Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s Chief of Staff, Patrick Sackville, reportedly used a personal Gmail account to handle government business despite telling the province’s Integrity Commissioner that he always used an official government email address for work.
The report comes from Global News, which viewed “dozens” of emails sent and received by Sackville from a private Gmail account. The emails included documents, discussions of government policy, communications strategies and more.
Global reports that Sackville doesn’t identify himself by his official title in the emails, but the recipients and content suggest the emails are connected to his role in the Ford government. All of the emails viewed by Global were sent to or received from MPPs, chiefs of staff, policy advisors, high-level employees in Ford’s office, and stakeholders.
Sackville’s emails also included many invitations to view and edit Google Slides or Docs files.
This comes after Sackville contacted Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner in December to reveal a previously undisclosed email related to the Greenbelt scandal that had been in his Gmail account since October 2022. The email was sent to Sackville by Ryan Amato, a central figure in the Greenbelt scandal, according to Global News.
However, Sackville told the commissioner at the time that he only conducts government business on his government email.
Sackville didn’t respond to Global’s request for comment, but a spokesperson for the Premier’s Office confirmed that staff use non-government platforms like Google Docs for government-related business.
Ford also told Global that staff “should be using government-issued emails, it’s simple as that.”
The Ontario NDP called for Sackville to resign or for Ford to fire him if he doesn’t resign.
Source: Global News
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
