Fords hit with charges of impropriety
Accusations denied; suit called ‘witch hunt’
With the municipal election just weeks away, Mayor Rob Ford and his brother, mayoral candidate Doug Ford, were forced to cope Friday with two new accusations of impropriety related to their work at city hall.
Last month, well-known activist and writer Jude MacDonald launched a lawsuit that accused the Fords, not for the first time, of violating the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act. Doug Ford was served with the suit on his way into a mayoral debate Thursday. Ms. MacDonald spoke about the action for the first time the next day.
Meanwhile, also on Friday,
former mayoral candidate David Soknacki released a trove of city documents he says prove “without a doubt” the Fords used their city offices to conduct private campaign work.
Ms. MacDonald alleges the Fords violated the Act by failing to declare a conflict of interest in votes and debates related to clients of their family company, Deco Labels & Tags.
“Public servants serve the public,” Ms. MacDonald said in an interview. “If there are concerns that they don’t, those concerns need to be raised.”
Specifically, the alleged violations pertain to the ban and sale of bottled water in civic centres, on an attempt to reduce food packaging waste in Toronto, on the implementation of healthy vending criteria in parks and community centres, and a host of other matters that could affect reported Deco clients including Coca-Cola Co., Nestlé SA and Porter Airlines.
It’s highly unlikely the case
will make it before the courts before the election, on Oct. 27. The Ford brothers now have 20 days to respond.
Mayor Ford previously lost a conflict case in 2012, only to have the ruling overturned on appeal. That same year, Ms. MacDonald filed a complaint with the integrity commissioner over Mayor Ford’s use of city resources for his high school football team. The integrity commissioner cleared the mayor in that matter.
While canvassing outside a Toronto Community Housing Corp. building Friday, Doug Ford dismissed the lawsuit as a “political witch hunt.”
“We went through this already a few months ago,” he
said. “If I wasn’t running for mayor, she wouldn’t be doing it.”
Mr. Ford also accused Ms. McDonald of being an agent for some other, unnamed party. “I want to find out who is paying for her legal bills again. Is it the head of a union? Is it herself ? Because unless she works midnights she doesn’t work,” he said. “She’s getting paid by someone.”
Ms. MacDonald said her lawyer is representing her pro bono. She added: “Doug Ford lies.”
Meanwhile, in a separate matter, Mr. Soknacki published documents on his website, including copies of the mayor’s
schedule and hundreds of partially blacked out emails to and from the mayor’s city-funded staff, that he says show clear violations of city rules about the use of public resources in political campaigns.
“There are at least a dozen examples of improper use of the office,” said Mr. Soknacki, who dropped out of the mayor’s race last month. “As well, it shows that both Mayor Ford’s staff and the integrity commissioner pointed out the impropriety of the uses and the uses continued.”
The emails include references to the mayor’s participation in a debate, and what Mr. Soknacki characterized as an implicit acknowledgment that
campaign robocalls were coordinated through his public office and an acknowledgment that the mayor’s briefly lived “Ford Nation” YouTube show was, for a time, organized by his city staff.
“If there was one or two exceptions, I think that the public would look past exceptions to the rule,” Mr. Soknacki said. “That’s not what happened here.”
Doug Ford, who served as Mayor Ford’s campaign manager before taking his place on the ballot last month, denied the accusations. “That’s just not accurate, you know that,” he said.