ROB  FORD: The plummeting depths of a really stupid mayor

The white behind the text of some of the paragraphs is merely an anomaly in the printing of the article. 

This is the second of a series about a really stupid city mayor whose career was destroyed by an ordinary citizen. The mayor’s name is Rob Ford. He is the 64^th mayor of Toronto, Ontario, Canada’s largest city. He is also a businessman. Ford was elected mayor in the 2010 mayoral election. 

He took office on December 1^st of that year in which he was then to begin his four-year stint as mayor. Two years after he was elected mayor, Rob Ford’s victory has become Toronto’s humiliation. Every week, if not every day, brings fresh revelations of this mayor’s incompetence and outright stupidity. Few politicians can manage ineptitude as brilliantly as this fat mayor can. His talent for doing the wrong thing apparently has no bounds. Just when you think he can’t do anything more ridiculous or reckless, embarrassing or inappropriate, he does it anyway.

In my opinion, he is not only the worst mayor Toronto has ever had; he is definitely the stupidest mayor the city has ever had. In a previous blog, I wrote about this fat buffoon and how he seized the cell phone of a newspaper reporter and used it for his own purpose. He was damn lucky he wasn’t charged with robbery after demanding that the reporter drop his cell phone to the ground. The reporter then fled the scene when this huge fat monstrosity of a man (the mayor) loomed over him. If the mayor had pounced on the reporter with his enormously fat blubbery body, the much smaller man would have suffocated under all that fatness. The mayor later gave the reporter’s cell phone to the police after he used it for a purpose of his own. Later the police returned the cell phone to the reporter.   

Ford has drawn considerable criticism for putting his private football team ahead of his council meetings at various times. Ford has previously said that he would skip important council meeting to coach in the Metro Bowl if his team advanced that far, which they did. He actually skipped a vital meeting. It wasn’t a surprise to anyone when His Fatness was conspicuously absent as the mayors of the country’s largest cities gathered in Ottawa to tackle urban Canada’s chronic state of fiscal starvation while he was at that time, coaching his football team.

On one occasion while Ford was at one of his football team’s games, it began to rain severely. The police then called the Toronto Transit Commission to have a bus brought to the game so that Ford’s players could be inside it instead of being out of the rain. I don’t know if Ford asked the police to do this but he certainly later left a voice mail message to a senior TTC official asking him where the bus was. The TTC emptied one of their buses and booted the people from the bus and left them standing in the rain and then the bus was driven to where Ford and his team were standing. The senior TTC official later said that he doesn’t want Ford to ever phone him again.

It was Ford’s love of football and his continuous time-consuming interest in his football team that finally did him in.

A Toronto resident named Paul Magder brought a lawsuit against the mayor. He was represented by prominent Toronto litigator Clayton Ruby, who argued that Ford clearly violated the province’s conflict of interest rules. The matter ended up in a Superior Court in Toronto for a decision The judge was to decide whether or not Ford broke the law when he first solicited funds for his private football team while using the city’s letterhead and after the city council began debating as to whether or not Ford should return the $3,150 that he had received in donations for his football team, he argued his own case before the city council and then when the matter came up for a vote, he voted that the money shouldn’t be returned. The final vote was not in his favour. Here is where the stupidity really runs deep in this man’s brain. He is a millionaire and he destroyed his career over a paltry $3,150.

Ford, when testifying in court, essentially said he didn’t think he was in a conflict of interest. Did he actually know what the definition of a conflict of interest was? He did not, the mayor conceded. Had he read the handbook that Toronto gives all its elected officials and that would have explained it all to him? Nope. Why not? Ford didn’t think he needed to learn anything more about government. His daddy had been a one-term MPP, elected when Ford was 26. As far as Ford Jr. was concerned, he learned enough from his daddy for him to get by. I don’t know what his daddy was like but if Rob Ford relied on only what his daddy told him, then he was destined to fall from grace because times clearly changed since his daddy was in office.

Mr. Justice Charles Hackland determined that Ford's participation in the debate and subsequent vote on whether he should repay $3,150 in donations to his private football foundation solicited on official city letterhead back in 2010, did not occur in Ford’s mind through inadvertence.

According to Hackland's written decision which he handed down on November 26^th of this year, he said: “Inadvertence involves oversight, inattention or carelessness. On the contrary, the respondent’s (Ford) participation was a deliberate choice.                                                                                                  

The judge in his ruling said in part;

“He appreciated or was at least aware the Act prevented him from speaking or voting on Code of Conduct violations involving himself. The mayor’s protests that he wasn’t aware of the Act’s clearly stated prohibition against politicians speaking or voting on items in which they have a “pecuniary,” or financial, interest is no defence. There must be some diligence on the respondent’s part; that is, some effort to understand and appreciate his obligations. Outright ignorance of the law will not suffice, nor will willful blindness to one’s obligations. In my opinion, the respondent’s actions were characterized by ignorance of the law and a lack of diligence in securing professional advice, amounting to wilful blindness. As such, I find his actions are incompatible with an error in judgment.”

Ford admitted that he never once looked at the Act to see if he was within his rights to do what he did notwithstanding the fact that every member of the Toronto Council is given a copy of the Act. By ignoring it, he didn’t do due diligence so his ignorance of that particular law is no defence at all.

The judge also swept aside a technical argument by Ford’s lawyer, that the Council never had the power to force Ford to repay the donations in the first place, and that the provincial Act didn’t apply to this case.

The law is quite clear on matters of conflict of interest. If a politician is found guilty of such a charge in a court of law, he is automatically removed from office. The judge also has the right to forbid the politician from running for office again for the next seven years. In Ford’s case, he said that the office of mayor was vacated but he gave Ford 14 days to vacate his office. He also said that he could run for office after his original term has run out which in this case would be two years from now.                                                                                                     

Ford says that he will appeal the ruling of the judge. However if that fool’s decision is any indication of his stupidity, (and I believe that it is) the two weeks he remains in office will be filled with intense legal speculation about whether Ford can seek a stay of the Hackland ruling while his appeal is heard, not to mention the political intrigue that will follow as Ford’s opponents and supporters jockey to figure out how to replace him.                                                                           

Does His Fatness really have grounds for an appeal? I hardly think so. Although I don’t personally fault him for discussing his views with the members of the City Council with respect to whether or not he should pay the money back, I certainly feel that he had no business voting on the issue.                                                     

The ruling by the Ontario court judge that forces Rob Ford to vacate the Toronto mayoralty has opened up a legal and political quandary in Canada's largest municipality. Having found that Ford had violated provincial conflict of interest rules for municipal politicians, Ontario Superior Court Justice Charles T. Hackland gave the mayor two weeks in office before the ruling takes effect, saying the decision "will necessitate administrative changes in the City of Toronto."               

If Ford vacates his position as mayor, there are currently two options on the table: the city council can appoint a caretaker mayor to fill out the remaining two years of the term or call a by-election. And while it is early days yet, some councillors, including some previously loyal Ford supporters, are beginning to make their preferences heard.

Since Ford has said he will appeal the decision of Justice Hackland at a divisional court. But in order to remain as mayor while the appeal is going forward, he would likely also have to apply for a stay of proceedings so that he can remain in office.

Ford's legal team could either ask Justice Hackland, the lower court judge who made the initial decision, or the Divisional court they are appealing to.

The main issue in the request for a stay of proceedings is whether or not Ford even has reasonable grounds to appeal.

If it looks like it's a pretty iffy appeal, the court might say, “We'll hear the appeal but you're out still out of office.” On the other hand, if it's controversial but looks like it's a good appeal, a court might be more cautious.

An Appeal could take months. If a stay was granted, Ford would continue to be mayor for the duration of the appeal and legal process involved, which could be several months. His term is supposed to end in December 2014. I doubt that the appeal will take that long in the Divisional court however even it made a decision against Ford, he could file an appeal before the Ontario Court of Appeal and finally he could file an appeal before the Supreme Court of Canada. By that time, his regular term in office would be over and there is then nothing to stop him from running for the office of mayor again.                                                                          

If a stay is not granted, the City of Toronto Act states that city council would have 60 days to either fill the vacancy by appointing someone else to be mayor or by passing a by-law requiring a by-election be held to fill the vacancy. As for council's option to appoint someone to fill the mayoral void, the provincial act doesn't specify who that person should be when then means it could be anyone of voting age, and not necessarily someone from city council.

The Globe and Mail reported that council had earlier passed a by-law that would ensure that only an elected councillor could be appointed mayor under these circumstances, but it's unclear whether that by-law would supersede the provincial act governing municipalities should there be a challenge.

Still, there seems to be some confusion surrounding part of the judge's ruling. In one of the last paragraphs, Hackland wrote that he would not disqualify Ford from running for or holding office beyond the current term. The question is what the judge meant by beyond the current term and whether that refers to Ford's term as mayor, scheduled to end in December 2014, or whether he could run again immediately if a by-election were to be called in which then his current term would be over.

Here is another twist, if a stay is not granted, and Ford is booted out of office, it's possible he could be reinstated if the appeal court sides with him, meaning the person who had replaced him as mayor would in turn be replaced by Ford at some future date.

If there is a by-election, it would cost the taxpayers of the city $7 million dollars which won’t make the taxpayers too happy. That is why the prospect of appointing the assistant mayor as the mayor is enticing since it won’t cost the city a dime.

Deputy Mayor Doug Hollyday told CBC News that he'd favour an appointment if that person's agenda was similar to the mayor's. He later said he wouldn't rule out running for the position himself if a by election were called.                                                                                     

Mayor Rob Ford brought his problems onto his shoulders by his own stupidity.  It could so easily have been avoided if Ford had used a bit of common sense by playing by the rules. For example, an aide to Ford personally asked top city officials to approve drainage and pothole repairs on the street outside his family’s business in time for the firm’s 50^th anniversary celebration. Now could I get the same service if I made a similar request? Of course not since I am not the mayor of Canada’s largest city.

I believe that the Council members are fully aware and probably sick to death of Rob Ford’s antics and his attempt at justifying what he did when he used the city’s letterhead for a personal venture and especially voting against the wishes of the majority of the Council when he knew it was illegal to even vote on the matter he was voting and speaking on. It was not a situation where a council member was speaking and voting on a deal that would secretly land him some extra cash or business opportunities. It was a situation where a council member was openly trying to defend himself from sanctions he deemed unfair. However, the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act suffers no fools. You follow the rules to the letter of the law or you’re out of a job.

Rob Ford is not above the law and the judge made that clear in his decision. Ford often pussyfoots around the rules and his responsibly as a mayor of a large city and there is simply no room in any political office for those kinds of politicians who think that they can get away with their shenanigans. Well this time he didn’t.  

I think his credibility has gone so far down the toilet, I doubt that anyone even with plumbing experience could ever retrieve it and even if it was retrieved, would we want that fat fool back in office again? My message to Mayor Rob Ford is simple and to the point. “You have sat long enough. Now be gone, you knave and don’t ever come back.”