Maple Express | November 13, 2026 — Microsoft outage drags on as Toronto hospitals declare Code Grey

1. Microsoft outage drags on for hours, hitting companies and governments worldwide

Source: CP24

Microsoft said Friday that a wide range of Microsoft 365 services that interact with Exchange Online and its email services were affected, with users reporting Outlook, Teams and AI assistant Copilot down, as the company tried several ways to identify the cause and get its servers back online. The Redmond, Washington-based company said it had no indication the outage was caused by malicious activity and would treat the incident “with urgency and priority until full resolution.”

The company’s posts on X suggested engineers were struggling to get the problem fully under control: hours after saying it had restored service health and functionality, it updated its list of impacted services, and its latest update said “we’re seeing early stabilization and capacity improvements as recovery actions continue.” Microsoft says more than 430 million people use Microsoft 365 apps, and the outage tracker Downdetector logged roughly 130,000 users in dozens of countries reporting Outlook problems on Thursday, with reports since declining.

Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Friday that Microsoft likened the disruption to the 2024 CrowdStrike incident — an update gone awry — and did not believe it was a cyberattack. In Hong Kong, some firms could not receive U.S. customer emails through Outlook and some bank operations were disrupted; Air India and IndiGo reported issues with email support, Singapore’s government emails went down, and the Philippines’ Supreme Court and Japan’s government IT infrastructure were also affected. U.S. industrial technology company Workhorse Group delayed its quarterly earnings call.

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2. Ford says little after Stellantis meeting; Ottawa and Ontario to meet global CEO

Source: CP24

Ontario Premier Doug Ford had little to say on the evening of Nov. 12 after meeting representatives of Stellantis Canada, Unifor and the federal government about the sale of the Brampton Assembly plant to Canadian armoured vehicle maker Roshel. Asked how the meeting went as he left a downtown Toronto hotel, Ford told CP24: “It’s a discussion that we’ve got to carry on with the CEO,” adding he wants that talk to happen “as quickly as possible.”

Federal Industry Minister Melanie Joly confirmed at a post-meeting news conference that the next step is for the federal and Ontario governments to meet Stellantis’s global CEO, Antonio Filosa. Joly, who says she is “always willing to be in solution mode,” informed Stellantis on Thursday that the government intends to sue the automaker to recover the “hundreds of millions of dollars” it received under a federal funding agreement, giving it 30 days to respond.

Unifor National President Lana Payne said the plant’s 2,200 workers felt “let down” after CTV News reported federal officials met Stellantis and Roshel representatives before the sale, saying there had been opportunities to stop it and both levels of government had levers. Vito Beato, president of Unifor Local 1285, said workers are “angry” and their stress, anxiety and pain have not changed: “We feel betrayed by everyone involved here.” Payne said the union is still bargaining a new contract for workers at other Canadian plants, talks could include severance for Brampton workers, and a strike is a “last resort.”

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3. Microsoft outage hits Toronto: hospital network declares Code Grey, city and schools lose email

Source: CP24

A Microsoft outage affected a number of Toronto institutions on Thursday, Nov. 12, including a hospital network that declared a “Code Grey” and City Hall. Unity Health Toronto, which includes St. Michael’s Hospital, said staff had difficulty sending and receiving emails; a code grey is called when there is a loss or failure of infrastructure. The network said patient and resident care was not affected and hospitals remain safe and open, urging anyone with an urgent upcoming appointment to call the main hospital line.

University Health Network said its email services were temporarily unavailable with “no impact on patient care delivery,” and Sunnybrook also asked patients with urgent appointments to call the main line. The City of Toronto said some services “may be temporarily unavailable or experience delays.” Email services at the University of Toronto, Seneca Polytechnic and George Brown Polytechnic were affected, though classes did not appear to be, and VIA Rail warned passengers may not receive trip emails.

Microsoft first reported it was investigating at around 1 p.m. Thursday and kept posting updates on social media. Shortly before 9 p.m., it said it was “seeing positive results with our efforts to restart affected infrastructure and recover server availability in an isolated manner,” and was monitoring performance to verify stability.

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4. Pedestrian critically injured after being struck by vehicle in Markham

Source: CP24

A man was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries after being struck by the driver of a vehicle in Markham on Thursday evening, Nov. 12. Police said the collision happened at about 5:16 p.m. near Stonebridge Road and Warren Bradley Street, in the area of Bur Oak Drive and McCowan Road.

It was not immediately known whether the driver remained at the scene. The intersection was closed and police asked motorists to avoid the area.

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5. Vigil for 18-year-old Etobicoke shooting victim: family and community demand justice

Source: CP24

A small group gathered in a laneway behind an Etobicoke townhouse complex late Thursday afternoon, Nov. 12, to mourn Malik Abass, the 18-year-old known to many as Prince who was gunned down over the weekend. Police said they were called at around 4:30 p.m. Saturday to the area of The East Mall and Rathburn Road, where officers found a male with a gunshot wound; life-saving measures were performed and he was rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His death is Toronto’s 33rd homicide of 2026, and investigators say the suspect or suspects fled before police arrived.

The vigil was organized by the Zumunta African Muslims Association of Canada. “We are here to continue crying about the loss of our son. He was only 18 years old. (He) came to Canada less than four years for a better life,” said the association’s Nurudeen Hussain, noting the mother came with four children and Abass was the second. “He (didn’t) deserve this kind of shooting.”

Community organizer Evelyn said officials have not been in touch to help the family, who should not face such a tragedy alone. Abass’s 11-year-old brother Ramadan said gun violence needs to stop and he would like to see more officers on patrol, adding he wants justice for his brother. Hussain, noting Abass was originally from Ghana, said the community is asking government and authorities to do what they can “so that this kind of violence will end once and for all.” Toronto police said Thursday there were no updates in the case.

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6. Verdun borough mayor condemns sexist caricature in local newspaper

Source: CP24

Verdun’s borough mayor says a local newspaper went too far after publishing a sexist caricature of her. The Nuns’ Island Journal published the drawing of Céline-Audrey Beauregard, who posted it on her Facebook page on Monday. “Don’t attack me or my body; this is a line not to cross,” she said. The image shows her on a skateboard with the words “even big kids can use the pump track” in French and English, a reference to the still-under-construction pump track in Adrien-D.-Archambault Park on Nuns’ Island — a project that divided local residents.

Beauregard posted a video on Monday denouncing the sexualization of women’s bodies and invited others to do the same. Her colleague Coun. Sterling Downey raised the issue at last week’s Verdun borough meeting, calling the portrayal “not only shocking, but it’s absolutely 100 per cent unacceptable,” and asking whether an illustration of him would have focused on sexual aspects of his body: “The answer is clearly ‘no!’”

Beauregard said the caricature is a blatant reminder of why women don’t want to get into politics today: “We don’t get the same treatment, and, unfortunately, we get attacked on how we look, how we dress, our body and not our ideas, our projects, our gains for society in general.” She said she tried to recruit women while running for borough mayor but was often rejected: “I approached so many women, and the first reflex was that I don’t think it’s for me, it’s a lot of pressure.” The Nuns’ Island Journal did not respond to a request for comment from CTV News, and the Verdun borough said it is preparing a letter asking the paper to apologize.

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7. Ontario career college’s OSAP use jumped nearly 6,000% but it wasn’t cut off

Source: CP24

An Ontario career college with four campuses saw the number of students receiving financial aid explode over a few years — including an increase of nearly 6,000 per cent at one campus — but it was not among the schools the government cut off this spring. Data obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom-of-information request shows the Canadian College of Business, Science and Technology, with campuses in the Greater Toronto Area, had 562 students accessing the Ontario Student Assistance Program in 2021-22 and 17,157 three years later, an increase of nearly 3,000 per cent.

One campus went from 74 OSAP students in 2021-22 to 4,481 in 2024-25, up 5,955 per cent, while provincial grants for students there rose more than 8,000 per cent to $39 million. Students at the four campuses accounted for about $151 million in provincial grants that year. The growth was overwhelmingly driven by online programs: more than 97 per cent of the school’s OSAP students in 2024-25 studied online, compared with six per cent in 2021-22.

Critics question why the college was not among the six schools Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn denied OSAP eligibility to in May, when he cut off four Academy of Learning locations and two Citi College of Canadian Careers campuses, citing admissions practices; those schools are fighting the decision in court and deny wrongdoing. In early October Quinn paused OSAP payments to all career colleges and other private institutions while KPMG audits the sector, and on Thursday he announced legislation to be tabled next week that would cap OSAP-funded enrolment growth at career colleges and ban online-only programs from OSAP eligibility. NDP critic Peggy Sattler said failing to notice a 6,000 per cent increase suggests “total incompetence and mismanagement.” Neither the college nor its president responded to repeated requests for comment.

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8. Blue Jays apologize to Muslim community and fans over Santander’s posts

Source: CP24

The Toronto Blue Jays apologized Thursday, Nov. 12, to the Muslim community and the team’s fans for the “pain and harm” caused by outfielder Anthony Santander’s social media posts. Team president and CEO Mark Shapiro said in a statement that the club met leaders in Toronto’s Muslim communities that day and heard about the harm caused by the posts. “We condemn Islamophobia and all forms of hate,” he said.

Santander shared anti-Muslim posts last week and deleted them two days later. General manager Ross Atkins said Tuesday at MLB’s GM meetings in Las Vegas that he had recently spoken with Santander and asked him to publicly address the controversy, but the 32-year-old Venezuelan has yet to comment or apologize, and neither he nor his agency has responded to multiple messages. “There really aren’t words to express my level of disappointment,” Atkins said.

Steven Zhou, media and communications lead for the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said several community advocates took part in the meeting, which lasted about an hour. “This is an initial meeting and we considered it a positive step in the right direction,” he said, citing the commitment to put the player through training and the public apology from the CEO and the organization. He said the next step is an apology from the player himself. It remains unclear whether the Blue Jays will discipline Santander, who signed a five-year, US$92.5-million deal with Toronto in January 2025.

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9. Canada-U.S. travel slump showing signs of reversing after midterms

Source: CP24

Travel experts say the Democrats’ sweeping midterm victory could fan a trend of rising Canadian visitor volumes to the United States, counteracting the effect of the recent trade war flare-up. Preliminary Statistics Canada figures show Canadian return trips from the U.S. rose three per cent in October compared with a year earlier, the seventh straight month of growth, though a smaller uptick than through much of the summer and September.

At Flight Centre Travel Group Canada, new leisure bookings fell 26 per cent year-over-year last month in response to a fresh round of tariffs and comments by U.S. President Donald Trump. “It really just shows you how fragile cross-border travel is, specifically from the leisure market,” spokesperson Amra Durakovic said. In the week since the Nov. 3 Democratic victory, the agency has seen signs of a rebound: “We are hearing a degree of cautious optimism from some travellers who were reluctant to return.”

Still, Canadian visitor volumes remain 27 per cent below October 2024 levels. Aviation data firm Cirium says Canada-Florida, Arizona, Nevada and California flight volumes are down 17 per cent this quarter versus the final three months of 2024, while overall Canada-U.S. flights fell 10 per cent. Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Portugal and Spain have gained popularity, and Air Transat has cut its 36 weekly Canada-Florida flights in late 2024 to zero. Others say it is too early to tell: Tripcentral.ca’s Richard Vanderlubbe said “we need at least a month,” and he doesn’t see a sea change.

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10. Two sentenced after CBSA stopped illegal Manitoba crossing; one hid in trunk, paid $1,000

Source: CP24

Two people have been sentenced after Canada Border Services Agency officers stopped an illegal crossing at the Sprague border crossing in Manitoba earlier this year. On May 7, the driver of a minivan was stopped because of “inconsistencies” in their declaration; officers searched the van and found a 46-year-old man hiding in the trunk, and both were arrested.

CBSA said the man, Temitope Omofuyi Davies, told officers he paid the driver $1,000 to get him into Canada. Officers later learned Davies had also been caught in March trying to cross illegally near Surrey, B.C. He pleaded guilty on Aug. 19 to failure to report under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and was sentenced to time served.

The driver, 50-year-old Annan Nigel Ferguson, an American citizen, was charged with aiding and abetting failure to report and was sentenced on Nov. 4 to one year in prison. Accounting for time served, he has roughly three months remaining.

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