GHOSTED: LIGHTS OUT AT LOJA DO ESPIRITO SANTO

There was always something unsettling about the lack of shadows in this puppetless terrarium, where a few outfits remain with faded price tags. Now a handmade sign has been added to the display: “Everything must go.” And more urgently, “This is the last month.”

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A FULLY HOUSED TORONTO

When the province talks about affordable housing goals, what tends to get painted is an outdated scene. To seriously improve the current housing calamity, policy must tuck itself under, and soundly support, our most vulnerable residents first.

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paperAli Amadtoronto, housing
TENANTS IN HIGH PARK FACE 11.6% RENT INCREASE

Ben Scott, a tenant at LivMore High Park, received notice that his rent would increase by 11.6 per cent. That increase would bump up his monthly payment by $300, a figure that Scott says would make life unaffordable for him and his son.

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paperTeru Ikedatoronto, housing
"THEN THERE WAS ME"

In 2020, nearly a quarter of hospitalizations for children and youth were for mental health conditions. Becca Lemire talks for the first time about her own hospitalizations for a mental health crisis during her teen years and shares what a better path out of those woods can look like.

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"IT LETS ME SEE A DIFFERENT SIDE OF MYSELF"

For a class portraiture assignment at Sheridan College last year, Sabrina Sisco posted a call on their personal Instagram page asking for volunteers willing to meet locally for brief, outdoor shoots, “self-styled in their favourite thrift store find.”

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BIG TROUBLE

We asked WEP writers to tell us about the most epic mess they ever got into in the old days.

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paperVarious Authorstoronto
MEET THE PRESS

On a sunny afternoon in late September, WEP sat down with a group of heavyweight student journalists – most of them editors-in-chief of their school publications. What unfolded around the table in a backyard in Bloordale was a conversation about how they see the world and tell its stories.

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MEET THE CANDIDATES: ELECTION SPECIAL

There are more than 700,000 people under the age of 25 living in Toronto, many of them struggling to cope with our city’s skyrocketing housing costs, surging inflation and uneven access to services and resources. We canvassed front line workers at Toronto-based youth organizations for their toughest questions — and put them to 59 city council hopefuls from eight West End wards.

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60 SECONDS FROM CRASHING

The Dufferin 29 bus is a true workhorse: one of the city’s top five busiest surface routes, hauling 32,000 people per day along the long, strange arterial that is as hostile to pedestrians and cyclists as any other in the city.

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paperJohn Lorinctoronto, transit
THE CURLING WARS

A backyard battle has been brewing between the High Park Club and Algonquin Avenue residents who claim the private curling facility needs to be a better neighbour – raising questions about how much we’re owed by the businesses who operate among us.

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HOME ICE

Dave Bidini writes about his favourite rink, McCormick Arena, a place that glows with life, wonder and city history, its lobby lights swishing out to the street.

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WINGING IT: PLAYING BASEBALL WITH PAUL & LINDA

The next day, I showed up ready to play ball. It was a lazy, fun game under the warm California sun. Bands and their crews were on each team. and it felt like family, everyone cheering each other on.

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BIGGIN' UP THE BLACK JAYS

Perry King talks to WEP photo director Jalani Morgan about a series that’s close to his heart: celebrating “Black folks participating in a sport that I love”.

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IT'S OKAY TO TAKE UP SPACE AT THE SKATE PARK

Once a stronghold for straight dudes, the skateboarding scene is finally opening up to queer riders. Four skaters talk about how they made inroads and found a loving community along the way.

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RUBBLE WITH A CAUSE

Tommy Thompson Park, also known as the Leslie Spit, is a boon for birders and naturalists built on a heap of construction waste. Here in the West End, a group is mobilizing to ask, Why can’t we have one of our own?

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BALLADS OF A YOUNG TROUBADOUR: JUSTICE LEAGUE, VOL. 5

Growing up we didn’t have a lot of superheroes that looked like we did. All the mainstream ones on TV and in comic books were white and most of them were men. So my cousins and I turned to sports for inspiration and to find people like us to look up to.

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BALLADS OF A YOUNG TROUBADOUR: MUSIC UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN, VOL. 4

One of my most memorable trips was playing indigenous day live in Whitehorse. I’d never been to Whitehorse before. I left a few days before the band to do a solo performance at the opening ceremonies.

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BALLADS OF A YOUNG TROUBADOUR: STEPPING STONES, VOL. 3

I loved collecting stones as a child. I was mesmerized by the smooth light-green ones. I didn’t know they were just shards of glass that had been eroded. Back then, when I was just a boy, it was like finding pirate treasure.

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BALLADS OF A YOUNG TROUBADOUR: KINDRED SPIRIT, VOL. 2

It was the summer I turned 15, and music already had its grip on me. I was visiting my grandfather on the West Coast and listening to a lot of his old blues records and 8-tracks.

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BALLADS OF A YOUNG TROUBADOUR: MISSION APOLLO, VOL. 1

Vortex Records was a little shop near the high school I went to, on Yonge Street above the Second Cup. It was the mid-'90s. Jerry Garcia had just died. I was going into grade 9 at North Toronto Collegiate and having a tough time trying to find my way.

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