Ontario's Premier Accountability Dashboard · Queen's Park Watch
Stephen Crawford
Ontario Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery
Ontario Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement. In March 2026, Crawford announced legislation to retroactively exempt the Premier's office, Cabinet ministers, and parliamentary assistants from Ontario's Freedom of Information law — dating back to 1988 — effectively nullifying two court-upheld IPC orders requiring disclosure of Ford's personal cellphone call logs. IPC Commissioner Patricia Kosseim called the amendment "alarming" and said it was "about hiding government-related business to evade public accountability."
Connected Scandals
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.
Tabled the FIPPA amendments in March 2026 that would retroactively exempt the Premier's office from FOI law — wiping out 38 years of access rights in direct response to the government losing two court challenges over Ford's cellphone records. Crawford's public justification was "the Westminster tradition of cabinet confidentiality."
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.
As Minister responsible for FIPPA, Crawford announced and tabled the amendments that would permanently exempt the Premier and all cabinet ministers from FOI requests, retroactive to 1988.