-tracker/
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The Annex has fewer residents today than in 1971. The towers of Crescent Town have far more. @simonlewsen on how the uneven, illogical densification pattern of the last 50 years created today’s Toronto. thelocal.to/density-the-anne…
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Ontario’s accelerated dose two schedule, based on when people got their first shot, threatens to replicate the disparity of the initial vaccine rollout. That’s because in order to get to dose two, you first need to have dose one.
thelocal.to/hot-spot-tracker…
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Toronto is getting hotter every year, and the city’s elderly, racialized, and poor populations face the worst of it. From tree coverage to building design to air conditioning, @royinori asks whether the city is prepared for the heat waves of the future. thelocal.to/toronto-heat-wav…
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From a proposed pollinator garden at St Stephen-in-the-Fields to tree trimmings and grass remediation—Sam Rosati Martin (@srosati52) on how the city uses "weaponized environmentalism" to displace the unhoused. thelocal.to/weaponized-envir…
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The Local is launching a city hall column! Every 2 weeks for the first 100 days of Olivia Chow’s tenure as Toronto mayor, @neville_park will bring you insight from the city council floor, spotlighting key issues and motions. This week: shelters & housing. thelocal.to/olivia-chow-toro…
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The Local is hiring a permanent, full-time staff reporter to cover beats like education and labour! Annual salary ranges from $70,000-80,000. Applications are due in less than two weeks, on July 28. Come join our team! thelocal.to/staff-reporter-t…
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“There’s been a lot of talk of vaccine hesitancy in the community," said Cheryl Prescod of Black Creek CHC. "What we saw was not about hesitancy.” Portraits of people who waited, sometimes for hours through the rain, to get their shot, by @GuzmanYader. thelocal.to/bringing-the-vac…
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Finally, here's the dynamic duo, @shiranisaacksz @panthony1986 (sporting The Local's t-shirts). Lots of people were involved, but these two were at the nerve centre. Big congrats to them, all the staff, partners, volunteers, and importantly, the 26,771 Torononians who came.
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This week, for the first time, hot-spot postal codes have surpassed non-hot spot postal codes for vaccinations. The hot-spot strategy is working. Read more about it in @taimhuynh's May 14 update on the hot spot tracker. thelocal.to/hot-spot-tracker…
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Thrilled to win this award! Thanks and congratulations to all the Local contributors, too many to name, who worked with us on this issue!
.@TheLocal_TO has WON the Best News Coverage (Community Publication) category for coverage of the Toronto 2023 mayoral election! Congratulations to editors @nickhunebrown, @royinori, @taimhuynh and the team of contributors! #DPA24
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Black Torontonians have been disproportionately affected by COVID. @tayobero on the physicians working to make sure they don’t also go unvaccinated. thelocal.to/vaccinating-blac…
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In Toronto today, demand for co-op units is so high that most of them have waitlists that only sparingly accept new applicants. Despite this, the number of co-ops built in the past few decades is negligible. thelocal.to/housing-co-ops-r…
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New data shows that the Toronto neighbourhoods with the highest COVID rates are the least vaccinated areas in the city. @nickhunebrown on the hot-spot postal codes the vaccine rollout left behind. thelocal.to/the-vaccine-roll…
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📢 We’re thrilled to announce that Inori Roy (@royinori) is joining us as an associate editor at The Local! You’ve already read the ground-breaking investigations she’s written as a freelancer, and we couldn’t be more excited to add her to the team! thelocal.to/meet-inori-roy-t…
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As of 6pm last night, there were 42 active COVID-19 cases across 38 Toronto public schools. thelocal.to/school-tracker/
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That’s when @andryou, founder of Vaccine Hunters Canada, stepped in. With some coding wizardly, we now have a tool that automatically pulls data from the school boards’ websites daily. thelocal.to/school-tracker/
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Tenants wait twice as long as landlords at the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board, new analysis by @tryingtotype has found. Behind this disparity is a system skewed in favour of landlords, where staffing fails to keep up with demand. thelocal.to/landlord-tenant-…
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Happy to announce that The Local did not acquire Wordle. We remain paywall-free also. Support local journalism. thelocal.to/support/
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Relief, joy, and no hesitancy at a pop-up clinic at Jane and Finch, the area with the lowest vaccination rates in the city. A photoessay by @GuzmanYader. thelocal.to/bringing-the-vac…
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📢Introducing the Art + Money Issue! For the next two weeks we'll be publishing stories about making art and making a living in Toronto in 2024. thelocal.to/spring-2024/
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Candidate Profile: Once an ardent centrist, Josh Matlow has tacked a course to the left in recent years and is now running as progressive truth-teller. @navalang asks: can a politician change? Can a city? #TOpoli thelocal.to/josh-matlow-toro…
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"Canada's prostitution laws leave Toronto sex workers facing harm both from clients and the authorities who are supposed to protect them," writes @samedwardsTO. thelocal.to/how-the-laws-mak…
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Toronto police take three times longer than their target response time to get to the most urgent emergencies. Sometimes they just don’t show up at all. @royinori on why a $1.1 billion police force doesn’t come when you need them. thelocal.to/police-wait-time…
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Toronto's mass immunization clinics are well-funded operations that were supposed to be the engines of the city’s vaccination drive, writes @taimhuynh. So why are pop ups in parking lots delivering four times as many doses a day? thelocal.to/behind-the-sudde…
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Candidate Tracker now has researched and fact-checked bios for all 102 candidates running for mayor in Toronto! Updates continue right up to election day. Get informed about who's vying for your vote: thelocal.to/toronto-mayor-ca…
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Sensationalized reports about students at York Memorial have created a narrative that blames the largely Black, lower-income student body for the school’s problems—while ignoring the TDSB’s role in the crisis, writes @royinori. thelocal.to/york-memorial-wa…
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With 50 of 52 polls reporting, Toronto District School board chair Rachel Chernos Lin has 12,339 votes, leading right-wing former newspaper columnist Anthony Furey with 7,073. thelocal.to/don-valley-west-…
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The Local won our first @CAJ awards this weekend! Huge congratulations to former Local Fellow Daysha Loppie and to @SimonLewsen.🏆 thelocal.to/the-local-wins-t…
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The TTC has had 20 years to make its stations accessible. In September, it announced it would miss its 2025 deadline, leaving elderly & disabled people waiting even longer. @Bren_Doherty on the accessibility failures of the country's biggest transit agency.thelocal.to/ttc-accessibilit…
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Over the last few weeks, we’ve published a few one-off stories about vaccinations in Toronto. Today we’re thrilled to announce we’ll be able to continue and grow our coverage thanks to the generous support of the Vohra Miller Foundation (@Sabivm).
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This week @shawnmicallef, poet laureate of Toronto lake swimming, takes over our twitter account. Follow along as he beach hops and tries to answer the question: “what is Toronto beach culture?”
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📢 ANNOUNCING 📢 Applications for the 2023 Local Journalism Fellowship are now open! This is a paid 13-week opportunity for emerging journalists from communities underrepresented in Canadian media. No formal training required. thelocal.to/the-local-journa…
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Thrilled to receive 5 nominations from the Digital Publishing Awards, including the prize for General Excellence! #DPA21 digitalpublishingawards.ca/
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For the third year in a row, The Local won the prize for General Excellence (small publications) at the Digital Publishing Awards! Congratulations and thanks to the brilliant contributors who make The Local what it is! 🎉🏆
thelocal.to/digital-publishi…
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Invoking the sanctity of public green space to clear an encampment is “an appealing strategy for city employees, indignant community members, and local politicians who like to think of themselves as progressive neighbours.” thelocal.to/weaponized-envir…
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We're so excited to share that The Local has been nominated for nine Digital Publishing Awards! 🧵
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The Local is nominated for three @CAJ awards.
“We are honoured and proud to see The Local’s journalism being recognized alongside the very best work on the national stage,” said editor-in-chief @taimhuynh. thelocal.to/the-local-receiv…
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We're excited to launch 'Hot Spot Tracker', a weekly data blog by our editor-in-chief @taimhuynh. Which Toronto neighbourhoods are falling behind? Where do we need to focus our efforts? We can’t know unless we look at the data. thelocal.to/hot-spot-tracker…
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The Local has been nominated for five National Magazine Awards! We’re honoured to be recognized among the biggest names in magazine journalism in Canada. A look at the nominees: 🧵thelocal.to/five-national-ma…
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Trying a new photo format, thanks Elon. thelocal.to/covid-pandemic-a…
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📢 ANNOUNCING 📢 The 2022 Local Journalism Fellowship, a paid three-month opportunity for emerging journalists from communities underrepresented in Canadian media. No formal training required. Applications now open! thelocal.to/the-local-journa…
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Meet the 2023 Local Journalism Fellows! Welcome @khadijaalam_, @moboluwajidide, Daysha Loppie, and @ssakeina. thelocal.to/meet-the-2023-fe…
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This feature on Peel by @fatimabsyed is among the most read stories in our history and the definitive take on one of the most important stories of the pandemic. thelocal.to/you-cant-stop-th…
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Call for pitches: looking for short features about everyday Torontonians leading surprising, grassroots initiatives to help improve their community’s health. thelocalhealth@gmail.com
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As school cases surge, new data reveals low vaccine uptake for kids in the neighbourhoods with the largest outbreaks. @taimhuynh on why vaccines for kids aren't reaching the parts of the city that need them most. thelocal.to/kids-vaccines-ar…
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Our Rent Series launches today. Over the next months we’ll be publishing stories about housing discrimination, the worst landlords in Toronto, international students, possible solutions, and more. Thanks to @maytree_canada for their generous support. thelocal.to/issue-18/
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We’re excited to relaunch The Local as an independent quarterly online magazine with a shiny new website! Come look around, make yourself comfortable, and tell us what you think. thelocal.to/
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We're delighted to introduce this year's Local Journalism fellows, four talented emerging journalists spending the summer working on the craft of feature writing and learning from industry mentors. Welcome Alice, @m_molinaro1, @mzwandilep_, and @srosati52! thelocal.to/meet-the-2024-lo…
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Housing unit takeovers are a hidden crisis in Toronto social housing. In the latest in our Rent Series, @royinori writes about a complex problem at the intersection of unaffordable housing, social isolation, and addiction. thelocal.to/housing-unit-tak…
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Ahead of Monday's municipal election, we wanted to see how Toronto's city councillors were doing on Vision Zero. What we found was a massive disparity between downtown and suburban councillors' engagement on road safety. A 🧵on our #TOpoli investigation: thelocal.to/vision-zero-ineq…
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📢 Help us cover the October Elections! 📢
If municipal government is supposed to be the "closest to the people," then why is there so little info about what’s happening in the wards? We're fundraising $25,000 to build a civic newsroom to change that. thelocal.to/gearing-up-for-o…
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Want to know where your candidate stands? We combed through council records, found 12 telling votes, and surveyed candidates on how they would have voted. Our updated Candidate Tracker has head-to-head comparisons of candidates in every ward. #topoli thelocal.to/candidate-tracke…
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