City
Legal case could result in Rob Ford's removal from office
When news broke earlier this morning that Toronto resident Paul Magder and lawyer Clayton Ruby would submit a legal application to remove Mayor Rob Ford from office, the question on most people's minds was whether or not there was actually a legitimate case to be made. Was this a publicity stunt or serious stuff? As it turns out, it more the latter than the former. The substance of the case against Ford involves Ontario's Municipal Conflict of Interest Act and an incident in 2010 in which the mayor solicited donations for his high school football charity, the Rob Ford Football Foundation.
Despite the fact that the Integrity Commissioner found that this act violated council's Code of Conduct, Ford never returned the funds. Fast forward to last month, and the issue was back on council's agenda as a motion was put forward to absolve Ford of the need to return the funds. Prior to the vote, Ford defended himself to council and, fatefully, cast a vote in his own favour. The motion passed 22-12, but that's where Ford's problems actually begin.
Over at OpenFile John Michael McGrath has a great little rundown of why that decision was so problematic:
"So how can Ford be in trouble if council declared he did nothing wrong? Because he had a direct monetary interest in the outcome of the vote — the donations that he was supposed to refund to lobbyists — and he voted on the matter in council. This is explicitly illegal under the Ontario Municipal Conflict of Interest Act. The MCIA is designed to keep municipal politicians from using their influence for financial gains, so any matter with a "pecuniary interest" is one where the councillor involved is supposed to declare a conflict and recuse himself. Under no circumstances was Ford supposed to vote for this motion."
As GOB Bluth would say, "I've made a huge mistake." The penalty for a conflict of interest of this sort is nothing short of removal from office. Will that happen? It's obviously too early to tell. Ford will likely argue that the vote was an error in judgment — which could get him off or a reduced penalty — but that won't be as straightforward as it might sound.
Photo by Martin Reis in the blogTO Flickr pool
Discussion
62 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
From what we've experienced from Ford though, he can't let anything just pass by and he'll fight this. Boy, would I love to be a political advisor to him right now.
Anyone involved with a governance structure for any length of time is supposed to be aware of the concept of conflict of interest, and how it applies to the structure ze is involved with. Those rules aren't just technical guidelines or suggestions - conflicts can, and do, result in highly negative outcomes as the conflicted parties make decisions benefitting themselves rather than the organization as a whole. I watched one beloved community organization collapse due to the effects of a massive conflict of interest that also violated the organization's bylaws.
He has, however, recused himself in the past on votes because of conflict of interest, so it would be very difficult for him to claim successfully that he doesn't understand the rules.
b/ rob ford is not.
c/ rob ford is very very cheap. he probably won't even hire a lawyer because of this.
d/ he's still got a libel suit proceeding against him.
Yet here they are championing smug Clayton Ruby to do just that - override council. Dirty hypocrites.
Acutally he doesn't. And I suspect that will be his angle. That there was no benefit bestowed upon him... the beneficiary was the charity. And since the benificiary of the lobbying was the charity then he couldn't benefit from the vote... or something to that effect.
Us wealthy folk don't like to associate with them though.
But whatever; I'll take what I can get.
Now the funds involved are small in this case, over $3,000 but the law is there because it could involve millions if not billions of dollars. Still the law doesn't focus on how much money is involved, but whether there was a conflict of interest with the politician voting on the issue.
Also note that the lawsuit against Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion recently also dealt with the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act. However, the stakes were higher dealing with a land deal with Hazel's son that was worth $1.5 billion. She ended up being found not guilty and there was a report from a public inquiry into the case that suggested the province overhaul and expand the act.
We don't need him kicked out of office anymore, council found their backbone. If he tries anything really stupid or crazy, they'll just ignore him again. He's back to being a lone councillor.
Adam has being on a political witch hunt for Ford.
Ford was democratically eleted. When are left wingers going to finally get that? Ford does things differently, get over it. Left wingers didn't exactly open up to right wingers.
What about the left wing politicians who try to buy votes with taxpayers money? why isn't Paul Magder going after them?.
Now, if you're talking about people that actually broke the law to win an election, you must be referring to the federal Conservative party. They used autocallers and volunteers to call non-Conservative voters and keep them from voting by telling them the wrong place to go vote, or harass them and pretend to be the other parties.
If you're referring to the general practice of making promises at election time for new, popular, expensive programs (like mandatory minimum sentences, full-day kindergarten, or free secondary schooling) then all parties are guilty of that. There will never be a party elected on the platform of doing nothing. Why run for office if you don't want to actually do anything? Unless you're an Anarchist and believe there should be no government and ran for government so you could dissolve it.
No one is trying to reopen the vote on releasing Ford from his obligation to repay funds that the integrity commissioner ruled he had raised for his football charity in violation of city rules. This lawsuit deals with Ford's own participation in the council debate and the vote, which released him from a personal financial obligation to the city. That is a clear conflict of interest, and Ford will have to explain why he didn't recuse himself.
Its probably better to let RoFo hang himself while in power, and show his supporters the error of their ways.
like Ford gets to be a Mayor and is supported by large groups of people. There actions are acceptable, encouraged. What a sick world we live in.
Oh yes he does so benefit. He benefitted from Council's decision by not having to pay back over $3000 of his own money. Never mind that the donated money went to his own personal charity to buy some kids football helmets. What Council debated was whether he should have to abide by the Integrity Commissioner's decision to punish him by giving back the money. Note that the kids would (probably) still get to keep their football helmets that the original money paid for. Robbo would have to pay the $3000 out of his own pocket as punishment for the original conflict of interest in using his City Councillor letterhead to solicit money for his charity.
But thanks in part to his vote, and in part to his speech on the matter in flagrant violation of clear-cut conflict of interest rules, Council voted to ignore the Integrity Commissioner's report. And it is for that interference that he will be removed from office. Maybe.
Anyway, if Ruby does win while Ford is still in office, what happens then?
As juicy as all this is, I think that it is unlikely RF will be removed from office, perhaps a slap on the wrist or he may be asked to pay back the money. In the end, our citizenry does not get up in arms when they should. We allow politicians to take more and more liberties at the cost of our democracy. We sit back and allow back room shenanigans in municipal/provincial and federal governments and we know it's wrong but are too complacent to do anything. We want democracy in name, but we, unlike people around the world (for example in Egypt), aren't willing to fight for it or take action. We are pacifists and we will let our governments continue to erode our democracy and rights until one day when we will realize we have lost so much.
I must cheer Paul Magder, he is willing to take action to make sure politicians are responsible to their electorate. Bravo! To those thinking this is pinko/left-wing bs, it's sad that your blinders have made you miss the point.
Case closed.
As to the voters who will see this as a witch hunt, it really is a shame when the rule of law gets so little respect that someone in a position of power is granted leave to violate whatever cheques and balances on that power exist (council's ruling: irrelevant! conflict of interest: who cares!). Why anyone would allow a politician (left or right) that kind of royal privilege is beyond me.
Oooh, fun - I hope that Clayton kicks him to the curb ...
We should expect lawsuits delving into the minutae of every law and statute. Oh what a happy governance system we will have when every election is followed by numerous lawsuits alleging each and everything - many with no real intent of winning (though this one surely seems to be) but more of a mud-slinging sore loser retaliation from those on all sides of the political spectrum.
Once firmly into the realm of politics by lawsuit we will look fondly back on the days of robocalls and attack ads and remember them fondly as the benign days of partisan politics.
You can just imagine some rabid Ford supporters looking through Stintz's, Vaughan's, etc just looking for a small screw up.
This is not a healthy development no matter your opinion on the mayor.
For everyone that ignored the Liberal spending scandal, the proroguing of parliament and general disregard for democracy of the Conservatives, the constant decline in voter turnout, the robocall issue, and all the local civic offences, you need to wake up. If you don't stand up for democracy you'll lose it.
Dudes right. Where I come from they think your brilliant and re-elect you if your the mayor and you buy land to resell to the city or town that your mayor of for a profit, that's pretty common. Even dear Hazel got rapped for that one, but dumb dumb needs to know better. Soliciting donations for personal use is really sleazy and then to vote for yourself!! GRAAG is right, Jumbo isn't smart enough and clearly he isn't seeking great advice from Dumbo his brother. Let's hope getting him out of office is a short process. Also and ironically where I come... The GM "Ford" car acronym commonly stood for; "Found On Road Dead"!