Bradford, Nunziata used constituent information during recent elections: Integrity Commissioner

After two separate investigations, the Integrity Commissioner found Councillors Brad Bradford and Francis Nunziata both violated the code of conduct for members of council during recent elections.

The Integrity Commissioner said they used constituent contact information from their offices for election purposes without consent from the constituents.

An investigation into Nunziata’s use of constituent information was launched after a member of the public received an email from Nunziata’s campaign despite claiming they had never signed up for campaign updates.

The Integrity Commissioner’s report said a forensic investigation discovered a datafile the Chief of Staff had created and downloaded solely for the benefit of Councillor Nunziata’s re-election.

“While only one person complained to my Office, the information of literally thousands of people was transferred to Councillor Nunziata’s campaign using a USB drive,” read the report.

It added that Nunziata “did not know the truth” about this transfer of data until the investigation revealed it. “Councillor Nunziata accepts my findings and I understand is taking steps to apologize to her constituents and the complainant directly.”

Nunziata won the 2022 election by less than 100 votes.

Meanwhile, Bradford’s use of constituent information happened during the 2023 mayoral byelection in which he finished eighth.

Four complaints were issued to the Integrity Commissioner that launched the investigation related to a mass email that went out on May 16, 2023. The email criticized Olivia Chow’s platform and asked people to donate to his campaign.

All four people, who were all constituents of Bradford, said they had not signed up for campaign updates from Bradford, but still received the email.

Once contacted by the Integrity Commissioner, Bradford admitted his 2023 mayoral by-election campaign used constituent contact information transferred from his City Hall office.

“He advised that a former employee of his office, who volunteered on his campaign and did not name, was responsible for the error,” read the report.

It was later determined that the constituent contact information was actually transferred by the former Chief of Staff from Councillor Bradford’s City Hall office to his campaign.

“While the upload has been described as an inadvertent error by Councillor Bradford, it is evident that his office did not exercise due care in managing constituent contact information,” read the report.

Nunziata and Bradford were found to have violated Article 5, related to confidential information, and Article 7, related to election campaign work.

Article 5 refers to not allowing members to disclose or release to any unauthorized person, including a member of the public, any confidential information acquired by virtue of their office.

Article 7 refers to not using the facilities, equipment, supplies, services or other resources of the City, including member newsletters and websites linked through the City’s website, for any election campaign or campaign-related activities.

The commissioner’s reports will go before City Council Wednesday for them to adopt or reject the findings and reprimand the city councillors.

It was recommended that both councillors be reprimanded.

Councillor Bradford told CityNews he accepts the findings of the Integrity Commissioner and takes full responsibility.

“We made a mistake during the mayoral campaign when we sent out an email to residents and that was that was improper. We should not have used that list. It was a mistake,” said Bradford in an interview.

He added he personally reached out to those have complained and apologized.

“I apologize to the individuals who complained about it and anyone else who might have been adversely impacted and it’s important reminder for all of us, you know, we got to make sure that we don’t make these kinds of mistakes when when you have people’s data or email information.”

CityNews reached out to Councillor Nunziata, but has not received a response.

Meanwhile, the runner-up to Nunziata by the less than 100 votes, Chiara Padovani said finding out about the use of constituents data by her team was a “tough pill to swallow.”

“The election was so close and it really makes me wonder, what would the result of the election had have been if the councillor followed the rules during the election and during her campaign?” asked Padovani.

“With a difference of 94 votes and that amount of data that had been transferred to obviously gives her campaign quite an advantage. And I can’t speculate about if I would have won, but it definitely doesn’t build trust in the system.”

Padovani said she has been hearing from lots of people in the riding would like to see a byelection. Regardless, Padovani added she would run again.

“I’m committed to running in the next election whenever it comes. And I think people are really looking to the councillor right now to build confidence and public trust in our local democracy. And so I’m with them. One day, I hope to represent this neighborhood.”