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Unethical Actions

Posted on by Bradford

List of “Dirty Dozen” Seriously Unethical, Secretive and Undemocratic Actions by Doug Ford’s PC Party Government from June 2022 to February 2025

Based on the following “dirty dozen” seriously unethical, secretive and undemocratic actions, Democracy Watch gives the Doug Ford PC Party government an F fail grade since the June 2022 Ontario election:

  1. As 80% of Ontario voters think, Ford calling a self-interested snap election for no good reason, and also Ford refusing to take questions from the media, and having PC Party candidates not show up to all-candidates debates.
  2. The Greenbelt scandal in which the Ford government attempted to transfer protected public land to mostly PC Party-connected property developers who would have reaped an $8 billion profit (the RCMP continues to investigate the scandal).
  3. Doubling the political donation limit and keeping it doubled which has allowed rich donors to continue to corrupt political party decision-making.
  4. Allowing lobbyists to fundraise, campaign and work for Ford and his Cabinet and then cash in by lobbying Ford’s government soon afterwards.
  5. Breaking Ford’s promise to strengthen Ontario’s lobbying law as recommended by the Auditor General.
  6. Ford illegally hiding his cellphone records, even though he uses it for government calls.
  7. Violating Charter rights to impartial courts by weakening Ontario’s judicial appointment system to give the Ford Cabinet more power to appoint PC Party supporters as judges (Click here to see DWatch’s news release re: the court case it plans to file soon challenging Ford’s appointment system).
  8. Extending “strong mayor powers” to 46 cities across Ontario which allow mayors to arbitrarily override city council decisions.
  9. Using Ministerial Zoning Orders 17 times more than previous governments, with little or no justification for overriding city and town council decisions and plans.
  10. Violating Charter rights by using notwithstanding clause to maintain arbitrary, undemocratic limits on spending by interest groups in election years (the Supreme Court of Canada will soon rule on Ford’s law).
  11. Re-developing Ontario Place through a process the Auditor General concluded was not “fair, transparent or accountable” and that increased the cost by $1.8 billion (Click here to see legal arguments DWatch and other groups have jointly filed in the Ontario Court of Appeal case challenging the re-development as a violation of the “public trust”).
  12. Accepting family gifts from lobbyists at his daughter’s stag-and-doe party.