Government House Leader Paul Calandra falsely claimed on Monday that Ontario's NDP went to Premier Doug Ford's daughter's wedding and photographed the table seating list showing that developers and others who've benefited from the Ford government's decisions were there.
The premier's daughter's wedding festivities, including a stag-and-doe wedding fundraiser, have become a major controversy that's rocked the Ford government.
Developers who went to the wedding, its table list shows, have benefited from the Ford government's decisions, including from minister's zoning orders it's issued, plus, in one case, from the recent Greenbelt land swap. Multiple provincial appointees went to the Sept. 25 wedding as well, along with a lobbyist now working for a developer to have the province redesignate Greenbelt land to build homes.
Attendees of the Aug. 11 stag and doe, first reported on by Global News, paid $150 to be there, Ford has said. Some wedding guests, and others, attended this event, which Ford hosted at his house.
Last Thursday, Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles launched a complaint with Ontario's integrity commissioner, asking him to investigate whether Ford broke the Members' Integrity Act with the wedding events.
J. David Wake, the commissioner, hasn't decided whether he'll launch an inquiry yet.
A key piece of evidence in the NDP's submission to the integrity commissioner is a photo of the seating chart from the wedding reception.
While responding to Stiles in question period on Monday, Calandra falsely accused the NDP of sending someone to Ford's daughter's wedding to photograph the table list.
"This is a leader of the opposition who sunk to the level of sending a photographer to take a picture of a seating plan at a family wedding," the government house leader said.
In fact, the photo included in the NDP's filing to the integrity commissioner was published online by the wedding photographer who took Ford's daughter's wedding pictures. For months, it has been posted on the wedding photographer's website, where it remained online as of midday Monday. The photographer told The Trillium on Monday that all of the wedding photos on her website were taken either by her or the second photographer at the event, another wedding photographer.
As he left question period on Monday, The Trillium asked Calandra if he knew the photo of the seating chart came from the wedding photographer's website, but he didn't answer.
"Did you take the picture?" Calandra responded. After being told again that the photo was taken by the wedding photographer, Calandra responded by saying, "So, you took the picture? Did the Toronto Star take the picture? That's even worse."
Two Star stories were published before the NDP filed its integrity commissioner complaint revealing that specific developers, government appointees and a lobbyist went to Ford's daughter's wedding, citing the reception's seating chart and other photos taken there.
Asked by a reporter on Monday if she would ask Calandra to retract his comments, Stiles said she was going to "think about it."
The Trillium emailed followup questions to Calandra's spokesperson but did not receive a response by the time this article was published.
When asked why developers and others who've benefited from the government's decisions were invited to his daughter's wedding festivities, Ford has defended attendees as being "personal friends," and has repeatedly said he's been "cleared" by the integrity commissioner.
Months after the premier's daughter's wedding festivities, and only after a journalist asked Ford's office questions about them, the premier's staff presented the integrity commissioner with certain information, including the names of six attendees, that the premier "had no knowledge of gifts given to his daughter and son-in-law; and, that there was no discussion of government business at either of the events," a spokesperson for Wake's office has said. Based on this information, the integrity commissioner informed Ford in an opinion that what his office disclosed didn't indicate that the premier violated the Members' Integrity Act.
The opinion the integrity commissioner gave to Ford is different from a full investigation, which only a complaint from another MPP can prompt. The integrity commissioner typically takes between days to weeks to decide whether to launch an investigation.
—With files from Aidan Chamandy.
