Posted: May 04, 2021 2:31 PM ET | Last Updated: May 4
CBC News has confirmed that the RCMP has launched an investigation into the group.(CBC)
The RCMP has launched an investigation into a number of full-page advertisements in 2020, under the name Vaughan Working Families, Ontario s New Democratic Party says.
In the ads, which appeared in three national newspapers early last year during a tense round of contract talks with provincial teachers unions, Vaughan Working Families took aim at teachers unions and expressed support for the Ford government.
The ads further suggested parents supported the government s position.
RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Dmitri Malakhov told CBC News the investigation into this matter is ongoing and but that the force would not provide any further information at this time.
The RCMP is investigating whether third-party ads backed by a prominent developer with ties to Ontario Premier Doug Ford violated election financing rules.
In February 2020, Vaughan Working Families ran full-age newspaper ads in the Toronto area attacking teachers unions, which the Ford government had locked horns with that winter. In June, Elections Ontario found that the ads had been an “apparent contravention” of election law.
The president of the corporation behind Vaughan Working Families, Vaughan Health Campus of Care, is Michael DeGasperis, a prominent developer whose ties to Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce were highlighted in a recent