Many decades ago, when I earned my night rating, nothing in that training left me prepared for the decision making for a long night cross country. It was only some good mentoring, and not so great experience which saw me through decision making for night cross country flights.
In this case, I would wonder if twenty something pilots could have accumulated that experience, unless they had large amounts of night cross country experience. Even so, night flying in the vicinity of Toronto is very different from sparsely settled night flying.
Letting alone the night flying aspects, I wonder if these pilots took along a survival kit appropriate for a force landing in this territory. Ottawa to Toronto is lots of remote flying, unless flown along the shore of the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario.