Emails obtained from Rob Ford aide Earl Provost show four-day gap when scandal broke
- wwetvsports21
- Nov 5, 2013
- 3 min read
TORONTO STAR BREAKING NEWS
By: Daniel Dale City Hall, Published on Tue Nov 05 2013
The email records of one of Mayor Rob Ford’s senior aides show a four-day gap beginning the day after the mayor’s video scandal erupted in May. The gap means either that Earl Provost, then Ford’s deputy chief of staff, sent no emails during the early phase of the scandal — or that the mayor’s office did not provide all of the emails it was obligated to provide in response to a freedom of information request.
The city’s information department relies on the office that is the subject of a request to provide the requested information. City officials do not conduct independent searches. “It’s required under the legislation that staff must provide, to the Access and Privacy Unit, the records that are being requested. And we have to trust that staff, including the mayor’s office and councillors’ staff, are providing the records as requested,” said access and privacy manager Susan Campbell.
“All staff in the mayor’s office have had training on the Act and their responsibilities under the Act.” More Video Jon Stewart ridicules Rob Ford Councillor Sarah Doucette Some councillors and political aides at Toronto’s city hall use BlackBerry Messenger, text messaging, or undisclosed personal email accounts to communicate secretly on sensitive official matters. BlackBerry messages and text messages cannot be obtained through freedom of information requests, Campbell said, because they are not captured by city servers. City business is supposed to be conducted using city email accounts.
The video that appears to show Ford smoking crack cocaine was revealed by the U.S. website Gawker at 8:28 p.m. on May 16. At 1:18 p.m. on May 17, Provost sent an email related to the business mission to Boston that was called off in the wake of the scandal. Then, according to the records provided to the Star, he went silent — apparently sending no emails at all until 12:47 p.m. May 21, when he sent a mundane one-sentence request to a city staffer. His inbox also went quiet, according to the records provided to the Star. Provost received about 30 emails on May 15, the last full day prior to the scandal. From May 17 through May 20, the provided records show a total of five emails received — and none at all on the 18th, 19th or 20th.
Provost was never a heavy emailer at any time. He sent 15 in the three days before the scandal. Provincial law does not include a penalty for refusing to disclose the existence of requested records. The Star, which does not have evidence that Provost or the mayor’s office has done anything wrong, has filed an exploratory appeal to the Information and Privacy Commissioner. Provost was elevated to chief of staff upon the May 23 firing of Mark Towhey. Provost and a Ford spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. Four months after filing its freedom of information requests, the Star has so far received the email records of only two Ford aides, Provost and former staffer Brian Johnston.
The newspaper is still awaiting the records of Towhey, Christopoulos, former communications assistant Isaac Ransom, former executive assistant Kia Nejatian, and director of operations and logistics David Price. The mayor’s office ignored for more than two months the city’s repeated requests to begin handing over documents. The current delay is because of the large number of emails city staffers now have to read, said communications chief Jackie DeSouza. “It’s definitely taking longer than usual to review and release the documents,” DeSouza said last week. “The clerk’s office is doing the best it can, but there’s such a huge volume of documents and they have to review them page by page.” Provost’s messages in May were generally terse and unremarkable.
The trove of records included only one exchange related to the scandal: a discussion about whether Ford should attend the May 22 funeral of Toronto Sun journalist Peter Worthington. “He should not go to Worthington’s funeral today,” George Christopoulos, then Ford’s press secretary, told Provost, Towhey and other staffers at 8:48 a.m. “1. His attendance will spoil the day. 2. Media will be there in full force covering it (funeral).” At 10:18 a.m., Provost responded with one sentence: “Who tells him no?” Ford attended the funeral, where he raised eyebrows by having staffers hand out “Rob Ford Mayor” refrigerator magnets to mourners.
http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2013/11/05/emails_obtained_from_rob_ford_aide_earl_provost_show_fourday_gap_when_scandal_broke.html
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