THE VILLAGER | Thursday, November 29, 2012 |
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Opinion Ian Proudfoot Marg Middleton Peter Haggert Clark Kim Warren Elder Jamie Munoz
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People have done far worse than Mayor Ford and kept their jobs, reader says
The Bloor West Villager is published every Thursday at 175 Gordon Baker Rd., Toronto, ON M2H 0A2, by Toronto Community News, a Division of Metroland Media Group Ltd.
Council needs to re-set priorities
I am not excusing Mayor Rob Ford for his stupid actions that resulted in a single judge making the decision to have him turfed from office, but there are numerous others who have committed questionable acts who are still walking the floors of city hall. For example, what about the various city officials and councillors involved in the questionable city housing purchases for hundreds of thousands of dollars? And a single judge turfs our mayor for the sum of $3,150. Something stinks to high heaven. W.D. Adamson
T
oronto council reached the halfway point of its mandate in spectacular fashion this week. Monday’s decision by Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland ordering Mayor Rob Ford be removed from office due to his violation of the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act will take effect Dec. 10. The judge gave council 14 days from Monday to deal with his ruling. That possible date of removal comes just three days after council reaches the twoyear anniversary of its four-year term. The situation on Ford is constantly changing. Council was examining its legal options at this week’s meeting. At the moment, it appears council has the choice of either appointing a caretaker mayor for the remaining two our view years of this term or calling for a mayoral by-election. City solicitor Anna Kinastowski said Councillors it’s going to be a long process, must still focus much of it dependent on other court rulings, which could stay on community Ford’s removal or keep him in office if he wins his appeal. If or when the time comes for council to make a decision on replacing Ford, we strongly favour the appointment route. Calling a by-election will cost an estimated $7 million. It will also likely cause a mess of a domino effect as councillors abandon their wards to run for mayor. And that’s the last thing Toronto needs, distracted councillors furthering their own political careers during a by-election while ignoring the needs of the wards they were elected to represent in 2010. As our stories in today’s paper on council at the halfway point show, councillors must fully focus on the important work of representing their communities. This has to remain their priority. We also ask that the appointee be from Ford’s side of the political spectrum. He was elected on a mandate of fiscal responsibility and concern for taxpayers, and that should be respected. The halfway point of a council’s mandate is an artificial line for council members to reflect on what’s gone right and what’s gone wrong during the first two years of office. Unfortunately, this time it’s a harder line in the sand. It’s a re-set point for every civic politician and every civic official. There are no longer any rookie councillors – everyone has two years of experience. Understand that the pure pleasure and advantage of local politics is in moving forward carrying the interests of your constituency beyond an agenda of a perceived political left or right vision. Understand your best chance for re-election is to focus on the constituency. Toronto Community News is a division of Metroland Media Group Ltd. The Villager is a member of the Ontario Press Council. Visit ontpress.com newsroom
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Ford situation leads to council paralysis “Rob Ford did this to Rob Ford.” No truer words were spoken about our third (amalgamated city) mayor, than the sound-bite-ready quip from lawyer Clayton Ruby, who led the legal challenge to Mayor Rob Ford’s legitimacy to hold the office to which he was elected two years ago. Ford is facing what can only be counted as a disgrace: ordered removed from office not by voters or his own life-choices, but a court of law, for violating the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act. There will be an appeal of the decision by Justice Charles Hackland. Perhaps the mayor will prevail on appeal and be able to remain in office. But in the course of getting there, he will hear the verdict in the libel lawsuit from the owner of the Boardwalk
THE CITY
david nickle
Cafe. And before the end of the year, the result of a compliance audit on his election expenses will be released. Depending on how that goes, he could well be faced with removal from office a second time, as well as a second restriction on when next he can run for election. And that doesn’t even scratch the surface of other situations he’s been connected to including the displacing of commuters to bring buses to ferry the high school football team he coaches back to their school and engaging senior city staff regarding repairs
to the road outside his family’s business. Ford has already surrendered the moral authority to lead the city. The courts are now in the process of taking legal authority from him. Some have suggested the punishment meted out by Hackland – and prescribed in the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act – outstrips the nature of the crime. Hackland admitted as much in his decision: that Ford’s decision to speak on his own behalf, when faced with a report demanding he repay $3,150 in donations to his football charity, wasn’t a matter of corruption, and the violation of the act was merely technical. But Ford is by all accounts a wealthy man. The injury he suffers in losing his job is paltry compared to the injury the city suffers in the wake of that.
Council is a fragile body at the best of times. The huge uncertainty Ford’s potential departure creates could throw it entirely off the rails. Toronto council will need to pass a budget, which, one would hope, would reflect the complex will of the electorate. It will have to deal with the continued implementation of a transportation plan. It will have to decide what to do about revenue sources like the land transfer tax. One might argue Ford’s presence has been of diminishing relevance to all of this, as council has chosen its own route. But the instability over the next few months will all but guarantee a level of legislative paralysis Toronto hasn’t seen since the early days of amalgamation. To paraphrase Ruby: Rob Ford did this to us.
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