Bradford says Chow's letter to the Prime Minister never mentioned crime. We read all four pages. He's right.

What he said

The 20 July video that produced Bradford’s claim that Chow declined every chance to act on public safety also contained a much narrower claim, about a specific document:

“Mayor Chow penned a four-page letter to the Prime Minister outlining her priorities. In four pages, there was not a single sentence about bail reform, bail compliance, auto theft, organized crime, community safety. You can go and read the letter.”

We took him up on that.

Finding the letter

Chow published it herself. On 14 May 2025, the day after Carney’s cabinet was sworn in, her office posted the letter to X as four page images, captioned “See my letter congratulating Prime Minister Carney and exploring more opportunities for partnership.” Each image is 612 by 792 pixels — the exact dimensions of a US Letter page — and there are four of them. It is the document he described.

We have archived all four pages here, so this check does not depend on that post remaining online.

What is in it

The letter opens by congratulating Carney on his election win and framing the moment around “Trump’s senseless trade war and a deepening affordability crisis.” It then runs four headed sections:

• Build Affordable Homes Faster — the Housing Accelerator Fund, the Apartment Construction Loan Program, housing-enabling infrastructure, rent supplements, non-market housing, and the City’s own $230 million in development-charge relief.
• Get People Moving — the Eglinton East LRT and the Waterfront East LRT, with Toronto offering to fund one third of each and asking the province and Ottawa to match.
• Fair Deal for Toronto — municipal revenue tools described as “outdated, disconnected from economic growth,” a request for a share of GST or federal gas tax, and the cost of sheltering refugees without guaranteed funding.
• Fight Rising Costs — grocery prices, food bank use, and the National School Food Program, with a target of universal morning meals by the 2026/2027 school year.

It closes: “Toronto is ready to lead. Let’s partner together and get to work.”

What is not in it

Nothing about bail. Nothing about auto theft, organized crime, or community safety. No mention of policing, the Toronto Police Service, or crime of any kind, in any of the four pages.

Bradford’s characterisation of the document is exact. He said four pages; it is four pages. He listed five subjects; none of the five appears.

The context around it

Two things are worth a reader knowing, neither of which changes the rating.

The letter was a fiscal ask, not a policy platform. It was sent to a newly sworn-in federal government about federal-municipal money: housing programs, transit cost-sharing, revenue tools, a school food program. Its four sections are all requests for federal spending. A reader could reasonably think crime belonged in a letter setting out Toronto’s priorities; a reader could just as reasonably think a funding request is a funding request.

Bail reform is federal, and Ottawa acted anyway. The Criminal Code is federal jurisdiction, and a mayor’s role on bail is advocacy rather than authority. Canada’s bail and sentencing reforms targeting extortion, auto theft and organized crime became law in June 2026, without a paragraph from Toronto’s mayor.

Why this rating and the other one differ

We rated Bradford’s broader claim from this same video — that at every opportunity Chow “decided not to” act on public safety — False, because her record includes a transit safety plan, a funded police hiring plan, two budgets, a citywide crisis service and a halving of 911 response times.

This narrower claim is a different thing, and it holds up. One letter omitting a subject is a fact about that letter. It is not evidence of a pattern of inaction, and the two ratings should not be read as contradicting each other: the specific criticism is accurate, and the general conclusion he drew from it is not.

Politicians are entitled to accurate criticism, and this is some. If Chow wanted crime raised with the Prime Minister, this was a place to raise it, and she didn’t.

The ruling

We read the document he pointed to, all four pages of it. He described it correctly.

True.