They once made a movie about the SARS outbreak in Toronto called Plague City Stay in the loop Sign up for our free email newsletter. Unsubscribe anytime or contact us for details. In 2005, CTV produced a made-for-TV movie dramatizing Toronto’s 2003 scrape with a new kind of virus – Plague City: SARS in Toronto. Long forgotten, watching it in 2021 is both infuriating and depressing. For those who don't remember that far back, SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) was first identified in early 2003 during an outbreak that began in China and spread to 4 other countries, including Canada, where it really took hold in Toronto with 438 cases and 44 deaths. Outside of Asia, Toronto was the place hardest hit by the virus.