Maple Express Evening | October 27, 2026 — Chow speaks out after winning a second term

1. Chow faces reporters for the first time since winning a second term

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow held a brief news conference outside City Hall on Tuesday afternoon, speaking with reporters for the first time since her victory in Monday night's municipal election. She captured about 54 per cent of the vote against challenger Brad Bradford, in a race that was neck-and-neck during counting.

According to the results, Chow earned 532,201 votes, defeating Bradford by roughly 128,000 votes. At the news conference she discussed the cost of living and working with other levels of government, and also fielded questions about the strength of her mandate.

The news conference was short, and she made no further comments on other issues.

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2. Ford says he feels 'terrible' for students caught in career college OSAP pause

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said at the legislature on Tuesday that he feels "terrible" for honest students trapped in a private career college system where financial aid is now unavailable — but opposition leaders say those students are in that position because of his government.

Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn paused Ontario Student Assistance Program payments at all private post-secondary institutions earlier this month, saying preliminary findings of a KPMG audit turned up significant concerns. Critics say the ministry should have acted sooner on a spike in OSAP usage at a relatively small number of career colleges, and question why the solution is to make all students pay the price. Interim Liberal leader John Fraser said the students are "all being penalized because these guys screwed up royally," adding he doesn't know whether it is "total incompetence or complicity or some mixture of both."

The opposition spent much of question period on the first day of the legislature returning from a 147-day break calling for Quinn to be fired. Ford defended Quinn, saying he is doing "an incredible job," and aimed his ire at career colleges he accuses of being bad actors. "Do you know who I feel terrible for?" Ford said. "These honest students that got trapped in the private college system ... There's some good operators there, but got caught with the bad apples." Quinn said the pause was necessary, that he sympathizes with the students affected, but that taxpayer dollars must be respected, and that his ministry acted after receiving tips and complaints.

Data obtained by The Canadian Press through freedom-of-information requests showed usage at publicly funded colleges and universities was relatively flat, while career college usage was skyrocketing, much of it due to large year-over-year increases at a small number of schools. NDP critic Peggy Sattler said Quinn blamed students when the government should have been keeping a closer eye on the money.

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3. Five takeaways from the GTA elections

Toronto voters handed Olivia Chow a second term as mayor in a landslide on Monday, with challenger Brad Bradford finishing nearly 130,000 votes behind. An incumbent mayor has never lost an election in Toronto, and Chow now has a full four-year term after a shortened runway caused by the 2023 by-election.

CP24-CTV News Election Desk data shows more than 982,000 Toronto residents cast a ballot on Monday, more than 45 per cent of the electorate. That follows a historically low 2022 election, when turnout failed to crack 30 per cent; engagement rose to 38 per cent in 2023. Asked how much of Chow's win he attributes to turnout, CTV News political commentator Scott Reid said: "All of it."

Reid said turnout was the story of election night, that Chow's vote overperformed, and that her campaign was tight, organized and delivered. He also said Bradford's showing can't be overlooked: he secured more than 404,000 votes, more than Chow's 269,000 in 2023 and former mayor John Tory's 342,000 in 2022. Chow's team says her 532,201 votes are the most of any mayoral candidate in Toronto's history, and her support nearly doubled since the by-election.

Chow took all six of Scarborough's ridings, a borough analysts had said would be key to her path to the mayorship; in Scarborough North she held 56 per cent of the vote. West of there, her margins in suburban ridings such as Willowdale (50.4 per cent) and York-South Weston (48.8 per cent) were more muted. Reid attributed that in part to the Jewish vote and said that, if he were Chow, the near uniformity of how the Jewish community voted would be near the top of the list of friction points to address. Bradford took 62.7 per cent in Eglinton-Lawrence, which houses one of the city's largest Jewish populations.

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4. Korchinski-Paquet's mother questions purpose of coroner's inquest

Claudette Beals, mother of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, continued her testimony at the coroner's inquest on Tuesday, questioning what the inquest is for and raising doubts about the video and audio evidence shown. Lawyers for several police officers pressed her to clarify what she saw that day.

Excerpts of a video combining hallway security footage with audio from a police microphone were played again. Last week Beals testified she saw police push her daughter toward the balcony, and the inquest halted for several hours while counsel for the parties worked out how to proceed. Gary Clewley, a lawyer for one of the officers in the apartment, cross-examined her on Tuesday, suggesting she was inside the apartment for only about a minute and did not understand what was happening at the time.

Clewley played a clip in which someone can be heard asking, "What is she doing?" Beals agreed last week it was her voice and that she was talking about her daughter, but on Tuesday she said at one point that she was actually asking what police were doing, drawing further questions. "That's me because I couldn't hear Regis's voice anymore and I wanted to know what was going on," she said. She later voiced frustration with the process: "I thought this was for change. I didn't really know that I'm going through a court case and we're here to make the police look better."

Korchinski-Paquet, a 29-year-old Afro-Indigenous woman, fell to her death from a 24th-floor balcony while police were in the home on May 27, 2020. The inquest has largely focused on her history of seizures from epilepsy, the episodes of confusion and aggressive behaviour that followed, and police procedures and training. A neurologist who did not treat her but examined her records testified she had shown symptoms consistent with postictal delirium on several occasions in the years before her death. Beals also said Tuesday she felt police escalated the situation, repeated her allegation that officers pushed her daughter toward the balcony, and added that they had pushed Korchinski-Paquet in the hallway.

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5. Caledon man charged after teen responded to Kijiji cleaning ad

Halton Regional Police said Tuesday that a 51-year-old Caledon man has been charged after a teenage girl who responded to a Kijiji ad seeking cleaning services was allegedly sexually assaulted at a Burlington residence.

Police said the victim contacted them in April to report the assault. According to investigators, she responded to an advertisement seeking cleaning services at a home undergoing renovations, and after accepting the job was taken to the residence, where the assault occurred. Police said the victim did not sustain any physical injuries. Varinder Chahal was arrested and charged with sexual assault, and was released on an undertaking pending further investigation. The charge has not been proven in court.

Police said that at the time, Chahal was working as a contractor under the business name Chahal Renovations and had hired the victim to perform general cleaning duties at the residence. Police believe there may be additional victims and are asking anyone with information to contact investigators.

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6. Westbound QEW closed in Burlington after crash involving dump truck

All lanes of the westbound Queen Elizabeth Way just past Guelph Line in Burlington are closed after a two-vehicle crash involving a dump truck at about 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday.

Ontario Provincial Police, who describe the collision as serious, say a sedan and a truck collided near the on-ramp, resulting in numerous injuries. Two occupants of the sedan were taken to a local trauma centre with serious injuries, while two other occupants of that vehicle were taken to a local hospital with minor injuries. The driver of the dump truck was also taken to hospital with minor injuries.

The highway is expected to be closed until about 5:30 p.m., and motorists are being advised to expect delays. The OPP's Traffic Support Unit is on scene investigating.

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7. Two people killed in three-vehicle crash in Brock Township

Two people died after a three-vehicle collision on Highway 12 near Regional Road 12 in Brock Township, southeast of Lake Simcoe, shortly after 7 a.m. on Tuesday.

Provincial police say the collision involved a dump truck with a trailer, a pickup truck and a car. The two passengers of the car — a 33-year-old Kawartha Lakes man and a 30-year-old woman from Sutton Township — died on scene, according to the OPP. The driver of the dump truck was hospitalized with minor injuries, as were the passengers in the pickup truck.

Highway 12 has been closed from Regional Road 12 to Concession Road 11 while crews investigate. Police are asking witnesses of the collision, or anyone with dashcam footage, to contact Whitby OPP. The article was updated to correct that three vehicles were involved.

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8. Former Ontario cabinet minister defends promotion after expenses scandal

Stan Cho, a former member of Premier Doug Ford's cabinet who resigned over an expenses scandal, defended his recent promotion on Tuesday and said he billed taxpayers for Toronto hotel stays for family reasons.

Cho resigned as tourism, culture and gaming minister in July after expensing $16,000 in Toronto hotel stays despite living in the city, saying he made "an error in judgment." "A sleep-training baby at home, a bad hip, and a wife I spoke to who said, 'Look, if you're gonna be home that late and leave that early, this is a decision that's best for the family,'" Cho said as politicians returned to Queen's Park after a 147-day break. "But that was out of touch. I mean, there are a lot of families who go through these things without the convenience of having a hotel close to work. I'm gonna work hard to regain their trust."

Cho, who represents the north Toronto riding of Willowdale, said he has repaid the money out of his own pocket. Ford recently promoted him to parliamentary assistant to Education Minister Paul Calandra, a post that comes with a $22,000 pay bump. Publicly available expense records show some of Ford's cabinet ministers and other caucus members who live in and near Toronto have been using a so-called special circumstances rule on Toronto hotel expenses since about 2023.

Opposition parties have called for Cho to resign his seat. "This minister made a decision at some point when he was in a hotel to give them either his own credit card or the taxpayer's credit card and he chose the latter," said NDP Leader Marit Stiles. "And I think it is outrageous that the premier has decided to actually promote this guy and he's taken no responsibility ultimately for his actions."

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9. Trump congratulates Quebec separatist leader three weeks after election

U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated the leader of the Parti Québécois for winning the provincial election on Tuesday morning, three weeks after the Oct. 5 vote.

"Congratulations to Paul St. Pierre Plamondon on his WIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP," the post on Truth Social says. He shared it along with a news article from irishtimes.com published the day after the election, headlined "Separatists win Quebec provincial election in blow to Mark Carney."

The article reported that the Quebec results could pose a challenge to Prime Minister Mark Carney "to maintain national unity against Trump," a reference to St-Pierre Plamondon's promise to hold a referendum on Quebec's sovereignty. Quebec's new premier has said a referendum would not be held until Trump leaves office in January 2029. St-Pierre Plamondon won with 1,200,369 votes, or 28 per cent support. After winning a judicial recount in Vachon, the PQ holds 60 seats in the Quebec legislature, four short of the 64 needed for a majority.

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10. Nova Scotia committee to discuss $10-billion AI data centre in Cape Breton

A committee of Nova Scotia's legislature was scheduled to discuss the controversial $10-billion AI data centre proposed in Cape Breton on Tuesday afternoon.

EverWind Fuels announced on Oct. 16 that U.S. AI company Anthropic had signed a 20-year lease for an 18,600-square-metre facility in Point Tupper, N.S., that would draw 95 megawatts of electricity during its first phase. The standing committee on natural resources and economic development was to hear from EverWind Fuels officials, with the County of Richmond's warden and chief administrative officer also appearing as witnesses. Deputy ministers and directors from the Department of Energy and the Department of Environment and Climate Change were also scheduled to speak.

Opposition parties have slammed Premier Tim Houston's government over a lack of regulations for the project, raising concerns about potential impacts on the environment, local water supply and electricity rates. Houston has repeatedly said many "checks and balances" will be in place and that household power rates will not increase as a result of the data centre.

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