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Hidden Disabilities Sunflower program also includes Pearson Airport, Air Canada and Metrolinx

It's a simple concept: transit riders in Mississauga with a hidden disability wear a sunflower lanyard — but the hope is that it makes a big difference for people living with a disability.

"You wear something that doesn't point out that you are different or that you have special needs, it isn't obvious," explains Doris Cooper, a member of Mississauga's transit advisory committee and a participant in the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower program.

The City of Mississauga recently joined the program, making it Canada's first municipal transit provider to become a member.

The lanyard is meant to discreetly inform transit staff that the rider may need more help or time. It also aims to support and improve the travel experience of riders with hidden disabilities, making their trips smooth, seamless and respectful.

Artist Marie LeBlanc Flanagan has designed an arcade-style video game that invites players to try their luck at cycling Toronto’s city streets without bike lanes.

The simple game, dubbed “Loser Lane,” allows users to make just two key strokes — left and right — as they maneuver their cyclist avatar through Toronto’s city streets.

Dangers that can end the game include cars, car doors and streetcar tracks.

As a cyclist, the artist said she was infuriated by Premier Doug Ford’s announcement that he would be removing bike lanes from Toronto streets so she poured her energy into creating the video game.

RECLAIM is an adaptive platform randomized trial comparing the effectiveness of various interventions for lingering symptoms of COVID-19. Many doctors have seen an increase in patients with "long COVID" or Post-COVID Condition.

Canadian cities, towns forced to adapt, or abandon outdoor skating trails and rinks

In 2023, it wasn't cold enough in Ottawa to skate on the Rideau Canal. In 2024, it was only cold enough in Winnipeg to allow skating on its rivers for nine days.

What used to be taken for granted in Canada — winter weather cold enough to allow skating on rivers and ponds — has become a meteorological throw of the dice, thanks to the long-term effects of climate change coupled with the natural variability of weather from year to year.

David Phillips, a climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said winters have warmed in Canada by an average of 4 C over the past 77 years. Over the past decade alone, he said, Canada has lost an average of two to three weeks of sub-zero temperatures.

"The result of that is that you can't grow ice," Phillips said in an interview on Monday from his home in Barrie, Ont. "That's why people are seeing things they haven't seen when they were youths, when it would be automatic by a certain date that you'd go skating on the Rideau Canal or on the Red River."

The three-time Grand Slam doubles champion shared her story on social media, disclosing that she played through her diagnosis in a year she won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics.

"I know this will come as a shock to many, but I am OK and I will be OK," Dabrowski wrote in an Instagram post. "Early detection saves lives. I can wholeheartedly agree with this."

Food bank use across Ontario has reached record highs, with Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank reporting its largest increase in the 41 years since it opened.

According to the Who’s Hungry 2024 report, there were 3.49 million client visits to Toronto food banks like the Daily Bread and North York Harvest — a 32 per cent increase from the 2.6 million visits recorded the previous year.

According to the report, one in 10 Torontonians are using food banks to make ends meet and more than 120,000 people accessed food banks for the first time this year. Over half of these new clients come from households with at least one working member.

In Toronto, food bank visits have increased every year since 2019, with 935,000 visits recorded that year. Numbers have almost tripled since then, a trend the report describes as “a grim harsh reality.”

Theo Moudakis: Bring on 2025!

The latest public opinion data from independent research organization Angus Reid Institute yielded staggering results, demonstrating a major decrease in Liberal leaning voters. The online survey was conducted between Dec. 27 to 30, 2024 and sampled more than 2,200 Canadian adults who are members of the Angus Reid Forum.

If an election were held today, Angus Reid reports that 45 per cent of voters say they would support the Conservatives, 21 per cent the NDP and 16 per cent the Liberals.

Along with his own caucus, nearly half (46 per cent) of Canadians and three-in-five (59 per cent) current Liberal supporters say it’s time for him to step aside. Another two-in-five (38 per cent) Canadians believe Trudeau should call for a general election himself when he returns from his holiday break once Parliament resumes on Jan. 27, the polls read.

Trudeau’s popularity has also massively declined amongst those who voted for him in 2021, according to Angus Reid. Fifty-one per cent of Liberal voters in the last federal election say they disapprove of Trudeau’s performance as prime minister.

While impressions of Trudeau have grown negative over time, there has not been much increase in positivity towards rival Conservative (CPC) leader Pierre Poilievre. In assessments from Angus Reid Institute’s earlier polling data from this month, 37 per cent of Canadians said they had a favourable view of Poilievre. The number now stands at 38 per cent – or statistically unchanged.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s trajectory of public opinion has been on a steady decline since the 2021 election, the data says, and three-in-five (58%) Canadians say they have an unfavourable view of the NDP leader.