Maple Express | October 2, 2026 — Ontario Woman Mourns Dog Killed in Attack Inside Her Home

1. Ontario Woman Mourns Two-Year-Old Yorkie Killed in Dog Attack Inside Her Home

Donna Brown of Harrow, Ont., is grieving the loss of her two-year-old Yorkie, River, who was killed in a dog attack that happened inside her home. "The worst part of the whole thing is no matter what happens, I can't get my dog back. She's gone, and that's it. And I have to live with it," Brown said.

Brown said she was outside hanging laundry on Saturday afternoon when a man she had never seen before approached her looking for his golden retriever that had gotten loose. She told him she had not seen the dog. Within minutes, she went back inside and found River lying near the patio door, covered in blood, with the golden retriever nearby after it had busted through the screen door.

Brown grabbed the golden retriever by its collar and pulled it outside before it could get to her other Yorkie, Dexter, and yelled for the owner. She then had a neighbour drive her and River to a veterinary clinic in Harrow, but River died before they arrived. OPP have confirmed officers are investigating and documented the scene. Brown said she is now afraid to let Dexter out alone in the yard and keeps the patio door closed.

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2. Oshawa Driver Charged After Allegedly Striking Two Officers With Vehicle

Police charged a man after he allegedly struck two officers with his vehicle while fleeing a traffic stop in Oshawa. Yaseen Waggan, 23, of Ajax, turned himself in to police on Thursday.

Durham Regional Police said that shortly after 1 a.m. on Sept. 22, officers saw an Acura sedan travelling at a high rate of speed with no lights on Simcoe Street North and attempted a traffic stop, but the vehicle fled. The Acura was later found abandoned in a residential driveway, along with the driver, who was hiding in a backyard and was arrested. Police said he was under conditions prohibiting him from driving and requiring him to remain at his residence overnight. During a search, officers located a replica firearm and drugs inside the sedan.

As police continued to investigate, a Tesla SUV entered the area at a high rate of speed, according to Durham police. When the driver stopped, officers tried to speak with him, but he attempted to reverse, striking two officers before fleeing. One officer was taken to hospital with serious, non-life-threatening injuries, while the second suffered minor injuries and also attended hospital. Waggan faces numerous charges, including fail to stop for police, dangerous operation of a conveyance, fail to identify himself, fail to remain, two counts of assault causing bodily harm, and three counts of failing to comply with a release order. He was also arrested on outstanding charges from a June road-rage incident and charged with two counts of assault with a weapon. The charges have not been proven in court.

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3. After Arson Attack, Liberal MP Warns Violent Rhetoric Puts All MPs at Risk

Liberal MP Salma Zahid says she is concerned about escalating violent rhetoric directed at MPs, including the leader of another party. In August, a man was filmed setting vehicles on fire outside Zahid's home in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough in what police believe was an arson attack.

Zahid says she now has 24-7 security at her home and believes the incident could be related to rising rhetoric against her fellow MPs. She spoke out this week about a newspaper column calling for action against NDP Leader Avi Lewis over his views on Israel, which Zahid says puts Lewis at risk.

Her comments come after two recent arrests for death threats against Prime Minister Mark Carney, incidents Zahid says are symptoms of a broader problem. She is calling on Canadians to reject violent rhetoric about their elected officials to preserve vigorous debate.

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4. Toronto Mayoral Candidate Pledges to Start 3,000 Affordable Homes Next Year

Toronto mayoral candidate Chris Alexander is pledging to ramp up construction of affordable housing, setting a goal of breaking ground on at least 3,000 new units next year and 10,000 per year by 2029. He made the promise during a press conference on Friday.

The City of Toronto has approved more than 33,000 new affordable housing units, but in 2025 the number of construction starts involving affordable housing stood at only 1,598, and in 2024 Toronto recorded fewer than 1,000 affordable housing starts.

Under Alexander's plan, the city would act as a public builder, using public land to build standardized mid-rise apartments with lower-cost construction techniques. He says the city would assemble 30-50 potential sites by leveraging the Toronto Builds Policy Framework, making the city the "master developer." Buildings would generally be four to eight storeys, using standardized designs and methods including mass timber and modular construction. Eligibility calls for fast-tracked approvals, with any 100 per cent affordable rental project built by the city or led by a non-profit or co-op partner bypassing public consultation and the Committee of Adjustment entirely, receiving zoning and site-plan approvals within 30 days. Completed buildings would remain on publicly owned land, operated under 99-year leases by Toronto Community Housing or non-profit providers. Alexander said Toronto must get away from counting "phantom homes" and "misleading arithmetic." Olivia Chow's campaign argued several elements are already part of the city's housing strategy, saying in a statement that "the plan Alexander released today is nearly identical to the work that Olivia Chow has been delivering as Mayor," adding "there's no monopoly on good ideas." Torontonians head to the polls on Oct. 26.

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5. Nuit Blanche Returns to Toronto Saturday for 20th Anniversary

Nuit Blanche returns to Toronto on Saturday, marking 20 years the city has hosted the all-night, free arts showcase. This year's event features more than 70 projects by local, national and international artists, institutions and community partners, under the theme Tomorrow's Memories.

Jeanne Holmes, manager of city cultural events programming with the City of Toronto, told CP24 on Friday that the idea of the theme is that "we're making memories that people will have in the future." She said the energy of the artists who take over the city and transform spaces people would normally walk right by into art galleries or museum-like spaces has embedded itself into the city's memory, and this year's event will push that idea into the next decade.

The event runs from 7 p.m. Saturday until 7 a.m. Sunday, with projects scattered across the downtown core, the waterfront and neighbouring municipalities like Etobicoke and North York. TTC subway lines 1 and 2 will remain open right through to their 8 a.m. opening hours on Sunday morning, making it easy for patrons to take in as many projects as they can. Several road closures will be in place beginning at 12 p.m. on Oct. 3 until noon on Oct. 4, and some TTC routes will be diverting, with motorists advised to expect delays downtown. Holmes said "there's no wrong way to do it" and suggested starting in your own neighbourhood or at Nathan Phillips Square.

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6. Suspect Sought After Family of Four Assaulted Near Kensington Market

Toronto police say they are searching for a suspect after a family of four was assaulted near Kensington Market in August. Police were called to the area of College Street and Bathurst Street shortly after 12 p.m. on Aug. 8.

According to investigators, a man and woman were walking with their two young children on the sidewalk when the suspect approached them, leading to an argument. The suspect then followed the victims to a nearby store and allegedly assaulted them with an "aerosol-type weapon" before fleeing shortly after. The victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Police described the suspect as female with a medium build and shoulder-length black hair, wearing glasses and a black dress. Anyone with information is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers anonymously.

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7. Belleville Synagogue Receives Antisemitic Flyers After Shooting

Antisemitic flyers were distributed this week to a Belleville, Ont., synagogue targeted in a shooting last month as well as the surrounding neighbourhoods, the synagogue's president said Friday. Norman Weddum said he woke up Thursday morning to find four different flyers blaming Jewish people "for everything under the sun" had been distributed overnight to the Sons of Jacob synagogue and throughout the city's east end.

"The number of flyers that were distributed and posted, it couldn't have been done by one person," he said. Police said they are aware of the flyers and are "actively investigating." Weddum said the incident is particularly "disturbing" in the wake of the Sept. 20 attack police have described as a thwarted mass killing of Jewish worshippers at the start of Yom Kippur.

Police have said the shooter, 29-year-old Sean Ward, had multiple guns, large amounts of ammunition, gasoline and the motive to carry out an extended attack when he opened fire on an officer stationed outside the synagogue. Const. Jeff Smith suffered multiple gunshot wounds but "stayed engaged" with the shooter, and soon after a second officer arrived and joined the shootout. No one inside the synagogue was hurt, but Smith is expected to undergo multiple surgeries. Ward was fatally injured and died in hospital the next day. The Canadian Armed Forces have said Ward was a former soldier who served for about five years before he was released from the military at the rank of corporal in 2022. The shooting was widely condemned and prompted synagogues and Jewish institutions elsewhere to review their security. Weddum said Sons of Jacob has held some services since the attack and will hold another Friday evening. "We're trying to get people back into the building, and I think it's helping," he said.

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8. Ontario Launches Public Consultation on Measures to Limit Protests Blocking 'Key Infrastructure'

The Ontario government is inviting the public to weigh in on possible new measures that would address what it says are "growing concerns" about demonstrations blocking "key infrastructure" in Ontario. In an online post, the province said it is considering both legislative and non-legislative changes that "could address obstruction to such infrastructure and provide enforcement tools."

Questions posed to the public include whether the province should consider a "legislated prohibition related to unauthorized, willful obstruction of a roadway, including overpasses/bridges, where the obstruction is intentional, cannot be easily avoided and blocks travel"; whether it should institute a new provincial offence and require individuals to provide identifying information "for the purposes of issuing a provincial offence notice"; and whether to develop new police authorities and create new arrest powers for failing to comply. The infrastructure could include religious institutions, culturally-specific community centres and schools, the province said.

Speaking to Newstalk 1010's Dub Hutton on Friday, Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner said the province is trying to provide people with "barrier-free access" to infrastructure "without intimidation." He asserted the move is "not about restricting protests," saying no one could give a reason why they should be able to block the on-ramp to the Gardiner Expressway or block an ambulance leaving Mount Sinai Hospital. Toronto City Council voted last year to create a bylaw limiting protests outside places of worship and other vulnerable institutions on a case-by-case basis; Coun. Gord Perks opposed it, saying "if we don't encourage the right to protest, we lose all the democratic rights that have been built up in Canada over time." Vaughan and Brampton previously passed laws to limit demonstrations around places of worship. The federal government has also vowed to create new criminal provisions against blocking access to places of worship, schools and community centres. In 2025, Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, director of the fundamental freedoms program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, noted that even if a protest is disruptive, it is protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms' guarantee of peaceful assembly.

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9. LNG Canada to Import Chinese Steel for Phase 2 Project in Kitimat, B.C.

LNG Canada has confirmed it will be using Chinese steel for its upcoming Phase 2 expansion project in Kitimat, B.C. In a statement to CTV News, an LNG Canada spokesperson said the decision is not a preference but a necessity.

"The challenge is not a preference for offshore steel, but the specialized fabrication capability required for modules of this scale and complexity. There are no fabrication yards in Canada that can manufacture and deliver the additional modules required for Phase 2," the statement reads. The company also said "marine access is essential," adding that modules of this scale cannot be transported to Kitimat by road and must be fabricated at a facility with direct access to tidewater and shipped by sea before being received through LNG Canada's existing module offloading facility. LNG Canada added that the majority of the steel used in construction of a pipeline compressor for Phase 2 will be Canadian-sourced, with Coastal GasLink targeting almost 15,000 tonnes of steel from Canadian suppliers or mills, about 70 per cent of the steel required for that work.

LNG Canada announced Tuesday that it is going ahead with the Phase 2 expansion, which would double its capacity by the early 2030s. "Over $30 billion in LNG Canada (Phase) 2 will make LNG Canada the second-largest facility of its kind in the world," Prime Minister Mark Carney said during Tuesday's news conference, adding the expansion will create "thousands of new jobs" while connecting Canadian energy with global markets. Phase 2 will create two new processing units, or trains, increasing production from 14 million tonnes to 28 million, along with a new LNG storage tank, condensation tank, loading berth and expanded processing systems. The company exports natural gas piped from northwestern Alberta and northeastern B.C. to the Kitimat plant, where it is turned into a liquid state and loaded onto specialized tankers bound for Asian markets. LNG Canada is a joint venture between Shell, PetroChina, Malaysia's Petronas, Japan's Mitsubishi Corp. and South Korea's KOGAS.

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10. Michael J. Fox Promoted to Companion Level of Order of Canada

Celebrated actor and Parkinson's disease activist Michael J. Fox said he felt both "pride" and "humility" while receiving a promotion within the Order of Canada on Friday. Spectators stood and applauded Fox at Rideau Hall as Gov. Gen. Louise Arbour officially named him to the companion level of the Order of Canada.

Rideau Hall says Fox was elevated to the companion level to honour his "powerful global advocacy and unflinching honesty about Parkinson's." Speaking to The Canadian Press after the ceremony, Fox said it comes down to "growing up in Canada, loving this country, loving what it stands for and how it's progressed and corrected course when it needed to, and stayed the course when it needed to." Parkinson's is a progressive nervous system disorder that causes tremors, stiffness and slowness, and is linked to depression and memory problems. Fox, who went public with his diagnosis in 1998, has raised $2.5 billion for research into the disease.

Fox was among 51 people inducted into, or promoted within, the Order of Canada on Friday. Arbour thanked each inductee for their work, saying in French that talent alone is not sufficient and that "it also takes the will to get involved and to take action to improve one's community and contribute to the common good." She called Fox a "shining example." Other honourees included Yusuf Altintas, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of British Columbia, inducted as an officer along with Nada Jabado, a McGill University professor honoured for her work in pediatric neuro-oncology, and former Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz, inducted an officer for helping to facilitate Canada's international trade. Sculptor Ruth Elsie Abernethy, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Susanne Craig, Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra founder Colin Roswell Clarke, Quebec playwright Marcelle Dubois, and Triton Submarines co-founder Patrick Joseph Lahey were inducted as members.

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