EXCLUSIVE: What our city councillors discuss during group chats

Documents released to SooToday under municipal freedom-of-information law provide no evidence supporting Ward 4 Coun. Stephan Kinach's allegation of secret group-chat discussions during a recent city council meeting.

Mayor Matthew Shoemaker and four councillors responded to our request for records of all council group chats in 2024.

Most of the chat discussions released to us were little more than friendly banter, although one dealt with the recent downtown parking controversy.

There was no evidence of online chats happening during city council meetings.

The largest group chat disclosed to us had five participants.

More than that many council members discussing city business in secret would have been problematic under the city's procedural bylaw, which declares six members to constitute a quorum that must follow open-meeting rules.

SooToday is nonetheless appealing to Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner, asking for an order requiring the city to make further searches for records of council group chats.

That decision was made after we conducted a simple cross-reference audit of chat transcripts released to us and found four of the five council members who acknowledged participating in online chats failed to disclose some exchanges released by their council colleagues.

There was no evidence in the documents released to us that Mayor Shoemaker had not disclosed all council chats in which he is known to have participated.

Our appeal application said: "We believe the failure to produce responsive records by at least four councillors suggests the search was seriously inadequate."

Council members responding to our freedom-of-information request were:

• Mayor Shoemaker
• Coun. Sandra Hollingsworth
• Coun. Sonny Spina
• Coun. Lisa Vezeau-Allen
• Coun. Angela Caputo

Interestingly, Coun. Caputo submitted records of two group chats involving herself, even though she had stated to SooToday in June that "I am not and have never been part of a council group chat."

The following council members advised the city's legal department that they had no records to provide with respect to SooToday's information request:

• Coun. Luke Dufour
• Coun. Ron Zagordo
• Coun. Marchy Bruni
• Coun. Stephan Kinach
• Coun. Corey Gardi
• Coun. Matthew Scott

The following, as provided to SooToday by Jenna Ricard, solicitor/prosecutor in the city's legal department, are the group-chat messages made public:

RECORDS RECEIVED FROM MAYOR SHOEMAKER

Thurs. Apr. 18 at 4:14 p.m. [related to dinner in Garden River]

Mayor Shoemaker – Appreciate you all making the time for the workshop. It's important relationship-building.

Lisa Vezeau-Allen – Thanks Matt! I love the future potential we are nurturing.

Sonny Spina – Great days. Thank you.

Sandra Hollingsworth – Sorry I wasn't available for the whole workshop, however I seriously felt we have identified some truly good ideas!

Wed, May 22 at 2 PM

Mayor Shoemaker – Thanks for doing the greeting today. I am going to try to get back before end of the day but if I can't they may ask you to present a gift to the speakers. They have the gift. I think it's a plaque more than a gift.

Angela Caputo – No problem. Happy to do it.

Lisa Vezeau-Allen – We got this.

RECORDS RECEIVED FROM COUN. CAPUTO

Thu, Apr 18 at 4:14 PM

Matthew Shoemaker – Appreciate you all making the time for the workshop. It's important relationship-building.

Lisa Vezeau-Allen – Thanks Matt! I love the future potential we are nurturing.

Sonny Spina – Great days. Thank you.

Sandra Hollingsworth – Sorry I wasn't available for the whole workshop, however I seriously felt we have identified some truly good ideas!

Tue, Jun 25 at 1:59 PM [related to a city council meeting the night before]

Lisa Vezeau-Allen – Great job last night Sonny! You brought it all together.

Parking lot at 1:05 p.m. I was there at 11:50 a.m., tons of parking. We made the right move. Hopefully it all goes smoothly and everyone sees the benefits soon.

RECORDS RECEIVED FROM COUN. VEZEAU-ALLEN

Sun, Jan 21 at 10:45 AM

Sandra Hollingsworth – It was a quick flight. Finally awake. Hopefully we can grab a drink over the next few days. I know you guys will kick butt with your delegations. Go get them!

Sonny Spina – You too Sandra! Have a great meeting today.

Sandra Hollingsworth – Thank you.

Angela Caputo – Yes! A drink is definitely in order! Good luck in your meetings and delegations.

Sun, Jan 21 at 3:48 PM

Lisa Vezeau-Allen – We will definitely see you tomorrow, hope you are settled in. We can meet up at the Club Lounge tomorrow after all the meetings are done.

RECORDS RECEIVED FROM COUN. SPINA

Thu, Apr 18 at 4:14 PM

Matthew Shoemaker – Appreciate you all making the time for the workshop. It's important relationship-building.

Lisa Vezeau-Allen – Thanks Matt! I love the future potential we are nurturing.

Sonny Spina – Great days. Thank you.

Sandra Hollingsworth – Sorry I wasn't available for the whole workshop, however I seriously felt we have identified some truly good ideas!

RECORDS RECEIVED FROM COUN. HOLLINGSWORTH

Thu, Apr 18 at 4:14 PM

Matthew Shoemaker – Appreciate you all making the time for the workshop. It's important relationship-building.

Lisa Vezeau-Allen – Thanks Matt! I love the future potential we are nurturing.

Sonny Spina – Great days. Thank you.

Sandra Hollingsworth – Sorry I wasn't available for the whole workshop, however I seriously felt we have identified some truly good ideas!

Date unspecified - probably in January - Coun. Dufour was listed as being part of this group but did not seem to participate

Sandra Hollingsworth – Saw Lisa and Angela this morning. I hope you are both finding the delegations and conference going well.

Sonny Spina – Hey! Went well the morning so far. How's your day today?

Sandra Hollingsworth – So far we've met with the ministry of transportation.... min. of municipal affairs/housing.... heading to min of education.

Sonny Spina - Amazing. Keep up the great work. Hopefully we can connect soon.

Our newsroom reached out to the four councillors who submitted chat records, to provide an opportunity to respond to issues raised by this article.

Coun. Hollingsworth advised us that her cell phone "went into the washing machine" when she was travelling recently in Sicily.

Hollingsworth said attempts were made to find past messages on the phone but not all chats could be found.

"For your information, rice doesn’t work," she said.

"I see the conversations with Sandra," Coun. Spina said.

"Those conversations were related to my role as a District Social Services Administration Board delegate at AMO [Association of Municipalities of Ontario] last year. So they didn’t return search results for me as I was acting in my capacity of a DSSAB board member.

"The conversation with Lisa was subsequent to the council meeting that generated the freedom-of-information request. I only searched records up to and including the meeting date. That is why I missed that conversation," Spina said.