Mandate letters sent to Premier Doug Ford’s office in 2018 will not have to be made public today, in the midst of the election campaign. The Supreme Court chose to hear the appeal of the Ontario government, which had turned to the highest court after an unfavorable decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal in January.
The file dates back to July 2018, a month after the Conservatives were elected in Ontario. The CBC network had made an access to information request to obtain the mandate letters, missives that indicated the directions that the 23 ministers of the Ford government were to take. The government had refused to share the documents, judging that the disclosure would have the effect of revealing the subject of the deliberations of the Executive Council.
The CBC Network appealed the decision to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. In 2019, the latter ordered the handover of the documents. “I have reviewed the mandate letters and have determined that they do not disclose the purpose of the government’s deliberations,” Brian Beamish wrote in August 2019.
The Prime Minister challenged the decision in the Divisional Court and then in the Court of Appeal, before turning to the Supreme Court earlier this year. This morning, the Supreme Court decided that it will hear the government’s case, which means that the information contained in the letters will not be known to the public until Election Day in Ontario, June 2.
“The mandate letters should have been made public four years ago. But make no mistake, Ontarians have seen the demands that were in these letters: cut services, ”reacted the NDP. In the morning, Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca said Doug Ford was afraid to share the letters since they surely contained undeclared intentions.
Documents obtained by CBC regarding their freedom of information request show that the intention of the team close to Doug Ford was to keep the warrant letters secret as early as 2018.
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada