NDP & Liberals Respond as Court rules Ford must turn over personal phone records

Ontario Liberal MPP Stephanie Smyth, Critic for Ethics, Integrity & Accountability, released the following statement after an Ontario court denied Doug Ford’s bid to overturn the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s order to release government-related call logs from his personal cellphone:

Today’s court decision is a major win for transparency and accountability in Ontario.

Ontarians remember the Greenbelt scandal — secret emails, code words, and decisions made out of public view — and today’s ruling sends a clear message that those days are over.

The court confirmed that once a personal cellphone is used to conduct government business, it is subject to Ontario’s transparency laws. There are no exceptions and no loopholes.

The Premier cannot hide behind his personal cellphone forever. Gone are the days when a premier can go rogue, conducting public business in the shadows to benefit friends, donors, and lobbyists.

We have seen where this kind of secrecy leads — first the Greenbelt, now the rot exposed in the Skills Development Fund.

If the Premier truly has nothing to hide, he should stop fighting the courts, abandon any further appeal, and comply immediately. Instead, he has claimed that ‘no one can influence him,’ suggested destroying personal phone records for so-called confidentiality, and signalled his intention to appeal.

That is preposterous. Public business belongs in public view.

Ontarians deserve to see the real Doug Ford, and that starts with releasing the records. It’s time to scrape those phone logs, come clean, and bring an end to the culture of secrecy in the Premier’s Office.