But Can We Count On The Mounties to Get to the Bottom of this Affair?
A News Commentary by Doug Draper followed by a Statements from Ontario’s NDP and Liberal Party Leaders
Posted August 12th, 2024 on Niagara At Large
One of many Niagara citizens who joined countless thousands of residents across Ontario over the past years to stop the Ford government’s scheme to give away pieces of our Greenbelt to Premier Doug Ford’s friends in the development industry. File photo by Doug Draper
The recent news that Canada’s Mounties (RCMP) are actively interviewing individuals over the Greenbelt scandal surrounding Ontario’s Ford government is no doubt receiving applause from residents across Niagara and the other regions of the province who are opposed to seeing any more pieces of these precious green lands paved over for sprawling development.
I wish I could applaud to that news too, but I can’t. And here is why.
First, I have little faith in the RCMP getting to the bottom of who was involved in this scandal, let alone making any charges it may dish out stick.
From the 1985 Air India bombing where a bomb planted all on Canadian soil killed all 329 people aboard a commercial jet flying over the Atlantic Ocean, to a long list of white collar wrongdoing committed across this country, the Mounties, unlike their FBI counterparts in the United States, have had a pretty poor record of ‘getting their man’.
I can’t count the number of times that individuals or corporations committing the same offences in Canada that they were south of the border were charged and convicted in the United States before any charges were slapped on them here, if they were ever charged here at all.
A cartoon depiction of fictitious Mountie Dudley Do-Right riding backwards on his horse he named ‘Horse’ in a feeble search for wrong doers.
So when I hear news that the RCMP is investigating a possible crime, I can’t help but think of Dudley Do-Right, a Mountie of cartoon fame, saddled backwards on his steed while his horse, named ‘Horse’, is charging off in the opposite direction.
Second, it remains to be seen how many of the possible witnesses the RCMP is interviewing are former staff in the offices of Premier Doug Ford and former Ontario Housing Minister Steve Clark, who (n Clark’s case) resigned from cabinet in the wake of the scandal.
At least some of these former staff members received buy-out packed in the range of six figures and Ford has since appointed Clark as his government’s House Leader. That could leave one wondering how much individuals who have been so handsomely rewarded will co-operate in any police investigation.
I hope that I am proven wrong in my skepticism about all of this and if I am, I will be pleased to admit it.
Shown here in shades of green, Ontario’s world-renown Greenbelt runs above urban communities in the Greater Toronto Area and down around Lake Ontario through the north end of Niagara. The Ford government and its friends in the development industry have had their sights on paving over what Doug Ford once described as “chunk of it.”
But whether I’ m proven wrong or not, we still have those bombshell reports released in 2023 by the Ontario Auditor General’s and Ombudsman’s Offices, detailing the giveaway of parcels of our precious Greenbelt lands under the Ford government to developers friendly to that same government.
We also have a provincial election scheduled for June 2026 or sooner, if Ford chooses an earlier date, that all Ontarians who care about preserving what is left of our province’s farmlands, woodlands and wetlands and the rich biodiversity they support can use to turf this government out of power.
Meanwhile, here are statements on this topic circulated late last week by Ontario’s NDP Official Opposition Party Leader Marit Stiles and Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie –
STATEMENT, Aug. 9, 2024 from Marit Stiles: ‘You deserve a government that isn’t under criminal investigation’
Backroom deals that benefit wealthy developers are still leading government policy
Ontario NDP Official Opposition Leader Marit Stiles
QUEEN’S PARK–Marit Stiles, Ontario NDP leader, issued the following statement in response to reports the RCMP has begun interviewing witnesses in its investigation into the Ford government’s decision to carve up the Greenbelt:
“You deserve a government that tells the truth. That cares about regular people and does right by them. A government that isn’t under criminal investigation.
One year after the Auditor General’s revelations about Ford’s Greenbelt grab, he hasn’t learned a thing. The backroom deals that benefit wealthy developers are still leading government policy, while ordinary working people struggle to get by.
I’m fighting to give people a government you can actually trust, to be a premier that doesn’t take advantage of public office but works every day to make your life easier.”
One of many citizen rallies held in Niagara in support of the Greenbelt – this one in December 2022 in front of a hall in Pelham where Ford government Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff was meeting with constituents. file photo by Doug Draper
A Statement from Ontario Liberal Party Leader Bonnie Crombie on Doug Ford’s Criminal RCMP Investigation – August 9, 2024
Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie
TORONTO, ON – Bonnie Crombie, Leader of Ontario’s Liberals, released the following statement:
“Doug Ford is so obsessed with helping his rich friends and insiders that it has come to this.
“The RCMP is inside the Premier’s office investigating just how far Ford and his government were willing to go to give away the Greenbelt and help their friends make off with $8.3 billion.
“This is a sad day for the people of Ontario, who deserve and need so much more than a government embroiled in criminal investigation.
“The people of this province need to know exactly how Doug Ford was involved in this scandal. Ontario deserves better.”
Finally from Doug Draper at Niagara At Large, here is Doug Ford caught on tape six years ago, shortly before beoming Premier, promising a group of developers that a Ford government would parcel off “chunks” of the Greenbelt for housing –
For more news on this issue, you can click on the following links –
RCMP interviewing current and former Ford staffers as part of Greenbelt investigation (citynews.ca)
After Greenbelt scandal resignations, staffers got a full year’s pay | The Narwhal
Ontario cabinet shuffle: Lecce out of education, Clark back as House Leader (citynews.ca)
NIAGARA AT LARGE Encourages You To Join The Conversation By Sharing Your Views On This Post In The Space Following The Bernie Sanders Quote Below.
“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders
Niagara At Large 
I wish I could say that I am surprised about any of these issues. Doug Ford is a scumbag and always has been. The people of Ontario who voted Conservative and gave the Conservatives a majority government TWICE are to blame for this erosion of our greenbelt as well as so many other of our public trusts, like education and healthcare. They have made the rich much richer and the poor poorer. Shame on all of them.
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If you look up greed and corruption in the dictionary I’m sure you will find Dougie Ford’s photo. I think criminals of all shapes and sizes in our country get slaps on the wrists and never pay the consequences they deserve. That is true, especially of white collar crimes, supposedly “victimless”, that destroy peoples’ lives. The RCMP has become a paper tiger.
Once the Greenbelt is gone, just like the many other precious assets that belong to ALL of us, it is gone forever. On your own site, “before and after” photos of forests, ploughed into the ground for expensive but poorly made McMansions that no one can afford, show the true results of greed.
People who voted for Ford were not paying attention. Bad enough once, but twice? Our electoral system really needs an overhaul to be truly representative. The seat allocation was 76 out of 124 seats (over 60%) but the voter turnout alone was just over 50%. That is our fault. If you don’t inform yourself or don’t vote at all you get what you deserve. Unfortunately we ALL get what those lackadaisical people deserve.
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