On Monday, Ontario’s CMOH Dr. Kieran Moore “strongly recommended” Ontarians wear masks indoors.
Last night, 3 days later, he was partying maskless at Toronto Life’s celebration for its 50 most influential Torontonians of 2022, videos show.
This press conference by CPC Leader Erin O’Toole is troubling.
Using the limited questions they’re allowed, reporters have asked O’Toole repeatedly about his past praise of Jason Kenney’s handling of COVID-19.
He’s answering with dodge after dodge and reporters mics are cut.
Premier Doug Ford reads from a teleprompter during his press conferences, but I wasn't aware till today that he's also fed pre-written answers to journalists' questions via teleprompter, as my colleague
@empelletierLD
points out.
Le journaliste
@CharliePinkerto
demande au premier ministre Doug Ford d’expliquer son refus de témoigner devant la Commission sur l’état d’urgence. Sa réponse est écrite en bas de la photo, à droite.
#onpoli
NEW: Progressive Conservative MPPs used their majority at Queen's Park to vote down an NDP bill that would make it illegal for MPPs to accept gifts that would create the appearance of a conflict of interest. (🔒 — for
@thetrilliumca
insiders)
BREAKING: Premier Doug Ford tells Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner that developers who he counts as “personal friends” attended a fundraiser stag and doe party for his daughter and son-in-law in August.
#onpoli
Premier Doug Ford wouldn’t speak to me during my several stakeouts of his office last week.
Today I’ve got just the trick to get him to open his mouth.
NEW: A top aide to Premier Doug Ford and a PC MPP went on a Las Vegas trip in 2020 with developer Shakir Rehmatullah, whose companies have benefited from multiple Ford government decisions including the Greenbelt land swap, sources tell
@thetrilliumca
.
Here at Bingemans in Kitchener there’s about 50 or so protesters at the entrance to where PC Leader Doug Ford’s rally is taking place.
The demonstration was organized by the Ontario Nurses Association.
Ontario developers who benefitted from Ford government decisions on Greenbelt and MZOs dined with the premier at his daughter’s wedding
by moi &
@njaved
NEW: Dr. Kieran Moore says he hopes the Health Ministry ends all COVID-19 vaccination policies — including its requirement that hospitals have policies for their employees — by March 1, to align with the end of proof-of-vaccination requirements in places like bars and gyms.
It’s been a tense few days in
#OnPoli
since developers’ involvement in Premier Doug Ford’s daughter’s stag and doe, on Aug. 11, was reported.
Now feels as appropriate a time as any to remind people of what transpired hours later on Aug. 12.
Doug Ford’s cabinet has approved Madeleine Bodenstein for an appointment to York's Police Services Board, which she'd join Mario Cortellucci as a member of.
The trio sat together at the premier's table at his daughter's Sept. 25 wedding.
More from
@AidanChamandy
(🔓):
NEW: A federal study that could interfere with the Ford government’s plan for homes to be built on land it recently removed from the Greenbelt is quietly moving forward. (🔒 — for
@Thetrilliumca
Insiders)
BREAKING: Ontario Place For All's court challenge that could impact the Ford government's & Therme's Ontario Place redevelopment lives.
A judge ruled on Wednesday that a three-judge panel will take over the case, which the government argued to have thrown out.
NEW: Ontario’s integrity commissioner is looking into alleged illegal lobbying by the firm run by Premier Doug Ford’s longtime right-hand man,
@Thetrilliumca
can reveal.
There is a video circulating that was taken at an engagement party in Premier Doug Ford’s backyard this past summer. Ron Taverner is in it, popping a champagne bottle.
This video was posted originally in July, meaning it’s not from the Aug. 11 stag and doe.
NEW: NDP Leader Marit Stiles has asked Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner to investigate whether Premier Doug Ford’s daughter’s stag-and-doe or wedding, which developers and lobbyists were invited to and attended, violated MPPs’ ethics law.
Here’s a letter she released.
We’re on campaign Day -2, and the silliness has already begun.
In a quickly deleted tweet, Premier Doug Ford seems to mix up Islam and Sikh celebrations.
His tweet was posted almost exactly as NDP Leader Andrea Horwath gave a speech at an Eid al-Fitr event.
NEW: Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk says in the course of her work that her office was in touch with the OPP.
The provincial police's Anti-Rackets Branch has for months been doing a 'review' of an investigation of the government's Greenbelt changes.
NEW: In a 💣report, Ontario’s auditor general says much of the land the Ford government removed from the Greenbelt was initially proposed by developers to the housing minister's chief of staff. (🔓 — unpaywalled)
NEW: A firm run by Premier Doug Ford's longtime right-hand man was paid almost a quarter of a million dollars to support the Progressive Conservative caucus around the same time it established itself in the province's lobbying sector. (🔒 — paywalled)
NEW: Ontario’s auditor general is investigating the government’s use of minister’s zoning orders (MZOs) — a development fast-tracking tool the Ford government has issued at an unprecedented rate.
Here’s a letter the auditor’s office sent to the NDP mentioning this.
NEW: What happened in Vegas?
@Thetrilliumca
uncovered some new evidence challenging the account a Greenbelt developer, a PC MPP, & current & former staffers gave the integrity commissioner about what they described as a run-in in a Vegas hotel lobby.
Following Merrilee Fullerton’s resignation as a PC MPP & Minister of Children, Community & Social Services in Premier Doug Ford’s cabinet, I feel obliged to share this
#OnPoli
Heritage Moment.
WATCH: Minister of Long-Term Care
@DrFullertonMPP
refuses to take a question from reporter
@jessiecatherine
and walks out of news conference. Recent story by this reporter focused on Fullerton comparing
#COVID19
deaths to a bad flu year.
#COVID19ontario
Tried this a.m. to ask PC MPP & Minister Kaleed Rasheed about
@Thetrilliumca
’s reporting from 2 weeks ago on a 2020 Las Vegas trip that, according to sources, he & a close aide of Premier Doug Ford’s went on with Greenbelt developer Shakir Rehmatullah.
He didn’t answer.
NEW: Government House Leader Paul Calandra falsely claimed on Monday that the NDP sent someone to Premier Doug Ford's daughter's wedding to photograph its guest list, which showed land developers who've benefited from government decisions attended.
NEW: The OPP asked Toronto police to staff the stag & doe party that developers & lobbyists went to at Doug Ford’s house last year, but we’re dissuaded by Ron Taverner, emails show.
There were “750 guests,” invited to the $150/ticket party, police wrote.
NEW: Premier Doug Ford this morning is acknowledging that his daughter's stag and doe had "$150" tickets.
"It was a regular stag," the premier said, adding that "no one influences the Fords."
Today marks exactly one year since Premier Doug Ford’s daughter’s stag and doe party, which developers paid to attend.
Tomorrow will be one year since Premier Ford swallowed a bee at a press conference.
#OnPoliAnniversaries
NEW: The lobbying company run by a former longtime close aide of Doug Ford's has built a clientele including at least a handful of organizations that its leadership dealt with while previously working in the premier’s office, government records show.
EXCLUSIVE: Whilst in-between stints in the PC government, Premier Doug Ford's current housing director was part of a trip to Las Vegas with a developer whose companies have benefited from a few MZOs & the Greenbelt land swap, sources say. (🔒 — paywalled)
NEW: In a 💣report, Ontario’s auditor general says much of the land the Ford government removed from the Greenbelt was initially proposed by developers to the housing minister's chief of staff. (🔓 — unpaywalled)
NEW: NDP Leader Marit Stiles attempted to get MPPs' unanimous consent for a Speaker's warrant to be issued to call developers Silvio De Gasperis and Michael Rice to appear before Ontario's public accounts committee.
It was rejected.
NEW: Ontario's integrity commissioner has "required the production of documents from government and non-government" sources and is "preparing summonses" for "numerous witnesses" in his probe into the Greenbelt, the commissioner disclosed on Thursday.
In question period, NDP Leader Marit Stiles references
@thenarwhalca
reporting suggesting a senior staffer of Premier Doug Ford’s knew about the Greenbelt changes months before Ford or his housing minister have said they knew.
She did not receive a straight answer.
NEW: The integrity commissioner is considering another Greenbelt-related investigation, it confirmed.
It would be into the housing minister's chief of staff. The premier's office asked for it, making good on one of the auditor general's recommendations.
NEW: Emails
@Thetrilliumca
obtained show Premier Ford’s chief of staff said he’d “check with officials” about a Greenbelt land removal request in Nov. 2021, months before when top political staffers told the integrity commissioner they considered changes.
EXCLUSIVE: A "special prosecutor" is expected to be involved in the RCMP's probe into the Greenbelt changes — and may already be, according to correspondence sent by one of the investigators on the case.
Here's more (🔓), on
@Thetrilliumca
:
NEW: Info from sources indicates Doug Ford went to a developer's Sep. 20, 2021 party that the premier said he 'can't remember.'
The developer's employee said in an email two months later that Ford & his boss discussed a Greenbelt removal on the same day.
I have quit
@QPBriefing
.
I’m not happy about it. I resigned on a matter of principle.
Hit me up if you want to hire me, I’m eventually going to need some guala.
NEW: Half of the 14 housing-related MZOs the Ford government is "monitoring" for progress — & threatening to later revoke — were given to projects of the developer involved in the infamous Las Vegas trip.
NEW: Lucille Collard, the Liberal MPP for Ottawa-Vanier, is calling for Ontario Solicitor General Sylvia Jones to rescind Robert Swaita's appointment to the Ottawa Police Services Board, after
@QPbriefing
confirmed he attended the Ottawa protests. (🧵)
NEW: Premier Doug Ford's cabinet has approved the appointment of the only PC MPP who unsuccessfully ran for reelection this spring to a $135k/year tribunal gig.
NEW: A parliamentary committee won't be investigating the Ford government's Greenbelt land removals after PC MPPs controlling the voting majority shut down an opposition attempt to launch a new probe.
I’ve just been told by a spokesperson for the OPP that its aware of the auditor general’s report & that it’ll take some time for provincial police to review it.
In the meantime, the OPP’s consideration of an investigation will continue.
NEW: Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk says in the course of her work that her office was in touch with the OPP.
The provincial police's Anti-Rackets Branch has for months been doing a 'review' of an investigation of the government's Greenbelt changes.
The Ontario NDP are taking an unusual step. It's publicly taking issue with a
@TheTorontoSun
story about one of its candidates.
The party says the Sun refuses to update an "intentionally misleading" article, and are thus filing a complaint to the national press council.
NEW: The Ford government's pick to lead Ontario's land-use-planning adjudicator — who the premier has history with — will be collecting $128,580 more over his five-year term, thanks to a recent cabinet decision. (🔓)
The NDP's Marit Stiles asked the integrity commissioner to investigate whether Premier Doug Ford broke three separate parts of the Members' Integrity Act, including those pertaining to conflict of interest, influence, and the receiving of gifts.
NEW: The Ford government's Greenbelt land swap is under police investigation, according to the RCMP.
Here's the statement an RCMP spokesperson just sent by email, in which they confirm that an "investigation... is ongoing."
This follows the OPP's referral of the matter.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles says her team is working on compiling evidence to file a new Members’ Integrity Act complaint to the integrity commissioner on MPP Kaleed Rasheed, based on the Las Vegas trip.
“We have many, many questions about what took place,” Stiles said.
As
@globalnews
reported earlier, its story on Doug Ford’s use of his personal cell phone has led the NDP to ask the integrity commissioner to ensure he examines the premier’s personal 📱 records in his investigation on the Greenbelt changes.
Here’s a letter Marit Stiles sent.
NEW: Who’s been talking to Premier Doug Ford?
Global News attempted to access the calls logs of the Premier’s cell phone (for gov’t related business)
The request was denied, because the government said it doesn’t have access.
#onpoli
NEW: Some 100 senior staffers in Premier Doug Ford's and his cabinet ministers' offices spent Thursday at an ethics seminar hosted at a church.
It took place just over one month after Ford's come-to-Jesus moment on the Greenbelt. (🔓)
SCOOP: Insiders' text messages, obtained by
@Thetrilliumca
, contradict testimony that a developer who "had his hand" in 3/15 Greenbelt removals gave the integrity commissioner about his relationship with a longtime close aide to Premier Doug Ford.
NEW: Kaleed Rasheed has resigned from cabinet and the PC caucus, Premier Doug Ford’s office has announced.
This comes after months of reporting by
@Thetrilliumca
on a trip he took to Las Vegas with Greenbelt developer Shakir Rehmatullah.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath’s campaign team did *not* know former CPC Leader Erin O’Toole would be here.
They both laughed at bumping into each other. O’Toole’s giving out fudge & joked to Horwath about her usually being the one wanting to give stuff out for free.
NEW: A developer “friend” of the premier’s has gotten an extension leading the Crown corporation that manages Ontario Place, where the Ford government is trying to move forward its controversial redevelopment plans. (🔒 — for Trillium Insiders)
NEW: Hours after Ontario's auditor general's office released its 2023 annual report, MPPs agreed to appoint a new auditor general: Shelley Spence.
Spence previously worked in the AG's office for 12 years & has worked for Deloitte for the last 6, according to her LinkedIn.
NEW: The Ford government chose Therme's plan to build a private spa and waterpark at Ontario Place over 30-plus other options, official provincial documents obtained by
@Thetrilliumca
show. (🔒 — for subscribers)
NEW: Most Ontarians believe the Ford government's process for selecting lands from the Greenbelt to be developed was "corrupt," shows a new poll by
@pallasdata
.
Story by
@jackhauen
of
@Thetrilliumca
is 🔓.
NEW: Minister Kaleed Rasheed refused to answer questions about if he's talked to the integrity commissioner about a Las Vegas trip sources say he went on with a Greenbelt developer, nor if he thinks such trips are appropriate for senior government members.
NEW: Who is Ryan Amato, the political staffer at the centre of Ontario’s Greenbelt scandal?
In a joint
@Thetrilliumca
/
@thenarwhalca
investigation,
@EmmaMci
& I assembled the fullest portrait to date of the 'driving force' of the now-moot Greenbelt changes.
At noon today, NDP Leader Marit Stiles will "announce legislation to reverse Ford’s Greenbelt carve-up."
As
@Thetrilliumca
reported on Aug. 24, while this is a long-shot, the NDP "can effectively force each PC MPP to reaffirm their support for the Greenbelt land removals."
Can't help but find it hilarious that there's a stray basketball and several shovels lying just off Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's porch (as we await his latest address on COVID-19).
NEW: NDP Leader Marit Stiles has asked Ontario’s integrity commissioner to investigate the Las Vegas trip that led to two high-profile resignations ahead of Premier Doug Ford’s walk back of the Greenbelt removals.
Dr. Merrilee Fullerton, who resigned from Premier Doug Ford's cabinet & as a PC MPP just under a year ago, has released the prologue of her book: A Physician in the Political Arena.
Here's the former long-term care minister's long-awaited explanation of why she quit politics.
NEW: Ontario's housing ministry has recovered some emails deleted by staff who worked on the Greenbelt land swap, it wrote in an affidavit.
The ministry has sworn to the province's transparency watchdog to comb through them for Greenbelt-related records.
I just asked Premier Doug Ford as he walked from one office to another in Queen's Park if he's up for talking about why he doesn't want to appear before the Emergencies Act inquiry.
"I'm okay right now," Ford said, while walking into an office.
NEW: Ontario’s privacy commissioner has ordered for records of the OPP's involvement at the 2022 stag & doe that the premier hosted to be given to them to help the office determine whether they should be released to
@Thetrilliumca
. (🔓 — unpaywalled)
NEW: Premier Doug Ford announces a 💣, saying land removed from the Greenbelt for housing development last year is being put back under protections.
“It was a mistake to open the Greenbelt,” Ford says.
New, from
@ctv_jon
/
@CTVToronto
: Wynn Las Vegas hotel employees say their records contradict the story an Ontario Minister gave the integrity commissioner about a run-in in the lobby with a Greenbelt developer.
NEW: Monte McNaughton, the Labour Minister in Doug Ford’s government, will be stepping down today,
@Thetrilliumca
has learned.
McNaughton is central to the government’s “Working For Workers” brand — making him a huge loss.
@TorontoStar
reported his departure first, minutes ago.
NEW: NDP Leader Marit Stiles announces in question period that she’ll be tabling legislation that, if passed, would strengthen the conflict-of-interest rules for MPPs.
After
@QPbriefing
and others reported on Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, partying maskless last night after days earlier asking Ontarians to return to wearing masks indoors, his office has sent this statement.
No apology, nor backtrack.
NEW: In a Nov. 27 letter, several developers' associations said a law proposed by Premier Doug Ford's PCs to protect the government from legal liability if it revokes MZOs "suggests that government (& those who work in government) are above the law." (🔒)
After OP4A filed a court challenge for an environmental assessment of Ontario Place's west island — where Therme's spa is planned — the PCs passed a law exempting the area from an EA.
A judge says the matter is 'of significant public law interest' & should be heard by a panel.
BREAKING: Ontario Place For All's court challenge that could impact the Ford government's & Therme's Ontario Place redevelopment lives.
A judge ruled on Wednesday that a three-judge panel will take over the case, which the government argued to have thrown out.
Yesterday, I tried asking Minister Kaleed Rasheed about what he said about a Las Vegas trip to Ontario’s integrity commissioner, who has poked around on it since
@TheTrilliumca
’s reporting.
Here’s how that went.
BREAKING: CUPE and other unions press conference is on ice while CUPE talks to the premier’s office, according to a union rep.
CUPE is trying to get clarity on what, exactly, the offer Premier Doug Ford is making to end the strike.
BREAKING: Provincial police haven’t “yet” uncovered any evidence to warrant launching an investigation into whether any Ford government staff tipped developers off before opening up the Greenbelt, shows an OPP detective’s email obtained by The Trillium.
NEW: Premier Doug Ford did not answer me when I asked him what he’s going to do if he loses his court challenge of the Emergencies Act inquiry summons.
Instead he said he liked my bee costume.
Premier Doug Ford wouldn’t speak to me during my several stakeouts of his office last week.
Today I’ve got just the trick to get him to open his mouth.
I was watching remotely, but I’d love to hear what the reporters with O’Toole in Saint John have to say.
I believe I heard questions from
@HannahThibedeau
and
@StephanieLevitz
before a fire alarm brought an abrupt end to my viewing experience…
NEW: Long before her abrupt resignation, Merrilee Fullerton had fallen out of favour with Doug Ford's cabinet, multiple sources told
@Thetrilliumca
.
Her opposition to the redevelopment of a golf course was among the reasons, sources said.
More (🔓):
NEW, by
@AidanChamandy
: PC MPPs controlling the government agencies committee refused to extend the deadline for a second tablemate of the premier's at his daughter's wedding to justify her appointment by the Ford government to York's police board (🔓).
NEW: The PCs raked in over $151,000 in political donations from directors & executives of private schools partnered with public colleges since 2018.
$27,000 went to Ontario's Colleges & Universities minister's PC Party riding association.
By
@AidanChamandy
/
@Thetrilliumca
(🔓)
NEW: Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra has announced that the Ford government will introduce legislation to walk back changes to several municipalities’ official plans, including urban boundary expansions.
He says he’s also looking at revisiting past MZOs.
NEW: In the integrity commissioner's Greenbelt investigation, developer Shakir Rehmatullah said he & Doug Ford's longtime No. 2 staffer “do not socialize & have never been to each other’s homes.”
Texts from 3 Ford government insiders show otherwise.
Read more
@Thetrilliumca
.
SCOOP: Insiders' text messages, obtained by
@Thetrilliumca
, contradict testimony that a developer who "had his hand" in 3/15 Greenbelt removals gave the integrity commissioner about his relationship with a longtime close aide to Premier Doug Ford.
NEW: NDP Leader Marit Stiles will at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning “announce next steps in investigating” MPP & ex-cabinet minister Kaleed Rasheed.
The NDP has been promising to ask Ontario’s integrity commissioner to investigate Rasheed and the Vegas trip he resigned over.
NEW: Premier Doug Ford was asked just now about Moore's conduct last night.
"Here in Ontario, masking is personal choice. If you're around vulnerable people, you're around young people, that's going to be your choice. So, that's what's going to happen," Ford said.
On Monday, Ontario’s CMOH Dr. Kieran Moore “strongly recommended” Ontarians wear masks indoors.
Last night, 3 days later, he was partying maskless at Toronto Life’s celebration for its 50 most influential Torontonians of 2022, videos show.
NEW: Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake has released his report on Housing Minister Steve Clark, finding he DID violate MPPs’ ethics law, including regarding conflict of interest and the use of insider information.
Many more details to come soon at
@Thetrilliumca
.