mammoliti-leaflet_thumb
mammoliti-leaflet_thumb This article is more than 5 years old
News

Toronto Councillor’s Campaign Accused of Stealing Leaflets Criticizing Him For Not Showing Up To Work

Photos show Giorgio Mammoliti’s campaign workers fishing through voters’ mailboxes

Toronto city council candidate Giorgio Mammoliti’s campaign appears to have been caught red-handed stealing leaflets from the mailboxes of his own constituents.

Photos taken Sunday afternoon appear to show Mammoliti’s campaign workers fishing through voters’ mailboxes and removing leaflets criticizing the incumbent city councillor’s attendance record – the worst on Toronto city council.

Helen Kennedy, a candidate for school trustee in the Toronto District School Board’s Ward 4, told PressProgress she was driving down a residential street getting ready to canvas when she spotted a “woman going up the driveways and removing something from the mailboxes.”

Kennedy followed the woman and snapped photos, later tweeting that she “caught this woman stealing people’s mail – the Progress Toronto ‘no Mammoliti’ leaflet!”

A closer look at the photos back up Kennedy’s allegation: the photos show a woman fishing through a residential mailbox and walking away with leaflets produced by Progress Toronto, an organization working to support progressive candidates across Toronto for city council.

Kennedy said the woman was holding “multiple copies” of a Progress Toronto leaflet calling attention to Mammoliti’s poor attendance record.

According to an analysis by the Toronto Star, Mammoliti had the worst attendance record on city council in 2018, missing nearly half of all votes (48.7%).

Between 2014 and 2018, Mammoliti missed 43.1% of all votes, which is also the worst record on city council since the last municipal election.

“Some of the neighbours gathered as I confronted the woman,” Kennedy said. “I told them that she was stealing things from their mailboxes.”

That’s when a man “dressed in a blue ‘Team Mammoliti’ jacket” who was putting up Mammoliti election signs nearby intervened and denied she was stealing mail.

“He argued that she was distributing leaflets,” Kennedy said.

The situation quickly escalated and Mammoliti’s campaign worker began yelling at the school board candidate and her partner. As neighbours came out of their homes to see what the commotion was about, Kennedy said “the man returned to his car” and “the woman started walking up the street.”

Kennedy’s partner followed the Honda further down the street and saw the woman hop inside the man’s car. The two drove away together.

Kennedy said she is “asking all candidates and their campaign teams in Ward 7 to stay vigilant and report further illegal and illegitimate campaign tactics from the Mammoliti campaign.”

She added there is “no doubt” in her mind Mammoliti would have been likely to direct his campaign workers to hunt down and remove the leaflets

“I’ve lived in this ward for over 50 years,” Kennedy said. “I’m used to Mammoliti’s dirty politics.”

Mammoliti’s campaign did not reply to a request for comment from PressProgress.

 

Our journalism is powered by readers like you.

We’re an award-winning non-profit news organization that covers topics like social and economic inequality, big business and labour, and right-wing extremism.

Help us build so we can bring to light stories that don’t get the attention they deserve from Canada’s big corporate media outlets.

 

Donate
PressProgress
PressProgress is an award-winning non-profit news organization focused on uncovering and unpacking the news through original investigative and explanatory journalism.

Most Shared

thumb-2024-10-011-anthony-koch News

Take Back Alberta Leaders are Training ‘Scrutineers’ to Infiltrate Campaigns and Act as ‘Security’ on Voting Day

Related Stories

News

BC Conservatives Under Fire Over Spokesperson Known for Insults, Slurs and Online Abuse

View the post
News

Lululemon Founder Erects Billboard Outside Vancouver Mansion Denouncing BC NDP as ‘Communists’

View the post
News

BC Conservatives Threaten Use of Notwithstanding Clause If Courts Rule Involuntary Care Violates Human Rights

View the post
Our free email newsletter delivers award-winning journalism directly to your inbox.
Get Canadian Investigative News You Won't Find in Corporate Newspapers.
Our free email newsletter delivers award-winning journalism to your inbox.
Get Canadian Investigative News You Won't Find in Corporate Newspapers.