Microsoft outage disrupts Outlook, hospitals, and Via Rail across Canada and U.S

A major Microsoft outage disrupted services for tens of thousands of users across Canada and the U.S. on Thursday, with nearly 50,000 reports still logged by 6 p.m. ET, according to Downdetector. The issues primarily affected Outlook, with nearly 140,000 problem reports at 1:30 p.m. ET, alongside Copilot and Microsoft 365. Microsoft said elevated load on infrastructure across multiple regions was likely causing connectivity errors, and it was investigating. The outage impacted hospitals, including Unity Health Toronto, which declared a "Code Grey" but said patient care was unaffected, and Via Rail, which advised passengers to use alternate tracking methods. Several Toronto-area universities also reported email issues, though classes were not affected.