Advocate Jan 2014

14 VOL. 72 PART 1 JANUARY 2014
THE ADVOCATE
it is the responsibility of Council to address, and act on the basis of, facts
relevant to the merits of the question before it for decision, and not make
such decisions on the basis of speculation, or extraneous or irrelevant
allegations. 6
During the very council meetings devoted to the serious question of
whether the council could sanction the mayor for his admitted criminal
behaviour and ever-escalating bizarre conduct, Ford intimidated at least
one council member (standing menacingly in front of him and not allowing
him to pass), actively taunted members of the public (getting his newly
appointed driver to videotape the public gallery while the mayor and his
brother, councillor Doug Ford, yelled at members of the public), made outrageous
hand gestures designed to taunt other members of council and
charged wildly across the council floor. Who needed speculative or extraneous
evidence in these circumstances?
The principles of the bylaw under consideration state:
(1) The majority of members have the right to decide;
(2) The minority of members have the right to be heard;
(3) All members have the right to information to help make decisions,
unless otherwise prevented by law;
(4) Members have a right to an efficient meeting;
(5) All members have the right to be treated with respect and courtesy;
and
(6) All members have equal rights, privileges and obligations.
How, then, can a majority of members exercising a right to amend a
bylaw after the minority is given an opportunity to be heard be said to be
participating in a coup d’état? The notion is, like most of what Rob Ford
says, complete nonsense.
Sir Winston Churchill famously noted that “democracy is the worst form
of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from
time to time”. Less commonly quoted is his preface to that statement,
namely that “no one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise”. Rob
Ford is apparently that no one. Not only is he prepared to pretend democracy
is perfect and all wise but also that its very foundation is at jeopardy
because he smoked crack cocaine and the majority of Toronto City Council
decided to do something about it.
Any imperfections in the process adopted by the majority of members
of council (a huge majority, in fact) to strip an out-of-control mayor from
causing further embarrassment and harm to the city he is duty bound to
serve must surely be in the interests of the city. Ford was not elected to
break the law or to be a vulgar idiot unable to function at a basic level of
decency. Any argument that council stepped onto a slippery slope to under-