Maple Express | November 3, 2026 — Canada Post ends door-to-door delivery across the GTA

1. Canada Post ends door-to-door delivery across the GTA, Etobicoke first on Nov. 16

Source: CP24

Canada Post released its schedule on Tuesday for ending door-to-door mail delivery across the Greater Toronto Area, with Etobicoke converting first in two weeks while the rest of the region may take up to five years.

Homes with the M9V and M9W postal codes will stop receiving mail at the door as of Nov. 16 and will instead collect it from community mailboxes. Canada Post spokesperson Genevieve Joly told CP24 that community mailboxes have been used in the network for many years and that 80 per cent of Canadians already receive mail that way, while about four million addresses nationwide still need to be shifted over.

Durham and Peel regions are next, starting in Ajax, Pickering, Mississauga and Brampton between September and November 2027. According to the schedule Canada Post provided to CTV News, the full GTA conversion will take about five years, with the last areas set for September 2031, including Orangeville, parts of North York and most of downtown Toronto. Joly said seniors and Canadians with disabilities who need an alternative can set up a personalized delivery accommodation program offering temporary, seasonal or weekly door delivery.

2. Toronto police issue safety alert after pins and needles found in Halloween candy

Source: CP24

Toronto police issued a public safety alert on Tuesday after receiving two separate reports of needles and pins found in Halloween candy in the city's east end.

Investigators say the candy was collected during trick-or-treating on Saturday evening. In one incident, a sewing needle and a pin were found in two separate pre-wrapped treats in the area of Main Street and Swanwick Avenue. In the other, near Gerrard Street East and Jones Avenue, two pins were discovered in two individually wrapped candies. No one was injured and the candy was not eaten.

Toronto resident Barry Horn told CP24 on Sunday that he found the objects inside a KitKat bar and a Tunnock's caramel wafer while checking his children's candy. Police initially reported one incident on Sunday before confirming a second report on Monday and determining that the trick-or-treating routes did not overlap. Police said no further similar reports had come in and urged residents to inspect candy carefully and call police about anything unusual. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it had not received any reports related to the incident, calling such cases very uncommon and advising people not to eat affected candy and to preserve the candy, the object and the original packaging if tampering is suspected.

3. One in three Canadians skipping meals as grocery costs climb, survey finds

Source: CP24

The Salvation Army's 2026 Poverty and Socioeconomic Analysis, released Tuesday, found that 31 per cent of the 1,525 Canadians surveyed skipped meals or reduced portion sizes because they could not afford groceries, up from 27 per cent last year.

The share turning to community supports such as food banks also rose, from 11 per cent to 15 per cent. Glenn van Gulik, the organization's national spokesperson, said many people arriving at Salvation Army food banks and community service locations were once donors themselves, and that some skip a meal so their children can take lunch to school.

Younger Canadians are hit harder: 41 per cent of respondents aged 18 to 34 reported skipping or reducing meals, 23 per cent in that group accessed community food supports, and 76 per cent reported challenges managing limited financial resources, compared with 55 per cent of those 55 and older. Nearly 90 per cent said they worried the U.S. tariff war would drive up prices for everyday goods, and three in five said their household already felt the impact. In Winnipeg, Harvest Manitoba serves about 60,000 people a month, half of them children, 50 per cent more than in 2021, which the organization attributes to rising grocery and transportation costs combined with stagnant wages.

4. Food bank running out of a Scarborough parking lot needs a home before winter

Source: CP24

A food bank that lost its indoor space almost three years ago is now operating out of a Scarborough parking lot and is urgently looking for a new indoor home, or it will be forced to scale back distributions this winter.

Whitby Specialty Food Bank was founded in 2016 to serve people with special dietary restrictions and was originally located at Kendalwood Seventh-Day Adventist Church near Dundas Street East in Whitby. It was forced to vacate in February 2023 because of by-law restrictions prohibiting refrigeration trucks. Since then, every Tuesday it has handed out food to about 85 families and 50 organizations outside an industrial building at 801 Progress Ave.

Coordinator Marcia White told CTV News Toronto on Tuesday that many volunteers are seniors who say they cannot face another winter outdoors, and that losing them would put the food bank's ability to operate at risk. She is looking for a warehouse of at least 10,000 square feet in Whitby or possibly Ajax, either donated or on a long-term low-cost lease. Between January 2024 and January 2026 the organization distributed an estimated 1.6 million meals and more than 1.7 million pounds of rescued food, most from Second Harvest and usually gone within a day. "We need an angel donor because right now we do not have the funds," White said.

5. VIA Rail offers free train travel to families of children's hospital patients

Source: CP24

VIA Rail announced a three-year partnership with Canada's Children's Hospital Foundations on Tuesday to provide complimentary train travel for children who need specialized medical treatment and their families.

The program covers CHEO in Ottawa, CHU Sainte-Justine, the Montreal Children's Hospital, SickKids in Toronto, McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton and the Children's Hospital in London, all along the Quebec City-Windsor corridor. VIA Rail president and CEO Mathieu Paquette said in a statement that connecting people and communities is at the heart of the Crown corporation's mandate and that accessible passenger rail can be a vital link for families seeking specialized care, people with disabilities and those with limited transportation options.

VIA Rail had already worked with the Children's Health Foundation in London, helping families book more than 250 complimentary journeys to and from the hospital since April 2026. The corporation also said it will assist the BC Children's Hospital Foundation, the Alberta Children's Hospital Foundation, the Stollery, Jim Pattison, Children's Hospital of Manitoba, IWK and Janeway foundations with fundraising.

6. Man accused of assaulting Toronto parking officer, stealing ticket machine

Source: CP24

Toronto police said Tuesday that a man has been arrested for allegedly assaulting a parking enforcement officer and stealing her handheld ticket machine in downtown Toronto on Monday.

Police say it happened shortly before 9:40 a.m. in the area of Queen Street East and Victoria Avenue. The officer had just finished writing a parking violation notice when she was followed by the suspect, who was driving his vehicle. He then got out, assaulted her and took the handheld ticket machine, according to a police release.

Officers later arrested Abdul Karim Brat Ali, 50, of Toronto. He was charged with assaulting a peace officer and theft under $5,000. The charges have not been tested in court.

7. Ontario will not release career college OSAP audit, minister says

Source: CP24

Ontario's colleges and universities minister said Tuesday he will not release a government-commissioned audit of how career colleges use student financial aid.

Nolan Quinn announced last month that he had engaged KPMG to audit the sector after concerns about rising usage of the Ontario Student Assistance Program. Preliminary findings alarmed the government enough to refer the matter to the Ontario Provincial Police, but Quinn does not intend to make them public. Speaking after question period, he said the government wants to preserve the confidentiality of the audit and will act on its results.

Quinn has said the preliminary findings include concerns about common ownership, the involvement of immigration services firms, co-location between private career colleges and immigration recruitment or services firms, inadequate student validation and verification of course enrolment and outcomes, and unusually high concentrations of OSAP applications from the same geographic locations. The Liberals tried to have the legislature's public accounts committee ask the auditor general to investigate so a probe would be released publicly, but the Progressive Conservative majority voted the motion down. NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the public is paying for the KPMG audit and should see its findings. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2026.

8. Ostrich farm sues Ottawa and RCMP over lost supplement business

Source: CP24

The owners of a British Columbia farm where hundreds of ostriches were killed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are suing the federal government and police, claiming the loss of a business they projected would generate $200 million in revenue.

Universal Ostrich Farms says in its claim that 1,200 ostrich eggs were seized during a cull prompted by an avian influenza outbreak, that the seizure was unlawful and that it irreversibly destroyed a dietary supplement and pill product business that was on the cusp of a commercial launch. The CFIA has said the cull by marksmen was carried out after ostriches on the farm tested positive for avian flu about 11 months earlier. The farmers fought a protracted battle in the courts and on social media to save the surviving birds, but the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear their final appeal, allowing the cull to proceed this time last year.

The claim, filed Oct. 30 in Vernon, names the CFIA, the RCMP and the federal government as defendants, along with Landco Ventures, which owns the property outside Edgewood, B.C., leased to the farm. It says Mounties and CFIA staff served warrants on Katie Pasitney, daughter of co-owner Karen Espersen, even though Pasitney is not an owner or shareholder, and that the warrants gave no legal, moral or statutory right to occupy the property. It also alleges cruelty in handling the flock of more than 300 birds and says 351 ostriches were on the farm when warrants were served, but compensation was offered for only 314, with no explanation for the missing 37. The RCMP said it is aware of the claim but would not comment while the court process is underway, and the CFIA did not immediately respond Tuesday. None of the claims have been tested in court.

9. Former CP24 reporter wins council seat in small Ontario township

Source: CP24

Cam Woolley, who spent more than a decade as a traffic and safety reporter at CP24, is now a town councillor in Ontario.

Woolley was elected on Oct. 26 in the Township of Elizabethtown-Kitley with 1,550 votes, one of six councillors in the community about a 20-minute drive from Brockville. The rural township of roughly 9,800 people sits a few hundred yards from the U.S. border across the St. Lawrence River. In an interview with CP24 Breakfast on Tuesday, he said a proposal for a mega quarry in the town pushed him into local politics: when he reached out to council, some members were engaged, including the mayor and the man who will be the next mayor, while others were not, so he decided to run rather than complain.

Woolley spent 13 years on air at CP24 before retiring in 2021 and also appeared as a traffic specialist and legal expert on "Canada's Worst Driver" for 12 years. He said residents' biggest concerns are road safety and taxes, noting several roads in the township are not paved and that fixing them costs money, which feeds into tax worries. His approach is to recruit home builders and businesses, provided development is compatible with the tranquil lifestyle, and to review the policing budget. He said residents are happy with the OPP but not with the price, and he intends to use his background in contract policing to ensure value for money.

10. Montreal man pleads guilty to stabbing pregnant wife to death

Source: CP24

A 45-year-old Montreal man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Tuesday in the 2024 stabbing death of his pregnant wife in an apartment in the city's east end.

Mustapha Khalil Mechken admitted to killing Narjess Ben Yedder, 32, who was 10 weeks pregnant with the couple's first child. The conviction carries a life sentence, and the only question left is when he will be eligible for parole. The killing took place in the Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles borough.

According to the statement of facts read in court, Yedder was asleep in January 2024 when Mechken stabbed her almost 50 times, then changed his clothes and called 911, asking when arrested whether he would go to prison for life. The court also heard that he had searched the internet for information about sleep problems, depression and trouble finishing tasks, and looked up "I don't want to take care of my child" as well as the prison term for murder. Victim impact statements will be heard next week.

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