The husband of an MPP appointed to support Ontario’s attorney general has sold his shares in an airline that has been accused of being part of a system that violates the rights of detainees. The airline proceeds with the Trump administration’s controversial deportation flights more than any other carrier. The office of Monica Ciriello, who is the parliamentary assistant to Ontario’s top chief legal officer, said the shares in GlobalX Airlines were sold last year as the deportation flights ramped up during the first year of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tenure, amid criticism that he owned them in the first place. “When people started being deported in these enormous numbers, was this MPP and her family thinking, ‘Wow, we’re going to make some money off this?’” said opposition NDP leader Marit Stiles. “I think we as politicians and leaders in Ontario have a responsibility to know what we are investing in. It matters to us that we’re not investing in the deportation of children, of families being separated, or anything to do, frankly, with ICE,” Stiles said, referring to the U.S.’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. In a statement to CTV News, Ciriello’s office said she was not personally involved in the purchase of the stock. “The financial holdings of my partner have no bearing on government business. The stock was purchased and sold in 2025. He solely owned the account used to purchase the stock,” the statement reads. A parliamentary assistant is an elected member of provincial parliament who can assist the minister by speaking on government bills, sitting in committees, answering questions in the house, or doing related projects. According to the ICE Flight Monitor from Human Rights First, GlobalX has handled more than 4,000 internal detainee transfers and deportation flights this year alone, amounting to nearly a third of all ICE flights. “It’s been documented that GlobalX has carried out deportations that violate court orders where people are put on board in violation of due process, separated from their families,” said Savitri Arvey, director of policy, refugee and immigrant rights at Human Rights First. In March 2025, the Trump administration sent some 200 alleged gang members to El Salvador using planes belonging to GlobalX, whose legal name is Global Crossing Airlines Inc. That was despite a court order telling the U.S. government to turn the planes around. Among the passengers was Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man the government later admitted was onboard the plane due to an administrative error. Abrego Garcia was imprisoned without trial at CECOT, a maximum security prison in El Salvador. After court battles, he returned to the U.S. months later, in June 2025. The controversial U.S. immigration enforcement flights are surging, according to Human Rights First. When Trump first took office there were 18 flights per day, but as of last month, 70 flights were leaving daily. Ciriello’s statement didn’t address exactly when the shares were sold, or for what reason. They were declared in a Members Public Disclosure Statement at the Ontario legislature as of Feb. 27, 2025, which is required for amounts higher than $2,500 if an exception is not made by the integrity commissioner. It is not clear whether any profit was made. In 2025, the stock varied in price from about US$0.71 to around $1.10 in that year, which is much lower than a peak in 2018, when it cost around $10 a unit. It’s not the first time ties to the airline have proved controversial. Last year, a board director at the Royal Ontario Museum was identified as the executive chairman of GlobalX. He subsequently resigned from the museum position. GlobalX didn’t respond to emailed questions from CTV News. The company advertises that carries out a variety of flights, and says it is the U.S.’s fastest growing charter airline. Arvey believes anyone who has holdings in GlobalX should look closely at what the company is doing. “Being a shareholder in a company that is enabling mass violations on a scale never seen before definitely raises red flags,” Arvey said.
