A couple of quick thoughts on yesterday's bombshell Doug Ford news, from a pair of professional perspectives:
1.) Speaking as a former journalist, one thing I think most people don't realize is that journalists, because of the potential damages from lawsuits, are very careful about what goes into their stories - you only put in what you can verify/prove to a reasonable extent. This means that, in practice, there's a gulf between "what you know" and "what you can print." A good Ford-related example of this is that it was common knowledge among municipal journalists, long before the crack video story ever broke, that Rob Ford was a serious cokehead. But this never saw print, because no journalist (at least, none worthy of being called one) was able to directly witness Rob Ford snorting a line, and no journalist (or their editor) was willing to print a story about how Rob Ford exited a bathroom sniffing conspicuously, because Rob Ford sniffing a lot is innuendo, not fact.
Similarly, back during those years of 2010-2014, there was a steady ongoing discussion, which was: "how well is Deco Labels run, anyway?" Mostly the conversation started because, if you ever listen to Doug Ford talk for more than ten minutes, you realize he's honestly not a very bright person at all, and everybody wondered "how is this dumbass running this supposedly successful company?" But nobody had access to Deco Labels' records, because it's a privately owned company, so there wasn't a story to be written.
Still, it was common knowledge that Doug Ford Senior had run the company well - he legitimately made himself rich via that company - and it was common knowledge that Doug Senior, before he passed, had established a good number of longstanding business relationships with solid, long-term customers which essentially ensured the company's future so long as nobody dramatically screwed it up. So most people generally figured the company was idiotproof.
2.) Speaking as a lawyer, one thing I - and probably every other lawyer who read the Statement of Claim that was made public by Renata Ford and her lawyers yesterday - immediately noticed is that Renata Ford's Statement of Claim makes very, very specific allegations about Deco Labels' performance. At paragraph 25(a), the Statement of Claim states that, according to the company's financial statements, Deco Labels Toronto lost money in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2017, and Deco Labels Chicago lost money in 2016, and states the actual amounts lost in each year. (The smallest amount lost is $396,376; the largest is $2,164,577.)
Renata Ford is represented by Aird Berlis LLP, which I would characterize as a well-respected middle-tier Toronto law firm. The lawyers there know what they're doing, which to me means this: no lawyer who knows what they're doing would draft a litigation document citing specific numbers taken from specific documents UNLESS they had hard proof of them, because making assertions of fact that aren't true harms your case. (If they had serious reason to believe that Deco was losing money but no proof, they would use less firm language, like "Renata believes that the company has been mismanaged," and then try to get to the truth via the discovery process.)Thus, were I a gambling man, I would put a lot of money on Renata Ford - and therefore her lawyers - having the financial statements for Deco Toronto for those six of eight years, and for the one year in Chicago.
(As for the other years, it may be that the company was profitable in those years, or it may be that Renata Ford simply didn't have copies of the financial statements for those years. I suspect the latter, but the discovery process for this lawsuit will eventually reveal all - if Doug and Randy don't settle.)
With respect to Renata Ford's other claims about how Doug Ford essentially looted his late father's estate and stole from his brothers' children to prop up his lifestyle and appearance: they are, if true, monstrous, and I'm sure anybody reading this knows that my personal opinion of Doug Ford is that he is lower than dirt so I have no problem believing that they *could* be true. But I also know Renata Ford is not the most reliable person in the world either, so I'm not making any judgement calls on those claims yet.
But I'll say this: as far as I'm concerned, at this point the question of whether Doug Ford is a successful businessman is essentially answered. He isn't one. He's a failure at it, just like he's been a failure at everything else in his spoiled rich boy life.
And if he wants to prove me wrong, all he has to do is release Deco Labels' financial statements which say otherwise, and which would wreck Renata's lawsuit right out of the gate - but I doubt he's going to do that.
