Addictions outreach worker Michelle Boissoneault recounts the moment she was surprised with a car from country music star Jelly Roll, and influencer Zachery Dereniowski (known as @mdmotivator) in London, Ont.

After Donald Trump signed an executive order that will hit Canada and all other non-U.S.-made autos with hefty import levies, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Canada will need to do "everything we possibly can" to fight the new tariffs.

Ontario's patient ombudsman received a record number of complaints last fiscal year and quality of health care and communication were among top concerns of people who complained.

Environment Canada is warning that a "potent" spring ice storm will likely hit a huge swath of Ontario starting Friday evening and extending into Monday.

The Blue Jays took batting practice at Rogers Centre one day ahead of their home opener against the Baltimore Orioles. The Jays will look to bounce back after finishing last in their division last season, while the end of two star players' contracts looms.

Unions representing London's public school teachers say the Thames Valley District School Board's (TVDSB) move to cut almost 60 positions shows that school boards need more provincial funding.

Hamilton Councillors who serve the rural areas are still trying to explain to their constituents how a rural resident who is drawing water from a well and is not connected to the city water system should ever be getting a water bill. The answer of course is that they still contribute to stormwater, and now that the city has decided to create a separate bill for stormwater, everybody should pay their share. The city reasons that because rural stormwater typically flows into a ditch, which is nonetheless maintained by the city as opposed to a sewer and ultimately ends up in the bay, the stormwater fee should apply. It also doesn’t take into account water that comes off a barn roof and is soaked into the aquifer before it can get to a ditch. Those are some of the issues that are not sitting well with rural residents and their representatives on council.

The other problem for rural residents, is that the fee is based on the amount of impermeable surface they occupy, and whether it’s a farm or a rural residence, both tend to take up more space than a typical city lot. And if you are a large greenhouse operator with maybe an acre under impermeable glass, the cost can be huge. Councillors and staff can rationalize the issue any way they want, but when you are sending a tax bill to somebody who wasn’t getting a bill before, without providing any increase in service, you are going to get sustained pushback.

When the subject of a stormwater fee first came up, it made sense to many. Up until the beginning of the discussion the stormwater portion of the water bill was assumed to be based on the amount of water the ratepayer was using. But that calculation did not take into account shopping malls and large industrial companies with large parking lots. They consumed relatively little water, but their parking lots and large roof areas contributed disproportionately to the stormwater runoff. In the initial discussion nobody was talking about the agricultural community assuming it was the shopping malls and factories that would bear the brunt of the new policy. A large staff presentation on the subject in June 2023 made no mention of rural or agricultural uses. Councillor Mark Tadeson summed up the problem for himself and Glanbrook rural residents.

No matter how one slices it, the communications on this Stormwater issue has been terrible. Staff were asked why, and one reason given was that the plan was supposed to be fleshed out by 2026, but council, on a motion from Councillors Danko and Maureen Wilson in January of 2023, bumped it up a year to now. Staff said as a result there was very little opportunity to consult with the public. It was only after that vote that the reality for rural farmers began to surface. At that time some farm operations were told they will pay as much as $77,000, for example for a Flamborough vegetable grower. An Ancaster Dairy Farm would pay $22,000. The Federation of Agriculture cited a Glanbrook dairy farmer who stands to pay $5,800. Residential taxpayers in the city will see the stormwater fee deducted from the regular water bill resulting in zero change to their overall bill, but many agricultural users who are not connected to city water and sewers will be paying water bills for the first time. Even for smaller farm operations, the local federation says a farm with an 80 ft x 200 ft building (barn) will have to pay $868 per year.

Staff have reworked the numbers and managed to reduce the overall fee, but it will still look like a minimum to $200 per year extra at a minimum for rural homeowners, more for farmers. The tax takes effect next January.

The murder trial of Alain Bellefeuille opened Wednesday with dramatically different accounts of what happened the night Sgt. Eric Mueller was shot and killed while responding to a 911 call.

Liberal leader Mark Carney was in Windsor and London earlier today as he works his way back to Kitchener where he will hold a rally tonight. It will be interesting to see if Carney can match the turnout that Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre pulled off last night, speaking to a crowd estimated at over 4,000 in Stoney Creek. Meanwhile NDP leader Jagmeet Singh was in Hamilton for the second consecutive day, after attending the opening of Hamilton Mountain candidate Monique Taylor’s campaign headquarters yesterday. Singh is dealing with some troubling national polling numbers showing his NDP at single digits, far behind the Liberals and the Conservatives. Latest polling shows the Carney Liberals with a six to eight point lead over the Poilievre- led Conservatives. Most of the Liberal gains are at the expense of the NDP, who just two months ago were holding 20 percent in voter intentions. The NDP are sitting at 14 percent in BC polls, which suggests Singh could be in for a tough battle to hold onto his seat in Burnaby South.

Thousands of people could have been exposed to measles, health officials warned Wednesday after releasing a list of busy places where someone with the highly contagious virus may have infected people.

Ontario’s gaming watchdog has issued a $110,000 fine to online sports betting platform BetMGM Canada after the company allegedly offered cash to new customers who set up an account on the platform.

Environment Canada said Wednesday afternoon its forecasters are increasingly confident a "widespread, prolonged freezing rain event" would arrive late Friday.

Council unanimously backed Chow’s 10-point plan to respond to the tariff fight on Wednesday, though some councillors said Toronto needs to be careful not to alienate potential visitors from the U.S., or American companies looking to invest in the city.

City council has finally put a contentious debate to rest, voting to buy lands near Fitzroy Harbour for about $2 million, though it will be looking to carve out and resell two small parcels.

Toronto’s One of a Kind show has been a staple for local artisans for half a century now, but this year’s edition has seen a more significant push as the “Buy Canadian” movement takes off.

The overzealous actions of a member of Coun. Craig Cassar’s staff resulted in the leaking of a budget proposal by Councillor Jeff Beattie to climate change insiders with the suggestion to stimulate some public pushback.  That was the upshot of a report by Hamilton’s Integrity Commission following a complaint by Beattie. During the budget debates in February, Beattie proposed a motion to cut $560,000 that had been added on to the existing biodiversity action plan to hire four employees in public works to develop the program.

Beattie’s motion was submitted to the clerk and fellow councillors the day before the matter was to be considered by council. His complaint reads, “I had submitted to Clerks for review, and other members of Council for their comments. These motions were circulated to some select members of the public, before the Motions had been properly vetted, checked for accuracy, procedural correctness and placed on the Public Agenda for the viewing by the General Public, with intent that this group might lobby or otherwise influence the decision-making process of Council.”

In the course of his investigation, the Integrity Commissioner learned that a member of Cassar’s staff, upon seeing the proposal to pause the biodiversity funding, forwarded the motion to the Hamilton Naturalist’s Club, Conservation Hamilton and Environment Hamilton and about one dozen others. The staffer’s email read, “ I think we can and should send emails to ALL councillors all day today and tomorrow. And get on the phone to Beattie and Clark and leave messages. Emails won’t make it on tomorrow’s agenda at this point, but they will land in the inboxes of decision makers. Other thoughts for an intervention are welcome. If we are loud enough, we can hopefully convince the majority to vote this down. Can (Hamilton Naturalist’s Club) send out an eblast to e-newsletter subscribers today with directions of who to write to? I can help draft it. Short and sweet.”

When council met the following day, the agenda did contain correspondence from several individuals as well as HCA, Hamilton Naturalists and Environment Hamilton, all opposing the Beattie motion, which ultimately failed.

Both Cassar, who apologized to Beattie and his staffer said that Cassar had not directed staff to leak the information. For that reason, the Integrity Commissioner ruled that he did not have jurisdiction over staff. However, he is referring the matter to the city Human Resources Department, writing, “I am not responsible for dealing with staff violations of their code of ethics and am not making any findings in this regard. I am, however, initiating a formal complaint with the City’s HR Department to have (employee ’s) conduct reviewed for possible breach of the City’s Employee Code of Conduct.”

After two years of work, Matt Gallagher's newest film — Shamed — will screen at Toronto's upcoming Hot Docs 2025 Festival. The documentary explores the "collateral damage" of Creeper Hunter TV: The controversial online predator-catching project of Jason Nassr of Windsor, Ont.

The New Democrats and Conservatives both rolled out a series of promises to cut taxes Wednesday that the party leaders say will help provide relief to lower-income Canadians. 

Ottawa city council waded into a brief but testy debate over the definitions of racism and colonialism on Wednesday, amid questions over whether a funding policy should specifically mention white people.

Osgoode ward residents will head to the polls on a mid-June Monday to choose their next city councillor.

A Belleville, Ont. man has been charged with assault after he stabbed a security officer and himself in the emergency department at Belleville General Hospital on Tuesday, according to Belleville Police.

The three gunmen who opened fire at a Scarborough pub earlier this month "appeared young, professional [and] calm,” Coun. Michael Thompson said, citing his conversations with victims. Twelve people were injured in the shooting, but no one was killed.

Pedestrian was struck near Brimley Road and Brimwood Boulevard, police say, just north of Finch Avenue E. and McCowan Road.

Homing in once again on the fractured Canada-U.S. relationship, Liberal Leader Mark Carney unveiled a $2-billion proposal to protect Canada's auto industry while in Windsor, Ont., on Wednesday — one of the front lines of the tariff war.