Canada has fallen in the ranks of happy nations. Young people seek to fix the problem by redefining it

UNDER THE GAZE of a security camera in the northeastern corner of Yorkdale Shopping Centre, a woman and a teenage girl are caught in a confrontation. It is the evening of December 17, 2022, just a week before Christmas—the first holiday season in two years with no pandemic lockdown restrictions—and in the soundless CCTV footage, shoppers at the sprawling mall in a northern Toronto neighbourhood are in constant motion. For a moment, the girl and the woman break the current. They gesticulate, each throwing her hands up at the other, before parting ways. On its own, the brief flash of anger...