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 Maplehurst inmate abuse scandal led to the collapse of a murder case. Now, other serious criminal charges will likely be tossed. Meanwhile, Solicitor General Michael Kerzner has remained conspicuously silent. On the fallout from Justice Conlan's decision: www.thestar.com/news/investi...

I would read Anna write about watching grass grow, so I highly recommend her fascinating - and funny! - piece on her latest attempt to overcome treatment-resistant depression: deep brain stimulation. Great presentation, too.

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...

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...

Most of my reporting on jail conditions this year has focused on Maplehurst in Milton. But the dysfunction in Ontario's jails is system-wide. Today's story shows how the inhumane conditions across the province impact staff, inmates & the judicial system as a whole. www.thestar.com/news/investi...

This morning at 8 am, my child's teacher told me it was already 33 C inside the classroom. Members of the Ontario government have air conditioning in their offices, yet they're not doing basic repairs in Toronto schools, let alone protecting our kids from extreme heat. thelocal.to/ontario-educ...

"Since January alone, the organization said it has relocated to Canada 70 queer refugees who were originally bound for the United States." @thestar.com's Nathan Bawaan on Toronto-based Rainbow Railroad: www.thestar.com/news/gta/how...

Gabor Mate for the Star: www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Carney government clarifies Canadian border bill’s asylum changes as critics call for complete withdrawal

NEW: Ontario's government is facing a slew of lawsuits, including a proposed class-action, from former Maplehurst inmates subject to a brutal collective punishment in December 2023. www.thestar.com/news/investi...

Ontario's Ombudsman is launching a new investigation into the Ministry of the Solicitor General's response to the December 2023 collective punishment incident at Maplehurst "due to significant public concerns about transparency, accountability and inmates’ rights." www.thestar.com/news/canada/...

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If you have some time today to spend on in-depth reporting, great writing & fantastic presentation, spend it with this Kate Allen & Nathan Pilla story about how more workers are critically injured as the temperature rises. www.thestar.com/interactives...

NEW: Hours of audio and video evidence is missing from Maplehurst's crackdown on inmates in December 2023. The missing footage, which some jail staff allege was purposely destroyed, has fueled calls for a public inquiry into the violent incident. www.thestar.com/news/investi...

Our latest on the Maplehurst scandal focuses on the number of criminal prosecutions that have been compromised by the mass strip search and collective punishment of inmates, who are receiving reduced sentences or other judicial remedies because the jail violated their Charter rights.

NEW: We obtained the province's internal investigations into the Dec 2023 crackdown on inmates at Maplehurst jail. The reports show widespread institutional failure, from the supt to rank-and-file guards. Solicitor General Michael Kerzner didn't respond to questions. www.thestar.com/news/investi...

"Trump is welcoming white South Africans after suspending the program for everyone else, including other Africans who have waited in refugee camps for years and were vetted and cleared, and Afghans who supported the U.S. war in their country." www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/u...

I'm grateful to @spaikin.bsky.social & the folks at @tvotoday.bsky.social for having me on yesterday to talk about Maplehurst & provincial jail conditions broadly. The segment is streaming at TVO's website and on YouTube.

What's going on in Ontario's jails? @spaikin.bsky.social asks @bkstar.bsky.social (@thestar.com), Demar Kemar Hewitt (Black Legal Action Centre), Lee Chapelle (Canadian Prison Consulting), and Andrea Monteiro (Ethical Correctional Consulting) tonight at 8/11pm #onpoli

Spoke to music fans for their thoughts on Arcade Fire's attempted comeback, less than three years after Win Butler was accused by multiple people of sexual misconduct. Announcing a tour without addressing the allegations is "deeply cynical," one fan told me. www.thestar.com/entertainmen...

The Trillium reports that in response to appeal by the NDP, the Information & Privacy Commissioner has ordered the Ford govt to ask former premier's office staff to search personal accounts for Greenbelt records. Story references the Star's efforts to do same. www.thetrillium.ca/news/politic...

Ontario Greenbelt’s controversial ‘Mr. X’ is banned from lobbying for two years. Story from The Star's @robertbenzie.bsky.social and @krushowy.bsky.social with a small assist from me: www.thestar.com/politics/pro...

NEW: The Information & Privacy Commissioner has ruled in our favour regarding our attempts to access a former Ford govt staffer's Greenbelt-related emails in his personal email account. The AG report noted he & others had conducted govt business on personal email. www.thestar.com/news/investi...

NEW: "Welcome to Wong-tanamo Bay" Maplehurst jail officials conspired to "cover up" the mass strip-search of inmates, according to allegations in court document www.thestar.com/news/investi...

“Political cowardice is spreading faster than COVID,” Green co-leader Elizabeth May tells @aballinga.bsky.social, adding her party supports carbon pricing as a “necessary but insufficient” part of serious climate action. www.thestar.com/politics/fed...

#Breaking: Ontario supervised consumption sites can remain open as judge grants reprieve, citing ‘significant harm’ of closures

Fidani-Diker worked alongside John Mutton, a.k.a. "Mr. X", for developer Peter Tanenbaum in an effort to get Tanenbaum's land removed from the Greenbelt. (Integrity Commish's findings today do not say for whom F-D was working when he broke lobbying rules in 2022.) www.thestar.com/news/investi...

BREAKING: A former aide to Premier Doug Ford "failed to comply" with lobbying rules when trying to get a client's land removed from the Greenbelt, says Ontario's ethics watchdog. #onpoli www.thestar.com/politics/pro...

Watch: Disturbing video shows jail guards carrying out violent, hours-long retribution at Maplehurst provincial jail in Milton. www.thestar.com/news/investi...