Insiders, government appointees also attended Doug Ford’s daughter’s wedding

One guest is a lobbyist now working for a company pushing to build on Greenbelt land. Another guest received a provincial appointment months later.

Thestar.com
Feb. 24, 2023
Noor Javed
Rachel Mendleson
Charlie Pinkerton

Provincial appointees and a lobbyist joined prominent developers as guests at the wedding of Premier Doug Ford’s daughter, according to a seating chart of the celebration.

One guest was appointed by Ford’s cabinet to sit on a provincial agency two months after sharing a table with the premier at the September wedding.

Another guest was a lobbyist who is now working for a developer pushing the province to redesignate Greenbelt land to build homes.

In recent days, Premier Doug Ford has come under fire after it was revealed that the wedding guestlist included developers who have benefitted from recent government decisions. Ford has pushed back against criticism, asserting that guests at wedding festivities were personal friends, invited to a family celebration unrelated to politics.

On Tuesday, the premier said “regarding my family matters, my family is separate from the political process. They aren’t involved.”

Developer Mario Cortellucci speaks at a 2019 gala as Premier Doug Ford and other dignitaries watch. Cortellucci is one of three developers who have benefitted from recent Ford government decisions and who attended the September wedding of one of Ford's daughters.

However, the reception seating chart shows crossover between the personal and political in Ford’s Ontario that extends beyond developers, to provincial appointees and to those who occupy positions aimed at influencing government. The premier’s office did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Ford has said he’s been cleared by Ontario’s integrity commissioner of wrongdoing, based on information that his office provided in January, including that the premier had “no knowledge of gifts given” to his daughter and son-in-law and that no government business was discussed at the wedding events months earlier.

Ford sought the integrity commissioner’s opinion on the attendance of six developers, whose names were raised in questions from a reporter to the premier’s office, a spokesperson for the commissioner told the Star.

An MPP asking the integrity commissioner for an opinion is different from an official investigation, which can only be started by a complaint by another MPP.

Not included among the names sent to the commissioner was Madeleine Bodenstein, a realtor and funeral director, whose appointment was made after the wedding, where she was sitting at the same table as the premier, according to the seating chart.

Bodenstein didn’t respond to numerous requests for comment. In December, she was named to the Death Investigation Oversight Council, an independent advisory body created to safeguard the integrity of the province’s death investigation system. The council did not respond to questions from the Star. Membership on the council is part-time, and pays up to $200 per day.

Developer Carmine Nigro shared a table with Doug Ford at the premier's daughter's September wedding, according to the seating chart.

As the Star has previously reported, two other guests who sat at Ford’s table have also received provincial appointments since Ford took office.

Developer Mario Cortellucci, president of Cortel Group, was appointed to the York Region Police Services Board in October for a three-year term.

Carmine Nigro, president and CEO of Craft Development Corp, is part-time chair of the LCBO, chair of the Ontario Place Corporation, and a part-time member of Invest Ontario, which seeks investments and new revenue streams for the province. Their names were among those Ford forwarded to the integrity commissioner.

Lobbyist attendee now works for developer eyeing Greenbelt

Nico Fidani-Diker, who now lobbies for Fieldgate Land Development Ltd., White Owl Properties Ltd., and more than five other development companies or consortiums, was not included on that list, according to a spokesperson for the commissioner. Responding to questions from the Star about the wedding and stag-and-doe, Fidani-Diker said he attended these “private and personal events as a friend of the bride.” He said he “did not discuss any government business with anyone while I was there.”

Fieldgate has benefited from zoning orders to fast-track development approvals along the proposed route of the controversial Hwy. 413, a Star investigation has previously found. White Owl is pushing for the province to redesignate environmentally sensitive land in the Oak Ridges Moraine for development.

Fidani-Diker previously worked as a political staffer for Premier Ford and his late brother Rob.

“I take my compliance obligations seriously, and have carefully complied with applicable rules,” Fidani-Diker said, adding that he is “regularly in touch with the Integrity Commissioner’s Office in regard to our lobbying registrations.”

Fidani-Diker started the lobbying firm ONPoint Strategy Group in June 2022, according to corporate records. He first registered to lobby in Ontario on Sept. 4, a few weeks before Ford’s daughter’s wedding, and added Fieldgate and White Owl to his client roster last month, the provincial lobbyist registry shows.

His lobbying on behalf of both developers aims to “demonstrate the economic and social benefits of proposed development sites and work with public office holders to move projects forward in a timely manner,” according to the registry.

The premier’s office is among Fidani-Diker’s lobbying targets.

Reported first by the Narwhal on Tuesday, White Owl is seeking permission from the province to allow development on 160 acres of Greenbelt land in Richmond Hill -- even though there is no formal mechanism to do so.

In filings on the provincial Environmental Registry website posted Dec. 2, White Owl’s president proposed a tentative plan that includes up to 1,000 to 2,000 low- or medium-density homes, a school, a park, and a commercial area on the protected land. In exchange, it is offering 720 acres of land it owns elsewhere on the Oak Ridges Moraine -- which already can’t be developed -- to be protected for “conservation purposes.”

In its supporting documents, the company said it was “not proposing removal of any lands from the Greenbelt,” but proposing a way for the land, which has the protected “countryside” designation in the Oak Ridges Moraine, to be developed.

Some guests’ names not shared with integrity commissioner

Premier Doug Ford appointed longtime family friend and Toronto police superintendent Ron Taverner to become OPP commissioner in November 2018.

Taverner bowed out of the appointment process after it was revealed that he did not meet the original requirements for the job posting.

Another longtime friend of Ford and wedding guest was Toronto police Supt. Ron Taverner, according to a picture of the seating chart, which lists about 250 attendees.

Ford was criticized for jeopardizing the independence of the country’s second largest police force when his government appointed Taverner in late 2018 to be the next chief of the Ontario Provincial Police.

Taverner, a veteran officer who leads the force’s Etobicoke divisions, bowed out of the appointment process after it was revealed that he did not meet the original requirements for the job posting, and the job qualifications were lowered to attract a wider field of candidates. In 2019, the integrity commissioner found that Ford did not break any rules around Taverner’s appointment, but that the recruitment process was flawed.

Taverner did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Amin Massoudi, a long-time Ford family friend and staffer, who was also chair of the PC 2022 Election campaign and the former principal secretary to the premier, was also at the wedding, the seating chart shows.

According to corporate records, Massoudi is a director of Atlas Strategic Advisors Inc., which began lobbying and consulting in November 2022, the lobbyist registry shows (Massoudi himself is not a registered lobbyist).

Amin Massoudi, a long-time Ford family friend and staffer, with Premier Doug Ford.

Atlas Strategic Advisors’ clients include a virtual health-care company and a long-term care facility.

Massoudi was not on the list of attendees that the premier gave to the integrity commissioner in January.

Ford says wedding was a private event with friends

Earlier this month, the Star reported on how three developers who stand to benefit from recent provincial decisions attended Ford’s daughter’s wedding.

Cortellucci’s family’s companies have benefited from at least four minister’s zoning orders that fast-track development since Ford came into power.

Nigro’s Craft Development Corp. received a zoning order for a project in Lindsay to build 500 homes and a commercial building.

The seating chart also includes Shakir Rehmatullah, CEO of Flato, who has land in Markham that was removed from the Greenbelt to be developed, and who has received at least four zoning orders to expedite his development projects since 2018.

None of those three developers had responded to questions from the Star.

As Global News first reported, Ford sought advice from the integrity commissioner months after his daughter’s wedding events, including the wedding and stag-and-doe, after being asked about developers who attended the festivities. A stag-and-doe is a pre-wedding event thrown to help the couple fundraise for their wedding.

When an MPP asks Ontario’s integrity commissioner for advice, the commissioner considers information the MPP discloses and provides them an opinion on whether they violated the province’s Members’ Integrity Act.

Ford’s relationship with developers ‘crossed the line’

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles has said her party will file a complaint with the integrity commissioner based on "mounting evidence that Ford's cozy relationship with developers has crossed the line."

NDP Leader Marit Stiles filed a complaint to the integrity commissioner on Thursday morning, asking J. David Wake to launch a formal investigation into “whether the Premier has acted improperly.”

In her complaint letter, Stiles writes that “concerning details have come to light about developers and lobbyists with donor and political ties to Premier Doug Ford and the Ontario PC Party being invited to participate in two Ford family events. The premier is obligated to avoid conflict and the appearance of conflict.”

Government House Leader Paul Calandra dismissed Stiles’s remarks in the legislature on Thursday as “a drive by smear.”

In question period on Wednesday, Stiles said “it goes without saying” that a premier is “held to a higher standard than the average father of the bride.”

“Especially when the guest list includes lobbyists and developers who have since received suspiciously favourable changes to the law,” Stiles added.

Phil Aiello, who sat at the premier’s table at the wedding and attended the stag party at Ford’s house a month earlier, said, “All the criticisms are completely unfounded.”

Aiello, whose banquet halls in Vaughan have hosted fundraisers for the Progressive Conservative party, as well as events for other political parties, said he has been a longtime friend of Ford’s.

“Everybody at (the wedding) was a respected friend of the family,” he said.

Ford’s acknowledgment at a press conference in Brampton last week that attendees at the Aug. 11 stag-and-doe party paid a $150-entrance fee has raised further questions.

“In my opinion, it’s absolutely ridiculous about a $150 stag, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Ford said while responding to a reporter’s question about the event last week.

Premier Doug Ford, seen here in 2012 when he was a Toronto councillor, welcomes guests to a backyard party at a Ford family home. A $150-per-ticket stag party was held in the premier’s backyard.

Aiello, who runs Fontana Gardens in Vaughan, defended Ford’s decision to host the stag-and-doe party as “humble” and said that the $150 ticket price is standard.

“It’s very expensive to have a wedding today,” he said. “Whatever money is made at the stag definitely helps out the bride and groom with their wedding day and their future together.”

When asked about the $150 admission fee, the integrity commissioner’s office said it “will not be providing further information beyond what was initially issued.”

The commissioner’s office also wouldn’t say whether an admission fee counts as a gift.