Government by Gmail: Doug Ford’s chief of staff used private email for ‘political discussions’

globalnews.ca:

The Chief of Staff to Ontario Premier Doug Ford routinely relied on a personal email address to facilitate government-related communications, Global News has learned, despite his assertions to Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner that government work is always conducted using an official email address.

Global News has viewed dozens of emails sent to and received from Patrick Sackville using a Gmail account in which documents were shared, stakeholder’s concerns were raised and communications strategies, on behalf of the Premier’s Office, were crafted.

Those emails stand in direct contradiction to what Sackville told Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake: “I do not conduct government business on my personal e-mail.”

In a letter to the commissioner earlier this year, Sackville also suggested it would be “inappropriate” to mix government and personal email and that he “only conduct(s) government business on my Premier’s Office e-mail address.”

While Sackville did not respond to a request for comment, a spokesperson for the Premier’s Office confirmed that staff use non-government platforms for government-related business.

“Google products like Google Docs have at times been used to support collaboration on materials or for political discussions,” the spokesperson told Global News in a statement.

“These materials have corresponding records on government networks and decisions or direction that inform government business are always provided through government networks, through government email and during official government briefings.”

Political critics say the emails raise new questions about whether the Ford government compartmentalizes information to keep it out of the public view and whether Sackville has access to other