Should Toronto Mayor Rob Ford resign?

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Every major newspaper in Toronto now calling for Rob Ford to step down (with video)

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says he has no reason to step down, despite police seizing a video allegedly showing him smoking crack, according to reports. Ford says he can't comment on matters that are before the courts.

Rob Ford’s supporters have faded into the night. He is alone on the hill.The Toronto Sun, the city’s right-leaning newspaper which at one time supported Mayor Rob Ford, decided to publish a special afternoon edition of the newspaper to focus on Thursday’s developments.
It was the first time the paper has published a special afternoon edition since Sept. 11, 2001.
The special edition was distributed for free in the downtown core of the city.
#Ford front-page-in-progress Toronto Star for Friday …. 13 pages of coverage. Good day for investigative reporters. http://t.co/ihXInyIhhB—
Michael Cooke (@TorStarEditor) October 31, 2013
The Toronto Sun puts the spotlight on the latest Rob Ford controversy in a special afternoon edition today for free of charge. #topoli—
Toronto Sun (@TheTorontoSun) October 31, 2013
“The 28-page edition will be jam-packed with startling revelations about the alleged video showing Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine,” thepaper announced on Thursday afternoon.
“Also included in the special edition will be information from police documents released Thursday in the case of accused drug dealer Sandro Lisi, Ford’s friend and occasional driver, who’s now been charged with extortion related to a video file.”
Tons of excitement about the @TheTorontoSun Bulldog edition coming out today. Here's the front. #TOpoli http://t.co/yUgDeRoLcg—
TorSun City Editor (@TorSunCity) October 31, 2013
The paper takes the opportunity to call on Ford to step down.
“Ford needs to step down, both to address the whirlwind of questions now surrounding his credibility and to get his own life in order,” the editorialsays. “Simply put, Toronto is more important than its mayor.”
It’s a big about face for the newspaper that, back in Oct. 2010, endorsed Rob Ford for the mayor’s chair.
“It’s time to take City Hall and the City of Toronto in a bold, new direction. Rob Ford is the man to get it done,” the paper wrote in an editorial endorsing the mayor at that point.
It’s also a common sentiment across the city: StepDownRobFord.com also went live on Thursday evening.
The Globe and Mail has also joined the chorus of calls for the mayor to step down.
“For the sake of the city and himself, he should step down,” the paper wrote. “He has become an embarrassment. Enough. Time to go.”
The Toronto Star, which broke the story back in May, has also called on the mayor to resign his post.
“Under these circumstances, having Ford at the helm badly undermines Toronto’s reputation. If Ford possesses even a scintilla of respect and concern for the city he is supposed to lead, he will step down as mayor,” the Star wrote.
The National Post joined the cries and completed the cast of news outlets calling for a resignation.
“It is clear that Mr. Ford’s personal life is now so thoroughly beset by crisis that the people of Toronto cannot count on him to fairly represent them and to give his duties the time and consideration they require. Mr. Ford must step aside until this matter is fully resolved,” the National Post wrote.

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Mayor Rob Ford has nowhere left to hide: Editorial

For the sake of Toronto, Mayor Rob Ford should resign now that Police Chief Bill Blair has revealed he has found the video that allegedly shows Ford smoking crack cocaine.

Mayor Rob Ford has no place left to hide. No way to excuse or deny that he was caught on video allegedly smoking crack cocaine. A copy of the footage he claimed didn’t exist is now in the possession of Toronto police.

That video, recovered from an erased hard-drive, contains “those images which were previously reported in the press,” says Police Chief Bill Blair. More specifically, the images in question were reported in the Star after the video was witnessed by reporters Kevin Donovan and Robyn Doolittle. And they show the mayor of Canada’s largest city obviously impaired, puffing on what appears to be a crack pipe while uttering racist and homophobic slurs.

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fordcartoon.jpg

[My Looh]

Legally he doesn't have to do squat. He has not been charged with anything (yet).

For the good of the city he needs to step aside because this thing is going to consume the rest of his mandate.

[My Looh]

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[Tropicana]

Legally he doesn't have to do squat. He has not been charged with anything (yet).

For the good of the city he needs to step aside because this thing is going to consume the rest of his mandate.

If he is charged I wonder if he can be forced out. In the meantime, Toronto is stuck with this bloated and chubby fella.

Rob Ford video scandal: Toronto mayor can't be forced out

City council has no power to depose him, but Ford’s real grip on government has been failing for months anyway.

Nobody can force Mayor Rob Ford to resign.City council can ask or demand. But councillors have no actual power to compel the mayor to do anything, and there are no official confidence votes or impeachment provisions in the laws governing the city.

If Ford were to take a leave of absence, Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly, a 20-year council veteran, would assume his duties. If Ford were to resign — he says there is “no reason” for him to do so — Kelly would take over until council either appointed someone new or called a by-election.



The appointee or by-election winner would serve until December 2014. The timing of the crisis, which comes three years into a four-year term, could make an appointment more attractive to councillors: a by-election costs about $9 million, and the 10-month campaign period for the regularly scheduled Oct. 27, 2014, election begins in only two months.

Ford’s grip on council has been tenuous or worse for more than a year: he has lost major battles on the budget, transit and the waterfront. If he decides to stay in office, he is likely to be sidelined even further.

“People have been voting their conscience and their politics for the last year,” said Councillor Joe Mihevc, a Ford opponent. “I think, frankly, he is isolated and marginalized on council. He commands, maybe, maximum 10 votes when he applies a lot of pressure and focus. He has almost no impact on council.”

The practical impact of Ford’s legislative weakness could be negligible: little remains on his policy agenda for this term. But the debate over the $9-billion-plus 2014 operating budget will begin in late November, and council will meet 10 more times, to deal with hundreds of issues, before the pre-election break in August.

Ford could still wield considerable power even if he could not win votes. By law, Toronto’s mayor is the chief executive officer of the city bureaucracy. He is the city’s representative in dealings with other governments, and his office’s requests to senior civil servants shape behind-the-scenes decisions on countless matters: tax rates, the timing of key reports, bureaucratic priorities.

“For some people, they might find comfort in the fact that council can kind of shoulder the load, and you do what you can. But in our system, you have to have a mayor, because there’s that important role. So that’s the dilemma,” said centrist Councillor Josh Colle.

Council does have the power to call a judicial inquiry into cases of supposed breach of trust, misconduct or “any matter connected with the good government of the city.” But even Ford’s council opponents have never had a desire to intervene directly in controversies surrounding the mayor’s behaviour: the left-leaning faction has been studiously quiet on the video scandal since it erupted in May.

A week in, members of Ford’s executive committee released a letter urging him to address the allegations. Councillors gave no indication Thursday that another such letter is in the works. And the province is unlikely to intervene, absent a criminal conviction.

“There’s nothing that we can do at this point. The province has no power to remove anybody, and obviously we’d have to wait until the investigation unfolds as to next steps,” a “saddened” Municipal Affairs Minister Linda Jeffrey told reporters.

Kelly, a Scarborough councillor in his early 70s, was a one-term Liberal MP in the early 1980s. A staunch Ford ally first elected to council in 1994, he maintained a relatively low profile until Ford named him deputy mayor in August, after Doug Holyday was elected to provincial office.

Holyday habitually put himself before the cameras to support Ford during controversies. On Thursday, Kelly released a four-sentence written statement.

“In light of recent developments, I am looking forward to speaking with Mayor Ford, privately, and sharing my best advice with him,” he said.

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2013/10/31/rob_ford_video_scandal_toronto_mayor_cant_be_forced_out.html

[Suesumba]

In the meantime, Toronto is stuck with this bloated and chubby fella.

as weight conscious as i am, i think it's a shame that people keep harping on his weight. he's a human being.

it's his arrogance and defiance that really urks me.

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A yawdie weighs in....

Ford desecrates mayor’s office: James

What happens now is a test of Toronto’s maturity and ability to hold public officials accountable; citizens, media, police, city council.


By:Royson JamesCity Columnist

His brother says Mayor Rob Ford is the most honest politician in Canada.Ouch! As if politicians don’t have a bad enough name.

In truth, Mayor Ford is not an honest man. It hurts to think that about your chief magistrate. But that’s the inevitable conclusion from Thursday’s extraordinary day in Canada’s largest city.

Shortly after 10 a.m., more than 400 pages of released court documents made a liar out of Ford and left citizens asking why the mayor of Toronto spent so much time cavorting with a known drug dealer, woman abuser and convict — in dark corners, in empty parking lots, in washrooms, often near his Etobicoke home.


Ninety minutes later, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair confirmed that police obtained a copy of the video that shows Ford smoking what appears to be crack.

The video is real, as the Toronto Star and Gawker.com reported May 16. Mayor Ford is seen on it. And it is “disappointing” because it speaks to a “traumatic issue for the residents of the city and for the reputation of the city,” Blair told a news conference.

What happens now is a test of Toronto’s maturity and ability to hold public officials accountable; citizens, civic workers, media, police and city council.


The people of Toronto put their trust in Mayor Ford in October 2010. They expected him to respect the office and conduct his duties with honour and integrity. A hardcore subset of residents, dubbed Ford Nation, care only that Ford is intent on keeping taxes down and care nothing about his moral compass. The rest want good government, but have no way of removing Ford from office until the October 2014 election.

The mayor’s staff and advisers have proven themselves impotent. Whatever advice Ford gets, he does not follow. Several of his handlers have left his office in controversy. Meanwhile, the mayor remains a raging bull with no effective tether. Worse, his advisers, even after they leave his employ, refuse to publicly declare the degree of danger the mayor, and the city, face.

Mayor Ford’s brother, Councillor Doug, is the worst of the enablers. In fact, he pushes the mayor towards one irresponsibility after another, often creating a circus atmosphere at the once staid city hall.

A few journalists have done their best to expose the mayor for who he really is. Too many others ran interference and clouded the issues to provide him cover during these past three years. On this file, these Ford apologists have zero credibility left, especially those who would ruin journalistic reputations in a zeal to back a politician who shares their politics.

The media, now belatedly as a unanimous force, seem to have had enough. All four daily newspapers are now calling on the mayor to vacate the office so that the city can move on. Toronto is bigger than any one mayor. This mayor has proven himself too small for the job.

Toronto police have added their incredible weight to the exposé — “without fear or favour,” Chief Blair says — and there are more revelations to come. Thursday was a turning point in the Ford saga and it was the police who pushed his canoe across the Rubicon. Could they have done more, more quickly? Maybe. But this may just be enough to trigger essential change.

That leaves city council — the body with the most lethal and moral force between elections.

Will city council stand up and defend Toronto’s good name and stop the desecration of the mayor’s office?

From the outset, a few brave councillors sniffed out the real Rob Ford, decried the mayor’s turpitude, and questioned his ability to lead city council. Now, others are seeing the light.

Council cannot remove the mayor from office; but city councillors can refuse to be led by him. Councillors Jaye Robinson and Michelle Berardinetti were the first to leave the mayor’s executive committee, a kind of cabinet. The majority of them should leave now — if the mayor refuses to acknowledge his problems and seek professional help.

On Thursday, with the world crashing down around him, Mayor Ford told the city another lie: that he has no reason to resign and just wants to go back to answering constituents’ calls and delivering the great government he has for the past three years.

Faced with irrefutable charges of moral lapses, discreditable behaviour and the sullying of the mayor’s office, Ford did what he always does: he bluffed his way through and tried to play the people of Toronto for fools.

City council does not have to accept that. The majority of the 44 councillors should seize leadership, move a motion of non-confidence in the mayor and force him to seek help.

Then, Toronto can start rebuilding its image at home and abroad.

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2013/11/01/mayor_rob_ford_is_finished.html

[Tropicana]

as weight conscious as i am, i think it's a shame that people keep harping on his weight. he's a human being.

it's his arrogance and defiance that really urks me.

Yeah, yeah yeah....but why ignore the elephant in the room.....it makes for great copy and he left himself wide open for it with his antics. He deserved everything one can throw at him. If he was doing his job the way he was supposed to....no one would even mention it...only mentioned his chubbiness once in this post. The rest was about his behaviour. Press has said MUCH worse and if you make a fuss about this, I just might share all of it.

Let's not derail yet another thread.

[My Looh]

Regarding his weight and his love of alchahol and drugs, the guy is a heart attack waiting to happen. Now with all this added stress he is that much more of a ticking time bomb. He needs to take time off and check into a rehab and weigh loss facility to begin treatment immediately. If he is the family man he says he is, he should put his kids first and make sure they have a father for a few years to come.

[Tropicana]

How old are his children?

[My Looh]

How old are his children?

Not sure, they must be fairly young if he went out trick or treating with him on Halloween.

[Tropicana]

Where does it say he went trick or treating?

If he gets a good lawyer, any charges will never stick. They are from a recovered file on a hard drive that had been erased. He could scream entrapment and a whole bunch of other things.

The truth finally found a few more friends in Toronto yesterday. It badly needed them.For the past six months, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has waged a brilliantly cynical and manipulative campaign against the Toronto Star and any other media who dared to question him.

Exploiting character assassination, defamation and a numbing stream of self-serving lies, Ford obscured the truth and befouled the truth-tellers.

Until yesterday.

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair confirmed Thursday what the Toronto Star published in May: the mayor of Toronto has been captured on video smoking what appears to be crack cocaine and uttering homophobic and racist remarks.

Six months ago, Mr. Ford might have ’fessed up, done a stint in rehab and emerged to a chorus of congratulations. Everybody loves a redemption story around election time.

But the mayor did not own up to his behaviour. Instead, he turned on the messengers.

And in the success of his malign campaign, he proved how fragile the truth can be if our chosen leaders lead their followers astray.

Mr. Ford and his thuggish brother, Councillor Doug Ford, used their media access to label the news reporters of this city as pathological liars and anti-democratic maggots.

The Fords urged their loyalists to cancel their subscriptions to the Toronto Star and to pull their advertisements.

The Star’s owners and journalists were accused of pursuing an ideological vendetta against Ford. Star reporting was denounced as harassment. Called delusional.

Ford acolytes hauled the paper before the Ontario Press Council, charging that the Star’s use of unnamed sources was unethical and that the media’s focus on the issue was detrimental to the democratic life of the city.

Toronto’s divided and querulous council proved powerless to call the mayor to account or defend their own integrity.

Painful as it is, we must acknowledge as a community that the mayor has been startlingly successful in his deceit.

Many citizens, perhaps a majority, have gullibly given credence to Mayor Ford’s lies about his drug use and about the reporters and editors he vindictively targeted.

The public was persuaded to ignore his erratic behaviour and the intense secrecy he insisted on about the hours he kept and the people with whom he spent his time. Episodes of public intoxication were laughed off (though members of his inner circle conceded the mayor urgently needed intervention).

Latterly, we have heard a little bit about some of the potential harm that comes when a leading official surrounds himself with criminals. Letters of recommendation have gone out from the mayor’s office for a killer and a drug dealer.

We are likely to learn a good deal more about what has been at risk at city hall in the days ahead.

A consensus had been developing recently that Mayor Ford would be very difficult to unseat in next November’s election despite the unsavoury allegations swirling round him. It is less likely today that he can maintain his hold on city hall.

Chief Blair indicated that the police investigation into the mayor’s activities began with the appearance of the Star’s story about the “crack video” in May. It was the product of months of extraordinary reporting by the Star’s multi-award-winning investigative editor, Kevin Donovan, and the deep and knowledgeable sources of Robyn Doolittle.

Many other Star reporters were involved, some of them virtually full-time. They include Jayme Poisson, Jesse McLean, Dale Brazao, Emily Mathieu, Jennifer Pagliaro, David Bruser, Kenyon Wallace, Mary Ormsby, Tim Alamenciak, Robert Benzie, Daniel Dale, Laura Kane, Betsy Powell, Amy Dempsey and David Rider.

They took counsel at every step from the Star’s wise and enormously experienced lawyer, Bert Bruser. Mr. Bruser pored over every word to ensure, in part, that the mayor’s rights were respected in everything we published.

They were led courageously by City Editor Irene Gentle and Managing Editor Jane Davenport. And all were deeply inspired by Editor Michael Cooke’s passionate concern for the truth and relentless drive to get his readers the best story possible.

This is work of a scale and seriousness that can only be undertaken successfully by what is now called “the mainstream media.” Others lack the resources, the experience and the credibility to call a senior official to account.

We feel tremendously proud today of our unwavering pursuit of a shocking story about a popular mayor.

It’s a good day for the city of Toronto despite this bitter period of deception we’ve been through.

And it’s a good day for journalism.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/11/01/rob_ford_toronto_finally_knows_the_truth.html