'Insufficient grounds' for full probe into Ford stag and doe: integrity commissioner
CBC
Ontario's integrity commissioner says there are "insufficient grounds" for him to conduct a full investigation into whether Premier Doug Ford breached ethics rules regarding his daughter's stag and doe party.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles had asked Commissioner J. David Wake to issue an opinion on the event, which was attended by some developers ahead of the government's decision to open several parcels of protected Greenbelt lands for housing development.
Ford is scheduled to speak at a news conference at 3 p.m. ET. You can watch it live in this story.
Wake says in a report today that there is a high bar in the Members' Integrity Act for him to start an investigation on whether a member broke sections relating to furthering someone's private interests and accepting a benefit connected with the performance of their duties, and the evidence in this case doesn't meet that threshold.
A related report last month from the integrity commissioner found that the process of selecting lands for removal from the Greenbelt favoured certain developers.
In today's report, Wake says it's "interesting" that developer Sergio Manchia, who bought tickets for the stag and doe but gave them to a colleague, purchased them from Tony Miele, the chair of the PC Ontario Fund, the fundraising arm of the party.
Wake says Miele told him he sold about 20 tickets, but was acting as a friend of the Ford family and not as part of his party fundraising duties.
"I interviewed Mr. Miele who told me that he is a friend of the Ford family and that he was approached by the premier's future son-in-law, whom he referred to by name, to assist in selling some tickets to the event," Wake wrote.
"Mr. Miele insisted that he did this to help the couple and that his involvement was wholly unrelated to his duties on behalf of the Fund."
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