SEPTEMBER 28, 2024

Dear reader,

At times, Ontario can seem less like a province and more like a patchwork of crises—housing, health care, education. This week, amid all that competition, our child welfare system made its way into the headlines. New reports show that between April 2023 and March 2024, 339 kids and teens in the care of the province’s welfare agencies were housed in unlicensed settings like hotels, Airbnbs and makeshift bedrooms in office buildings. As a result of chronic underfunding, the number of these “last resort” placements has almost tripled since 2021.

The province has a duty to protect these kids, many of whom have complex mental and physical health needs. It’s failing to fulfill that obligation in hundreds of cases. Instead, it falls to generous individuals to fill the gaps—a terrible system, but one that’s been in place for decades. In 2019, writer Luc Rinaldi profiled Cindy Stirling, a Toronto woman who had fostered 200 kids, including runaways, abuse victims and cancer patients. Her relentless drive and bottomless patience gave countless young people something the provincial government couldn’t: a home.

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—Maddy Mahoney, assistant editor

Over the past 30 years, Cindy Stirling has fostered runaways, orphans, teen sex workers, abuse victims and cancer patients. Portrait of a supermom

BY LUC RINALDI | AUGUST 22, 2019

Cindy Stirling has fostered more than 200 kids. Whether they call her Cindy, Mom or Mama Bear, she is often the closest thing they have to a mother. Every time one child leaves her home, Stirling notifies children’s aid that she has an open bed, and another tot or teen arrives at her door. She’s thought about leaving the beds unfilled, but Stirling retiring would be like Atlas shrugging the world off his shoulders. More than anything, taking care of kids makes her happy. They say it takes a village to raise a child. Stirling is the mayor.

In the latest issue: dispatches from the front lines of Ontario’s broken health care system. Plus, a sneak preview of Poilievre’s Toronto, a bold next step for Chinese-food king David Schwartz, converted schoolhouses that blend history and style, and more. Still not receiving Toronto Life at home? Subscribe today.

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