Rob Ford crack scandal: Letter from watchdog prompts Ford denial
Ontario’s information commissioner wrote a letter of alarm and concern to Mayor Rob Ford, prompting a terse denial on Thursday that his office ordered the destruction of former staffers’ email and phone records.
In the letter, sent Wednesday, the province’s transparency watchdog Ann Cavoukian asked the mayor to “immediately confirm that these records have not, nor will be destroyed.” If they had already been deleted, she asked the mayor to provide details of lost records and “immediately take all necessary steps” to recover them.
“Any inappropriate destruction of records has the potential to seriously erode the public’s trust and confidence in the City of Toronto as an accountable and transparent government institution,” Cavoukian wrote.
The Star reported on Wednesday that records of three former Ford staffers could be in danger after city employees were directed to delete them, according to sources at City Hall. The staffers — Mark Towhey, George Christopoulos and Isaac Ransom — were the first three members of Ford’s team to resign or get fired amidst the mayor’s ongoing crack cocaine scandal.
Two others, advisor Brian Johnston and executive assistant Kia Nejatian, stepped down on Thursday.
In a one line, emailed reply to Cavoukian’s letter, Ford’s camp said: “At no point did any member of the mayor's office order the records of former employees to be erased.”
The missive indicated an “official response” would follow in the mail.
Cavoukian said Thursday that she was “comforted” by the reply.
“What I take from that is, there was no directive or order from the mayor’s office … to erase records,” she said. “I’m not concerned, because they didn’t challenge what I was saying in the letter.”
Ford’s interim press secretary Sunny Petrujkic did not respond to requests for comment.
Records of political staffers at City Hall are automatically preserved and subject to the public’s right to access under freedom of information law.
With files from Kevin Donovan and Daniel Dale
