Brendan Kennedy

3 weeks ago | thespec.com | Brendan Kennedy

Inmates in their underwear, their heads bowed and hands zip-tied, sit cross-legged facing the wall while jail guards in riot gear train laser-pointed pepper-ball guns at the backs of their heads. Surveying the scene as he walks through the hallway, the jail’s superintendent doles out congratulatory fist bumps and back pats.

4 weeks ago | miscellanynews.org | Brendan Kennedy

Coachella 2024, the widely popular music festival held in California each April, was an event filled with big names. Headliners included Lana Del Rey, Doja Cat, Tyler, the Creator and a No Doubt reunion performance, where Olivia Rodrigo did a guest duet with Gwen Stefani. It is no shock that last year’s festival was extremely popular online, mainly filled with videos of Lana Del Rey’s motorcycle entrance and Billie Eilish’s guest performance during Del Rey’s set.

1 month ago | thespec.com | Brendan Kennedy

When Denise Warriner decided to not bail her nephew out of jail, she thought she was helping him. Theo was addicted to crystal meth and had recently been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He had been in a “downward spiral” since his mother’s death a few years earlier, Warriner said. She had bailed Theo out before, but it didn’t seem to do him any good. It felt to her like he was stuck in an endless cycle of addiction-fueled crime.

1 month ago | thespec.com | Brendan Kennedy

The 50-year-old institution also carries another ignoble title. It is Ontario’s deadliest jail, at a time when more people are dying behind bars than ever before. Forty-six inmates died in provincial jails last year, according to government data obtained by the Star. It’s a stark rise compared to 10 years ago, when there were 14 inmate deaths across the province. The 46 deaths from last year matches the record number that occurred in 2021, capping a four-year period in which 162 inmates have died.

1 month ago | thespec.com | Brendan Kennedy

Marit Stiles and the Ontario New Democratic Party did not come close to loosening Doug Ford’s grip on a majority government Thursday night, but they did fend off a challenge from Bonnie Crombie’s Liberals to maintain their status as the official Opposition. “Now the results are not everything that we hoped,” Stiles said in her post-election speech to supporters at The Great Hall on Queen Street West. “But the people of Ontario made their choice.