Ford booed, applauded at ceremony
Now it’s time for embattled mayor to face councillors
TORONTO — As the rain drizzled down on the hallowed Old City Hall cenotaph Monday, and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford walked past supporters and hecklers, he turned to one who had words of encouragement and said, “I’m not going anywhere, guaranteed.”
But he is facing sharp criticism of his leadership nonetheless, and perhaps a grilling by friends and foes on city council who will debate whether or not to ask him to take a leave of absence this week to address his “personal issues.”
In that same spirit of defiance, the embattled mayor has chosen to give that debate priority status on Wednesday.
“Let’s get it on,” he told reporters as he left city hall.
Councillors Denzil Minnan-Wong and Peter Milczyn are also calling on the mayor to apologize for “misleading” the city about the existence of a video that appears to show him smoking crack cocaine, to heed police requests for an interview, and to apologize for writing a letter of reference for his friend Alexander Lisi, who is charged with drug trafficking and making extortive efforts to obtain the recording from alleged gang members.
“I think it’s critical that council speaks as one voice to say that what he’s done is wrong,” said MinnanWong, who is mulling over his own mayoral bid next year.
“That he should be going to the police and co-operating, that he should be apologizing and fundamentally that he should go, take a leave of absence, remove himself from council while he gets the help he needs and let the city move forward and not be distracted with any of the future information that might be coming out.”
Following months of denials and the bombshell announcement police had recovered the alleged crack video, Ford finally admitted last week to smoking crack cocaine, probably during one of his drunken stupors.
Two days later he apologized for another video that showed him in an inebriated rant, threatening to kill someone.
Ford, who has been under investigation by a special detail of police officers, has refused to submit to questioning, on his lawyer’s recommendations.
At the Remembrance Day ceremony outside Old City Hall, Ford’s first official appearance since the crisis took over, he was greeted by the crowd with boos and a smattering of applause.
After the mayor laid a wreath at the foot of the cenotaph, he walked past a row of veterans and at least one refused to shake his hand.
Tony Smith, who was stationed in Germany after the Second World War, says he wouldn’t shake Ford’s hand because the mayor is “a druggie.”
Smith, 80, says he doesn’t agree with drugs and Ford shouldn’t have attended the ceremony with a cocaine admission hanging over his head.
Roland Hill, 91, who served as a “code breaker” deciphering Nazi submarine codes in the North Atlantic, didn’t object to the mayor’s presence at the service. “He’s still the mayor,” he said. “But, personally, he’s got to get help.”
As for the Wednesday debate, Coun. John Parker predicted a few “pointed” and “difficult” questions will be directed at the chief magistrate.
“He has been disgraceful in his conduct and I can’t imagine what answer he can give me that would cause me to have another view,” said Parker, who is especially troubled by the mayor’s refusal to answer police questions. “And he stays in office. I cannot understand how he can do that in good conscience.”