Rob Ford. Not a political question.

[train]

How stupid and arrogant can one be. All he had to do was apologize and give the money back a while ago but he thought he was invincible.

Deserves to get booted?.

To me, damn right.

You might not have undestood the facts of the case. He didn't take any money in the first place. The judge also said there was no corruption. Instead of accepting a political donation he told a lobby group to give it to a legitimate charity of his choice.

Put Ford being an idiot in general aside for the moment. How do you feel that some two-bit (lower court) judge can overturn the will of the voting public for what is essentially a minor transgression?

Hell most federal Liberal leadership candidaters in the last democratic leadership race haven't paid back loans in accordance with the law and you still see some of them sitting as MPs - and those amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hell one of them, Gerad Kennedy was in violation of these for years and he's running for the provincial leadership. Former Liberal mp, now London mayor, Joe Fontana was arrested by the RCMP for fraud for taking money personally yet he refuses to resign.

The point is that this is entirely political and most of those that are happy are those that thought he was a horrible mayor and didn't vote for him in the first place. You overlook the transgression of those that you favour.

The dad part that in Toronto's long list of ineffective "clown" mayors the next one is not likely to be any better.

 

[HoneyBee]

Rob Ford lives and breaths the city of Toronto. I dont begrudge his soliciting donations for his football team which are filled with kids. The money he raised was not exhorbitant, it was under $3200, barely enough to outfit a team with uniforms and some safety gear. I see people like Adam Vaughn blackmailing developers into spending tens of millions of dollars more, driving the cost of housing and rent up on these buildings they are trying to put up.

I heard Ruby's quote of "no one being above the law", which is a nice sentiment, however he forgets that his client Magder flouted the law so hard that he was fined into near bankruptcy. The good that came from that fight now allows everyone to shop on Sunday. But this decision is going to set a dangerous trend. I know of no politicians that have not broken any laws or ethics while in office. If someone doesn't like a particular politician, no problem, we'll sue him or her in court and have them thrown out of political office. This is not a healthy move. It's up to the voting public to make that decision if a politician should remain in his or her office.

I really dont care whether you like Ford or you hate him. He set some voting records the day he was elected to office, commanding 47% of the popular vote with a 52% voter turn-out. The majority wanted him as Mayor. We have to respect the electoral process even if we dont agree with the end results. Ford did not break a federal or provincial law, that is serious enough to have someone removed from public office. Even if this was David Miller instead of Rob Ford (and I detested David Miller) I would still be disagreeing with the court's decision. It's not up to the courts, its up to the voting public.


/soapbox

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/ci...-ford-s-conflict-of-interest-case-the-players
Paul Magder: A business executive who has strong views on keeping government accountable for its actions, Magder is not related to furrier Paul Magder, who spent years fighting for Sunday shopping.

 

[Art Mann]

Useful clarification, HB.

 

[Shiek]

Thanks for that clarification HoneyBee. I wasnt aware it was a different person.

 

[RAWD]

A couple interesting developments:

- The city solicitor has given her opinion that Justice Hackland's ruling precludes Ford from running in a byelection for his seat.

- The Toronto Star is running a story about whether Ford's removal from office is undemocratic


I happen to think that this is perfectly fine. AFAIK, I'm not aware of any "recall" provisions under the Canadian system. Democracy is about putting people into elected seats. It's also about holding people accountable for their actions and ensuring that they don't abuse their powers. This is democracy at work.

 

[Madman]

I'm anti Ford and anti conservative but this only makes Ford nation more resolved to bring him back in the next election. I think they should have let the Ford's put their foot in their mouth over and over, just like slowly taking down an old oak tree a very wide burly old oak tree! :biggrin2:

 

[HOF]

Madman, I too am anti-conservative and I'll even say that I'm anti-Toronto and really could care less what happens there simply because the people put him into power, and they knew exactly what they were going to get. For me there is a bottom line, there are no good politicians anywhere and those in-charge of large cities are worse than most.

It's like the NIN song "Head like a hole" Toronto, you're gonna get what you deserve!

My name is Rob Ford and I am:


My name is Rob Ford and I will be remembered for:



My name is Rob Ford; I am the Mayor of Toronto:



Oh my god, there are gang-bangers at my door and they want my candy:

​

 

[HOF]

My next job will be TTC ticket taker and I will become a union member:





No that wasn't a major earth-quake, it was Rob Ford:

My name is Rob Ford and Toronto is:


Move bitch, get out-the-way!

​

 

[HOF]

I'm Rob Ford, bitch:



The real fat bastard!



13 more days!

Rob Ford has more cartoons than victories!

My name is Rob Ford and I am a sexy beast!


​

 

[HOF]

The twinkie is gone, so I'll switch to Pillsbury cresent rolls:

My ship, the HM-Fat-Ass is sinking fast, but I'll still get my pension as a councillor:

Yeah, okay, that lasted until he walked past a KFC!

Has Rob Ford ever finished anything he started except at a fast food diner?

Hey, I ordered gravy with my deep-dish-artery-hardening pizza!

No Doug, No Randy, it's my fucking pizza get your own!

Judge please



For I am a worthless piece of lard.

​

 

[HOF]

That's some tasty gravy!

Told you that I'll never be hungry, there's always someone to eat!



Rob Ford did this to me!​

 

[ShowmeThemoney]

If this is a true story then Ford should never be allowed back as a Mayor.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/ci...d-s-team-do-you-want-these-people-to-lynch-me

TTC Transit Control wanted Carol Holgate to declare her Finch West bus out of service, kick about 50 passengers to the curb, and hurry to an Etobicoke high school.
“I can’t,” Holgate responded. “I have a full bus. Do you want these people to lynch me?”

The Transit Control staffer told her there were three buses right behind her. She was unswayed. “Why me?” she said. “Why you pick my bus?” Told that her bus was the only option, she said, “Can’t I refuse?”

“No,” a Transit Control staffer said. “It’s a shelter (bus), it’s an emergency, we have to do it right away.”
Holgate’s reluctance to inconvenience paying customers is one of several revelations in a TTC-produced transcript of calls related to the controversial incident involving Mayor Rob Ford’s football team. The transcript provides the most complete explanation yet available of what actually happened on the chaotic and heavily scrutinized afternoon of Nov. 1.
It does not, however, include the two most intriguing calls: those from Ford to the cellphone of TTC chief executive Andy Byford.

The first Ford call, in which he and Byford had a conversation Byford has described as “garbled,” was not recorded, unlike the calls involving Transit Control and other TTC departments. The TTC says the second Ford call, a voice mail message, “was deleted and cannot be retrieved from the server, as confirmed by Telus.”
The transcript, obtained through freedom of information law, shows that the justification Ford offered for making his calls was incorrect.

Ford emphatically told reporters that he only called Byford because “there was a 20-minute delay” after the initial police call. Ford actually made his first call less than nine minutes after the police call — and, at most, seconds after Holgate was told to head to the field, possibly even before she was contacted.
The incident occurred after a football game between Ford’s Don Bosco Eagles at the campus of their Etobicoke rivals, the Father Henry Carr Crusaders. The game ended slightly earlier than expected after a Crusaders coach confronted the referee.

Don Bosco’s chartered bus was expected at 4:30 p.m. The police called the TTC at 3:42 p.m. Ford called Byford at some point before 3:51 p.m.
Byford responded to that Ford call with an attempt to help the mayor — but also with skepticism. He asked Transit Control’s Jerry Wing to try to find a private bus company that he could put in touch with Ford.

“Jerry, do you have a number, do you have the number for school bus companies, you know, like yellow buses, the big long yellow buses. . . someone like Grey (sic) coach. I do need a vehicle to an intersection but I do not want to use a TTC bus,” Byford said.
After Wing called him back five minutes later to say that he had found a company with buses available, Byford replied, “Thanks mate, you're a star.”
But the private bus was never sent. Byford learned minutes later that the request for a TTC bus was not merely coming from the mayor: the police had called Transit Control and requested a “shelter bus.”

Such requests usually follow genuine emergencies. The TTC’s protocol, which Byford reaffirmed following a post-incident review, is to provide a shelter bus whenever the police ask.
“Apparently the (police) — ’cause, ’cause it’s apparently some brawl broken out between the school kids — the police are saying get those kids out of here straight away or else they will not be able to control the crowds,” Byford told Transit Control. “So could you try to see what you can do to get a TTC bus there as soon as possible to pick these kids up?”
A staffer replied, “Oh, we do have a bus en route.” Byford responded, “We do?”

Shelter buses provide a stationary refuge for people who have been forced out of their homes. The TTC almost never provides free emergency shuttles. In this case, however, Holgate drove the football team — which she mistook for a track and field squad — back to their school.
When she reported that had done so, a colleague at her TTC facility on Arrow Rd. expressed bewilderment.
“What happened was, there was an altercation between the two coaches at their track and field, so to avoid the kids from getting injured they had to bring them over here to Don Bosco,” Holgate said.

“So we did a chartered run for them,” her colleague replied.
“Well, that’s what the police told me,” Holgate said.
“You gotta be — okay, that’s interesting,” her colleague said.
“I didn’t mind, though,” Holgate said.

“I don’t understand that, hang on for a second,” her colleague said. The colleague then asked an unnamed person: “The police demanded a shelter bus for a school . . . then they had our bus drive them over to another school. What’s that about?”

It remains unclear why the officers feared post-game violence. There was no fight between Don Bosco and Henry Carr players, and multiple officers remained on the scene after the game. But in the initial 3:42 p.m. call, the police caller told Transit Control, “The football teams — I guess things may have gotten out of hand and they separated them but they need to get them shelter and out of the way.” In a follow-up police call at 3:52 p.m., the caller said officers at the field were clamouring for “an ETA” for the bus.

TTC actually sent two buses: Holgate’s, at 3:50 p.m., and an empty bus from the Martin Grove route at 3:55 p.m. While an official TTC statement said the second bus was dispatched because the first got lost, the transcript shows that the second bus was actually sent to the scene before Holgate struggled briefly to find the team.
Asked Thursday why the second bus was thought to be needed, spokesperson Brad Ross said, “It may have been some miscommunication … all decisions were made at the local level based on a sense of urgency, I suppose, that the dispatchers felt.”

Holgate, who could not be reached for comment on Thursday, warned her colleagues that she would not tolerate any poor conduct from the players.
“They better behave themselves,” she said. “They better, ’cause if they don’t behave themselves I’m putting them off the bus. I don’t take no behaviour.’”
She pronounced them “noisy,” but she reported no problems. At 4:35 p.m., 45 minutes after she was unwittingly drawn into the world of Rob Ford, she was told to return to her regular duties.

 

[ZooCool]

Don't you think The Toronto Star and NOW have gone too far this time?.

NOW Magazine’s cover of Mayor Rob Ford has been compared to TIME Magazine’s front cover of Adolf Hitler printed 67 years earlier.
The cover of NOW, an alternative weekly, shows Ford with a dripping, spray-painted X splashed across his face.
TIME’s cover which cast a red X across the face of Hitler was printed on May 7, 1945, one day before Germany’s official surrender.
TIME’s red X covers have featured some of the most hated men in America and have also included Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
It’s not the first time NOW has skewered Ford on its cover; last March, a topless Ford in patterned boxers greeted readers at the newsstand.
Reaction online ranged from praise to outrage. One Twitter user congratulated NOW, while another expressed how sorry he felt for Ford.
NOW posted a cheeky response on Twitter. “Our cover is not an intentional reference to the Time Hitler cover. Sometimes an X is just an X. Bye!”



https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/ar...g-rob-ford-compared-to-time-s-cover-of-hitler

 

[Prick]

Ford gets to keep his job for now.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1297787--rob-ford-stay-decision