About This Article
Published:
Everything End the Wait Ontario has published about the Ontario Autism Program has come from documents: freedom-of-information records, Public Accounts, corporate registries, public filings. Verify it, cite it, stand behind it. That is the whole method.
This note is written to that standard, and it is written now for a reason: so that this account exists in public, with a date on it, before anyone else decides how this story gets told.
What happened
Over the past several months, in the course of my reporting on the Ontario Autism Program, I have been approached by individuals presenting themselves as having access to senior members of the Ontario government.
That is how they presented themselves to me. Whether they had that access is not a claim I am making — it is a question I am raising.
What I checked
- The registry
- Ontario law requires paid lobbyists to register in the Ontario Lobbyist Registry. The registry is public. Anyone can search it.
- What I found
- I did. At the time I searched, I found no registration corresponding to the individuals who approached me.
What I did
- I declined.
- I did not take the meeting they wanted. I did not pursue the access on offer. What I did instead was what this platform was built to do: I documented everything.
What exists
A complete record of these interactions is preserved. It is dated, it is secured, and it does not depend on anyone’s memory — including mine. Material from that record has been provided to appropriate parties.
What comes next
Further reporting will follow. It will be published here, on the record, to the same standard as everything else on this site — whether or not anyone else goes first.
What this note is not
I am naming no one. I am characterizing no one’s motives. I am alleging no offence — those determinations belong to the institutions built to make them.
But I am done waiting for someone else to start the clock. Consider it started.
End the Wait Ontario was built by a parent, for parents, on a simple premise: families waiting for autism services are owed transparency from the systems that serve them. That premise does not soften when the subject matter gets harder. It is the reason this note exists.
End the Wait Ontario publishes independent, document-based research on the Ontario Autism Program. Inquiries: via our contact form.
Evidence for this record
- Lobbyists Registration Act, 1998, S.O. 1998, c. 27, Sched.. Government of Ontario
- Ontario Lobbyists Registry (public search). Office of the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario
Related reading
The registry referred to above is public, and searching it is straightforward once you know how it works. How to check the Ontario Lobbyist Registry sets out who must register, how to search, what a result does and does not prove, and how to report information about potential non-compliance to the Integrity Commissioner.