Toronto Life’s top long-reads of 2024

As the year comes to a close, our heads are still spinning from the epic sagas that played out in our beloved city over the past 12 months. Most days, it felt like there was conflict around every corner—be it the fights for Ontario Place and the Science Centre, the shuttering of safe consumption sites, the crackdown on encampments, or congestion horror stories and the battle over bike lanes.

It should come as no surprise, then, that our most popular long-reads of the year are full of friction, some of it petty, some of it profound. Wherever they fall on that spectrum, the feature stories our readers loved most show how deeply Torontonians care about their home—and how far they’ll go to fight for it.

Here, our most-read deep dives of 2024.

No. 10 The Battle for Leslieville

Last summer, when a stray bullet killed a young mother near the South Riverdale supervised consumption site, it sparked a vicious fight between area residents. One year later, tensions are high, neither side will back down and the opioid crisis rages on. | By Navneet Alang | July

No. 9 There Will Be Blood

Bedbugs are—no exaggeration—everywhere in Toronto: our libraries, offices, schools, hospitals, hotels, transit and homes. Inside the always expensive, often traumatic, probably futile battle to eradicate the bloodsucking parasites that are ruining our lives. | By Lauren McKeon | February

No. 8 My Psychotic Break

After the birth of my first child, I split with reality. I had terrifying hallucinations, received messages from the spirit world and spent so much on New Age paraphernalia that I had to sell my house. A memoir on the postpartum nightmare no one talks about. | By Patricia Tomasi | April

No. 7 Brute Force

Firouzeh Zarabi-Majd always wanted to be a cop, and she loved the job. Even when her fellow officers started harassing her, she said nothing at first. That’s the code—you don’t go public, no matter what. But eventually she had to speak up, and it cost her everything. | By Jason McBride | January

No. 6 The Perilous Lives of International Students

They come here for the promise of a good education and a better future. Then they discover the target on their backs. | By Simon Lewsen | May

No. 5 Sins of a Small-Town Doctor

Wameed Ateyah was the answer to Schomberg’s prayers—a family physician who took walk-ins, made house calls, gave to local charities. When his dark secret was revealed, it tore the community apart. | By Lauren McKeon | June

No. 4 The Cult of Wellness

A growing cohort of Torontonians are swapping the coke-fuelled, booze-soaked club scene for cold plunges, sobriety and superfood smoothies. Inside the expensive, obsessive, addictive quest for a perfect life. | By Olivia Stren | September

No. 3 Turf War

For 148 years, the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club was an ivy-covered bastion of civility with a roster of like-minded, blue-blooded members. Then an old-money-versus-new-money clash erupted. | By Sarah Treleaven | September

No. 2 The Great Pretenders

Karima Manji wanted it all for her twin daughters, Amira and Nadya. And she found a way to help them get it: financial aid earmarked for Indigenous kids. The fact that they weren’t remotely Indigenous wasn’t going to stop her. | By Sarah Treleaven | March

No. 1 The Professor, the Caregiver and the Missing $30 million

Before he died, William Waters transferred his fortune to his wife’s caregiver. His lawyers say she coerced him. She says they were having an affair. The untold story of a scandalous estate battle. | By Luc Rinaldi | May