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Rob Ford's Toronto

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On the bright side...

cdr108 said:
The mayor, who left at lunch break, returned to the council chambers around 4:45 p.m., in time to deliver an impassioned speech against the legal agreement that finalized an $8.4-billion light-rail network deal with Metrolinx, the province’s transportation agency.

“The people of this city have spoken loud and clear in Etobicoke and North York and Scarborough. They want subways,†he said. “[If ] you support this, you are supporting more congestion, streetcars the people do not want – mass gridlock. This is terrible. This is the worst thing we could be approving today.â€

Council voted against the mayor to adopt the master agreement with Metrolinx by a vote of 30-11.
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From Mayor Ford's rationalizing for his absence:

“If I wasn’t there, it could have gotten really ugly,” Mr. Ford told reporters after he returned to council. “I think you should talk to the school board and police. I controlled my team.”

“If I’m (not) there what are we going to do, just forfeit the game? These kids live, this is their education that rides on these games.”

How long now until the movie gets made? Such inspirational self-sacrifice. Our mayor, he's Sidney Portier, Edward James Olmos and Michelle Pfieffer in a ill-fitting suit.

Truth is, the guy was kicked out of the public school league because he's an asshole, and bought his way into the catholic school league. Why was there an altercation at this game that required police attendance? I remember reading last year about this time, of how the opposing coach pulled his team after the third quarter because Ford's team was taking cheap shots after running up the score. What really does the guy have to teach the underprivileged except how to be bullies? Can't be football, we all know his storied career measured up to one university season of never stepping on the field.
 
Toronto Sun's coverage: Mayor Rob Ford skips council for football

Coach Rob Ford’s responsibilities trumped Mayor Rob Ford’s responsibilities for a few hours Thursday.

Ford missed more than two hours of city council’s meeting Thursday for a high school football playoff game between the Don Bosco Eagles - the team he coaches - and the Father Henry Carr Crusaders.
* * *
Several councillors blasted Ford for leaving a city council meeting to go coach particularly after, as the Sun reported first last week, he was scolded by his allies not to leave council or committee meetings for the football field. Ford made headlines back in September when he left an executive committee meeting hours before it was over to coach his team at a scrimmage.

Ford defended his time on the football field when approached by reporters at City Hall.

“If I wasn’t there it could have got really ugly,” he said. “I controlled my team, very few people can control these kids.”
* * *
Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday said Ford’s absence for football makes it harder to keep the mayor’s team on council disciplined.

“Leadership has to come from the top,” Holyday said.

“I personally don’t think he should do that but that’s up to him.”
* * *
Councillor Joe Mihevc said coaching is Ford’s “primary commitment”.

“The mayor has shown himself to be supremely incapable of any learning from experience,” Mihevc said.
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The mayor keeps reminding us of how ill-suited he is to actually being the mayor. Talk about split loyalties. He's a coach first, then a proudly belligerent ignoramus, then Mayor Ford. Incredible.
 
How anybody can continue to defend Ford, I don't know. Even the most simple minded people can understand that you can't skip work to go to a football game. Those who elected Ford expect him to be doing his job, not going off for personal getaways.

I know a Mayor cannot be impeached, but doesn't council have the power to censure him? From the recent ombudsman issues, it's been revealed that council can suspend the Mayor or another councillor without pay for a period of time. If it's serious enough, I can imagine Council suspending Ford for months but is there enough support for such a measure? I mean, they can't just let him get away with relieving himself of his responsibilities can they? What does that say about Council?
 
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sarnya said:
Granted, Ford did not call the police himself but it sounds like he was part the situation, which required the police to be called.
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Hang on - do we know that? Reports are that he wasn't involved with the fight ... but surely that means that either him or his entourage was available to call 911.

Was there someone at that game who is particularly adept at calling 911?
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
What I do find odd is that somehow a TTC bus can be made available "by the police", considering the scale of the incident.

AoD
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And in the middle of rush hour! It's true though that the TTC will oblige when requested by the police, such as providing temporary shelter during the evacuation of a apartment building after an electrical vault fire (most common scenario), or transporting low-risk (because they didn't do anything) prisoners in police riots to Gitmo-like holding pens.
 
There are conflicting reports on who ordered the TTC bus. Some reports are saying it was the police. A National Post article says it was the principal of Don Bosco (and that the incident happend around 4pm and the "regular bus" was not due until 4:30pm--the players can't wait for half an hour in the locker room?). Regardless of who ordered the bus, who pays? Is Don Bosco paying the TTC or is this gravy?

The incident happened around 4 p.m. at Father Henry Carr in Etobicoke. “The coach from Henry Carr entered into a dispute with the referee,” said Constable Tony Vella. He said police arrived on scene, an officer investigated, no charges were laid and a TTC bus was called to transport the players from Don Bosco “because it was raining and cold.” John Yan, a spokesman with the Toronto Catholic District School Board, said the police officer at the game was the one normally assigned to the high school and that there was no altercation, just a coach angry with a non-call. He said the TTC bus was dispatched at the request of Ugo Rossi, Don Bosco principal, because the regular bus was not scheduled to pick up the players until 4:30 p.m.
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They called a TTC bus so these football players wouldn't have to wait 30 minutes? Because it was 'cold and raining'? I walked my dog for nearly 2 hours at exactly that time yesterday and it wasn't that bad at all. Unless of course the climate is drastically different between North Etobicoke and St Clair W/Oakwood.

You can tell from the tweets that even the players thought they were getting special privileges. Circumstantial to be sure, but it raises some serious doubts that pulling a bus out for this was necessary. I highly doubt this would happen if their coach wasn't such a high-profile individual. The man's entitlement, not just in this case, is astounding.
 
ShonTron said:
And in the middle of rush hour! It's true though that the TTC will oblige when requested by the police, such as providing temporary shelter during the evacuation of a apartment building after an electrical vault fire (most common scenario), or transporting low-risk (because they didn't do anything) prisoners in police riots to Gitmo-like holding pens.
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Heh. Many was a time my dad got called at home for an extra for something like this. It's primo pay and easy work. In the old days the rollsigns on the buses would read "Charter", "Races" or "Garage" when something like this happened.
 
canmark said:
There are conflicting reports on who ordered the TTC bus. Some reports are saying it was the police. A National Post article says it was the principal of Don Bosco (and that the incident happend around 4pm and the "regular bus" was not due until 4:30pm--the players can't wait for half an hour in the locker room?). Regardless of who ordered the bus, who pays? Is Don Bosco paying the TTC or is this gravy?
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I've read a couple different things... one was that the bus was called because a fight almost broke out between a couple teams and the other mentioned weather.

Toronto Sun:
http://m.torontosun.com/2012/11/01/rob-ford-battles-on

Asked why police called for a TTC bus to transport the Don Bosco team, Vella said it was “due to weather conditions.”
“It was cold so an officer contacted (the TTC) to have a bus transport them back home,” he said.
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Metro:
http://metronews.ca/news/toronto/42...-for-football-team-driven-in-private-ttc-bus/

The police were called to the Father Henry Carr field, police spokesperson Const. Tony Vella said, after a late-game altercation between the Carr coach and the referees. With Ford’s Don Bosco Eagles holding a commanding lead, the game was declared over with time still on the clock.
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Same person... two totally different reasons for the TTC bus being called out to chauffeur these kids. The Metro article does go on to mention the weather... same reason as mentioned above.

Here is a screen shot of the Tweet. @Dougyyepps has now made his Twitter private. I'm sure the other kid who wrote about the bus has made his Twitter private as well.
21112_405645216173677_449843359_n.jpg
 

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