The Supreme Court of Canada will hear the Ontario government’s appeal on whether or not it will be able to keep PC Leader Doug Ford’s mandate letters secret.
Had Canada’s top court refused to hear the case, the provincial government would have had to release Ford’s 23 mandate letters — which, combined, run about 150 pages — to CBC News today.
With today’s decision, there’s no chance of the mandate letters being made public before the Ontario election, now two weeks away on June 2.
Mandate letters traditionally lay out the marching orders a premier has for each of his or her ministers after taking office — and have been routinely released by governments across the country.
Ford’s government, however, has been fighting to keep his mandate letters from the public for nearly four years. CBC Toronto filed a freedom of information request for the records in July 2018, shortly after Ford took office. The government denied access in full, arguing the letters were exempt from disclosure as cabinet records.
Despite being ordered to release the records by Ontario’s former information and privacy commissioner in 2019 and having its appeals of that decision dismissed at every level of court so far — the province utilized its final option to prevent disclosure in March by seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
When asked why his government has kept up the fight to keep his mandate letters secret for four years on Thursday, Ford told CBC News “it’s not secret.”
“Everyone knows where we stand,” said Ford. “I’m out here every single day, moving forward it’s going to be very very clear, what we’re doing. We’re going to continue to build — build roads, hospitals, highways, schools. We’re getting it done and it’s going to be as clear and transparent as you can get.”
WATCH | Ford says letters aren’t being kept secret:
Doug Ford responds to Supreme Court opting to hear mandate letter case
2 hours ago
Duration 0:33
PC leader says what’s in the letters his government has spent years fighting the release of is ‘not that secret.’
Delaying the release of the mandate letters until after the election is the only reason James Turk, director of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Centre for Free Expression, can think of to explain why the province appealed again.
“Whatever is in the mandate letters, they don’t want it out,” Turk told CBC News after the application was filed. “It’s a total waste of money — they’ve lost at every level.”
In a statement issued Thursday, the provincial Liberal party questioned what exactly Ford is trying to keep out of the public eye.
“The only credible answer is that he knows what’s hidden in those letters would lose him the election,” the statement reads. “It’s the same reason he hides his candidates and orders them to refuse local debates. Because he knows they would lose their local elections if they were accountable to the public and the media.”
Ontario court previously ruled letters should be released
In the government’s application, counsel argued the Supreme Court should hear the case because it raises issues of public importance, such as what constitutes cabinet deliberations.
“This will also be the first time this honourable court will consider the constitutional role of the premier in setting cabinet’s agenda and address whether the premier’s deliberations can reveal the substance of deliberations of cabinet,” the notice of application reads.
Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act states that any records that “would reveal the substance of deliberations of the executive council or its committee” are exempt from disclosure under what’s commonly referred to as the cabinet record exemption.
James Turk, director of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Centre for Free Expression, says access to future records is also at stake in the mandate letters case. (Zoom)
But in a 2-1 ruling released in January, the Ontario Court of Appeal found that both the privacy commissioner’s original decision, and the Divisional Court’s review of it, were reasonable in finding that mandate letters do not reveal the substance of cabinet deliberations and so must be disclosed.
“The letters are the culmination of [the] deliberative process,” wrote Justice Lorne Sossin.
“While they highlight the decisions the premier ultimately made, they do not shed light on the process used to make those decisions or the alternatives rejected along the way.
“Accordingly, the letters do not threaten to divulge cabinet’s deliberative process or its formulation of policies.”
Supreme court ruling will have ‘major impact’
Turk argues the stakes remain high — even though the appeal will be heard — because the cabinet records exemption is one of the most common ways governments withhold information under access to information legislation.
“It will have a major impact,” he told CBC News. “This is going to be a very important case for the public’s right to information in this country, because the Supreme Court will be able to use this case to be clear about what it considers the proper boundaries for cabinet secrecy.”
The privacy commissioner’s initial decision, and all of the court rulings so far in this case have supported a narrower interpretation of the boundaries of cabinet secrecy, which differentiates between deliberations and their results.
“[Cabinet] discussion needs to be protected, their conclusions do not,” said Turk. “To deny the cabinet’s conclusions to the public is, in effect, denying the public the right to know what their government is going to be doing.”
For Turk, the Ontario government’s interpretation treats cabinet secrecy “like this big black hole, where anything that comes anywhere close to the cabinet falls into the black hole and can be kept from the public for years.”
The Supreme Court of Canada will release its decision on whether or not it will hear the Ontario government’s appeal to keep Doug Ford’s mandate letters secret Thursday morning. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
It’s unclear how many tax dollars and government resources have gone toward denying the public access to the mandate letters.
For more than two years, CBC News has been trying to obtain information on how much time Crown attorneys have devoted to the mandate letter case. The Ministry of the Attorney General has denied two freedom of information requests, claiming attorney-client privilege.
The latest request, which asked for the total number of hours counsel have spent on the case from July 2018 to July 2021, is now in the adjudication stage with the privacy commissioner.
‘Keep them to ourselves as long as possible’
Documents obtained by CBC News concerning its original freedom of information request for the mandate letters make it clear that senior officials inside the Ford government planned to keep the records from public view from the outset.
In an email dated July 31, 2018, the then-executive director of policy to the premier, Greg Harrington, says, “here’s the letters. As I said, the intention is to keep them to ourselves as long as possible.”
Ford issued a new set of mandate letters to his cabinet ministers in the fall of last year.
CBC News filed a freedom of information request for the records, which was denied.
The decision cited the cabinet record exemption in the provincial privacy act, along with three new exemptions for advice to government, solicitor-client privilege and records that “affect the economic or other interests of Ontario.”
CBC News has appealed the decision to the privacy commissioner.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
