I was hoping for a bit more useful detail to appear in the news before commenting.
It does not seem to be coming.

It is a sad story and I hate to criticize dead people but from what I read he was not equipped to deal with this at all.

The winter has been very warm in Toronto and he might have been fooled into expecting it to be the same where he decided to do his camping trip.
Unfortunately it turned colder with blowing snow over the few days he was out. Friday was cold, wet and windy, with mixed rain and snow. It was light snow/rain and winds most of the week.
On Thursday there was a snow storm which went through here too.

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/CYQA/2010/2/26/DailyHistory.html

As Iron Raven, Dougwalkabout and Mostly Harmless say, not nice weather to be out in.
I didn't like it a bit myself.

When it is near melting you face wet clothing, and hypothermia is a sneaky killer.

If he was slogging around in the snow he was likely tired, cold and wet.
The snow came as a big early dump this year and only moderate storms after, but there still would have been about 3 feet of it in the bush, maybe more.
The top layers have been crusty with the lower layers quite soft crystal almost like fine sugar. You go through the crust and then founder in the loose stuff every step.
Travel on this snow really does require snow shoes or skis.
(Or a skidoo) because you are not going to get far walking in it with just your hiking boots
It also tends to soak your boots and pants if it is warm enough to be near freezing.

Winter camp to me means a lot of gear. Most of it is bulk insulation and tarp/tent. If you are going on foot those little toboggans are nice.

I will repeat something I say often.
The biggest part of survival is to not place yourself in survival situations.
Going camping to test out survival techniques is fine but do it in a safe way. Make sure you have a Plan B available if your experiment goes wrong.

Now I can say something positive about this too.
At least he had the good sense to let somebody know where he was headed and when to expect him back.