[URBAN NOTE] Might Rob Ford be forced out of the office of mayor of Toronto?

[rfmcdonald]

blogTO and Torontoist both reported that Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby has filed an application with the Ontario Superior Court that could see Rob Ford kicked out of office. Violations of the Province of Ontario’s Municipal Conflict of Interest Act, Hamutal Dotan writes, may have happened.

That act sets out rules that govern how municipal politicians must conduct themselves while in office; one of those rules is that members of a council cannot take part in a debate if it involves their own private financial concerns. Ruby alleges that Ford did this last month, when the mayor gave a speech and cast a vote during a debate on whether he should have to repay certain donors to the Rob Ford Football Foundation. When he did so, according to Ruby, he breached the rules that are supposed to keep municipal government free from personal interests.

The penalty set out in the Conflict of Interest Act for violations of this kind: removal from office.

“The Municipal Conflict of Interest Act is meant to keep politicians honest. It is an affront to democracy to use public office to solicit money from lobbyists,” Ruby told reporters at City Hall today. Magder, described to reporters as “a high-tech manufacturing executive” and a longstanding Toronto homeowner, echoed those sentiments: “With the MFP computer-leasing scandal still so fresh in our minds,” he said, “I felt an obligation to hold our mayor accountable for putting his own financial interests ahead of taxpayers’ interests.”

Other sanctions that can be applied in the case of violating the act include being prohibited from running for council for a period of seven years, and making financial restitution. According to Ruby, in order to receive a lesser penalty and stay in office, Ford would need to demonstrate that his violation “was committed through inadvertence or by reason of an error in judgment”—essentially, that he either didn’t know he was breaking the rules or didn’t intend to do so.

The issue for Ford is that these rules are hardly new to him: he has observed the application of the conflict-of-interest regulations during every single council meeting he’s attended. Councillors routinely recuse themselves from voting on matters in which they have a financial interest (for instance, if a councillor is married to someone who works for the City of Toronto, s/he will not vote on budget allocations to the relevant department or agency)—something that Ford has witnessed dozens of times. Ford himself has declared conflicts of interest on numerous occasions, including at the very same meeting during which he allegedly committed the violation, when he recused himself from debate on matters concerning a golf course of which he is a member (see item GM 10.12). And should the court agree on the substantive issue—that the mayor was indeed in a conflict of interest—the burden will shift to Ford to prove he committed this violation inadvertently or due to an error in judgment. That is, the court proceeds from the assumption that Ford ought to be removed from office unless his counsel can demonstrate otherwise.

As Open File's John Michael McGrath points out, the penalties could be fatal for Ford's political career.

How serious is this?

The letter of the law is bad news for Ford. If he's found guilty of having breached the MCIA, the penalties are pretty dire:

10. (1) Subject to subsection (2), where the judge determines that a member or a former member while he or she was a member has contravened subsection 5 (1), (2) or (3), the judge,

(a) shall, in the case of a member, declare the seat of the member vacant; and

(b) may disqualify the member or former member from being a member during a period thereafter of not more than seven years; and

(c) may, where the contravention has resulted in personal financial gain, require the member or former member to make restitution to the party suffering the loss, or, where such party is not readily ascertainable, to the municipality or local board of which he or she is a member or former member. R.S.O. 1990, c. M.50, s. 10 (1).

In case you don't read legalese, (a) says Rob Ford "shall", not may, be removed from office if he's found guilty of this, and (b) says he can be disqualified from running for office for up to seven years. ("Member" in this case refers to a member of a municipal council in Ontario.) So the potential penalties are very serious, indeed.

Getting rid of the sitting mayor of Toronto would have serious consequences, indeed. Election time?