Ford under fire for illegally attending party fundraiser, abrupt departure of candidate
With exactly three weeks until election day, Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is under fire for illegally attending a party fundraiser and the resignation of his Brampton East candidate amid an investigation into data theft at Highway 407.
“Both of these situations are disturbing,” Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne said at an Ottawa rail yard where she touted her government’s $1-billion investment in the capital city’s light rail transit line.
In Toronto, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the incidents raise “a lot more questions than answers,” such as whether any of the 60,000 names, addresses and phone numbers of 407 ETR customers were used to recruit supporters in Ford’s leadership campaign or local races.
As the Star first reported, Ford broke Ontario’s new campaign rules by going to a $250-a-plate PC fundraising dinner April 29. His campaign acknowledged the breach, insisted Ford was “misinformed” about the nature of the event by an organizer who has since been fired, and pledged to return all donations.
“Doug Ford takes full responsibility for what happened, and we will be putting protocols in place to ensure this never happens again,” said spokeswoman Melissa Lantsman.
Ford himself has not yet commented on the fundraiser or on the abrupt resignation of Simmer Sandhu as the PC candidate in Brampton East, where he was running against New Democrat Gurratan Singh, brother of federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.
Sandhu quit Wednesday evening a short time after his former employer, 407 ETR, revealed it was investigating the “inside theft” of data in the last 12 months and notified police, the federal privacy commissioner and the Ministry of Transportation, which in turn contacted Ontario’s privacy commissioner. No credit card information was taken.
“I have recently been made aware of allegations anonymously made against me pertaining to both my work life and my nomination campaign. These allegations are totally baseless. I absolutely deny them,” Sandu said in a statement on his Facebook page.
https://www.thestar.com/news/queens...fundraiser-abrupt-departure-of-candidate.html
With exactly three weeks until election day, Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is under fire for illegally attending a party fundraiser and the resignation of his Brampton East candidate amid an investigation into data theft at Highway 407.
“Both of these situations are disturbing,” Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne said at an Ottawa rail yard where she touted her government’s $1-billion investment in the capital city’s light rail transit line.
In Toronto, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the incidents raise “a lot more questions than answers,” such as whether any of the 60,000 names, addresses and phone numbers of 407 ETR customers were used to recruit supporters in Ford’s leadership campaign or local races.
As the Star first reported, Ford broke Ontario’s new campaign rules by going to a $250-a-plate PC fundraising dinner April 29. His campaign acknowledged the breach, insisted Ford was “misinformed” about the nature of the event by an organizer who has since been fired, and pledged to return all donations.
“Doug Ford takes full responsibility for what happened, and we will be putting protocols in place to ensure this never happens again,” said spokeswoman Melissa Lantsman.
Ford himself has not yet commented on the fundraiser or on the abrupt resignation of Simmer Sandhu as the PC candidate in Brampton East, where he was running against New Democrat Gurratan Singh, brother of federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.
Sandhu quit Wednesday evening a short time after his former employer, 407 ETR, revealed it was investigating the “inside theft” of data in the last 12 months and notified police, the federal privacy commissioner and the Ministry of Transportation, which in turn contacted Ontario’s privacy commissioner. No credit card information was taken.
“I have recently been made aware of allegations anonymously made against me pertaining to both my work life and my nomination campaign. These allegations are totally baseless. I absolutely deny them,” Sandu said in a statement on his Facebook page.
https://www.thestar.com/news/queens...fundraiser-abrupt-departure-of-candidate.html
