TORONTO – Former mayoral candidate David Soknacki released hundreds of emails from within the mayor’s office Friday, alleging they prove Rob Ford’s office staff helped organize personal and campaign-related events for the mayor – something prohibited by legislation.
However, Doug Ford said Friday Soknacki’s allegation is “just not accurate.”
Some of the emails show the mayor’s abandoned YouTube show “Ford Nation” was organized through the mayor’s office.
The email was sent by Amin Massoudi, the mayor’s press secretary, to Janet Lieper, the city’s integrity commissioner, at 2:04 p.m. on February 18. He wrote that the mayor’s office will be distancing itself from the YouTube show because it will be a “campaign initiative only.”
However, Doug Ford said Friday the city staff who did help were doing so on their own time (after 4:30 p.m.) and using their own personal email.
“That’s just not accurate, you know that. That’s just the furthest from the truth. But it’s all politics. This is what happens when you stop the gravy train,” Ford told reporters at a campaign stop.
“You’re putting words into someone’s mouth and I don’t agree with that. After 4:30, I checked with HR, and anyone can work on any campaign.”
The freedom of information request made in February and paid for by donations to the Soknacki campaign – the former mayoral candidate dropped out of the race last month.
In one email to the mayor’s chief of staff and a reporter, Doug Ford writes – from his Deco labels email – that everywhere the mayor goes is a campaign stop.
Doug’s proclamation came in response to an emailed question from a Toronto Sun reporter about why the mayor was at Muzik nightclub in January.
“I can not confirm until I speak to him,” Doug wrote. “Let me assure you every stop is an election stop.”
He goes on to say he’s “sure the people that go there vote as well” and asked whether the reporter had “a problem with Muzik or the people that go there.”
Another email, this one written by the mayor’s chief of staff Dan Jacobs, referred a campaign-related email to Coun. Ford’s office, implying that’s where campaign-related emails should be sent.
There might have also been a television show about the mayor’s campaign. An email sent by one of the mayor’s policy advisors to Dan Jacobs and Massoudi talks about a television producer from Los Angeles who had an idea for “a campaign show.”
There’s no response published.
According to the Soknacki campaign website, the emails include those written by Ford’s staff but none written by the mayor himself because, “city staff informed us that the Mayor did not use his email account or government computers.”
Soknacki says on his website he made the request to demonstrate the mayor’s office was implicitly involved in his campaign – something forbidden by legislation.
Some of the documents contain the mayor’s calendar from December 2013 to February 2014. Dozens of days are empty but many include large chunks, often ranging between three and five hours, blocked off for “calls.”
The mayor’s built his career partially on a promise of always calling people back – now it seems, he may spend close to eight hours some days planning on doing just that.
More to come.
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