Mayor Rob Ford has been punted from office, just days short of celebrating his second anniversary of being sworn in.
Judge Charles Hackland’s eagerly awaited decision in a conflict of interest case was handed down at 10 a.m. Monday at a downtown courthouse.
About right – “T.O.’s left doing via the courts what they couldn’t do at the ballot box.”
Related: Your tax dollars at worx.
@katewerk And you’ll notice that @cbccommunity has 4 staff members to produce this crap cbc.sh/idS0J8J
— Dean Skoreyko (@bcbluecon) November 26, 2012
JMD – no, it was the job of the Chair and the City Council lawyers, who sit at all City Council meetings, to guide councillors in all legal issues.
The laws are too many, and often, unclear, to be memorized by the councillors. That’s why there is a chair; that’s why there are city lawyers who are on duty in all council meetings.
Ford may be arrogant; he may be cheap (he doesn’t charge a thing to the city) but so what? His job isn’t to please you, personally, but to deal with the finances and running of a major city. And, a major city that over the years of leftist mayors, has become owned, I repeat, owned, by the public unions.
Oh well, its only Toronto. May they all enjoy the continued decay of their infrastructure and ever-increasing crime rate.
Toronto crime continues to drop
The 2004-2011 data obtained by the Star shows a steady gradual decline in crime overall.
Vehicle theft declined by 60 per cent, breaking and entering by 37 per cent and theft over $5,000 by 39 per cent.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/crime/article/1279915–crime-statistics-show-overall-drop-in-crime-neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood-changes
The laws are too many, and often, unclear, to be memorized by the councillors.
The ethics guide is pretty simple. And here it was pretty obvious. Stop trying to put Ford on your cross he’s too fat anyways.
Ah, it’s LAS! He who never replies to requests for providing data and reason to his pompous assertions!
Please provide the specific reference to the ethics guide. And if it’s so clear, then, please tell us, LAS, why the other Councillors, and the Chair and the lawyers sitting there, and the staff who record the vote – didn’t stop Ford’s vote. If it’s so simple. And so obvious. Come on, LAS, you can do it. Substantiate your assertions.
Gosh, LAS, are you ever going to reply to my requests for substantiation for your claims? You never do. You always flee. David Southam wrote a great post in another thread, asking for substantiation of your claims. Do you plan to reply to him?
Heh, the thing about you, LAS, is that you assert without evidence, and then, you rapidly turn to personal insults.
So what if Ford is fat? Tell us, LAS, how that affects his dealing with the finances of the city.
The proponents of U.N. Agenda 21 are getting impatient and restless. They must knock off conservative leaders by any method possible.
Rob Ford will fight this and if he doesn’t win, he’ll run again.
It’s not complicated.
The man voted on an issue that yielded direct financial benefit to himself. That’s conflict of interest. No debate; it’s like a textbook definition.
If you think that’s okay, then you need to raise your ethical standards a bit.
If you don’t think that’s okay (Correct Answer!), then all this raving about left wing conspiracy is moot.
Cheers!
First, 3k is peanut change wrt the budget of a city the size of TO. (Somebody tell the judge the concept of materiality. Case should not have been heard or better yet settled out of court.)
Second, the money did not end up in Ford’s pocket. The funds were meant for helping poor kids play sports. (Isn’t that what leftists are fond of.)
Much ado about nothing. Leftists know how to turn a molehill into a mountain.
What if George Smitherman had been the mayor? Respect for the rule of law would have suddenly disappeared into a black hole.
He should have excused himself and if he had he would still be mayor. I suspect pig-headness got the better of him.
Do you plan to reply to him?
I did. Whenever I put links in my post, they get caught in the filter. Very frustrating and a little disturbing.
Rizwan: It doesn’t matter! It was a conflict of interest.
why the other Councillors, and the Chair and the lawyers sitting there, and the staff who record the vote – didn’t stop Ford’s vote.
Maybe they wanted to see him fall into his own trap. I dunno. Doesn’t really matter now does it?
“The man voted on an issue that yielded direct financial benefit to himself.”
balbulican:
No. To a CHARITY.
Would that Jean Chretien were so ethical. Chretien should have been toppled from power, as Glen Clark was.
LAS: It doesn’t seem to take much to ‘disturb’ you.
balbulican – no, there was no direct financial benefit to Ford. The conflict was that he requested donations to his football foundation, using city letterhead.
This action (not the donations) was criticized. Ford rejected the criticism, as did most of the other councillors.
Again, what you are missing is that Council votes are run, never by individual councillors but by a team. This team consists of the Chair, the staff and the lawyers. If there is any hint of a problem, the staff and lawyers sitting there immediately inform the Chair, who will stop the vote until the problem is dealt with. Didn’t happen in this case.
That’s why the City pays for lawyers. Not to sit in their offices but to attend and oversee all City Motions. All of them.
Rizwan, I fully agree.
LAS, heh, prove that you replied. You could have posted again, with references not links. As I’ve said, you never reply to my requests for you to substantiate your assertions.
Heh. It’s quite something to see you criticize my analysis of societies, and then, heh, say that no-one knows how societies function. Well, gosh, then on what grounds do you base your criticism if you admit that both you, and others, know nothing?
And yes, it DOES matter why the staff and lawyers didn’t stop Ford’s vote. That’s their job, to oversee the legality of each and every Council Motion and vote. That’s what they are paid to do.
So incredibly strange that Rob Ford gets disgraced for a $3,000 personal issue whilst not a thing happened to Dalton McGuinty or Bob Rae for wasting BILLIONS of dollars. What a strange world we live in.
Watching you guys twist yourselves into logic knots is crazy. Honestly, Ford is a twit, the likes of which Canada has not seen. He can’t tie his shoe without s___ing his pants. He has repeatedly abused his office, all to pursue his personal charity. If this was a dude on the left, your eyes would pop out of your @ss.
Ford was caught voting for himself on something that was so clearly a conflict of interest, that a unionized garbage man should have been able to see it. But not your boy. No.
He has demonstrated that his simply not fit for command. Deal with it and move on to supporting some other bozo.
If I were a Torontonian, I would be doing everything I could to de-amalgamize immediately. Let them vote in whatever goof they want to preside over operations, but keep them away from making Canada’s major city look like it’s being run by a reject from Trailer Park Boys.
De-amalgamation > Ford
Think robocall. ” T.O.’s left doing via the courts what they couldn’t do at the ballot box.”
That whole ‘scandal’ was started by the far-left webbies at leadnow,the cbc picked up on it and put direct links to the BS with every story they wrote about Bob Rae pushing the BS in the House of Commons.
Now, our votes MAY be cancelled by a judge,who may or may not have the interests of the voter and/or fair play at heart.
BTW,I pretty sure Ford can appeal this decision.
Dick Slater: “Ford was the first mayor of Toronto in living memory who actually took the side of the people against the parasites—which made him the first mayor at serious risk of assassination.”
Yeah, so he has been assassinated: He’s been removed from his office as mayor, which is what an assassination would accomplish.
Cross-posted at BCF:
Rob Ford’s biggest problem is that he committed his misdemeanors in public, didn’t try to hide them which, of course, was a dumb thing to do. However, he was transparent.
Clayton Ruby’s a scumbag of the worst order: He’s a Limousine Leftist, lives high off the hog, cottages in a rich enclave, and takes on the duly elected mayor of Toronto over a measly $3000+ and ousts him. It appears to me that there’s been some kind of miscarriage of justice here — or, at least, not justice fairly meted out.
Case in point: The winter a few years ago, when Toronto was dumped on (as in snow) and the downtown was a disaster of unploughed streets, I happened to be working in High Park. Walking from Annette Street south to Bloor, I came across a number of streets that were closed to traffic, with four city vehicles and four city workers ploughing and lifting into a truck a lotta snow that had narrowed the streets.
There were two trucks parked across said streets, a front-end loader, and a dump truck to cart the snow off. As I said, there were four city workers in attendance. Three and a half hours later, I came across them doing the same thing, only a few blocks away.
I wondered what the hell was going on, seeing as my downtown Toronto street, along with countless others, was badly in need of snow removal. I wondered if David Miller, then the mayor, lived anywhere near this deluxe snow removal crew.
Sure enough, I called a friend in the know who told me, yes, David Miller lives in High Park.
I can tell you, this operation cost the taxpayer a lot more than $3000+, but it was all on the sly and who would know?
This was a political trial and should never have got this far. Ford should have had his hand slapped and should have been disciplined, but to take his mayoral office away from him, a mayor who won in a landslide, is a travesty of justice.
Who do I complain to? I’m mad as hell.
Great comments, ET. Mayor Ford walked right into the Leftards’ trap. That’s what I fault him for: for not being leery of his enemies and for walking right into the traps they laid for him which, as we know, are many.
Cross-posted at BCF in answer to the comment “Obviously lawfare works. It’s time for conservatives to start a legal fund to go after leftist politicians over any fu*king thing in their closet even fu*king unpaid parking tickets”:
Speaking of which, when are the Liberals who ran for the Liberal leadership going to have to pony up on the loans they took out, years after the legal limit for paying them back has elapsed?
For crying out loud, Martha Hall Findlay is running for the Liberal leadership again. How much money does she still owe? How much do the others still owe? They’re in violation of the law. So, what happens to them?
Oh, nothing because they’re … Liberal$.
That’s what I meant above when I commented that this is justice unfairly meted out.
I figure that the voter fraud and the lies the Democrats told and are still telling have emboldened the Leftards here. They figure, tell the big lie, keep telling lies, and continue being a battering ram with the leftard media and judiciary as water boys — and who’s going to do anything?
Brave new world, 1984, Book of Revelation, here we come. We’ve truly reached the point where black is white, evil is good, and where “people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4).
This is a sad day for Toronto and for justice fairly applied.
Christie Blatchford wrote this on the issue;
There was “absolutely no issue of corruption or pecuniary gain” on Mr. Ford’s part, Ontario Superior Court Judge Charles Hackland wrote in a decision released Monday.
In other words, this isn’t analogous to the cases involving other Canadian mayors where the allegations are about corruption or the countenancing of corruption — Joe Fontana, of London, Ont., who is facing fraud charges, and refuses to step down; Laval’s Gilles Vaillancourt, who quit earlier this month after a witness at Quebec’s corruption inquiry testified the mayor took kickbacks on all construction contracts; Montreal’s Gerald Tremblay, who resigned Nov. 6 amid accusations he had turned a blind eye to the corruption that was purportedly all around him.
To quote Judge Hackland again: Mayor Ford’s case, by comparison, “involved a modest amount of money which he endeavoured to raise for a legitimate charity [his football foundation], which is administered at arm’s length through the Community Foundation of Toronto.”
Anyone wanting to support Mayor Rob Ford — and object to this legal travesty — there’s a rally at the Rogers Centre at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 27 # 1 Blue Jays Way.
Boo hoo. The law’s the law.
Ummmmmmm…..funny how only ALL of LAS’ links,not the odd one,like the rest of us get(yes LAS,even the righties’)disappears into the internet blackhole.
This falls under the category of “not showing up to riot is a failed conservative policy”. Yes he was wrong, he shouldn’t have voted in when he voted, but if council really cared they could have not let him vote. I think this was a set up. It was a coup d’etate by the courts.
Most of the left wing members of council are crooks. Most of them spend every penny of their office budgets on things that they should not be able to. I understand that members of the community housing committee got great deals on buying condos in community housing buildings in Regents Park. Every time they do this the right lets it slide to avoid making a fuss. They have to start slamming every leftist who does anything that has even the remotest whiff of being out of place. That is what the left does, and since they are total crooks, it should be easy to throw their tactic back in their face.
batb, thanks for the note about the rally.
And yes, I can believe that Miller had the street crews clear his street in High Park. I know the area well (lived for years on Evelyn Avenue).
As the court said, and which quite a few of the anti-Ford posters here ignore, ‘there was absolutely no issue of corruption or pecuniary gain”.
What I still don’t get is, why did the staff, the lawers and the Chair, who are all in attendance for each Motion in City Council, why did none of them point out that Ford should not vote? What the heck are the city lawyers there for, during council debates and votes, other than to advise councillors on the legal status of their motions and their votes?
And there’s Joe Fontana, a Liberal, who actually used taxpayer money for his son’s wedding and won’t step down. Has Chretien ever been charged for his use of taxpayer money in Quebec elections? And as you say, what about all the money owed by various Liberals?
And note, that alone of all councillors, Ford has never, ever, used a penny of taxpayer money to fund ‘office expenses’ such as meals, taxis, etc. You should see the tens of thousands other councillors spend.
Ford won in a landslide. This judgment is nullifying their votes.
What’s the name of the woman who hired Clayton Ruby to oust Rob Ford from office? Who is she?
What I still don’t get is, why did the staff, the lawers and the Chair, who are all in attendance for each Motion in City Council, why did none of them point out that Ford should not vote? What the heck are the city lawyers there for, during council debates and votes, other than to advise councillors on the legal status of their motions and their votes? ET)
That’s a good point, ET, and as far I have read in the G&M and NP, you’re the only one making it.
It appears that Clayton Ruby isn’t always so vociferous about justice being done, especially when it concerns someone his family knows well:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/114579–privileged-son-jailed-on-gun-drug-charges
Here’s a nice outline of Liberals in the provincial government and their abuse, and I mean the word, of their office.
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/11/26/rob-fords-conflict-nothing-compared-to-ontarios-liberals
But I refer to the City Council. How about Council’s abuse of the electorate? I mean not only about the left’s getting rid of Ford, and the left on City Council loathe Ford, but, their arrogance in itself.
For example, the left on City Council voted to ban the use of plastic bags in the city. They did this without going through any advisory or consulation with ‘interested parties’, which includes the people who use them and the manufacturers. They did this, on their own, one evening. Just because they could. The left micromanage people’s lives. Compare with the same type of interference in the US by various city councils.
So, shoppers in grocery stores are going to be required to ‘bring their own bags’ – and what if they don’t have enough? The poor must spend their money to purchase these bags, which at a minimum cost about one dollar. The multiple uses of these bags for house garbage is denied. People will have to purchase kitchen garbage bags.
That’s the left on City Council.
A CBC poll on this issue:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/11/do-you-agree-that-toronto-mayor-rob-ford-should-be-removed-from-office.html
@Cyclist
I always assume fat politicians are corrupt unless proven otherwise.
@balbul aka balbulican:
You must miss The Sentinel to be hanging around here.
What a shame, like cutting off your nose to spite your face. I’d love to see him run and win the bi-election though.
So, of course when finally some real and badly needed work is being done for the left’s ever paraded poster child the TCHC they rush in to stop it and take over, claiming to do it better. Taxes go up, work slows down..same o, same o.
If they can do this to him, can’t someone sue each council member now for letting this happen?
I don’t care what’s in the rules. Simple common sense says that after presenting a defence, the defendant doesn’t get to vote on whether he’s guilty or not.
But never mind what common sense says. From the Sun News link:
“In his ruling, Hackland said he found that not only was Ford told by then-council speaker Sandra Bussin he was in a conflict over the matter about to be discussed, he should have known what that meant since he had previously avoided speaking to an issue he had a conflict on before.”
So Ford went ahead and did what he knew he shouldn’t do. He’s either too stupid or too arrogant to remain in office.
batb @ 6:26, good question.
Kathryn, Sandra Bussin was not a member of the legal staff, nor a member of the city staff, nor the Chair. She was a Councillor.
She, for example, charged a ‘bunny suit’ for the Beaches Easter Parade to taxpayers. Remember, Ford never spent a penny of taxpayer money in his own office.
She lost her seat by over 60% in the last election.
I repeat, why did the Chair and the lawyers at the Council meeting, allow Ford to vote? If you watch City Hall meetings, both the Chair and the lawyers are very particular about following the rules and will frequenly stop votes until all issues are cleared up.
Bloblobican said: “The man voted on an issue that yielded direct financial benefit to himself.”
Wow, the first comment I’ve seen from ol’ Blobby in years, and its an abject lie.
Nice to see you haven’t lost your touch, Blobby.
Rizwan said: “Toronto crime continues to drop…”
Let the NDPee at it for a couple years, see what happens. I’m not optimistic.
Ezra Levant on the decision:
http://www.fivefeetoffury.com/2012/11/26/ezra-levants-must-see-take-on-the-disgraceful-rob-ford-decision-video/
I actually think Ford has a very good chance of having the “sentence” overturned on appeal. It will all wind up costing Toronto taxpayers a fortune with lawyers being the only ones to benefit from the whole stinking mess.
BTW, the Paul Magder who launched the case against Mayor Ford is NOT the furrier of the same name who fought the city for years over Sunday openings outside of designated tourist areas.
Ummmmmmm…..funny how only ALL of LAS’ links,not the odd one,like the rest of us get(yes LAS,even the righties’)disappears into the internet blackhole.
Funny for you frustrating for me!
Kathryn, Sandra Bussin was not a member of the legal staff, nor a member of the city staff, nor the Chair. She was a Councillor.
So what? Ford was still stupid and arrogant and out of line.
Victory for the rule of law.
” Whenever I put links in my post, they get caught in the filter. Very frustrating and a little disturbing.” >>> posted be LAS.
It is a conspiracy to make you look foolish. Yet,you still hang around,that could be called “a little disturbing”.
LAS: “Victory for the rule of law.”
So, where’s the “victory for the rule of law” in the case of all of the Liberal$ who ran for the Liberal leadership and who still, six years later, haven’t paid back the loans they took out years after the legal limit for paying them back has elapsed?
For crying out loud, Martha Hall Findlay is running for the Liberal leadership again. How much money does she still owe? How much do the others still owe? They’re in violation of the law.
So, what happens to them? I’d appreciate your views on this “victory,” LAS — a victory for the scurvy Librano crew but not for the rule of law.
Phantom:
Don’t we know another politician who literally got away with murder, using his car on a cyclist on Bloor St.?
Wow, Phantom sticking up for cyclists. My brain reels.
Now, to everyone who rightly commented that Ford was 1) wrong not to read the rules, 2) wrong to vote on the motion, and 3) wrong to defend his action afterward, I have one question: does the punishment fit the crime? If Ford’s vote had been the deciding margin, maybe, but since the council overwhelmingly voted it down – in other words, saying it was pretty small beer – the judge’s decision seems more than a little extreme. I kinda think getting a hummer from a young girl in your office is much worse, but we all know what happened there, don’t we?
And let me offer a rare moment of sympathy to LAS. Many times, I’ve written lengthy posts for this blog, completely devoid of profanity or taboo topics, only to have them disappear into the ether when I click “Post”. Since I usually take the time to research my assertions, and check my posts for proper grammar and spelling, it may take 30 to 40 minutes to create one, and then it disappears in an instant. It is frustrating.
The 3 grand was for kids football, probably used equipment and field rentals, and he had to abstain from the vote? That’s what Mayors do….
The judge had a discretionary option to level a fine instead of removing Ford from office.
Since NO finacial gain was made by Ford and the severity of the offence was akin to calling someone a name, the punishment doled out does NOT fit the transgression.
Ford will win his appeal, based on the punishment being overly harsh and possibly politically motivated, the judge said himself the conflict was trivial, so how does he justify this penalty for this transgression?
He can’t.
Are you listening Mr. Ford, go after the penalty being disproportionate and demand a reason as to why so disproportionate.
How about we appoint Mayors, I mean why bother electing a Mayor then have an appointed person with the power to boot him out of office?
Sorry, I thought it was a woman who brought the complaint against Mayor Rob Ford. It’s a guy called Paul Magder. Here’s what the TorStar reports about him:
[Begin TorStar quote]:
The complainant
Paul Magder: A business executive who has strong views on keeping government accountable for its actions, Magder is not related to furrier Paul Magder, who spent years fighting for Sunday shopping.
In addition to alleging that Ford broke conflict of interest rules, Magder also formally complained about Councillor Doug Ford’s attempt to redevelop the city’s Port Lands.
Magder raised concerns about possible “secret backroom dealing” after Doug Ford, the mayor’s brother, revealed that an Australian mall developer was interested in the Port Lands site.
At the time of launching his complaint a year ago, he told the Star’s David Rider that he is a business person with no direct stake in the waterfront.
“I just followed (the issue) in the paper; I’m disgusted that we went to all the trouble to come up with a (waterfront) plan that may need some tweaking, but now we’re throwing it all out for an asinine plan that came out of the blue.”
Doug Ford later backed off on his development vision, deferring to the planning efforts of Waterfront Toronto, the agency responsible for turning around the derelict Port Lands.
[End quote]
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/cityhallpolitics/article/1250539–mayor-rob-ford-s-conflict-of-interest-case-the-players
Hmmm … given all of the corruption at City Hall from Mel Lastman’s and David Miller’s time in office, isn’t it interesting that this guy has scruples about $3000+ that was at issue, which Ontario Superior Court Judge Charles Hackland wrote in his decision involved “absolutely no issue of corruption or pecuniary gain” on Mr. Ford’s part?
When did Paul Magder keep David Miller’s “government accountable for its actions”?
Seeing as Paul Magder’s concerns seemed mostly to be about the handling of waterfront development, why did he bring this court action against Mayor Rob Ford? It doesn’t pass the smell test. There’s a lot more to this than meets the eye.
Rob Ford needs a top-notch lawyer to do some digging in his appeal to find out what’s really going on here.
ET @7:36, My mistake – I thought that a council speaker of council was similar to speaker of the house on the ins and outs of procedures and rules.
Even if she was press-ganged off the street, Ford still shouldn’t have voted on his own outcome.
Rob Ford is a profoundly stupid and arrogant man and this stupidity and arrogance finally caught up to him.
This is the voice of experience speaking…
Ignorance of “The Law” is not a defense.
CBC’s “The National”… yeah, “national” is leading off with the Ford story. An important news story for people from Corner Brook to Saskatoon to Prince George apparently. Um, yeah.
I doubt if I tuned into the news channels south of the border, those 6:30pm ones in particular — NBC Nightly News, CBS and ABC — that this would be the lead, especially a story that is not related to criminality but a story about raising funds for a charity. I think they’d lead with stories about the POTUS, congress, or an international conflict.
Interesting that in late Sept, 20,000 documents were released by the Lib gov’t in Ontario, exposing a BILLION $ scandal, the legislature located just down the street from the CBC’s The National studio and not only was it not the lead, it wasn’t even reported…. That was a provincial story I guess the CBC would’ve argued, and of no interest to people in other parts of the country.
The order of importance of gov’ts is as follows — federal, provincial and lastly municipal. Funny though how The “National” skipped that middle level of gov’t when the documents released exposed that scandal.
Clayton Ruby’s a real douchebag:
http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/toronto/citynews/news/video/237923–lawyer-clayton-ruby-complainant-paul-magder-react-to-guilty-ruling-against-mayor-ford