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Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #39, Kevin Donovan

Our annual ranking of the people whose smarts, connections and clout are changing the city as we know it

By Toronto Life
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Toronto's 50 Most Influential: #39, Kevin Donovan

Kevin Donovan

Toronto Star

39 Powerful people start quaking when Kevin Donovan’s name pops up on their call display. As the head of the Star’s full-time sleuthing squad, Donovan has made a career out of exposing the sordid secrets of the city’s media and political elite. In 2013, he and his colleagues broke the Rob Ford crack saga. A year later, he and media critic Jesse Brown took down Jian Ghomeshi. (The pair were jointly awarded the 2015 Canadian Hillman Prize in journalism for their coverage.) Over the past year, Donovan has ­toppled several more high-profile personalities. The hit list includes Global news anchor Leslie Roberts, who resigned after Donovan revealed that he was actively promoting his own PR clients; Senator Don Meredith, whose Conservative caucus membership was revoked when Donovan outed an alleged two-year affair with a teenage girl; and CBC Power and Politics host Evan Solomon, who got axed after Donovan exposed his side business as an art broker for wealthy guests on his shows.

Up Next:

Donovan’s tell-all, Jian Ghomeshi—Secret Life, promises new insights into the scandal through interviews with women and colleagues from Ghomeshi’s past.

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