Ford accused of limiting transparency law because of cellphone defeat in court
Global News
Ontario Premier Doug Ford saw his attempts to stop his cellphone records being partially released blocked by a panel of judges. Critics say he's changing the law as a result.
Facing the prospect of a general strike in 2022 over his government’s use of the notwithstanding clause to legislate education support staff back to work, Ontario Premier Doug Ford blinked.
At a hastily scheduled news conference, he said he would rescind the law, explaining he’d been “on the phone all night” returning calls about the move.
But call records obtained by Global News showed Ford’s work phone hadn’t been used. Months of call logs from the period, which also included the decision to remove protected land from the Greenbelt, were blank.
Through a lengthy freedom of information appeal process, government lawyers admitted Ford uses his personal phone to make and receive calls in his capacity as premier.
The Information and Privacy Commission (IPC), which oversees access to information appeals, ruled the premier was using his personal phone to bypass transparency and ordered him to disclose the records.
The government refused, seeking a judicial review. That case was heard in December, and a panel of three judges rejected it in less than three weeks.
The province said it intended to appeal, but a few weeks later, it unveiled sweeping retroactive changes to freedom of information laws that would effectively void the defeat.
The changes would exclude all calls, communications and other records belonging to cabinet ministers, the premier and their staff from public release and scrutiny.
Ottawa Fire Services said they received multiple calls around 9:30 p.m. Saturday about a fire with people trapped in a high-rise building in the 300 block of Somerset Street West.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre proposed a tariff-free auto pact with the U.S. to revive Canada’s auto sector, at a press conference in Windsor, Ont. on Sunday.
The vice-president of the St. John's Junior Hockey League, says the violent game was an isolated incident and officials have since handed out suspensions to 18 players and coaches.
Alberta RCMP say just before 3 p.m. Saturday, a pickup truck pulled up beside a Honda Civic on Highway 2 and fired a weapon, resulting in the death of a driver.
Two men face charges ranging from mischief to assault and harassment following Saturday's Al Quds Day march in Toronto. Police say the suspects were counter-protesters.
Snow is continuing to fall in parts of Ontario, B.C. and Quebec, with heavy rain and freezing rain expected in some communities in the Maritimes and Ontario.
As demand for syrup has surged in recent years, Quebec's maple industry is evolving too, adding millions of new taps and turning to automation and better technology.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is concluding his time in Norway meeting with that country’s prime minister, along with the leaders of Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Finland.
Two people have been charged with first-degree murder after the remains of Masood Masjoody, reported missing in February, were discovered in Mission, B.C., police say.
A man and a teenage boy have died after a shooting in Winnipeg’s North End, and police are asking the public for information as the homicide investigation continues.
When you walk into the Club Pays coffee shop in Montreal, the first thing you see are the posters with Quebec sovereignty slogans plastered on every wall.
Police have identified the woman found dead inside a north Toronto home as 60-year-old Xian Wei Shao. She is believed to be Toronto's fourth homicide victim of 2026.
Ontario's public safety regulator has laid charges against the operator of a Scarborough trampoline park following a zipline accident in January that sent a boy to hospital.