In June 2024, Doug Ford abruptly shuttered the Ontario Science Centre, a one-of-a-kind architectural gem and heritage building that delighted generations of kids. The pretext was extremely flimsy: Ford claimed the roof was structurally unsound and the $22-40 million to fix it wasn’t worth the cost.

Structural engineers disagreed. It could use some repairs, sure, but was designed to last 200 years. Toronto has experienced several massive snowfalls since, and of course the Science Centre roof has not collapsed. It was never about money.

Keep in mind, to quit the Beer Store license one year before it was already set to expire, letting private grocery stores and retailers sell beer and coolers one year sooner, Doug Ford spent $200-million in taxpayer dollars. Concerned citizens voluntarily ponied up the millions to fix the roof, but Ford wouldn’t accept the free money.

People are upset, livid, that Ford is demolishing the Science Centre.

He plans to build a new Science Centre on the waterfront for $1.04-billion, a way larger bill than repairing the old one cost. Note, the “0.4” after the billion is what the old Science Centre cost to fix. The new Science Centre will be half the size, and have none of the iconic original’s character, whose location mattered because the building was integrated beautifully into its ravine setting. Not only did it enrich an underserved area, the trees kissed the windows just so.

I suspect something much worse is afoot and people aren’t close to angry enough. Let’s pull back and look at what’s going on here.

Transit Hijacked

In 2019, Doug Ford rerouted the designs of the subway line Toronto was planning, which he dubbed the “Ontario Line,” changing the tracks to connect Ontario Place, at one end, to the Science Centre at the other. This seemed reasonable, even to Ford critics like myself: soon, students, parents, and science enthusiasts would have easy access to the Science Centre. That area of the city is hungry for infrastructure, and it was always sad public transit didn’t connect a gem like the Science Centre properly.

From 2026’s vantage, the start and end of this subway line are altogether different.

Now, Ford’s plans for “Ontario Place” include a private mega spa owned by Therme, an extremely dubious foreign company connected to Ford insiders. In 2024, Ontario’s auditor general found several glaring red flags in the procurement process Ford actively ignored, and once made public in a scathing New York Times article, minimized. Therme got a non-competitive secret 95-year-lease forcing taxpayers to pay for, among other things, a 5-storey mega parking lot on the waterfront that’ll cost roughly $600-million. The total bill will be billions, all for a spa. I could go on about Therme, but this is only one end of the new subway and not the focus of this write up.

The other is the Science Centre subway station, which was renamed “Don Valley Station” since Ford is demolishing the actual Science Centre. With the Science Centre gone, what’s still there?

Doug Ford mega-donor De Gasperis just so happens to have bought a 60-acre housing development across the street from the original Science Centre just before Ford intervened to change the subway route. You may remember De Gasperis from the Greenbelt Scandal the RCMP has, supposedly, been criminally investigating since October 2023.

Now, De Gasperis’ development has its own personal subway stop right at its door, and bought the land right before the subway made its value soar. How convenient! The man sure keeps getting lucky.

If this was still 2018, and people knew and accepted that the Science Centre wouldn’t be there, would anyone recommend prioritizing redirecting the subway to that ravine? Or did Doug Ford merely use the Science Centre as a pretext to reroute the subway line to serve his mega donor? It certainly looks this way.  

Of course the Science Centre roof is holding strong after several historic dumps of snow, while Doug Ford abruptly paused the legislature for three months, just as he was being grilled by the opposition and the Ontario Provincial Police for distributing tens of millions to undeserving friends and insiders from the $2.2-billion Skills Development Funds, essentially a slush fund.

Doug Ford’s Cover Up

Ford is taking extreme steps to avoid transparency and run a cover up. Non-Disclosure Agreements are keeping many particulars about the Ontario Place deal secret, which is very unusual and suspicious.

On January 5, 2026, an Ontario divisional court ruled Ford’s personal phone was subject to freedom of information laws when used for government or Cabinet business. Basically, government records are obviously supposed to be public, so instead of using his government phone for government business, Doug Ford used his personal phone, then tried claiming publicizing his government dealings would compromise his personal privacy.

Ford failed to comply with the law by using his private phone for public business, then tried using this failing to cover up his tracks. Pathetic.

Global News fought Ford on this in 2022. Ford responded by challenging this ruling too. This all looks like a cover up.

So where are we? Clearly I’m suspicious and this whole thing reeks, but what other explanation could there be but mega theft? That’s not a rhetorical question. If anybody reading this has a theory please let me know in the comments. Hey, I’d love to be wrong!