SIX NATIONS — A proposed land developer for a housing project in Caledonia — one currently looking to make a deal with Six Nations — made a significant campaign contribution to a third-party organization ahead of the 2018 provincial elections.
Ballantry Homes is listed as one of 17 corporations, each making a $10,000 contribution to Ontario Proud — a Facebook group turned pro-Conservative political action group.
The group is a Facebook centric advertiser who used the platform to target voters with anti-Kathleen Wynne and pro-Doug Ford ads.
The organization has been criticized by progressive media as far right leaning — one Canadaland investigation going so far as to say Ontario Proud was weaponizing Facebook against Liberals.
TRT discovered a number of Facebook posts shared on the platform permitting racist comments toward indigenous people with little to no monitoring. Comments included accusations that Indigenous people in Canada were lazy, corrupt, don’t have jobs and rely on social assistance.
According to the Canadaland investigation, Ontario Proud owner Jeff Ballingall is revealed to be a former communications consultant who previously worked for Navigator as a crisis management for high profile clients like Jian Ghomeshi.
Ballantry’s contribution comes after a provincial change in 2018 banning corporations from making donations to official campaign platforms. Nearly 90% of Ontario Proud’s contributions for the provincial election campaign came from corporate sources — the largest contribution of $100,000 came from developer Mattamy Homes.
Six Nations Elected Chief Ava Hill said in an email to TRT that she was not aware of the campaign contribution made by Ballantry and forwarded the information over to the Consultation and Accommodation Team (CAP) to do due diligence on the matter. Hill said she will share details of Ballantry’s campaign contribution with Elected Council to ensure councillors are informed on the matter.
Hill told TRT final approval for the project has not been made yet, and says it will be decided following community consultations which are currently underway.
Six Nations Lands and Resources Director Lonny Bomberry told TRT background checks on potential developers seeking to engage with Six Nations is currently not the CAP team’s standard practice.
TRT contacted Ballantry Homes for comment and did not receive a response by the time this story went to press.
