Rob Ford's Toronto

[MetroMan]

As expected, Michael Thompson is done with Rob Ford. A member of his staff told me yesterday that the executive committee decided that Ford had 3 options and all 3 involved the Mayor's term ending immediately. The most appealing for Ford (to quit on the condition that City Council vote to have a by-election rather than appoint his replacement) fell on deaf ears. He ignored all 3.

I expect Michael Thompson will be amongst several resigning from the executive committee as early as Monday. Minan-Wong, Milczyn, Shiner, Crawford and Perruzza are good bets too.

 

[Gavin]

His phone interview with 640 after his radio show was even worse than the non-apology apology, if you can believe it. I'll paraphrase:

640: People will ask you -- you talked about alcohol, but not the drugs. What about the drugs?

Ford: It's really simple. When I drink sometimes -- I, heh -- I've gotta sorta curb that. If you call that a drug, which I guess alcohol is, you know what...um, I have to curb my drinking.

640: No, I think they're calling it crack.

Ford: Ok, I'm gonna reiterate what I said before -- I'm not an addict of crack...I'm not an addict of any drug, even alcohol. But, do I like to have a couple of drinks? Absolutely. I just have to curb it.

It was infuriating. Deflecting away from the hard drugs and making it all about his drinking was bad enough, but on top of it..."I guess alcohol is [a drug]". Fuck him. Fuck him, fuck him, fuck him.

 

[ParkdalePetunia]

As expected, Michael Thompson is done with Rob Ford. A member of his staff told me yesterday that the executive committee decided that Ford had 3 options and all 3 involved the Mayor's term ending immediately. The most appealing for Ford (to quit on the condition that City Council vote to have a by-election rather than appoint his replacement) fell on deaf ears. He ignored all 3.

I expect Michael Thompson will be amongst several resigning from the executive committee as early as Monday. Minan-Wong, Milczyn, Shiner, Crawford and Perruzza are good bets too.

Unfortunately Norm Kelly appears to have missed that memo.

 

[Johnny Au]

...and alcohol is a moderately potent drug.

 

[Jado]

Some tweets are mentioning how hypocritical it is of him to say "stay away from my house, you scare my kids" when he did a drug deal (or deals) in front of the kids. Is that in the warrant? Does anyone have a link to this reference?

 

[MetroMan]

His phone interview with 640 after his radio show was even worse than the non-apology apology, if you can believe it. I'll paraphrase:



It was infuriating. Deflecting away from the hard drugs and making it all about his drinking was bad enough, but on top of it..."I guess alcohol is [a drug]". Fuck him. Fuck him, fuck him, fuck him.

Councillors Kelly, Nunziata, Mammoliti and of course Doug will all kiss Ford's ass until the second before he exits the door. Mammo will then say he never liked him anyway, Nunziata will appear shocked like she didn't know all along, Kelly will say the city needs to move forward despite making no serious attempts to force Ford out and Doug won't shut his face until he too is kicked out.

This non-apology was meant to save Ford Nation from abandoning him entirely but those who accept this as all they needed to hear would never abandon him anyway. I don't expect Council as a body to stop pressuring Ford to leave and of course more bad news -- the worst is yet to come ---will be arriving from the ITO soon. Yet, there's nothing we can do if Ford doesn't voluntarily leave. Even if he's charged and arrested, he'll be out on bail and will be able to run in the election. It's going to be a long year and we're stuck with this idiot until at least December.

We need an eject button, one that is hard to push but it needs to be legislated. An absolute super majority of council should be able to evict the Mayor or any other member of council if there is an argument that can be made as just cause. An absolute super majority requirement will prevent this from becoming a political weapon that is misused. Three quarters would be a good threshold.

 

[Gavin]

Councillors Kelly, Nunziata, Mammoliti and of course Doug will all kiss Ford's ass until the second before he exits the door. Mammo will then say he never liked him anyway, Nunziata will appear shocked like she didn't know all along, Kelly will say the city needs to move forward despite making no serious attempts to force Ford out and Doug won't shut his face until he too is kicked out.

This non-apology was meant to save Ford Nation from abandoning him entirely but those who accept this as all they needed to hear would never abandon him anyway. I don't expect Council as a body to stop pressuring Ford to leave and of course more bad news -- the worst is yet to come ---will be arriving from the ITO soon. Yet, there's nothing we can do if Ford doesn't voluntarily leave. Even if he's charged and arrested, he'll be out on bail and will be able to run in the election. It's going to be a long year and we're stuck with this idiot until at least December.

Oh, I totally agree...but my frustration had less to do with him still being in office and more to do with how flippant he was with his comments. He begrudgingly, but entirely insincerely, conceded that, yeah, ok, maybe alcohol is a drug...if you say so, and he guesses that some people do...then, ok, fine. But he doesn't have a drinking problem. Not him.

It was so fucking insulting.

Edit: And there's also what seems to be his new strategy of making this all about alcohol. Nothing else. St Patrick's Day, Taste of the Danforth...that's all he conceded to.

 

[Gavin]

Also, timeline on when more -- either from the ITO or otherwise -- might hit?

 

[Peepers]

So, back to some (hopefully not too distasteful) speculation re: the supposed sex tape. This may all be grasping at straws, but...

Does anyone remember back in May, in the midst of the crack story breaking, the news about a body in garbage bag that was pulled up from the harbour?

In Aug, the body was confirmed to be that of the missing 21-yo Kasandra Bolduc, a recent transplant from Elliot Lake to Toronto:
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2...e_woman_pulled_from_lake_still_a_mystery.html

According to the article, Bolduc had not been heard from since her last FB update on Nov 9th, 2012 (I think, earlier in the thread, there were speculations that the Ford-Smith / 15 Windsor photo, and the crack video, was taken around that time?). Her family officially reported to police on Feb 13th that she was missing (four days after the Benway Dr case, but I can't see how these would be related). Importantly,
and
The case seems to have gone cold since the body ID.

Again, this is all just wild speculation and could be completely unrelated. I suppose, if it were truly related and the police did just get their hands on the vids, connections would eventually be made and we would know soon enough.

I do remember that case and what struck me as odd was Toronto Police waited three months to identify her as the victim. This is extremely unusual because normally police will identify a murder victim as soon as they have an ID in order to generate leads for their investigation. Why did they wait three months in this case? Is it because her disappearance was connected to this project traveler stuff?

 

[MetroMan]

The press has until Nov 6 to submit their arguments. I expect it won't be long before Justice Nordheimer makes a ruling. He already seems to have his mind made up but wanted to give more consideration to unredacting portions "out of an abundance of caution". It could be as early as Friday but probably some time the following week. The judge has stated he's aware of the urgency.

 

[pattycakes]

Oh, I totally agree...but my frustration had less to do with him still being in office and more to do with how flippant he was with his comments. He begrudgingly, but entirely insincerely, conceded that, yeah, ok, maybe alcohol is a drug...if you say so, and he guesses that some people do...then, ok, fine. But he doesn't have a drinking problem. Not him.

It was so fucking insulting.

Edit: And there's also what seems to be his new strategy of making this all about alcohol. Nothing else. St Patrick's Day, Taste of the Danforth...that's all he conceded to.

Only confess for the sins that are known. Classic addictive behaviour, but he did throw in the texting and reading while driving, so that's progress of sorts.

 

[Gavin]

The press has until Nov 6 to submit their arguments. I expect it won't be long before Justice Nordheimer makes a ruling. He already seems to have his mind made up but wanted to give more consideration to unredacting portions "out of an abundance of caution". It could be as early as Friday but probably some time the following week. The judge has stated he's aware of the urgency.

Was that to release the redacted portions of the ITO or the wiretap details from Project Traveler?

So many court cases, it's hard to keep track.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Norm is a dick.

We should storm NPS and picket City Hall. I would take time off work for this. If we need to drag him out, so be it. I called my councillor, asking she ask for Ford's resignation. Hopefully she does tomorrow. I work too hard to have these clowns in power.

 

[SunriseChampion]

I believe it's for the wiretaps.

 

[blahblahblah]

Well right. There is not enough outrage. We need to go to NPS every day this week until our voice is heard. 3:00 pm every day.

Norm is a dick.

We should storm NPS and picket City Hall. I would take time off work for this. If we need to drag him out, so be it. I called my councillor, asking she ask for Ford's resignation. Hopefully she does tomorrow. I work too hard to have these clowns in power.