Raptors select Alijah Martin 39th overall
It’s clear that defence has become a priority for the Toronto Raptors.
Alijah Martin was taken 39th overall by Toronto on Thursday in the second round of the NBA Draft, a day after the Raptors picked Collin Murray-Boyles at No. 9.
Both players made their names in the collegiate ranks for their defensive prowess and they will have the opportunity to join Toronto’s bench led by dogged guard Jamal Shead.
“Those two guys are two-way guys, just like me. They hang their hat on the defensive end,” Martin said in a video conference with reporters. “I played Collin Murray-Boyles this year. He really impressed me. It was just hard to deal with.
“We end up slipping away at the end and getting the win, but he made it very hard for us, and I’m just excited to be his teammate.”
Martin is a six-foot-one guard who finished his five-year U.S. collegiate career at the University of Florida, helping the Gators win an NCAA championship. He averaged 14.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists over 38 games last season, 36 of them starts.
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The first four seasons of Martin’s collegiate eligibility were spent at Florida Atlantic University. He had career averages between the two schools of 12.5 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.
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Harassing other team’s ballhandlers is where Murray-Boyles and Martin excelled.
Murray-Boyles averaged a steal and a block per game in his first year at South Carolina, then 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks per game this past season. Martin averaged 1.3 steals over his five NCAA seasons and 0.3 blocks.
“My best attribute defensively is my ability to match your body up, being able to stay mentally poised,” said Murray-Boyles. “You’re not going for every fake, and just laying it all on the line.
“As a defender, you’ve got to take that step mentally.”
After the draft was completed, Raptors assistant general manager Dan Tolzman told media that what the team liked about Martin was that he could be the ultimate role player.
“I think he’s one of these guys that he’s got some positional versatility that maybe is a little bit untapped at the next level, like he can probably guard one through three,” said Tolzman. “But then offensively, (he can) work on ball skills and see how much on the ball stuff he can do.
“I think as a shooter, pretty much everybody can improve when guys are focusing on basketball all the time, instead of in college, when you’re kind of focusing on other stuff too, you just get way more shooting reps in.”
The Raptors finished last season with a 30-52 record, seventh worst in the league. However, Toronto dropped down to the ninth overall pick in the draft lottery.
The second-round pick originally belonged to the Portland Trail Blazers and was acquired by the Raptors at last year’s draft in a deal with the Sacramento Kings.
Free agency opens on Monday and Tolzman said there’s a possibility Toronto could be active, even though the Raptors are almost out of salary cap space.
“I would say there’s always probably a little bit more work to be done,” he said. “I think that’s what we’ll do the next few days, is really look at it a little bit harder and see what (we can do) from a free agency standpoint.
“We don’t have a ton of room to work with, but there’s always a little bit of tweaking that can happen.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 26, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
A new poll by Leger has found that Quebec residents are the happiest in Canada.
The web survey of nearly 40,000 Canadians found that Quebecers rated their happiness at an average of 72.4 out of 100, which is well above the national average.
New Brunswick followed Quebec with an average of 70.2, while Manitoba and Prince Edward Island finished at the bottom of the list.
Mississauga, Ont. had the highest happiness rating of the 10 largest cities, while Toronto was lowest.
Montreal finished second in the category.
The survey found that 49 per cent of respondents said their happiness level was unchanged over the past year, while 23 per said they were happier and 28 per cent said they were less happy.
“These results reveal a population that is both resilient and tested, affected by everyday uncertainty and challenges,” Leger’s executive summary read. “Happiness, while holding its ground overall, shows signs of fragility.”
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The survey found that people in the 18-to-24 and 24-to-34-year-old categories were more likely to report improved feelings of well-being, even if their overall happiness score remained below the national average.
In contrast, people in the 35-to-44 and 45-to-54 age brackets were more likely to report their happiness had deteriorated.
“There is a sense of well-being emerging among younger age groups,” the summary read. “However, this also highlights the importance of supporting adults in mid-life, who are more vulnerable to the pressures of working life.”
Quebec, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador were the three provinces with happiness levels above the national average of 68.7. They were followed, in descending order, by Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Manitoba and P.E.I. The territories were not included in the survey.
In the survey of the 10 largest cities, Mississauga and Montreal finished ahead of Hamilton, Calgary, Brampton, Ottawa, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Toronto, in that order.
Women reported slightly higher happiness levels than men, at 69.4 versus 68.0.
Leger says the overall results confirm “a level of happiness that is relatively high but stagnant or even slightly down compared to the pre-pandemic period.”
To get the results, Leger surveyed 39,841 Canadians aged 18 and up between March 31 and April 13.
Online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
Ontario Provincial Police are set to host a town hall in Quadeville, Ont., this evening to answer questions from residents about an attack on an eight-year-old child that was initially linked to an animal.
Police have arrested a 17-year-old boy in the case and he faces charges of attempted murder and sexual assault with a weapon.
Members of the small community 170 kilometres west of Ottawa say they were in shock after hearing about the arrest and hope to get clarity at today’s event in the town’s community centre.
Local resident Christine Hudder says she wants to know how police came up with the animal attack theory and why families were told for days to keep their children indoors.
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The victim was found with life-threatening injuries on June 24 after she was reported missing, and remains in hospital.
Police say they are planning to give as much information as possible to locals given that an investigation is still underway.
A Burlington, Ont., mother was unsettled to discover that an old photo of her children had been used in a fraudulent GoFundMe that attempted to elicit donations in connection the recent Texas floods.
Julie Cole told Global News that a friend had contacted her on social media to say that an old photo of her six children was being used in an attempt to collect ill-gotten gains.
“She reached out to me and she was like, ‘Hey, here’s a link to a GoFundMe. Sorry this has happened to you, but obviously a picture of your kids has been used without your consent and it’s being used for a GoFundMe to raise money, to help a family dealing with the Texas floods,’” she said.
Cole explained that the fake GoFundMe, which has since been removed by the company, was looking for donations to support a widowed mother of six kids in connection.
At least 120 people have died while more than 100 others remain unaccounted for as a result of the flooding, including 27 children and councilors from Camp Mystic.
“They were trying to raise $40,000 because of the three daughters had been victims of the Texas floods,” Cole said. “And the way it was presented felt very much like they were part of maybe that girl’s camp.”
Julie Cole told Global News that a friend had contacted her on social media to make that an old photo of her six children was being used in an attempt to collect ill-gotten gains.
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Cole said once the listing was sent to her, she immediately contacted GoFundMe to get the fundraiser taken down.
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By Wednesday morning, the company had done so and in a statement to Global News, GoFundMe said that the fundraiser did not receive any donations and the account has been banned from creating any further fundraisers on the platform.
“GoFundMe has the most robust donor protection processes of any platform of our kind. We have round the clock trust and safety support, humans and technology making sure funds will get to where they are intended,” the statement offered.
After contacting the company, Cole said she shared the incident on her social media pages to raise awareness.
“So I did put it on my Facebook and I put it in my LinkedIn as like a heads-up learning experience kind of thing and there was a lot of outrage,” she said.
Cole also noted that while she is disappointed by the incident, she is well aware that her troubles are miniscule in comparison to those affected by the flooding.
“I do feel a little bit in myself that what I’m feeling is in no way comparable to what the actual families are feeling who have gone through the tragedies of the flooding,” she said.
The photo came from an old blog post she had written 16 years ago. Cole can date the picture as the baby in the photo is now getting ready to go for his driver’s test.
“I’m one of those, like, OG mommy bloggers from 20 years ago. So my kids have been on the internet. They have been sort of in the public eye,” she explained.
“And I know the risk is out there. And I think parents need to remember that, that their kids’ photos can be just screenshotted and used without consent. So there’s one lesson.
“I felt a little, well, very unsettled about it, particularly because of what it was being used for.”
In addition to being a parenting blogger, she also helped found Mabel’s Labels, which offers washable labels for kids clothing and other school items, in an effort to keep them out of the lost and found.
Julie Cole and her six kids in 2025.
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Being a spokesperson for the company while raising six kids keeps her in the parenting sphere and she offered some other advice to parents about the images and social media.
“I think parents just have to be mindful and aware that once it’s out there, you know you’d like to think you’ll get consent or you’ll give consent if somebody asks or they want to use it, but people will just take it and they can just take,” she said.
“You have to be especially careful now with AI, because these photos can be altered.”
She also warned parents to check with their kids as they get older to see if they are OK with pics being posted and that people should be mindful of where they are sharing their donations.
“Another lesson out of this is people need to really be cautious and know where they’re putting their fundraising dollars,” Cole said.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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