FEATURED HEADLINE
Doug Ford and his Progressive Conservative government have just rammed through a blatant cover-up that guts Ontario's transparency laws to hide what they did in the Greenbelt scandal. On April 23, 2026, using their majority in a rushed late-night session with no public hearings, they passed Bill 97, an omnibus budget bill that retroactively exempts the Premier's Office, cabinet ministers, parliamentary assistants, and all their staff from Freedom of Information requests for emails, texts, phone logs, and other records of government business.
This directly kills a court order forcing Ford to release his personal cellphone records from November 2022, the exact week his government announced the removal of thousands of acres of protected Greenbelt land. Ford even admitted the changes target requests like the one from Global News for those logs. The new rules apply retroactively, wiping out dozens of ongoing FOIs, court cases, and appeals tied to this and other scandals.
The Greenbelt scandal exposed how Ford's team handed massive windfalls to a handful of well-connected developers. Auditor General and Integrity Commissioner reports laid bare a rushed, insider-driven process where nearly all the removed land benefited just a couple of major players with close ties to the PCs. In Pickering's Cherrywood area alone, huge chunks went to interests like Silvio De Gasperis and TACC Group, who had lobbied hard for it and saw land values skyrocket by hundreds of millions. Housing Minister Steve Clark's chief of staff Ryan Amato was sourcing sites straight from developers. Clark and Amato resigned amid the fallout, but Ford denied deep involvement while reversing most removals only after public outrage.
The public only learned these damning details through FOI requests that Ford's government is now shutting down forever. The Information and Privacy Commissioner slammed the changes as a massive step backward for transparency, making Ontario worse than other provinces and warning it sends a clear message: if oversight catches you, just rewrite the rules to protect yourselves.
This is textbook obstruction of justice. The RCMP has had an active criminal investigation into the Greenbelt removals since 2023, probing potential corruption and favoritism. That probe is still dragging on with no charges and little public update, even as Ford's team changes the law to block the very records that could show coordination with developers or efforts to evade documentation during the scandal period. Wilfully interfering with access to evidence relevant to an ongoing police investigation, especially after losing in court, looks like a desperate move to obstruct accountability and shield the Premier and insiders from scrutiny.
Ford's record shows why he is doing this. FOI exposed the Greenbelt giveaway, Skills Development Fund waste, mistaken prisoner releases, Ontario Place deals, private jet spending, and more. Now he is slamming the door so Ontarians can never again see what his government is really up to. This is not leadership. It is the behavior of someone with something serious to hide, rigging the system to stay untouchable while an RCMP probe hangs over the exact events he is now shielding.
Ontario deserves better than a Premier who loses in court on transparency then uses raw power to nullify the loss and bury the truth. This retroactive power grab erodes trust, weakens democracy, and protects elite insiders at the expense of the public.
But Ford's plan can still be foiled. Support constitutional challenges from groups like Democracy Watch, which are already looking at Charter arguments on retroactivity, democratic rights, and access to information. Demand the RCMP escalate with subpoenas and warrants that go beyond FOI limits. Keep pressuring for updates on the Greenbelt probe and any obstruction angles. Contact your MPP relentlessly, back opposition efforts from the NDP and Liberals, sign petitions, amplify this through media and social media, and make it a central issue to defeat Ford and the PCs at the ballot box. Leaks, whistleblowers, and sustained public outrage can still expose what he is hiding. Share this report widely. Doug Ford's legacy of evasion and self-protection should stick with him. Ontario voters can hold him accountable and end this secrecy racket.
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