Rob Ford was ‘unnecessarily ‘reckless’
• The Toronto integrity commissioner says former mayor Rob Ford was “unnecessarily reckless” when he accidentally knocked over a city councillor during a televised highstakes meeting two years ago.
In a report to be presented at next week’s council meeting, Valerie Jepson says the collision on Nov. 18, 2013, caused Coun. Pam McConnell “physical and emotional harm.”
The incident occurred during a special meeting that saw Ford stripped of most of his powers and budget after he admitted that he had smoked crack cocaine during his term in office.
Doug Ford, the mayor’s brother who was then a councillor, was involved in a dispute with members of the public. The mayor rushed to Doug’s side, knocking McConnell off her feet.
Video of the incident “became notorious on the international scale,” and Jepson says McConnell “has become unwillingly connected to the incident and its notoriety.”
The integrity commissioner says Ford, now a councillor, accepts her findings and has agreed to pay $1,000 to an unnamed organization in his colleague’s riding.
Though she is asking council to rule Ford breached its code of conduct, Jepson said she is not seeking any further penalties.
Ford told the commissioner he acted “out of an overwhelming sense of family and personal obligation,” she said. He has apologized to McConnell and to council.
“It was an accident that (former mayor) Ford ran into Coun. McConnell. However, there was nothing accidental about (his) decision to run through the chamber,” Jepson said in the report. Another report this year found Ford violated the council’s code of conduct when he used racial slurs in two separate incidents.