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CTV News
a day ago
- CTV News
Missing international student Sahil Kumar found dead in Toronto as family abroad searches for answers
Sahil Kumar, a 22-year-old international student from India, went missing in May and was found deceased 10 days later at the Toronto waterfront. His family is searching for answers about what happened. (Supplied) The family of an international student from Hamilton, Ont. who went missing last month and was found deceased 10 days later in Toronto is heartbroken by the loss of their loved one and desperately searching for answers. Sahil Kumar, who was 22-year-old, came to Canada from northern India's Biwani district in April. He was living with roommates in Hamilton, Ont. and was enrolled in a one-year web design program at Humber College's downtown Toronto campus, his cousin Amit Singh told earlier this week. On Friday, May 16, Kumar took the GO train to Toronto for reasons that remain unclear. He exited Union Station, walked towards York Street, and was last seen near Yonge and Dundas streets at around 1 p.m., police said. He was reported missing the following day by friends who were 'concerned for his well-being,' Hamilton Police Service said in a news release. Hamilton police were initially handling the case and said at the time that there was 'nothing to suggest that Sahil was in any physical or mental distress prior to his disappearance' and that his online activity suggested 'he may have been interested in visiting the Toronto waterfront.' They added that he did not bring his passport or laptop with him and that his cell phone was shut off at around 1:30 p.m. that day. Kumar's body was ultimately found in the water on May 26. The man's cousin told CP24 that it was located in an industrial area along the Toronto waterfront. The investigation is now in the hands of Toronto police. In a statement provided to CP24. police noted that the investigation is ongoing but said that Kumar's death 'does not appear to be a criminal matter.' Sahil Kumar Sahil Kumar, a 22-year-old international student from India, went missing in May and was found deceased 10 days later at the Toronto waterfront. His family is searching for answers about what happened. (Supplied) 'We just don't know what happened,' says cousin Singh said his cousin's many relatives and friends in India are devastated by his unexpected death and are eager to better understand what happened to him. 'Even the day, he disappeared he was very, very happy,' said Singh, who had spoken to Kumar the evening before he went missing. Singh said his cousin told him that he liked Canada and that everything was going well. Kumar's only lament, he shared, was the cold weather. 'We're thinking everything on the planet, what could have gone wrong. … We have a lot of assumptions. We just don't know what happened,' Singh said, adding they fear their loved one could have been targeted in some way and are growing concerned that video footage from the area where he is believed to have gone will be deleted as days and weeks go by. 'Something must have happened because people don't just disappear from that area. … It just doesn't make sense.' The cousin said he was told by Toronto police that Kumar may have been met with some kind of misadventure as his cause of death was determined to be drowning. It's possible that Kumar might have slipped into the frigid water and suffered the deadly effects of hypothermia, Singh said he was told by the authorities. He added that there was some confusion when they called St. Michael's Hospital to inquire if Kumar was there. He said initially they were told that he was, but then the hospital said he wasn't. Singh added that they also have some questions about a jacket that his cousin was seen wearing in video footage but was not recovered with the body. The biggest question they all have, he said, is why and how Kumar ended up near and in the water. 'It's just tragic that this happened,' said Singh, who hopes to one day have the means to come to Canada and try to get answers. He said they've also been in communication with a couple of other Indian families who also sent a loved one to Canada to study only for them to die tragically. Kumar's body, meanwhile, has now been repatriated to India. Police 'worked diligently' on Kumar's case Sgt. Kim Walker, the missing person coordinator for the Hamilton Police Service, said investigators in both jurisdictions have 'worked diligently and collaboratively, sharing information and piecing together every available detail in an effort to bring clarity to Sahil's family. She added that the evidence eventually led beyond their jurisdiction and that's when the case was handed over to Toronto police. 'We understand that the emotional toll of being so far away, especially across such significant time zones, has made this experience even more painful for Sahil's family in northern India. Both TPS and HPS maintained regular communication with the family throughout the investigation, even when updates were difficult to deliver,' she said. Walker said she sympathizes with what the family is going through as her daughter, who is around the same age as Kumar, attends school in the United States. 'I can only begin to imagine the helplessness his family was feeling from so far away, especially given today's political climate. The distance can feel overwhelming, especially if you're concerned for your child's safety,' she said. 'We just wanted his family to know that we cared and we were doing everything we could to help find answers based on the evidence before us. While we're often seen simply as police officers, we are also parents, siblings, and members of this community. That perspective brings with it a deep sense of care, empathy, and a relentless commitment to seeking the truth.' Walker said their thoughts remain with the man's family and his loved ones during this 'incredibly difficult time.' 'We extend our heartfelt wishes for peace, healing, and continued support from their community both near and far,' she said. CP24 has also reached out to the Consulate General of India, Toronto, but we have not heard back. Anyone with further information about this case is asked to contact Toronto police at 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers anonymously.
Globe and Mail
31-05-2025
- General
- Globe and Mail
Toronto's new island promises a greener, livelier city
Rasmus Astrup has a promise about Ookwemin Minising, the island that will be Toronto's next waterfront neighbourhood. It will be weird. 'This island is a place like nowhere else,' the Danish landscape architect said this week. 'The design has to be special; it has to be a little quirky.' Quirkiness isn't Toronto's default setting, but Mr. Astrup and his practice SLA will get to bring some. They've been hired on a team to rework Ookwemin (formerly Villiers Island), the 40-hectare new district on Toronto's port lands framed by the Don River. This year they'll deliver a design for the streets and parks; they will also review the plan to find room for more housing. This is more than a procedural next step. It suggests a potential pivot in how Toronto imagines itself. The design team includes Allies & Morrison, the London practice behind the transformation of King's Cross; Indigenous-led Trophic Design; global engineering firm GHD; the German climate engineers at Transsolar; and accessibility consultants Level Playing Field. In this group, SLA and Allies are the insurgents. Their projects are messy, green and intensely human – reflecting the beautiful chaos of a piecemeal city and the hidden order of an ecosystem. 'We wanted to signal that this is not a typical city project,' Toronto Chief Planner Jason Thorne said this week at a meeting on the island. 'That's why we brought in an international design team.' And, he added, this new effort 'is not just a planning exercise. We're all committed to seeing this realized.' Opinion: Toronto's public spaces need results – not more plans Already this part of the city has seen ambitious design. The Port Lands Flood Protection Project, nearly complete, rearranged the mouth of the Don River and created this new island; the river now frames the east and south side of Ookwemin Minising, while the old Keating Channel flows past the northern edge into Lake Ontario. The river scheme is an extraordinary project led by landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. What was a barren industrial zone is now the river's new mouth: a snaking channel surrounded by exciting parks and wetlands that look like they've been there forever. Next door, the Ookwemin plan didn't measure up. Of the island's 40 hectares, 22 per cent is devoted to streets and sidewalks. As I wrote last year, this reflected the dubious ideas of the city's Urban Design staff: Massively wide streets. Buildings with bulky 'podium' bases and skinny towers above. Parks that are large, surrounded by roads and relentlessly sunny. This dogma has never produced a nice place, but it persists. SLA, Allies & Morrison and colleagues will challenge it. Allies & Morrison's urban design team is best known for designing the King's Cross neighbourhood in London; there, and in two large new projects in Toronto, they like to weave together buildings and open space to create 'a push and pull,' as Alfredo Caraballo of Allies & Morrison says, 'a blurring between urban blocks and open spaces.' 'The public realm isn't just parks,' Mr. Caraballo adds. 'It's the spaces in between buildings, streets that feel welcoming, places for children to play. Density matters, but so does intimacy and scale. We're asking: What makes a good life in a city? How can we design for that?' The answer includes thinking deeply about water. GHD, the infrastructure firm working alongside SLA, will thread hydrology into every part of the design. Their task is to make rainwater visible, catching it with carefully designed landscapes full of Indigenous plants. As Mr. Astrup puts it, 'We want the landscape to work like a sponge.' That means wetlands, permeable surfaces, and moments of encounter – an engineered ecology that supports both resilience and delight. Their work shows deep technical understanding as well as an intuitive sense of what makes a great urban space: lots of people, lots of variety of spaces, activities and atmospheres, and a strong dash of green. That ecological ambition pairs with a cultural one. Trophic Design, the Indigenous-led firm on the team, will bring a different way of seeing. Their presence affirms the need to honour the Don's history as a gathering place, a site of nourishment and meaning for millennia. 'They're not consultants,' Mr. Astrup says. 'They are co-designers.' How far will this rethink go? Usually, redesigning blocks and street layouts once they've been drafted would be heresy. But Toronto – for once – seems to be giving this team creative licence. Chris Glaisek, chief planning and design officer at Waterfront Toronto, is clear: 'We were looking for a team that would challenge the status quo.' They've found one. Now the test is whether the city will let them deliver a new kind of place.
