Ontario Premier Doug Ford has sold the Chicago-area branch of his family’s label and packaging business, marking the end of an expansion into the U.S. spearheaded by Mr. Ford himself more than 20 years ago.last week announcing it had acquired Chicago-area-based Deco Flexible Packaging Ltd. A price was not disclosed. Ivana Yelich, a spokeswoman for the Premier, declined to comment, saying the sale was “a private matter.
Michelle Renaud, a spokeswoman for Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake, confirmed in an e-mail that the commissioner “approved Premier Ford’s instructions to the trustee in this matter.” In addition to requiring a trust, the law also forbids Mr. Ford and other members of cabinet from being an officer or a director of a company. In November, 2019, The Globe reported that the Premier was still listed as the Chicago firm’s president in corporate filings with the state of Illinois.
He had launched the firm’s U.S. expansion himself in 1999, spending much of his time there before winning a council seat in Toronto, serving while brother Rob was the city’s mayor from 2010 to 2014. The health of both the U.S. and Canadian businesses was at issue in a lawsuit filed on the eve of the 2018 election by Renata Ford, Rob Ford’s widow. She alleged that Mr. Ford and his brother Randy had been negligent managers of Deco, overseeing more than $6-million in losses from 2010-2017. The Premier denied the allegations, which have not been tested in court. Ms. Ford’s lawyers sued her in 2021 for $290,000 in unpaid legal bills.
I thought he had no control over it while he was in office
paywalled
paywalled
Oh no! No more trips to Chicago at Ontario taxpayers' expense? His house was sold under market value? Finally paying his dead drug-addict brother's wife what she was owed?
Someone greasing his palm.