Despite direction by the Ontario Ombudsman to reopen forensic investigations into alleged financial wrongdoing by Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, his closest councillor ally Rowena Santos—after they cancelled the probes—and City staff, no one on council has taken action on behalf of taxpayers demanding accountability.  “There is no accountability at City Hall,” Azad Goyat, a Brampton […]

Dark clouds hovered over Queen’s Park. Thunder cracked and the sky wept as Caledon grandmother Betty de Groot and Stouffville grandmother Victoria Creese waited anxiously for what this year’s budget might bring. On March 26, they stood alongside fellow members of Grand(m)others Act To Save The Planet (GASP) with a single, urgent plea for the […]

Children are sent to school every day without any thought of systemic and prolonged harm to their long-term well being.  But in more than half of Ontario schools, it’s not just bullying or the increasingly worrying fear of an active shooter in the hallways that students have to be wary of—the safety of the water […]

Less than three months after starting the job, despite his scandal-plagued past and lack of proper experience, David Barrick is no longer the Chief Administrative Officer for the Township of South Stormont.  His abrupt departure from the small eastern Ontario township, quietly announced Tuesday, March 24, has left residents, municipal officials and media outlets familiar […]

As emails to the City, provincial ministries and the property’s owner go unanswered, residents concerned about the former General Motors property in St. Catharines say they are growing increasingly frustrated about the derelict, contaminated site next to the heart of the city.  The giant 55 acre former GM plant has been decommissioned and out of […]

After claims by a senior federal government official last week that the Indian government is no longer involved in criminal activities on Canadian soil, the RCMP has informed The Pointer of ongoing investigations involving New Delhi’s links to criminal networks here. “The RCMP has a number of ongoing investigations pertaining to this type of activity,” […]

The man who U.S. prosecutors allege conspired with an employee of the Indian government to kill the leader of a Sikh separatist movement in New York pleaded guilty on February 13 to his role in a foiled assassination plot that Canadian government officials say is part of a wider, transnational effort by the Hindu nationalist […]

Hat on. Glasses lowered. Notes in hand. Ian Sinclair moves toward the podium with the deliberate steps of a man who has come prepared, not just to speak, but to challenge. Conversations hush and heads turn, intently. In Caledon’s council chamber, his confident walk and heavy voice are a familiar sight, and a comforting one […]

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, who has left a trail of controversy on each stop of his tumultuous political career, just pushed through a now approved 2026 financial blueprint that delays critical infrastructure work, lacks spending on major city building projects like the downtown flood plan, leans heavily on new debt and relies on unsecured grant […]

In a city strapped for cash, where vital infrastructure projects have been cancelled or stalled for years under Mayor Patrick Brown, whose own spending has skyrocketed despite claims of fiscal belt tightening, the globetrotting by council members and staff continues to frustrate Brampton taxpayers forced to pay for these lavish trips. There is little public […]

Amid intense public scrutiny of the contaminated former General Motors site in St. Catharines, including concerns about an offline filtration system meant to eliminate toxic chemicals from stormwater runoff, the property owner has ordered further lab testing on the northern portion of the 55-acre property, the City has shared.  In a post on the City […]

$245 for 1,799 pages: 1,622 completely redacted—words covered by large blocks of black to hide them from the public. The Pointer is trying to uncover the details behind a $4-billion deal, the largest of its kind in the municipality’s history, between the City of Brampton and a foreign company that not many in Ontario have […]