World Headlines: The many benefits of attending a Ford family wedding

First Up

By Manuela Vega

Good morning. With a winter storm rolling into Toronto, find live updates on weather, traffic, school closures and more here. Plus, due to printing issues and the storm, Toronto Star home delivery is expected to be considerably delayed today.

Here’s the latest.

DON’T MISS

Steve Russell/The Star

star investigation

Insiders and government appointees also attended Doug Ford’s daughter’s wedding

It wasn’t just developers who are now benefiting from recent government decisions that attended Ford’s daughter’s wedding — other insiders and political appointees were also on the guest list. One guest who shared a table with Ford was appointed to the premier’s cabinet two months later. Another was a lobbyist who is now working for a developer to push the province to re-designate the Greenbelt to build homes, a seating chart of the celebration reveals. Noor Javed, Rachel Mendleson and Charlie Pinkerton report on the guests — and the crossover between the personal and political in Ford’s Ontario.

Context: Under fire after the Star revealed developers attended his daughter’s wedding, Ford has said he has been cleared by Ontario’s integrity commissioner, based on information his office provided in January. But some guests’ names were not shared with the commissioner.
Watch for: An MPP asking the integrity commissioner for an opinion is different from an official investigation, which can only be started by a complaint by another MPP. NDP Leader Marit Stiles said her party will file a complaint asking the integrity commissioner to launch a formal investigation, based on “mounting evidence.”

Steve Russell/The Star

health

How kids’ mental health suffered as we managed COVID

In the second year of the pandemic, hospitalizations spiked among infants and young children who were hit hard by COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses. Meanwhile, mental health conditions were sending older kids and teens to hospital, new Canada-wide hospital data shows — a trend some experts say could be the unintended consequence of necessary public health measures and an overall lack of access to supports. Megan Ogilvie and Kenyon Wallace break down the biggest challenges facing children’s health in the middle of the pandemic.

By the numbers: In all age groups, COVID accounted for the second-most hospital admissions nationwide behind only childbirth.
More: The data reflects a time period that included Delta, a variant that caused more severe disease, and Omicron, a variant that led to more overall infections, plus the easing of public health measures. It’s not surprising we saw an increase in hospitalizations across age groups during that period, one expert noted.

Canadian Press File Photo

transit

Violent incidents against TTC passengers are on the rise, a report finds

Even as ridership struggled to recover to pre-pandemic levels, violent incidents against passengers on the TTC increased by 46 per cent in 2022, a monthly report released Wednesday reveals. December alone saw 145 such incidents, for a total of 1,068 offences over 318.8 million rides. Aisling Murphy and Alyshah Hasham report on the high-profile incidents of violence that have led many TTC users to feel unsafe on public transit.

Context: The incidents are defined as the most serious offences reported to police (assault, sexual assault, robbery, theft, threatening, harassment and indecent exposure).
Go deeper: In interviews with the Star, front-line transit workers described a crisis of morale at the TTC, saying they are fearful and anxious to go to work and avoid public interaction as much as possible. They’ve long been spat on, sworn at, threatened and assaulted, and the abuse is escalating. Lex Harvey reports on the tales from the front lines of a troubled transit system.

WHAT ELSE

Facing four legal challenges, this top court could find Justin Trudeau broke the law when he used the Emergencies Act.

Google is blocking news content for some Canadians in response to the bill that would compel it to share revenue.

Justin Trudeau is changing his tune on a politically fraught border crossing.

Doug Ford failed the accountability test — and he’s now paying the price.

A Sick Kids nurse was killed in a sex assault by her husband, a judge has ruled, dismissing the defence’s “fantastic claims.”

Is Doug Ford’s private health-care plan the beginning of the end of medicare? Opposition parties make the case.

After squandering on private-sector COVID vaccine, is Ottawa ready for public ownership?

The CRTC has announced new rules for telecom outage reports after Rogers’ massive service disruption.

Yonge-Dundas Square is a disaster — Torontonians deserve better.

Toronto Public Library is exclusively featuring banned books in new collection.

AI-generated audio in a viral video of Joe Rogan interviewing Justin Trudeau highlights the dangers of deepfakes.

New construction home sales in the GTA hit a 23-year low. Here’s how prices fluctuated.

POV

Canadian Press/Ryan Remiorz

Justin Trudeau is losing ground to Pierre Poilievre — so he’s using Donald Trump to fight back.

CLOSE-UP

Courtesy of Pavel Otdelnov

LONDON: Russian artist Pavel Otdelnov’s “The Monument” depicts the unveiling of a patriotic Russian statue amidst the ruins of Mariupol, Ukraine. “I was struck by this terrible image,” he said. Here’s how he and other artists who have fled the country are denouncing Vladimir Putin.

Thank you for reading. You can reach me and the First Up team at firstup@thestar.ca. I’ll see you back here tomorrow.

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