Brendan Kennedy

Forgive the repost, but I wanted to share once more our story on the systemic, inhumane jail conditions occurring across Ontario, and the consequences of those conditions for inmates, staff and the entire judicial system. www.thestar.com/news/investi...

If you feel like you're scrambling to figure out how to cast your ballot on Monday try Vote Compass, the @thestar.com & @voxpoplabs.bsky.social's tool to show you which candidates align most with your values. It doesn't take very long and is genuinely very cool. votecompass.thestar.com

Watch this interview with Toronto Star investigative reporter Brendan Kennedy @bkstar.bsky.social about his article on the change in the Ontario Building Code on the minimum space in jail cells youtube.com/watch?v=v1cG...

Star Investigation: The government agency responsible for online gambling in Ontario secretly shelved a research study intended to track rates of problem gambling. New from @bkstar.bsky.social:

Two weeks out from voting day -- If you live in one of the 50 largest municipalities, the Star has this tool to help you understand where your local candidates stand (and, more importantly, how those stands mesh with your own opinions). Check it out! votecompass.thestar.com

I really liked this piece by Raju Mudhar on the gap between perception and reality when it comes to crime in the city. www.thestar.com/news/gta/tor...

“I had to get Drug Squad on board, Major Crime on board, f — ing DS’s [detective sergeants] on board … pay everybody.” Newly released court documents include more shocking allegations of Toronto cops' protection racket scheme: www.thestar.com/news/gta/tor...

One cop allegedly asking another if he "looked f---ed" because he was about to go to daycare. “Just put your sunglasses on that’s all. You got…what do they call them…cocaine eyes.” On the alleged "multi-level drug-trafficking operation" involving Toronto cops: www.thestar.com/news/gta/tor...

NEW: Project South court documents include explosive new details of alleged corruption within the Toronto Police Service, including casual bribe-taking, ties to organized crime, drug dealing b/w officers, a protection racket & more. Latest w/ @aobrien.bsky.social: www.thestar.com/news/gta/stu...

I joined @thestar.com’s Ottawa bureau today. I’m still an investigative reporter, now focusing on the federal government. My DMs are open and you can also reach out to me on Signal fx_plante.01 or by email fplante@thestar.ca

Quitting Twitter and Facebook has to become an imparative for Canada. (and, obviously, everyone else.) www.thestar.com/opinion/star... Gift link: www.thestar.com/opinion/star...

#Breaking Carney government restores health coverage it had cut for refugees trib.al/pqrqwLp

"If the car there need the hit squad.” Latest Project South story w/ @aobrien.bsky.social offers new details on the suspected gun-for-hire network connected to the alleged attempted assassination of a Toronto jail official. www.thestar.com/news/chillin...

Thanks to Maria Kestane and @thebigstory.bsky.social for having me on earlier this week to talk about my reporting on the Maplehurst inmate abuse scandal, which continues to have ramifications in the courts. lnk.to/bigstory

Star #exclusive: Prosecutors appear to have dropped several charges against the main targets of the Project South police corruption probe as the Crown moves to take the most serious allegations to trial. @bkstar.bsky.social, @j-pags.bsky.social, and @aobrien.bsky.social have the latest:

The Toronto jail official who police say was targeted in a murder plot potentially over his drug enforcement testified Wednesday in an unrelated court case that he was always vigilant in trying to prevent contraband from entering the facility — but never abusive. www.thestar.com/news/crime/t...

The Toronto jail official targeted in the botched assassination that sparked the Project South investigation into police corruption is being accused of overseeing abusive practices against inmates, including forcing inmates to have bowel movements in front of guards. www.thestar.com/news/investi...

Doug Ford's government has rewritten so many of Ontario's environmental laws since winning the 2025 election that it can be hard to keep track of all the changes. Here's our comprehensive guide to Ontario's environment under Ford's third majority: thenarwhal.ca/ontario-elec...

My latest. This story is based on FOI documents released before the Ford government changed the law. Under the new rules, the province will now be able to keep records like this secret.

🚨Journalist request 🚨: is anyone on here an Ontarian who has moved to Alberta relatively recently who wants to talk about how the separatism chatter is landing as a newcomer? Would love to chat if so! Send me an email! aboyd@thestar.ca

Describing what Harris Mohamed and other inmates suffered at Maplehurst in Dec 2023 as "horrific torture," another Ontario judge has tossed criminal charges due to the "vengeful" attack by guards. Here's a un-paywalled gift link to read the full story: www.thestar.com/gift-redeem?...

EXCLUSIVE: In the wake of the pandemic, the Ford government set the target of one proactive inspection a year at every long-term care home. But our analysis of thousands of inspection reports reveals less than 40% of LTC homes received a proactive inspection in 2025. thelocal.to/ontario-long...

The children of a couple killed in a botched hit allegedly ordered by Ryan Wedding have filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Peel police. They allege officers knew their family was in danger but failed to warn them during a visit just four days earlier. Full story here: shorturl.at/Wc7KH

Details of how Ontario police are using ODITs are so secret that the office behind the deal "is making the Crown and local police sign an agreement to potentially drop major prosecutions rather than reveal the name of the company that made the tool."

One lawyer called the extent of the discipline for the Maplehurst prisoner abuse scandal "grossly inadequate" given what transpired at the jail. “I think it’s a total farce, to be honest." The province refused to tell us whether any staff were disciplined, but we obtained docs they filed in court.

How much is Canada spending to fight First Nations in court, you ask? We ATIPd the legal costs for four drinking water cases - and were told this information was secret.

More than a decade after pledging to end long-term drinking water advisories, the feds are presiding over a ramping-up of legal acrimony in First Nations' fight for water. And First Nations are fighting back. "It's litigate or go home," one lawyer told me. ijb.utoronto.ca/news/liberal...

Liberals are playing legal hardball with First Nations over drinking water. They're pulling the plug on settlement talks, seeking to overturn First Nations' victories and using tactics their own guideline advises lawyers against. ijb.utoronto.ca/news/liberal...

NEW: Official government documents written and saved in Google Docs are no longer covered by Ontario’s freedom of information laws, the province has decreed, as its transparency clampdown continues to roll out. #Onpoli globalnews.ca/news/1184611...

"unlike the Americans, who have gone decades without tracking their gold supplies, the Canadians have known that they were getting it from a country where cocaine trafficking, paramilitary violence and the gold trade are intertwined." www.nytimes.com/2026/04/27/w...

We don't talk enough about incarcerated people - about their rights, about how they live, about how to rehabilitate them. And we certainly don't talk enough about the ways Canada renders Indigenous people unfree. bsky.app/profile/mehl...

🧵Ontario's jails are operating way over capacity, new data shows, with the province-wide average at 130 per cent. Some are as high as 160-plus per cent. Here's what the data we obtained via freedom of information shows, and how the government is defending it. #OnPoli

A veteran Toronto police detective pleaded guilty yesterday to assault causing bodily harm for surprise-tackling a man in a homeless shelter, breaking his ribs & rupturing his spleen. The cop thought the man had committed a sexual assault, but it was the wrong guy. www.thestar.com/news/crime/a...

The torturous abuse of inmates was only part of why an Ontario judge threw out 1st-degree murder charges last week. His ruling makes clear the decision was as much about the attempted coverup & how jail staff further lied in court. I took a deeper look at those lies: www.thestar.com/news/investi...

I got experimental brain surgery. www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Joey Votto, writing in the @thestar.com, about the last time the Jays were here. "My memory is of a dark living room, a wood-grained box TV & the bang of a screen door. My parents, my younger brother & I were sitting around the television with the rest of the city." www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Ontario judge throws out first-degree murder charges against three former Maplehurst inmates, saying the collective punishment they suffered in jail was akin to torture, and the jail's attempts to cover up what happened amounted to egregious state misconduct. www.thestar.com/news/investi...

A thread of recent @thetrillium.bsky.social reporting on the Skills Development Fund. #onpoli

Canada's government presented no evidence justifying making bail harder to get in its briefing today. @cancivlib.bsky.social's Shakir Rahim says the data isn't there.

NEW: ‘Mr. X’ claims Minister David Piccini tipped him off about Greenbelt removals John Mutton made the claim in an interview with the integrity commissioner and then on a podcast. The minister denied it through a spokesperson. www.thetrillium.ca/news/politic...

Statement from the president of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s trip to Egypt: “It is unprecedented that Canadian media be entirely excluded from a Canadian prime minister’s foreign trip.”

ICYMI: Months before he was labour minister, David Piccini was in Leafs glass seats with a director of a company he later granted $7.5M to. Piccini attended the Parisian wedding of the company’s lobbyist. From me and @charliepinkerton.bsky.social. #onpoli www.thetrillium.ca/news/politic...