Ontario's big city mayors knew Canada was grappling with an immigration crisis; they just didn't have the courage to say it out loud.

More than 100 pages of WhatsApp messages, spanning roughly 18 months and released through freedom of information request, show the mayors privately discussing the strain of mass immigration, refugee intake and homelessness on their cities. The logs were provided to Juno News by one of the applicants.

Sheila Gunn Reid and Lise Merle went through them on Tuesday's Rebel Roundup.

Several mayors described conversations with then-immigration minister Sean Fraser, who allegedly indicated there would be no new help beyond "existing federal dollars and programs in the medium term."

A Niagara representative wrote that a refugee surge was straining already-full shelters. Ajax Mayor Shaun Collier described a "flood" of asylum seekers, with more than 200 arriving in his city in two weeks. 

"Ottawa broke the housing market," said Oakville Mayor Rob Burton.

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Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe complained that municipalities weren't even consulted on immigration and refugee targets. When Premier Doug Ford said Ontario was pouring money into shelters, Burton said that was news to Halton, and St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe joked that Niagara would also like to know where the money spigot was.

"All of this should not be news to any of us," Sheila said of Rebel News viewers. "But why didn't you speak up publicly about this, guys?"

That's the real scandal, replied Lise said. "Had you guys all had a tiny bit of bravery, were able to bury your cowardice, we maybe could have turned this back," she said. 

Sheila agreed, saying that if mayors had warned voters at the time, "I think there could have been a different election outcome."

Lise also noticed what the mayors focused on. Rather than standing up for residents, they held out their hands to Ottawa. "They wanted to know where the money spigots were," she said. "And I'm saying, why don't you turn off the people spigot? That is a self-correcting problem." 

Her advice to Canadians: file freedom of information requests for your own mayor's messages. "Anybody in the country can do this," she said.

Sheila is doing exactly that. She teased an upcoming report on internal Edmonton police communications about its since-deleted hate crimes video, which drew on public comments, including calls to "deport them," as examples of hate. Staff were thrilled when it launched. "They thought they did good," she said.

Rebel Roundup airs Monday through Friday at 11 a.m. MT / 1 p.m. ET.