The Ford Government has taken its fight to keep the Premier’s mandate letters from going public to the Ontario Court of Appeal.

Mandate letters traditionally lay out the marching orders a premier has for each of his cabinet ministers after taking office and are routinely made public by governments across the country.

Yesterday in court, the Crown argued the letters weren’t written for public consumption and releasing them would reveal the substance of cabinet deliberations.

The Ford Government first denied releasing the records after a freedom of information request three years ago.  Ontario’s former information and privacy commissioner ordered the records released but last year Ford lost a judicial review of that decision in Divisional Court.

Ontario’s previous Liberal government under Premier Kathleen Wynne posted its mandate letters publicly on the province’s website.  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made his own mandate letters public since 2015.