Toronto city councilors voted to limit their hell-raising mayor’s powers on Friday after his latest obscene outburst.
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is under fire for a bizarre series of admitted and alleged misdeeds, most recently drawing mockery and gasps when he used obscene language while denying sexual harassment claims.
He later apologized for Thursday’s outburst, but it did little to stem the swelling outrage, which began this month when he admitted he had smoked crack cocaine during a drunken rampage.
On Thursday, Premier Kathleen Wynne, the leader of the province of Ontario, signaled a willingness to find legal means to oust the mayor, if asked by the municipality, but later backed off.
Instead, Toronto’s city council passed a motion on Friday morning limiting the mayor’s executive powers, effectively leaving him as the city’s chief magistrate in name only.
Councilor John Fillion said ahead of the vote that the aim was to “try to contain the mayor so that he doesn’t bring down the reputation of council or of the city.”
The motion, supported by an overwhelming majority of councilors, reduces the mayor’s budget and staff, and strips him of the powers to appoint committee chairs as well as hire or fire department heads.
One councilor described the move as an attempt to build a “firewall” around the disgraced mayor.
Ford responded with a pledge to mount a legal challenge to the “precedent-setting” censure.
A legal opinion circulated by Ford staffers argued the changes to city governance “could be perceived by the public” as an attempt to punish Ford “for alleged personal misconduct.”
“There is no evidence before the council suggesting that the mayor has failed to exercise, or abused, his powers, or been unwilling or unable to fulfill them,” it said.
The mayor’s troubles began several weeks ago when a video surfaced in police hands that appeared to show him smoking crack.
Forced to admit he once smoked the illicit drug, he apologized for his antics, including his many “drunken stupors.”
Then new allegations of misconduct, disclosed this week, and lewd remarks gave another boost to the spiraling scandal.
Ford’s former chief of staff, two underlings and a bar waiter alleged in police interviews that Ford had snorted cocaine and partied with a possible prostitute on St Patrick’s Day last year.
Police used the allegations to obtain a search warrant in an investigation of Ford’s friend Alessandro Lisi, who faces drug and extortion charges.
Ford reacted angrily as he arrived for work on Thursday, telling reporters he would sue his former staffers and the waiter, calling the allegations “outright lies.”
The three staffers were among revelers who joined Ford as he started partying that evening at City Hall.
One of them said he saw a woman named Alana he believed was a sex worker.
The staffer told police there had been rumors that Ford “had used escorts or prostitutes” and that Alana had previously been seen with Ford “at a stag party.”
“It hurts my wife when they are calling a friend of mine a prostitute. Alana is not a prostitute. She’s a friend and it makes me sick how people are saying this,” Ford said.
According to the police transcripts, the party moved to a private room at a bar, where a waiter said he saw the mayor and a woman bent over a table and “heard two sniffs from both of them.”
Ford rejected this account and allegations that, over the course of the night, he made lewd suggestions to a female policy adviser and a female City Hall security guard.
In his denial, he used an obscene metaphor for oral sex, causing further outrage.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese