City
What we learned on day one of Rob Ford's trial
Testifying before a packed University Ave. courtroom yesterday, mayor Rob Ford told lawyer Clayton Ruby that he has never read crucial parts of the provincial conflict-of-interest legislation it's alleged he breached earlier this year. Revealing the basis of his defense, Ford repeatedly suggested he unwittingly broke the rules when he voted to overturn a decision by council that ordered he pay back $3,150 in lobbyist donations to his football foundation.
Ford will keep his job if the judge decides any breach of the rules was accidental - an angle the mayor seems to be playing up with persistent stonewalling and redefinition of the conflict-of-interest laws based on his own, apparently confused, ideas.
During a four-hour cross-examination, Ford told Ruby that he believes conflicts of interest only occur when the city and the councillor are both set to gain financially - something not reflected in the official wording. Ruby answered by detailing other times the mayor had correctly stepped aside to avoid a conflict.
Throughout the exchange, the mayor maintained he had never actually read the legislation in question - despite being handed briefing materials on four separate occasions - and said he waits for city legal staff to advise him of any conflicts before a vote, providing very similar statements to those he made in an earlier deposition.
In order to win the case, Ruby must to prove to the judge that Ford knowingly voted to save himself $3,150 or, as he put it yesterday, "whether it is an honest and good faith belief, or just a smoke screen for determined defiance of the integrity commissioner's continuing critical examination of [the mayor's] affairs."
Speaking about the foundation that helps schools start football programs, Ford restated his emotional commitment to community work and told the judge he gives out his business card - bearing the city logo and his title - when to everyone he meets, which he follows up with a request for a donation.
Ford's lawyer, Alan Lenczner, told Justice Hackland that the provincial conflict of interest laws don't apply in this case because the matter is related to a code of conduct matter - Ford's failure to refund donations - and not a city council matter.
The trial resumes later this morning and a decision by Justice Charles Hackland is expected at a later date.
Image: "Good Friday parade, Little Italy, Toronto" by BruceK in the blogTO Flickr pool.
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To which I say, do you really think, for one nanosecond, that this situation would exist if John Tory or another conservative had been elected mayor?
Of course not.
No, it's all about Ford and how grossly underqualified and underskilled he is for the role of big-city mayor and the damage he is doing to the city. This trial is a nice little summation of that fact.
Left wing conspiracy my ass. Trial of an intractable fool for certain.
Our Prime Minister Stealin’ HarperCon was behind Ford's appointment.
And Mike Harris as well was behind Ford's campaign. Rob Ford’s dad used to work for Mike Harris. With help from Guy Giorno, who happens to be Harper's recently departed Chief of Staff. Guy Giorno used to be chief of staff to former Ontario premier Mike Harris.
Are you starting to notice a neocon circle jerk going on here?
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/428557
@Nadine: Right on the money, girl! At least you and I can see what's really what, unlike a lot of people these days.
Nobody needs a court to establish Ford's ignorance, stubborness and peurility. He seems to take some perverse pride in demonstrating these qualities on a daily basis. However, ultimately the judge needs to decide whether Ford had any financial interest in this matter. The money in question came from donors and went to a football team. But the repayment would've come out of Ford's pocket. Is that enough to satisfy the "pecuniary" requirement?
There is no room in the justice system for tiers of justice. Regardless of the purpose or outcome of the act performed, if the result were due to an unlawful act, you face the justice system, regardless of whomever you happen to be.
Poor guy, tries to help disadvantaged black kids and this is what he gets from the power starved socialists. tsk-tsk.
I can't believe that through sheer stupidity and/or arrogance, he would inflict this type of damage on himself. He deserves everything he gets, and the only downside of him losing his job will be having to put up with 2 years of non-stop whining from "Ford Nation", his supporters at the Sun, Post and conservative talk radio. Very few of whom have been able to bring themselves to admit that the mayor is even slightly in the wrong here. Somehow I imagine they wouldn't be so forgiving had David Miller found himself in the same position.
Even co-mayor Dougie was on TV the other night complaining about the "left-wing socialists" plotting to bring down the mayor, refusing to acknowledge that this crisis was 100% self-inflicted.
Ford has got a long track record of very objectionable behaviour and questionable decision-making. It seems that after more than a decade, that they might finally catch up with him.
How can this man be the Mayor of Toronto? I wish no harm or ill will towards Rob Ford, but this man is so wholly unqualified for a political career, let alone the office which he currently holds.
This is a cut and dry issue and yet, he simply cannot comprehend it. Like he legitimately doesn't understand what's going on. I am baffled that this man is the mayor of the largest city in Canada and the fourth-largest in North America. I am baffled.
11:27 AM The judge asks a question: Would Ford still have been in conflict if the integrity commissioner hadn’t recommended any sanctions? Ruby says yes, because council could still potentially have imposed a financial penalty. There would have been potential for financial conflict.
11:22 AM Now Ruby is reading some case law in an attempt to bolster his argument that Ford could have been in conflict even though the improper donations went to his foundation, and not to him.
11:20 AM Now some back and forth between Ruby and the judge over whether Ford had sufficient financial interest for a conflict. The judge seems skeptical. “Subject to you convincing me otherwise, Mr. Ruby, I don’t think the mayor had a pecuniary interest in this foundation,” he says.
so i hope you like having ford as mayor some more, because he is not going anywhere.
I loathe the "he's just an average guy, leave him alone" cloak that Ford wears.
Without the uncontrollable almost pathological need of TO's leftists to spend other people's money there would be no mayor Ford. We're reaping what they sowed.
Was he also unaware of the contents of the driver's handbook to excuse his driving habits of talking on his cell phone and reading his speech?
(You can download a PDF copy of the 2010-2014 Council Handbook from http://www.toronto.ca/city_council/pdf/handbook_ext.pdf . It's 145 pages long. Does not include the Appendixes, Key Contacts and Index, which the hardcopy version would have. Do not read while driving.)
so now me also commenting here.