Most Ontarians oppose Doug Ford’s Freedom of Information changes
Even Conservatives don’t agree with him on this one
Premier Doug Ford appears to be standing by his proposal to change Ontario’s Freedom of Information laws. Under new, more restricted legislation, documents from Ford’s office and the offices of provincial cabinet ministers would be exempt from public disclosure.
Ford went so far as to say the change was to safeguard Ontario’s privacy against Chinese infiltration. Critics have questioned whether he’s really trying to prevent his cellphone records from being published, after it was determined he’d used his personal phone to discuss provincial matters, potentially including the Greenbelt, which weren’t recorded in official call logs.
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A week after Ford’s announcement, Abacus Data surveyed 1,000 Ontarians and found that 60 per cent of participants oppose Ford’s FOI changes. Twenty-four per cent said they support them, and 16 per cent said they are unsure.
Seventy-three per cent oppose the government making changes retroactively to block access to record requests already in progress or before the courts.
Among respondents identifying as Progressive Conservative, only 32 per cent are in favour of the changes.
The poll was commissioned by the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
“It is rare to find such agreement among people in such a vast province, among different age groups and among different political ideologies,” CUPE president Fred Hahn told CTV News.
“I think this demonstrates that the premier is out of touch with the people of Ontario. I hope that seeing these results, he might take this information to heart.”
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
