Marit Stiles

The Ford government buried amendments inside the 2026 Budget Bill that would permanently exempt the Premier, all cabinet ministers, and their staff from freedom-of-information requests — retroactive to 1988 — nullifying every pending FOI request and active court case, including those seeking Doug Ford's personal cellphone records and Greenbelt-related emails. Ontario's own privacy watchdog publicly called three of Ford's stated justifications factually incorrect.

Stiles led the NDP's opposition to the FIPPA overhaul in the legislature. She stated: "The only person Doug Ford is protecting is himself" and "These changes are about one thing: giving Doug Ford more power to hide their shady dealings from the public."

As grocery giants install AI-powered pricing systems that charge different customers different prices for the same food, Doug Ford told Ontarians he won't ban it — calling regulation "socialism" the same week his caucus voted down a consumer protection motion, while lobbyists for Loblaws enjoy direct access to his government.

Stiles introduced the April 20, 2026 non-binding motion calling for a ban on grocery surveillance pricing. The motion was supported by 75,000 constituent emails and voted down 58-35 by Ford's Conservative caucus, with Ford and 20 other Conservatives absent. She said: "Families across Ontario are hurting under the pressure of rising food prices, and now, grocery giants and tech companies are teaming up to use people's data against them."

Over 157 inmates were improperly released from Ontario's dangerously overcrowded provincial jails between 2021 and 2025 — six remain at large as of April 2026. Solicitor General Michael Kerzner told the legislature they were all caught "instantaneously." Global News FOI documents proved that was false. Kerzner apologized "unreservedly." At the same Maplehurst facility running at 175% capacity, correctional officers zip-tied 200 inmates in their underwear for two days — and a judge stayed first-degree murder charges as a result.

Stiles responded to the Kerzner misleading-legislature admission by stating he had "lied to the people of Ontario," calling for accountability from the Premier. She has consistently criticized the Ford government's underfunding of the court system and its "tough on crime" rhetoric in the context of record Jordan stays and overcrowded jails.

Doug Ford's government introduced Bill 110 to seize all of Little Norway Park — a children's playground and waterfront green space beside two schools and a daycare — to expand Billy Bishop Airport into a jet hub, with no plan, no environmental assessment, and no guarantee the park won't become a parking lot.

As NDP leader, Stiles called the Ford government's Billy Bishop expansion plans "reckless" and opposed Bill 110 in the legislature. NDP MPPs characterized the Toronto Islands land grab as "another real estate scam."

A company co-led by Ford's close friend and PC Party fundraiser Carmine Nigro extracted an undisclosed settlement from Ontario's public transit agency after claiming $500 million for air rights it never fully paid for — and the Ford government refuses to say how much taxpayers owe.

Raised the original conflict-of-interest concern about Carmine Nigro's simultaneous roles as LCBO chair and PC Party fundraiser — the appointments that Nigro held while Craft Kingsmen pursued its $492.9M Metrolinx claim.

The Ford government secretly ordered Ontario civil servants to halt all freedom-of-information request processing for more than a week in May 2026, without notifying the province's Information and Privacy Commissioner — then Ford dismissed public concern by calling critics "the media party," despite his own government's data showing 96% of FOI requestors are not media.

As NDP Leader, Stiles publicly challenged the Ford government over the FOI freeze, connecting it to the broader pattern of the government's dismantling of transparency mechanisms — including the FIPPA overhaul that passed the month before. She called for accountability over a freeze that affected thousands of pending public records requests.

On June 23, 2026, two Progressive Conservative MPPs — including Attorney General Doug Downey and Scarborough MPP David Smith — posted an aerial photo of Ford Fest that appeared to have been edited to remove the purple shirts of roughly 850 striking community and social-service workers, making the crowd look uniformly blue with PC supporters. The Premier's Office denied doctoring the image, calling the change routine "colour correction."

As Ontario NDP leader, Stiles was among the opposition critics who slammed the Ford government over the edited Ford Fest photo that appeared to erase striking workers from the crowd.

Metrolinx's draft annual report quietly discloses that the agency is writing off $504 million spent on Union Station signalling work begun in 2013 — work it paused in 2023 after discovering it was incompatible with the GO Expansion program it was meant to serve.

NDP leader who wrote to the Auditor General on April 2, 2026, requesting a value-for-money audit of Metrolinx following the $504 million GO Expansion write-off.

Ford's ministry wrote it down in 2024: the 1.5-million-homes promise won't be met. They kept campaigning on it anyway.

As Ontario NDP leader, Stiles said the Ford government has "given up on fixing the housing crisis" after it quietly abandoned its pledge to build 1.5 million homes by 2031.

Tourism Minister Stan Cho resigned from Doug Ford's cabinet after billing taxpayers $16,203 for downtown Toronto hotel stays despite living 6 km from Queen's Park — plus nearly $100,000 in riding-funded meals over three years — as reporting revealed a dozen-plus PC MPPs had similarly billed $120,000+ combined since 2023, splitting the caucus over whether they were following internal government instructions all along.

Ontario NDP Leader; criticized the hotel expenses given Cho had access to a government vehicle and driver.

Brampton East MPP Hardeep Grewal is facing two separate watchdog complaints: an Integrity Commissioner probe into whether he funneled taxpayer-funded constituency ad money to his father's newspaper, the Punjabi Post, and an Elections Ontario complaint alleging undeclared 2022 campaign ads in the same paper, some possibly placed during an election blackout.

Ontario NDP Leader; filed both the Integrity Commissioner complaint (July 21) and the Elections Ontario complaint (July 23) against Grewal.

After losing in court twice over his personal cellphone records, Doug Ford moved to retroactively rewrite Ontario's Freedom of Information law — exempting the Premier, all cabinet ministers, and their offices from public scrutiny, wiping out 38 years of access rights in one legislative stroke.

Ontario NDP Leader; called Ford's justifications 'ridiculous excuses' and said the law change suggests he has 'something to hide.'

The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario paid roughly $3,000 to send an operative to two Jamaican resorts in December 2023 to surveil newly elected Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie on a private vacation. Doug Ford said he learned of it only on August 12, 2026, did not approve of it, and then defended it as "politics."

Ontario NDP leader; called the operation "creepy Trump-style politics" and said "heads need to roll."

On August 20, 2026 the WSIB announced 466 job cuts and the closure of nine branch offices — Sudbury, Windsor, Thunder Bay, St. Catharines, Guelph, Sault Ste. Marie, Kingston, North Bay and Timmins — with a further 155 Waterloo positions to go within a year, and nearly 200 of the losses concentrated in northern Ontario. The cuts came 15 days after Treasury Board President Peter Bethlenfalvy ordered "efficiency and productivity" reviews of eight public agencies, WSIB included, with savings targets given to the agencies but never disclosed publicly.

NDP leader; critic of the government agency review process that preceded the WSIB cuts.

A decision note obtained by CBC News through a freedom of information request shows Premier Doug Ford's March 2026 trade trip to Texas cost taxpayers $93,179 — including a two-day "advance mission" to finalize logistics — while the document contained no breakdown of that figure and the premier's office did not provide one when CBC asked. Ford's expected meeting with Texas Governor Greg Abbott never happened.

As Leader of the Ontario NDP, Stiles said she had not seen "any indication" that Ford's March 2026 Texas trade mission brought in "any investment." Responding to the freedom of information disclosure that the trip cost $93,179, she said: "It sounds like the most expensive trip to Texas I've ever heard of."

A Trillium review found at least five government announcements since mid-May 2026 where Premier Doug Ford appeared at official "Protect Ontario" podiums without any media advisory being issued. Reporters only learned the events had happened once photos and videos were posted online.

NDP Leader who said Ford is "running scared" after he "repeatedly abused the taxpayer dollar," and that "Doug Ford doesn't want to be asked the difficult questions, not by the media and not by the opposition." Her criticism followed the Trillium finding of at least five unadvertised announcements since mid-May 2026, during a legislature break that began June 2, 2026.

The Ford government has spent $452 million in taxpayer-funded advertising since 2018 — repeatedly refusing to disclose campaign costs until forced by FOI — while the Auditor General found 38% of spending was designed to promote the governing party, and the firm behind the most controversial ad is run by Doug Ford's campaign manager's brother-in-law.

Stiles has said the government is "(lighting) tax dollars on fire to gaslight the people of Ontario," responding to FOI'd records showing more than $77M in 2025-26 government advertising across the ministries disclosed so far.

Ontario's Auditor General found that $750 million in Skills Development Fund grants were awarded in a process that was "not fair, transparent or accountable." Ford's own campaign manager Kory Teneycke runs a lobbying firm whose clients received over $100 million — nearly 3x any other firm. The Premier's nephew's former chief of staff registered as a lobbyist immediately after leaving the Premier's office, and his clients received grants. Labour Minister David Piccini's office overrode civil servants' recommendations in over half of cases reviewed.

Responding to David Piccini's move to Infrastructure in the September 10, 2026 shuffle, Stiles said: "Instead of accountability, the premier just rewarded him with another job… His track record shows he can't be trusted with public dollars and contracts."

Ontario now routes elementary teachers' $750 classroom supply allowance through a single Staples portal, which The Trillium reports is a $66 million program. Since it launched on Sept. 1, teachers have reported prices above what their boards paid before, orders stuck without shipping details, and some teachers have been told they cannot get full access until Oct. 9.

The NDP Leader said Staples is "exploiting the hell out of it" (The Trillium) and cited a "$60 million" contract (CBC).