Cheese slipped off the cracker: Ford rips Ontario school trustees for Italy trip [Video]

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is ripping into a group of school trustees who are under fire for expensing a $145,000 summertime Italy trip.

On Friday, Ford took aim at the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board (BHNCDSB) trustees, who have vowed to repay their expenses after news of their visit surfaced earlier this month.

“The cheese slipped off the cracker with these guys,” Ford said.

“Like, I just don’t get it.”

The BHNCDSB has been under fire following an Oct. 15 report in the Brantford Expositor that revealed four trustees went on a $45,000 week-long trip to Italy in July to buy $100,000 worth of artwork for a new high school under construction in Brantford, which is near Hamilton.

Rick Petrella, chair of the BHNCDSB, told the Expositor the artwork, which includes life-sized, hand-painted wooden statues of St. Padre Pio and the Virgin Mary, was part of a plan to …