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.