NDP calls for RCMP to include ‘permanently deleted’ emails in Greenbelt probe

The Ontario NDP is calling on the RCMP to widen the scope of its criminal investigation into the Ford government’s Greenbelt dealings after a provincial watchdog determined that relevant documents were allegedly “permanently deleted” contrary to provincial law.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles is also acknowledging that the opposition parties at Queen’s Park may have “run out” of options to use official legislative channels to hold the government to account, even as more questions arise.

After a months-long battle with the Ford government over Greenbelt-related records, Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) determined the Progressive Conservative party violated “legal record-keeping obligations” by using “opaque codewords” to discuss the controversial policy.

Patricia Kosseim also said her office was concerned enough about government documents that the IPC was forced to issue an order to retain them in full. Despite that, some records remain unaccounted for.

“We were pre-emptorily ordering the government to preserve all records and to recover emails that had been deleted, which they were able to and did and have since preserved all the records, except — as I said — those that were permanently deleted,” Kosseim told Global News.

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“We have no way of knowing the circumstances around that.”

It’s unclear, however, what, if any, consequences could arise from the permanent deletion of records.

While the RCMP has remained tight-lipped on its years-long investigation into the government’s decision-making, there have been few public signs of progress.

Meanwhile, the independent investigative bodies at Queens Park — the Integrity Commissioner, the Auditor General, and the Information and Privacy Commissioner — have all completed their Greenbelt investigations with varied impact.

“We’ve had a scathing report from the Auditor General. We’ve had a scathing report from the Integrity Commissioner. Now we have this report and these findings from the Information and Privacy Commissioner,” Stiles said.

“So to some extent, the tools here … we’ve run out.”

Stiles said the opposition is now looking to the RCMP’s Sensitive and International Investigations unit — which typically investigates allegations of financial crimes like fraud, corruption and procurement as well as complaints related to illegal lobbying activities and elected officials — to look deeper into the IPC’s findings.

“The commissioner is very clear, laws were broken here,” Stiles said. “The last time a government was found to be permanently deleting emails like this around an issue that is contentious … somebody went to jail.”

In 2018, the former chief of staff to then-Premier Dalton McGuinty was sentenced to four months in jail after an Ontario judge found he directed the indiscriminate wiping of hard drives in the premier’s office in a deliberate effort to protect the office after the Liberal government decided to scrap two gas plants ahead of the 2011 provincial election.

Stiles is also calling for a public inquiry into the scandal.

“I certainly think that a matter like this, just like with the gas plant scandal, would merit a public inquiry,” Stiles said, but acknowledged that the chances of a majority government calling an inquiry into its own actions is unlikely.

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