Brendan Kennedy | Authors

Brendan Kennedy

Investigative Reporter

Connect :

Brendan Kennedy is a Social Justice Reporter on the Star's investigations team. Brendan, who grew up in Toronto, joined the Star in 2009 as an intern. He has previously worked on the investigative team and for the sports department, covering the Blue Jays for five seasons from 2012 through 2016. Before coming to the Star he was a general assignment news reporter at the Ottawa Citizen and Kingston Whig-Standard. He has a bachelor’s degree from Queen’s University.

Location :

Toronto

Reporting Focus:

Social Justice, Poverty Reduction, Inequality, Immigration Detention, Corrections

Honours and Awards :

Nomination - Canadian Association of Journalists: Labour Reporting (2019)Nomination - Journalists for Human Rights Achievement in Human Rights Reporting (2018)Winner - Canadian Association of Journalists: Labour Reporting (2017)Nomination - Michener Award (2017)Nomination - National Newspaper Award: Investigations (2017)Nomination - Canadian Journalists Foundation (2017)

Articles by Brendan Kennedy

Immigration detainee Kashif Ali was jailed for seven years. A judge said the mental health problems Ali developed “will not be properly addressed” as long as he remains in jail.

Investigations

‘Alarming’ number of jailed immigration detainees have mental health problems, Star analysis finds

Biodun, a 42-year-old former immigration detainee from Nigeria, spent nearly a year in a maximum-security Ontario jail.

Investigations

Ontario continues to house immigration detainees in jails even as other provinces put an end to ‘truly shocking’ practice

Majok Thon Mawut’s case is believed to be the first time the Ontario government defied the Canada Border Services Agency by refusing to hold an immigration detainee in one of its jails.

Investigations

When Ontario said ‘no.’ Inside the only known case where the province defied Ottawa’s request to house an immigration detainee in a max-security jail

The TDSB has blamed an administrative error for the exclusion of some racialized, LGBTQ and disabled students from a lottery for spaces in sought-after alternative elementary schools.

GTA

‘I’m angry’: Parents in disbelief as TDSB error excludes racialized, disabled, LGBTQ students from alternative school lottery

Fourth-year film student Leah Mosier-Farquharson said exaggerating the number of security guards in Kerr Hall could put students “in more danger.”

Investigations

TMU said it increased security after a string of campus sex assaults. Now, some students and staff feel misled

Attendees at the U of T event honouring two of Canada’s pioneering Black physicians take photos of Dr. Nav Persaud, left, Alanna McKnight and prof. Heather Butts. The trio co-authored a paper last year that focused on the careers of Dr. Alexander Augusta and Dr. Anderson Abbott.

GTA

He never learned about Canada’s first Black doctors in medical school. He wants all students to know their names

The casket of South Simcoe police constable Morgan Russell is carried into the double funeral for Russell and colleague constable Devon Northrup who were killed in a shooting in Innisfil in October.

GTA

Articles by Brendan Kennedy

‘Alarming’ number of jailed immigration detainees have mental health problems, Star analysis finds

Ontario continues to house immigration detainees in jails even as other provinces put an end to ‘truly shocking’ practice

When Ontario said ‘no.’ Inside the only known case where the province defied Ottawa’s request to house an immigration detainee in a max-security jail

‘I’m angry’: Parents in disbelief as TDSB error excludes racialized, disabled, LGBTQ students from alternative school lottery

TMU said it increased security after a string of campus sex assaults. Now, some students and staff feel misled

He never learned about Canada’s first Black doctors in medical school. He wants all students to know their names

Innisfil police shooter ‘ambushed’ cops before killing himself: SIU