[M II A II R II K]

Could Mayor Rob Ford be removed from office over a conflict of interest?


Mar 12 2012

By Robyn Doolittle



Read More: http://www.thestar.com/news/cityhall...om-office?bn=1

An application to remove Mayor Rob Ford from office and ban him from running in the next election has been filed in Superior Court. The proceedings are being headed by respected constitutional lawyer Clayton Ruby, who is alleging that Ford breached the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act at a council meeting last month by speaking on an item that personally benefited him financially. At that February meeting, Ford asked council to remove sanctions imposed on him by the integrity commissioner the previous summer. In August 2010, Integrity Commissioner Janet Leiper found Ford had breached the city’s code of conduct by soliciting for donations for his private football foundation using councillor letterhead. Ford was to return $3,150 in donations.

At the Feb. 7 council meeting, Ford asked council to repeal that decision, saying “there’s no sense to this.” Council Council obliged. Ruby’s case centres on that February speech and the fact that Ford voted on the motion, not the issues raised within the integrity commissioner’s report. At this point, Ford must convince a judge that he did not willfully break the rules, which is an argument Ruby thinks the mayor will have a tough time making. “It’s not as if Mayor Ford is a novice councillor who can walk in and say this was an error in judgment. This was inadvertent. I didn’t understand the legislation. He knows the legislation,” said Ruby.

“It’s neither a crime nor a misdemeanor nor an offence of any kind. It is a breach of the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act. That act is really strict. And it’s really strict for good reason. It’s because if you don’t catch conflict of interest (on) the small things — and this is not that small — there’s a real danger that you will in fact encourage corruption on a wider scale,” Ruby told reporters at an 11 a.m. press conference. Ruby said there are “a number of instances” where politicians have been removed from office for similar breaches, including a case in Thunder Bay and a school board trustee elsewhere in Ontario.

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