News   Oct 31, 2024
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Mayor John Tory's Toronto

According to Goldstein, this is the code of conduct Tory broke:


The city’s policy on sexual harassment in the workplace cautions against “making a sexual solicitation or advance where the person making the solicitation or advance is in a position to confer, grant or deny a benefit or advancement to the worker, and the person knows or ought reasonably to know that the solicitation or advance is unwelcome.”
 
These are fair points. From what we know so far, we need to consider three things.

1. Was there any romantic behaviour between the two when on taxpayer-funded overnight trips? Hotel rooms, dinners, etc. Also, did the staffer need to be on these trips, or was her attendance in the junkets suspect? In either scenarios, this would be a misuse of public money.

To the extent that this was the case; its certainly not ideal; but ya know, IMIT gives away tens of millions each and every year to big business, so do subsidized water rates for heavy industry, so do subsidies for the World Cup (there is a tourism/marketing argument, I'm not convinced on the payback, but I digress); point being....... If the argument is one over perhaps a single plane ticket, or per diem for food for a night; I think we'd really be missing the big picture for the small. I don't endorse any politician or staffer mooching the public dime; but I'm not nearly as phased by $1,500 in questionable spending as I am 50M

2. What was the power dynamic like in the office? Was blackmail involved?

Sure, but at this point we have no evidence of any 'power play'. I don't see our soon to be former Mayor as Harvey Weinstein. The power imbalance is real enough, and unavoidable on its face. Its not as if I think this sort of thing is a good idea; I'm just aware its incredibly common; and mostly consensual. We need not infantalize this woman, any woman (or man) and suggest its impossible for them to make their own choices. If there was any clear evidence of coercion or tying sexual favours to employment or advancement, that is a serious matter; but again, we don't have any evidence of that at this time

3. The ex-staffer reportedlty left Tory's office for a position at Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment, working on the FIFA World Cup bid. Rogers has has a 37.5% stake in MLSE. Was Tory involved in getting the staffer a job at MLSE, and were promises made between Tory and MLSE?

IF Tory secured a job for someone, in exchange for access to the public purse or other favourable treatment, that would be both unacceptable and I would argue, illegal. However, we have no evidence of that. Its certainly possible that he phoned a friend and asked if they had work for such a person........(though we don't know that to be the case either); but there is nothing illegal or even bad about that; if your former employer, current employer or ex-lover helps get you a good job through their connections, that's actually a pretty good deal if you can snag it. Only if there was evidence of quid pro quo would we have a problem.

You can bet David Rider and the Star are looking into these possibilities, and more.

Entirely possible, but I'd honestly prefer he didn't bother. There are so many more genuinely scandalous things in this world to focus energy on...........

I want a story on the front page every day on the amount of homelessness, inadequate shelter capacity, insane waiting lists for affordable housing, and the complete bungling of the Housing Now program, before I want to know if Tory called in a favour.

I want a story a day on the record number of Food Bank users and the anemic level of social benefits, until we raise said benefits materially. I want that story before we discuss the Premier's sexual choices.

I just think there are much bigger fish to fry. I'm not giving Tory a pass, I just want to fail him for the bad things he did to my City, not to his wife or former lover; that's for them to address (assuming no crimes were committed), not me.
 
According to Goldstein, this is the code of conduct Tory broke:


No question that this is what happened. Its only a matter of determining how significant this is relative to a host of other issues.

Also, breaching a code of conduct is not an automatic firing offense, nor a criminal matter, it is a matter which may, in the normal order of things, be subject to professional discipline, up to and including termination of employment in some circumstances. However, that wouldn't apply to an elected official. (whether it should or not)
 
No question that this is what happened. Its only a matter of determining how significant this is relative to a host of other issues.

Also, breaching a code of conduct is not an automatic firing offense, nor a criminal matter, it is a matter which may, in the normal order of things, be subject to professional discipline, up to and including termination of employment in some circumstances. However, that wouldn't apply to an elected official. (whether it should or not)
It all gets morally murky because what "discipline" could be placed on Tory that would have any real impact other than being fired?
Dock his pay? If that would even be legal to do, and I don't think it is, he's not caring about it, and the regular City staff would know it wasn't something that concerned him, so that leaves only one possible and relevant consequence, which is to lose his job because otherwise how could anyone else subject to the same code be expected to take it seriously, and not fight it with this as evidence?
I don't think the code is a bad idea, but this shows it has limits to its implementation at the edge cases like the Mayor.

EDIT Also the lowest-wage staff can be an edge case where these codes are sometimes way to powerful a tool constantly hanging over workers with no skills to fully understand them or respond with a proper defence of their conduct. HR just bowls them over.
 
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I’ve been suspecting that there is more to this than the office affair. Is it possible that the heat in the kitchen was getting a bit intense with the overlord in Queens Park? The power pact between Tory and Ford — could it turn out to be a Faustian thing?

While I’m here: those potential candidates who opposed strong powers: will they change their tunes as they eye the prize?

I’ve become so disgusted with the flavour of provincial and city politics of late that I haven’t wished to comment here at all. My dream mayoral candidate hasn’t surfaced: a centre-left with a bit of caché to his or her personality. Mayors like bland ol’ Tory give the wrong outward impression of this fabulously diverse city.
 
I just think there are much bigger fish to fry. I'm not giving Tory a pass, I just want to fail him for the bad things he did to my City, not to his wife or former lover; that's for them to address (assuming no crimes were committed), not me.
Speaking of "fish", this turned out to be an alibi to reactivate the Mayor Troy Twitter account.


Mayor Troy, he sleeps with the fishes. (I guess)
 
I'm sorry to see Tory resign for this. He owes his wife respect and loyalty, he has failed that but it is something he has to work out with her, behind closed doors. John Tory was first elected in the wake of Rob Ford, he said during that campaign that certain aspects of city hall policy had to be reworked - i.e if the mayor becomes incapacitated, term limits, ethics education (Rob Ford said that he didn't know the meaning of the phrase "conflict of interest" despite being elected for nearly a decade), the fact is Tory managed city hall adequately but never addressed major institutional changes. When Doug Ford did away with half the council shortly before an election Tory did a good job of indignation but little else. The is a lot we don't know. Unfortunately with Queens Park the way it is I don't think we will get any kind of democratic representation there. The city of toronto is screwed.
 
This guy raises a good point.
I have a feeling there's a lot more to this story that will come out at a later date

Like I said, he killed the Shermans.

 
You think turnout will be up six points for a summer election (it was only 29.2% in November)?

How very optimistic.
I doubt it will be summer. They can wait 60 days to call it, and then go for 60 days of nominations and wait 45 days for the election ... leading to a July 30 election date.

But they could also set the date on Tuesday, go for 30 days of nominations, and then 45 days for the election. Which means voting day could be as early as May 1st.

Either way, given when there's been a serious challenge (any election involving Fords) the turnout is over 50%, and most other elections have been in the 40s, I'd think that (depending on who runs), that it could well be over 35%!

It's not like this is just a by-election, in the elect a new councillor or trustee. This is a full mayoral election - and probably more serious contenders than 2022.

Perhaps we should change the thread title to Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvies Toronto. Pending a more permanent replacement.
Tory hasn't officially resigned yet. And we don't know yet who council will appoint to head things in the interim.

And even if she does - we should have a seperate thread - which is what we did when Tory replaced Ford.
 
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Tory hasn't officially resigned yet. And we don't know yet who council will appoint to head things in the interim.

And even if she does - we should have a seperate thread - which is what we did when Tory replaced Ford

As per the Strong Mayor legislation, a new mayor cannot be appointed and must be elected via a by-election.

That said, the deputy mayor is next in line. Think of it like Nixon and Ford.
 
As per the Strong Mayor legislation, a new mayor cannot be appointed and must be elected via a by-election.

That said, the deputy mayor is next in line. Think of it like Nixon and Ford.
The legislation can be changed by Queens Park on a dime; they've done it before. I'm not sure it matters what the legislation says, if the PCs put their mind to it.

I don't see anything in the legislation that even mentions the deputy - other than a reference to allowing for regulations to have one. And I see nothing in the regulations about it - though I haven't searched as extensively - have you seen something?
 

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