Member Since: 1/6/2012
Posts: 12,011
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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford kicked out of office! REJOICE!!
ROB FORD KICKED OUT OF OFFICE
Let's rejoice for the removal of Toronto's worst mayor 
Quote:
Mayor Rob Ford has been found guilty of conflict of interest and will be removed from office.
But Justice Charles Hackland has granted Ford a 14-day stay and he will be allowed to run again.
It is assumed Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday will take over Ford’s duties.
Hackland found the mayor in violation of the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act. He had the option of banning Ford from running for up to seven years.
The hotly awaited decision follows a two-day hearing in early September that saw Ford grilled over his conduct at a Feb. 7 council meeting and the events that led up to it.
The city’s integrity commissioner ruled in 2010 that then-councillor Ford was wrong to use official letterhead and other city resources to solicit donations from people lobbying him for his namesake football foundation.
Council agreed and ordered Ford to repay $3,150 to lobbyists, their clients and one private firm. Ford ignored six reminders from the integrity commissioner before she brought the issue back to council Feb. 7.
There, Ford made an impassioned speech about why he shouldn’t be forced to repay the money, arguing it was spent distributing football equipment to schools. He voted with the 22-12 majority to cancel the order that he repay.
In March, Toronto resident Paul Magder alleged Ford broke a provision in the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act which states elected officials can’t speak to, or vote upon, items in which they have a “pecuniary interest.”
At the hearing before Hackland, Magder’s lawyer Clayton Ruby argued Ford was “reckless” and “wilfully ignorant” of the law when he did not recuse himself from the debate and vote.
Ford, who was on council for a decade before becoming mayor in late 2010, testified he never read the Conflict of Interest Act or the councillor orientation handbook. Nor did he attend councillor training sessions that covered conflicts of interest.
The mayor promised in his oath of office to “disclose conflicts of interest” but, when asked by Ruby if he understood the words, Ford said: “No. My interpretation of a conflict of interest, again, is it takes two parties and the city must benefit or a member of council must benefit.”
Ruby accused Ford of “wilful blindness.”
“As mayor he ought to have had a clear understanding of his obligations. This entire pattern of conduct shows that he chose to remain ignorant, and substituted his own view for that of the law,” Ruby said.
Ford, longtime coach of Etobicoke’s Don Bosco Eagles, vehemently disagreed, saying he acted only in the best interests of high school students.
Ford’s lawyer, Alan Lenczner, offered a three-pronged defence.
He said council had no legislative authority to make Ford repay $3,150 in football charity donations in the first place.
Second, that if council did impose a penalty it was under Toronto’s code of conduct, not the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act, so Ford could not have breached the act. If the Act applied, elected officials could not defend themselves when criticized by the integrity commissioner, he added.
Finally, that if Ford did err by not declaring a conflict, it was an inadvertent “error in judgment.”
“He may (have been) wrong (to vote),” Lenczner said. “And the case may allow for that, because that’s what an error of judgment is. You’re wrong, but that’s an excuse under the Act.”
Ford himself went into the trial saying he did nothing wrong. During the grilling by Ruby, he allowed that, if he had been advised that voting on the matter could land him in court, he wouldn’t have voted.
“I would have declared a conflict like I have every other time,” the mayor said. “But now that we’re here, I’m here. I can’t change what happened.”
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http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/arti...-can-run-again
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What could you possibly like about him? I guess it's because you don't live in downtown Toronto. He seriously makes everyones life hell down here 
I love it! Feel free to message me for any specifics