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Sidewalk Labs
Culture
“There’s untapped beauty in our beleaguered democratic institutions”: Chris Abraham of Crow’s Theatre on turning the Sidewalk Labs fiasco into a hit play
The artistic director discusses adapting Josh O’Kane’s 2022 book on Google’s failed attempt to build a smart city on the waterfront, why audiences love Toronto stories and reasons to be optimistic about the future of theatre
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City News
Is Google’s smart city stupid?
Sidewalk Labs has a PR battle on its hands
City News
Toronto is surveillance capitalism’s new frontier
The city of Toronto now sits in the crosshairs of a uniquely 21st-century economic model that I call surveillance...
City News
How the Sidewalk Labs proposal landed in Toronto: the backstory
In 2001, when Waterfront Toronto was formed, Mel Lastman was in the waning days of his mayoralty, Vince Carter was the heart of...
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City News
Sidewalk Labs is the future of urban tech
A dozen or so years ago, I was recruited to Toronto to establish the Martin Prosperity Institute, a think tank focused on...
City News
A smart city should serve its users, not mine their data
The concept of the “Internet of things” refers to the spread of Internet connectivity to everyday devices:...
City News
Sidewalk Labs will attract and retain tech talent
At the Toronto Region Board of Trade, one of the stranger questions we’ve been asked is why we would support a U.S. firm like...
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City News
Sidewalk needs to integrate with the waterfront
When I chaired Waterfront Toronto’s design review panel from 2005 to 2017, our goal was to create continuity. Today, a promenade...
City News
A big city needs to take big risks
Imagine if the Raptors had kept DeMar DeRozan in 2018. Imagine if fans, sponsors and pundits all saw trading for an injured Kawhi...
City News
The Sidewalk Labs deal is unconstitutional
Once upon a time, some unelected folks at Waterfront Toronto blurted out, “Hey Google, what’s the best way to develop...
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City News
Toronto needs to maintain control of its transit planning
In the summer of 1972, Toronto east-enders had had enough. The Toronto Transit Commission wouldn’t hear their petition for a new...
City News
Sidewalk is our last chance to save the waterfront
Toronto’s Port Lands are the last big opportunity for the city’s lakefront. It’s a huge area, almost as big as downtown, but...
City News
Sidewalk’s affordable housing isn’t really affordable
Sidewalk’s proposal for Toronto’s eastern waterfront has a few foundational promises: first, that this Google company can...
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City News
Toronto can create a new model of urban development
Cities are the sum of choices we’ve made over decades and centuries. New chapters in a city’s history often begin with a...
City News
Corporations should not be controlling our city-building
Remember when Uber started? The story was innovation: the jobs, the convenience, the new tech sector. Now, 10 years later, the...
City News
De-identifying data at the source is the only way Sidewalk can work
When Sidewalk Labs first approached me to be a consultant three years ago, I told them that if they hired me, I’d be happy to...
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City News
We can harness the private sector for the public good
Toronto is on a roll, emerging as one of the world’s best cities. We’ve never been better or more vibrant. Economic and...
City News
Sidewalk Labs is Toronto’s best hope for sustainability
The Maori say we walk backwards into the future: we are so focused on our past that we do not properly experience the present, so...
City News
Toronto needs exciting new architecture
In 2017, Sidewalk Labs approached PARTISANS to design facade and public-realm architecture for Quayside. Like most Torontonians, I...
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City News
Sidewalk needs to work with Toronto’s tech ecosystem
Toronto is not only the fastest-growing city in Canada and the U.S., but also the fastest-growing technology hub. All three levels...
City News
The Quayside project is a gift to Toronto’s public realm
In recent decades, Toronto has become a remarkably heterogenous city, with more than half of its residents born in another...
City News
Q&A: Stephen Diamond, the new chair of Waterfront Toronto, on managing the Sidewalk Labs file
He says Toronto has a duty to listen to new city-building ideas
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Canada Day Bar Cart
Food & Drink
Canada Day Bar Cart: Summer sips
Make the most of this momentous occasion with these easy sippers, including wines, brews, spirits and low-alcohol bevs
Best New Restaurants
Food & Drink
These are Toronto’s best new restaurants of 2025
This year’s list includes a Korean Ecuadorian diner, a supper club that showcases regional Chinese dishes tweaked with seasonal Canadian ingredients and a Parkdale chaat house that makes a mean Pakistani Sloppy Joe. It’s official: fusion is in
Big Stories
Deep Dives
Sex worker and
Anora
consultant Andrea Werhun’s journey from strip clubs to Hollywood
Andrea Werhun’s dream was to be a writer, but there was a lot more money in sex work. She told herself she’d quit soon, then spent years working as a stripper. In 2022, Sean Baker hired her as a consultant on his Oscar-sweeping film. Now she’s stepping into her own spotlight
Deep Dives
Game Over: Inside fallen Toronto Raptor Jontay Porter’s sports betting scandal
As the pivotal member of a notorious betting ring, Porter was playing for another team. The story of a cheater, his bookmakers and the wager that brought them all down
Deep Dives
Megan Savard for the Defence: Meet the lawyer representing a player at the centre of the Hockey Canada trial
She’s fierce, shrewd and relentless. And she doesn’t just want to win—she wants to dismantle the prison system altogether
Food & Drink
These are Toronto’s best new restaurants of 2025
This year’s list includes a Korean Ecuadorian diner, a supper club that showcases regional Chinese dishes tweaked with seasonal Canadian ingredients and a Parkdale chaat house that makes a mean Pakistani Sloppy Joe. It’s official: fusion is in
Deep Dives
Inside the rise and fall of the Vaulter Bandit, the 21st century’s most notorious bank robber
To fellow tourists he met around the world, Jeffery Shuman was a semi-retired developer with a bright smile, an even tan and a fat wallet. In truth, he was a legendary bank robber on the run from the Toronto police and the US Marshals
Deep Dives
Anchor Man: Fox News host John Roberts on Trump, the trade war and the American psyche
If Fox News seems an unlikely landing spot for a guy who got his start pumping out Platinum Blonde on MuchMusic, you probably haven’t heard his thoughts about joining the notorious network, the Canada–US relationship and what he misses most about Toronto
Deep Dives
Trump’s Loss, Toronto’s Gain: Meet the artists, professors, scientists and other luminaries ditching the US and moving north
They’re coming from Big Law, the Ivy League, arts institutes and beyond, brimming with smarts and energy and united by a common cause: avoiding the carnage of Donald Trump. True tales from the brain gain
Deep Dives
Dancing Queens: Patrons, staff and performers share their wildest memories of Crews and Tangos, Toronto’s most storied drag bar
Crews and Tangos has been enforcing the rules of the Village for more than 30 years: wear what you want, kiss who you want, but don’t forget to tip the drag queens. With a condo development looming, we asked around for tales from the iconic spot
Deep Dives
The Joy of Sex with Strangers: A Toronto hotwife’s adventures in ethical non-monogamy
Three months ago, I was a suburban mom in a monogamous relationship. Now I’m sleeping with people I meet online—with my husband’s blessing—and we’ve never been happier. Don’t judge us until you’ve read our story
Deep Dives
The Scandal, the Firing and the Fallout: Anatomy of a Bay Street fiasco at RBC
Nadine Ahn was a high-ranking executive at the bank. Ken Mason, her subordinate, was rapidly promoted. Then someone claimed to see them canoodling at the Royal York, tipped off HR and triggered an inquisition
Deep Dives
Edward the Conqueror: The unlikely ascent of Canada’s telecom king
Edward Rogers was dismissed as a meddling nepo baby—until he muscled out his siblings, acquired his competitors, cornered the telecom market and became the dominant force in Canadian sports
Deep Dives
Lady Parts: Inside Meredith MacNeill and Jennifer Whalen’s new show,
Small Achievable Goals
The
Baroness von Sketch Show
alumnae have elevated joking about women’s issues to an art. Their new show takes aim at menopause. How funny is that?
Deep Dives
Murder in the Blue Mountains: The story behind the killing of Ashley Schwalm
Ashley and James Schwalm had what seemed like a fairy tale life—two wonderful children, fulfilling careers and a gorgeous home close to the private ski club where they’d fallen in love. Then Ashley’s remains turned up in a burned-out car at the bottom of a ditch, and all signs pointed to her husband
Deep Dives
Dark Horse: Inside the fall of Eric Lamaze, Canada’s most famous equestrian
For years, Lamaze was the world’s top-ranked show jumper, living an enviable life filled with fancy cars, international travel and adoring fans—the kind of life a person might do anything to protect
Buy Canadian
Food & Drink
An all-Canadian wine festival is coming to Fort York
Elbows Up aims to make it easier (and cheaper) to buy Canadian-made bottles
Food & Drink
This Toronto Italian restaurant is launching a pasta tasting menu made with all-Canadian ingredients
It’s Amano Trattoria’s elbows-up moment
City News
A high-tech greenhouse in King City is sticking it to Trump’s tariffs
How to reduce our reliance on American farmers? Rely on robot ones instead
Food & Drink
“We felt disconnected from the outdoors before”: What St. Lawrence Market North vendors think of their new home
And what locally made and grown goods they’re selling