Coun. Doug Ford kicked off his mayoral campaign Saturday afternoon for the first time since he replaced his brother on the ballot, but he is already facing questions about whether his campaign has violated privacy laws and municipal regulations.
Toronto residents have come forward to say they have received emails soliciting donations for Ford’s campaign, but they claim to have never subscribed to his campaign. They are now questioning how the councillor could have obtained their email addresses.
In between knocking on doors in Etobicoke, Ford told reporters that they would have to ask his campaign office about how those email addresses were obtained.
“That’s not my area of expertise. It’s our campaign and maybe they could answer that,” said Ford. “Fundraising is a critical part of this campaign and if anyone wants to make a donation, we’d be more than happy to have that donation.”
At the bottom of the email, there is a note advising recipients that they are receiving the email because of their “relationship with Doug Ford Campaign.”
Nick Van der Graaf, 51, is one of a number of residents who says he is “furious” about having received this email from Ford. His first and only email contact with the Ford family is when he emailed the mayor in 2012 about a council decision on not contracting out cleaning staff, he said.
“I can only presume that the mayor’s office just hands over all their email contacts because I’m suddenly on the receiving end of a fundraising email,” said Van der Graaf, who lives near Danforth Avenue and Donlands Avenue.
He added that he believes the fact that Ford has his email address is “hugely unethical.”
John Mascarin, a lawyer specializing in municipal law, said the emails from Ford’s campaign office “could potentially breach” the city’s code of conduct for council members as well as the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
“If there is personal information, you just can’t go and use that for purposes for which it wasn’t provided,” said Mascarin.
The city’s code of conduct prohibits the use of city resources for campaign-related purposes. It states:
“No member shall use the facilities, equipment, supplies, services or other resources of the City (including Councillor newsletters and websites linked through the City’s website) for any election campaign or campaign-related activities.”
Mascarin said his broad interpretation of the code of conduct is that information provided to the city by individuals for city-related business becomes the property of the city and that it would be inappropriate to use it for private uses such as campaigning. Emailing the mayor about city services would qualify as city-related business.
The Fords could be in the clear if their email communication contained language or fine print stating that citizens could be contacted for different purposes, said Mascarin. He also explained that if people had subscribed or donated to Rob Ford’s campaign, their information becomes his personal property and it could be his prerogative to share it.
This is not the first time Toronto residents have raised privacy concerns about their emails being used for purposes they didn’t recall consenting to.
When Rob Ford was campaigning for mayor before a tumour diagnosis this month forced him to withdraw from the race, it was reported that voters similarly complained about emails received from his campaign office.
In June, Doug Ford accused former mayoral candidate Karen Stintz of having illegally obtained, perhaps unknowingly, a list of email contacts belonging to the mayor. Stintz dropped out of the mayoral race in August because she had been trailing in polls.
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