Maple Express | September 25, 2026 Toronto homicide unit to give update on bodies found in burning vehicles

1. Toronto homicide unit to give update on bodies found in burning vehicles

Source: CP24

Toronto police's homicide unit will give an update today (Friday) on the discovery of bodies inside burning vehicles at two separate locations in the city earlier this week. Police said the first incident happened just before 11:25 p.m. on Sept. 21 on Reesor Road, between Steeles Avenue and Old Finch Road in Scarborough.

A vehicle fire was reported and a body was later found inside, police said. About an hour and a half later, another vehicle fire was reported at James Garden Park on Edenbridge Drive in Etobicoke, near Royal York Road and Dundas Street, and a body was also found in that vehicle. No cause of death has been released in either case.

Police initially could not say whether the two fires were connected, but said the homicide unit had been notified. Det.-Sgt. Henri Marsman of the homicide and missing persons unit will provide an update at a news conference at 12:30 p.m. today.

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2. Chow vows 'bad landlords task force' if re-elected

Source: CP24

Toronto mayoral candidate Olivia Chow is promising to create a dedicated "bad landlords task force" if re-elected, saying the city must be more "proactive" in going after landlords who fail to maintain their properties. She made the announcement today at a media event outside 500 Dawes Rd. in East York, a building that has previously faced more than $300,000 in fines for failing to comply with fire safety requirements.

Chow said the fight "was never about one single building" but about "changing a system that was failing Torontonians." She said the proposed task force would be made up of dedicated enforcement officers and lawyers focused on "the worst landlords in our city," noting the city has doubled RentSafeTO officers since 2023 to 73. The task force would take a proactive approach, including inspecting properties owned by landlords with a history of run-ins with the law: "If you own one serious problem building, we will inspect every building you own."

She added the city should step in to arrange repairs when landlords repeatedly refuse, then bill the owner directly: "If a landlord won't make repairs, the city will hire a contractor to do the work and bill the owner directly." She described conditions renters have faced, including water being shut off, no heat in winter, and broken elevators, appliances and doors. Earlier this year, the company that owns 500 Dawes Rd. was fined under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, and landlord Carolyn Krebs, one of its directors, was sentenced May 26 to 15 days in jail and a $120,000 fine. Chow said the plan will cost $2.15 million a year, funded by fines paid by landlords. Rival candidate Brad Bradford disputes Chow's account of her record, saying the city had already used remedial action at 500 Dawes in 2020, three years before Chow became mayor.

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3. King West stabbing sends two to hospital

Source: CP24

Two people were rushed to a trauma centre after a double stabbing in Toronto's King West neighbourhood. It happened near King and Portland streets shortly after 4:30 a.m. today (Friday).

Paramedics said one person suffered serious injuries and the second sustained injuries that could be life-threatening. Police have not released any information on possible suspects. King Street is currently closed and streetcar service is diverting in the area, and the TTC warned of delays up to 20 minutes for passengers on the 504 King route.

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4. GO Lakeshore West disrupted after person struck

Source: CP24

Service was disrupted on the Lakeshore West line after a person was struck by a train in Toronto's west end. In a social media post, GO Transit confirmed emergency personnel are at the scene, west of Exhibition GO.

"Trains cannot move through the area until a full investigation is completed. Trains will run between West Harbour GO and Mimico GO," GO Transit said. GO shuttle buses will operate between Port Credit GO and Kipling GO, where riders can connect to GO Train service to Union Station or the TTC; customers at Mimico GO, Long Branch GO and Exhibition GO are asked to use the TTC.

The condition of the person who was struck has not been released.

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5. EQAO test success rates up slightly from previous year

Source: CP24 / The Canadian Press

Standardized test results released today show Ontario students' persistently low math scores improved slightly from last year. Grade 6 math scores on Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) tests have hovered around the 50 per cent mark for years, meaning only about half of students meet the provincial standard.

Results released today for the 2025-26 school year show 52 per cent of Grade 6 students met the provincial standard, while 65 per cent of Grade 3 students and 59 per cent of Grade 9 students did so. All of those scores are up one percentage point from the previous year. For Grade 3, 75 per cent met the reading standard and 67 per cent met the writing standard, up slightly; for Grade 6, 86 per cent met the reading standard and 85 per cent met the writing standard, unchanged from the previous year.

The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test, typically written in Grade 10, saw 86 per cent of first-time eligible students meet the standard, one percentage point higher. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2026.

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6. Stretch of TTC Line 1 to close this weekend

Source: CP24

TTC trains will not run between Finch and Sheppard-Yonge stations this weekend for signal maintenance. The closure will affect weekend travel on that stretch of Line 1.

At the same time, there will be service adjustments on GO Transit's Lakeshore East and Stouffville lines.

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7. Ontario daycare can't fill dozens of spots

Source: CP24 / CTV News

A daycare owner in Scotland, Ont., was prepared to welcome 45 children when she opened her business, but she now faces empty highchairs because of a lack of spots in a subsidy program. Rebeca Appleman, owner of Little Apples Child Care, said she is licensed to care for 45 children — six infants, 15 toddlers and 24 preschoolers — but only four children are enrolled, all in her preschool room.

Appleman said she wants to fill every open spot but must charge a price most parents can't afford: "We're charging a flat rate that works out to about $65 a day, and that's just to meet our bottom line." When she opened two months ago, she hoped to join the Canada Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) subsidy program; centres enrolled in the program in Ontario offer spaces for an average of $22 a day per child. The City of Brantford oversees the program in the County of Brant, where Scotland is located.

Appleman said she was initially told there would be other options even if she wasn't accepted into CWELCC, but the last allotted CWELCC spaces for the County of Brant were awarded in May and her business is not part of the program. When she received her licence in July, she was told she would not qualify for other supports. Brantford's manager of children's services and early years, Sarah Kozinski, said fee subsidy agreements can only be held with CWELCC-enrolled operators. Appleman said she does not know when she can apply. "I'm not giving up without a fight. I will keep taking out business loans. I will keep pushing."

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8. Dead rat found in Canada's only rat-free province

Source: CP24 / CTV News Calgary

Alberta lives by a promise of being Canada's only rat-free province, but the carcass of one of the pests was found recently in a central Alberta community. The Town of Bowden said Thursday that a dead rat was found in the area and it has called on the province's Rat Patrol to investigate. The community shared no details about where the rodent was found but urged residents to be vigilant.

"If you've noticed rat droppings or any signs of rats, please contact Rat Patrol Alberta so they can follow up," the town said in a statement. "Please stay alert and report any sightings." Albertans can report rats by calling 310-FARM or emailing rats@gov.ab.ca.

According to the Alberta Invasive Species Council, rats are considered "one of the most destructive species in North America," damaging crops, property and the environment and threatening public health by spreading disease. Rats are also blamed for 25 per cent of unknown fires because they often chew through electrical wires, the council said. Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation introduced a rat control program in the 1950s, when rats were first reported on the province's eastern border, and it has since become "one of the most successful pest management initiatives in the world," keeping Alberta "virtually rat-free" for more than 70 years.

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9. MapQuest's 'Lake Ontario' stance paid off

Source: CP24 / The Canadian Press

When MapQuest's general manager woke up in Toronto on Thursday morning, the Texan visiting for a conference knew he couldn't leave without visiting one place: Lake Ontario. Doug Berger walked south from his hotel toward the city's shoreline. The vast body of water made his company the talk of the tech world last month: unlike many rivals, MapQuest rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's name change to "Lake America."

"It's what gave MapQuest this moment," Berger said. The moment began in late August, when the MapQuest team started monitoring Trump after he said he was "giving serious consideration" to swapping the lake's name. MapQuest had been through this before: in January, Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America," and MapQuest kept the original name for familiarity and product "integrity." Because the lake is one of the Great Lakes and Canada is "our friendly neighbour to the north," renaming it "didn't make a whole lot of sense," Berger said, and the team saw it as another moment to take a stand.

Two days later, when Trump signed his executive order, MapQuest took mere minutes to post a map of Lake Ontario captioned "we're not changing it." Google and Apple adopted "Lake America" for U.S. users while keeping Lake Ontario in Canada, but MapQuest uses Lake Ontario everywhere. Berger said roughly 50 staff make his company nimbler than the tech giants. Three million new users, including many Canadians, have downloaded the app since the order, and the team soon began selling "We're not changing it" mugs, sweaters and T-shirts. Berger said one of the best parts has been how interested people are in the discussions his staff have every day. "Isn't it fun we are talking about geography?" he said.

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10. Canada's Fernandez upsets top seed to reach Singapore semis

Source: CP24 / The Canadian Press

Canada's Leylah Fernandez advanced to the semifinals of the Singapore Tennis Open with a 6-2, 7-5 upset of top seed Mirra Andreeva on Friday. The sixth seed from Laval, Que., saved two break points in the third game of the first set, then broke Andreeva on her way to a 1-0 lead.

Fernandez was up 5-2 in the second set before Andreeva mounted a comeback, but the 24-year-old picked up her sixth break of the match in the 12th game to complete the victory in one hour 32 minutes. The win improved her career record against Andreeva, now No. 5 in the world, to 3-2. All three of Fernandez's wins in the series have come on hardcourt, including at the National Bank Open in Toronto earlier this year.

It is Fernandez's first semifinal of the season. She will next face fifth seed Maja Chwalinska of Poland on Saturday. Chwalinska, runner-up at this year's French Open, beat defending champion Elise Mertens to reach the Singapore semifinals and will play Fernandez for the first time.

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