It was only yesterday that Mayor Rob Ford proclaimed proposals for a Toronto casino “dead.” In the wake of the province’s foot-dragging on the issue, and reluctance to commit to giving the city the $100 million Ford thought was a “fair share” of the gambling revenue any new facility would bring in, the mayor abruptly cancelled the special city council meeting that had been scheduled to debate the issue on Tuesday, May 21.

Twenty-four hours later, a majority of councillors have signed a petition that will overturn the mayor and reinstate the meeting, ensuring that council holds its debate after all. The goal: clearly vote the casino proposal down, rather than follow the mayor’s preferred course and hold off on making any decision at all. Councillor Mike Layton (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) called reporters together to announce the news late this afternoon. We haven’t seen the list of signatories, but he said the councillors on the list represent a range of political views on council, united by the desire to have a clear decision on the issue.

City council will meet as originally scheduled on Tuesday, starting at 9:30 a.m. The full text of Layton’s letter announcing the petition follows.

Councillor Reinstate Casino Meeting by Torontoist

We don’t know whether he did it or not, but we do know this much: three reporters say they have seen a cell-phone video that appears to show Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack.

After the news broke on Gawker Thursday evening, the Twitter reaction was immediate and explosive. The silence in local media, meanwhile, was deafening. No Toronto outlet other than the Star had seen—or, at any rate, would admit to having seen—the video in question, which was recorded, supposedly, by a man believed to have provided Ford with the crack he allegedly smoked.

After the Star‘s article went up, around midnight, it took until morning for much of the rest of the city—and the world—to catch up. And boy, have they.

Here’s what’s being said about Ford’s latest scandal.

Locally, various city councillors have begun to weigh in. Ford’s deputy mayor, Doug Holyday (Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre), had this to say, according to the Globe:

“I have not seen any indication of him using any substances like this, or anything else for that matter.”

Meanwhile, John Parker (Ward 26, Don Valley West), Ford’s deputy speaker, called on the mayor to address the allegations head on:

“We all hope that the inferences that are floating around are untrue and the only one who can set us straight on that is the Mayor.”

And the police are also aware of the situation. The same Globe article quotes TPS spokesperson Mark Pugash saying the following:

“…we are monitoring the situation closely.”

Whatever that means.

Ford isn’t the first big-city mayor to find himself in this position. In 1990, Marion Barry, who was then the mayor of Washington D.C., was videotaped smoking crack by the FBI. He was later convicted of drug possession.

In an interview with Washington Citypaper, Barry had this to say about the Ford case:

“Unless he was entrapped by the government, it’s not similar.”

It’s worth noting that although Barry lost the mayoral election following his arrest, he did win a city council seat after being released from prison. Then, in 1993, he was elected mayor again.

And that’s not the only international press the story has attracted. Spurred on by Gawker, lots of out-of-town outlets are starting to discover Mayor Ford.

The BBC has picked up the story on its website.

New York Magazine has something on one of its blogs.

NBC is running a wire story from Reuters, meaning Mayor Ford’s name could start appearing in lots of other places fairly soon.

And, naturally, there’s a Taiwanese animation of the story now making the rounds on YouTube:

Another thing to come out of this whole affair was a Twitterfight between a Gawker editor and a reporter at the Toronto Star. The main bone of contention was the fact that the Star is referring to its story on the crack video as an “exclusive,” despite the fact that Gawker had reported on the video hours earlier.

Granted, it was a pretty one-sided fight. Let’s take a look, shall we?

And finally, let’s not forget the several Indiegogo campaigns that have sprung up in an attempt to pay for the crack video’s release. The owners are reportedly asking for six figures. There’s one semi-legit one that was set up by the Vancouver Province, and then at least one other whose legitimacy we can’t vouch for.

And, in the past hour, Gawker has launched its own Indiegogo campaign. It probably stands the best chance of succeeding, but that’s not an endorsement of spending your money on this. We all want to see the video, but do we really want to pay off the guys who took it?

Toronto mayor Rob Ford is denying allegations that a video seen by reporters at two outlets—Gawker and the Toronto Star—shows him smoking crack cocaine. After brief encounters with reporters outside his home and his office earlier this morning, Ford held a scrum at City Hall at about 12:25 p.m. that lasted no more than a few seconds. His remarks in full: “Anyways, like I said this morning these allegations are ridiculous. It’s another story with respect to the Toronto Star going after me. That’s all I have to say.”

Flanked by security, Ford then got into the elevator outside his office and went down to the City Hall roof, for an appearance at the rainbow flag raising to mark International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.

Given that Gawker has claimed that they have seen a video of Rob Ford smoking crack, and further that Toronto Star reporters have confirmed they saw what seems to be the video weeks ago, and their descriptions of it corroborate Gawker’s story, this is as good a time as any to discuss libel in Canada versus libel in the United States, because major American media and Canadian media organizations have just alleged that Rob Ford potentially smokes crack. (And let us be clear: Torontoist is not alleging this.)

Canada is a very friendly jurisdiction to libel plaintiffs. Defamation (which encompasses both libel, i.e. defamation with a permanent record, and slander, which is usually spoken-word defamation) is a strict liability tort, which means that all the plaintiff has to prove is that the defaming comment was made, and the defamer is then liable for the tort.

The defaming party, however, then has defenses against the tort. The most common defence against a defamation claim is that the statement is true: if you can prove the “defaming” statement is the truth, that is an absolute and total defence against a defamation claim.

The other important defence against defamation, in this journalistic context, is the “responsible communication on matters of public interest” defence. This defence was outlined by the Supreme Court in Grant v. Torstar Corp in 2009; essentially, it allows journalists (and other individuals who disseminate information, such as bloggers) to publish potentially defamatory information, even if it is untrue, on the basis that it is in the public interest for media outlets to be able to report the news, and sometimes that means getting something wrong in order to report the news in a timely fashion.

However, in order for this defence to apply, the party making the defamatory statement has to prove two things: first, that the matter about which the statement was made was one of public interest, and second, that the statement-maker acted responsibly and diligently to check the reliability of their sources and attempted to get the other side of the story.

So, how does this apply to the current situation? The answer for Gawker is “not at all, really” because they aren’t Canadian. They’re American, and defamation judgements made against Americans in foreign jurisdictions are not collectible in the United States. Rob Ford would have to bring his case against Gawker in American court, where in order to prove defamation you typically have to prove that the defaming party acted “maliciously”—for instance, that they knew it was false or recklessly disregarded whether it might be false. It is much harder to win a defamation lawsuit in the United States than in Canada.

(Some commenters on Twitter have suggested that Gawker published the story expressly because they wanted to entice Rob Ford into suing them, which would allow them to subpoena the video and therefore produce the video in the process. This is not technically incorrect, but that strategy would rely on (a) Ford electing to sue Gawker in the first place and (b) the tape-holder or any tape purchasers not destroying all copies of the video.)

Within Canada, Toronto Star also report that they have seen the tape, and their account corroborates Gawker’s description of it for the most part. (The Star’s description is in fact far more detailed.) Would Ford win if he sued the Star for libel over their story? Well, let’s go back to the responsible communication defence outlined above. Clearly, whether the mayor of Toronto is indulging in illegal drugs falls within the purview of “the public interest,” particularly after a wave of drug-related gang crime over the past year. And one would expect the Star to take reasonable steps to check the veracity of the video, as well as reach out to Rob Ford himself for comment. They did both: their story explicitly states that they sought comment from the mayor’s office, that they refused to pay for the tape (as the video-owners requested), that two reporters took notes on the tape independently of one another, that they saw this tape on May 3 (the inference being that they were making efforts to get more information and Gawker forced their hand by publishing first), and they give as much detail as possible about their sources and about the video itself (not just its content but how they viewed it, how it appeared, et cetera).

Of course, I write as someone who has not seen the tape himself. But on balance, even if the tape is a fabrication, a successful libel lawsuit seems unlikely at this point, because the tape exists, and it is responsible journalism to report on that fact.

Breaking with just about every precedent of his mayoralty thus far, Rob Ford has decided to call it quits on an issue he’s championed rather than fight it out (and lose) on the floor of the council chamber: today he proclaimed proposals to build a casino in downtown Toronto “dead” and cancelled the special meeting of city council that had been scheduled for Tuesday, May 21 to debate the issue.

Seeking to overturn his cancellation, just minutes later several councillors said they were going to try and hold the meeting anyway. Those councillors, all opposed to a casino, aren’t satisfied with a cancelled meeting: they want to make sure the matter is well and thoroughly settled, and decidedly vote against the proposal. Officially, it won’t be dead until and unless they do.

Speaking at greater length than he usually does, the mayor convened a press conference this afternoon to say that he remains committed to the idea that a major “entertainment complex” including a casino is a good choice for Toronto if it meets certain conditions, and in particular if the province guarantees to give the municipal government a “fair share” of the revenue it generates—at least $100 million a year. The province has been dragging its feet on confirming how much revenue Toronto would receive, however, and in the wake of today’s announcement by Finance Minister Charles Sousa that the province might not be able to commit to a hosting fee formula before city council met, Ford decided to cancel the debate altogether:

If the province won’t agree that $100 million then, folks, the deal is dead. We are not going to carry on with the casino debate.

I had planned to tell you today how I [intended to] recommend council allocate that revenue… The full $100m we could put towards transit: more specifically, [to] what council adopted last week, a subway extending the Bloor-Danforth subway line to the Scarborough Town Centre and north to Sheppard, and extending the Sheppard [line].

(According to all estimates this would provide only a fraction of the needed money.)

Ford also said that he had planned to move a separate motion which would see any additional property tax revenue generated from a casino put towards Toronto Community Housing’s major repair backlog, and another that would require any casino operator to “commit at least $4.5 million a year to a Toronto community benefits fund that would be divided up equally between every councillor and ward in the city…for improvements to their parks and public spaces.”

Painting a casino complex as a major economic boon to Toronto, Ford blamed the premier for dashing his hopes: “I don’t think the premier gets it.”

Context and Background: A Toronto Casino?

New-ish premier Kathleen Wynne has certainly been far cooler to the idea of expanded gaming in Toronto than her predecessors. (By contrast, former Finance Minister Dwight Duncan waxed enthusiastically about a “golden mile” on Toronto’s waterfront, anchored by a casino development.) Given that a clear majority of city councillors had already confirmed that they’d be voting against a casino proposal when the time came, however, Wynne’s reluctance may not be causing them much distress.

Not Over Yet

In light of all this, the mayor said that instead of holding a special meeting next week the casino item will be added to the agenda of the next regularly scheduled council meeting, at which point he’ll recommend that councillors simply go through a basic procedure that would see them receive the major staff report about a potential casino for information, but take no action.

One consequence of that: the issue wouldn’t actually be dead, since council wouldn’t have decidedly voted against a casino at all.

Just moments after Ford finished speaking, news broke that a petition was circulating among city councillors to override the mayor and hold next Tuesday’s meeting anyway. (A simple majority of city councillors—which is 23 of them—can trigger a meeting on a particular issue by signing a request that gets forwarded to the City clerk’s office.) Some councillors learned yesterday that the mayor was thinking of cancelling the casino meeting, and began talking amongst themselves about whether to proceed despite him. “It’s not up to him to make that decision,” Mike Layton (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) told us shortly after the mayor spoke, saying that this debate has gone on for too long already and that many councillors want to have the issue settled one way or another for good: “we should be saying with conviction what we think should happen.” Several councillors told us that they do believe the required support exists to convene that special meeting, and that it is likely to go ahead on Tuesday despite the mayor’s announcement.

The Hosting Fee Question

Also right after Ford spoke came this response from the provincial finance minister, via a spokesperson: “The City of Toronto should make its decision based on the various characteristics of a casino. We appreciate the Mayor’s comments but we’ll put out the formula when we’re ready and are confident that it is fair to all municipalities.” In short, if Ford’s idea was to try to pressure the province into committing to a hosting fee, they’re not biting.

Meanwhile, Layton said, the hosting fee isn’t actually a decisive consideration for many councillors. “This has much more to do with what we’re hearing from our constituents, that this will overwhelm infrastructure and suck money out of the local economy,” he concluded, “and that the people of Toronto don’t want to be raising government money off of addiction.”

The question may well be moot: the Toronto Star is reporting that they’ve learned the proposed hosting fee for Toronto, including both a downtown casino and the existing Woodbine site, would be $53.7 million—far short of the $100 million needed to secure support from the mayor and most of the swing votes on council..

Rob and Doug Ford in the studio. Photo courtesy of Newstalk 1010.

A few days after Toronto’s “greatest day” at council (at least, according to Mayor Rob Ford), will we have the greatest Ford radio show in history? Will we finally solve transit? Or maybe break it for good? Who knows! Find out next.

1:09: Rob opens with a Mother’s Day salute. Moms are awesome, he says, and we agree.

1:12: Diane Ford, Rob and Doug’s mother, is on the show. She describes Rob’s birth as an “afterthought” and says that he was supposed to be a girl. Rob’s response? “Wow.”

1:15: Diane says she’s very proud of everything her kids have accomplished.

1:20: We now have a marmot from the zoo on the show, which does not make for good radio. The next 20 minutes are pretty boring.

1:40: Here we go. Doug says a fuel tax to fund public transit would absolutely kill the economy, and Rob proceeds to name all the councillors who voted in favour of one at the last council meeting. Oh, I get it, Rob is trying to shame those councillors and gain an electoral advantage because he feels they don’t represent their constituents well.

I like this idea! Here’s a list of councillors who voted for more subways at that same meeting without supporting a single way to pay for them: Vincent Crisanti (Ward 1, Etobicoke North), Doug Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North), Doug Holyday (Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre), Gloria Lindsay Luby (Ward 4, Etobicoke Centre), Mark Grimes (Ward 6, Etobicoke Lakeshore), Giorgio Mammoliti (Ward 7, York West), Anthony Perruzza (Ward 8, York West), Maria Augimeri (Ward 9, York Centre), Frances Nunziata (Ward 11, York South-Weston), Cesar Palacio (Ward 17, Davenport), Glenn De Baeremaeker (Ward 28, Scarborough Centre), Mike Del Grande (Ward 39, Scarborough-Agincourt), and Ron Moeser (Ward 44, Scarborough East).

These are the councillors who tell you that you can have it all without making sacrifices, and they’re either not being honest with themselves or not being honest with you.

1:42: Scarborough councillor Michelle Berardinetti (Ward 35, Scarborough Southwest) joins the show and says she thinks the most important vote was the one on extending the Bloor-Danforth subway into Scarborough. She goes on to say it’s “problematic” that downtown gets underground transit whereas in Scarborough it’s at-grade. You know what else is problematic? Applying a silly “downtown privilege” lens to transit without discussing the underlying merits of what mode of transit works best in different situations.

1:45: Berardinetti cites Japan’s transit system, although Japan has far different population-density numbers than we do. She adds that she’s not opposed to light rail eventually, but wants the subway first, to provide the “bones” of the system.

1:48: Rob says that his opponents thought they were going to be heroes by bringing the idea of dedicated taxes and fees for transit expansion to council, and they wanted to raise taxes by $1,000 a year. First of all, no one wants to raise taxes, but if the alternative is to face far more costly congestion down the road, then it might be necessary. Second, Rob’s $1,000 figure is inaccurate. The Globe thinks it’s closer to $500, and if the implemented revenue tools were regional and also captured tourist dollars, it could be half of that. It’s like that old journalism maxim: if you see round numbers, there are probably hollow arguments.

1:49: Rob is angry. We just spent $1.2 million on showers, he exclaims, even though the City actually spent $20,000 on showers. The $1.2 million was spent on a new underground bike-parking station at Nathan Phillips Square with showers, 380 bike parking spots, and a bike mechanic workshop—plus the cost of the design and implementation. But in the kindergarten world of City Hall, Rob just really hates showers.

1:51: Rob is angry. He opposed a traffic light in Maria Augimeri’s ward that he felt wasn’t needed, but council voted for it. It was a waste of money, he argues, and plus it slows down our City’s godly cars. We can’t have that.

1:52: Rob is angry. He doesn’t like how a development in Kristyn Wong-Tam’s ward (that’s Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) requested lower-than-minimum parking requirements. (It’s across the street from a Green P parking lot and steps from a subway station.) He argues that the development needs free parking for visitors, even though there’s no such thing as free parking, because it will just be reflected in the cost of the units to tenants. But, at least to Ford’s way of thinking, if there’s one thing people are entitled to, it’s free parking.

1:54: Doug gives his weekly reminder that he and Rob had a solid plan for a Sheppard subway. I give my weekly reminder that they did not.

2:08: Rob tells everyone to call their councillor in support of a casino for Toronto, saying that they need to put on a full court press. “We need to win this vote,” he says.

2:09: Doug says that he’s never seen an entrepreneur attacked as much as Porter Airlines CEO Bob Deluce was at council’s meeting last week. “Only in Toronto this would happen, Rob.” Doug is referring to a moment when Gord Perks (Ward 14, Parkdale-High Park) argued that council was elevating Deluce’s desire to make money over the priorities of other stakeholders involved in the Island Airport issue. That Deluce is out to make money is no secret, and my guess is he’d be proud of that fact.

2:11: Doug, who was forced to apologize at council for homophobic remarks relating to the proposed City Hall bike station, doubles down with even more ignorance when he sarcastically says, “Why have a splash pad when you can have a nice little shower with a towel boy downstairs.”

2:18: Doug reads out the names of the Toronto intersections that get the most vehicle traffic, and Rob says “subways” after each one. Of course, many of those intersections already have subways that are underused, but that’s something only a pesky fact-checker could care about.

2:40: Rob calls Gus Cusimano a “great candidate” for Ward 9, and says he’ll run in the next election. Of course, he has had campaign finance difficulties, including allegations of cheque fraud. He was also accused of voting illegally, but no bother.

Rob should really watch campaign violations of his own, including organizing for candidates like Cusimano before election season.

2:43: A caller suggests raising money for subways by selling nameplates at stations, like they do in hospitals or theatres. Doug lauds the caller for thinking outside of the box, and chastises the TTC for not doing the same. But he singles out Andy Byford for praise—Byford being the same guy who steadfastly states the Downtown Relief Line should have priority over suburban subway lines, and that the City needs to gain more political will to make transit solutions happen. Sigh.

2:49: Rob and Doug talk about the Humbertown development proposal, and Doug reiterates his opposition. He adds that they always do what the community wants, not the developer. This is likely news to people who live on the Toronto Islands, people who supported the original Port Lands plan, local opposition to a downtown casino, people in favour of ending Pusateri’s valet parking, and many more.

3:00: We get our customary farewell, as Doug blesses the GTA, but “most importantly” Ford Nation.

Well Raccoon Nation, we got through another one. We heard a lot more transit nonsense from people who clearly have no interest in getting anything done, but at least we got to hear from Mama Ford, who seems quite nice. Two out of five marmots.

Rob and Doug Ford in the studio. Photo courtesy of Newstalk 1010.

Sunday was a beautiful day to stay inside and listen to the Ford brothers’ radio show! Actually, it was a terrible day to stay inside and listen to the Ford brothers’ radio show. Hopefully you didn’t, and you’re reading this recap instead. Either way, let’s find out what hi-jinks Rob and Doug got up to.

1:10: Rob and Doug talk about how they would totally be willing to discuss revenue tools for building public transit, but council is just too dang busy with all this casino stuff and other important work for taxpayers. Coincidentally, the Metrolinx report on those revenue tools is due May 27, and the whole idea is for council to meet beforehand so that Toronto has a say in the matter. But whatever, what’s the future of Toronto’s transit when you can have another debate about whether Queers Against Israeli Apartheid should be allowed to march in the Pride Parade.

1:14: Rob and Doug talk about transit planning details, which feels a lot like Michael Scott talking about what makes a good manager. Doug mentions the transfer point to connect to the Scarborough SRT, and it seems he just learned about this. He doesn’t like it.

1:18: Rob and Doug scoff at former ally Paul Ainslie’s (Ward 43, Scarborough East) motion to institute a 30-minute dinner break at council so that labour laws are complied with. Rob suggests that a reason to vote against it is that councillors will just play hooky and not come back after dinner. To which I pull out my hair, because for four months of the year the mayor plays hooky after lunch to coach football.

1:26: Rob says that if the Liberal government wanted revenue tools for public transit, they would have been announced in the provincial budget. Which is something premier Kathleen Wynne has consistently maintained is not the case. Rob’s not really a “process” guy.

1:27: Rob, fire-breathing conservative, says he’s pretty ideologically balanced and he’s misunderstood that way. Doug tells the mayor—the same one who refuses to attend Pride Week, who refers to social programs as ineffectual “hug-a-thug” plans, and who opposes monthly social assistance being increased from $606 to $620—that he’s two steps to the left of the Liberals on social issues. I’m beginning to think this radio program is just a way of promoting tourism to whatever reality Rob and Doug govern.

1:36: Rob talks about how awesome casinos are, and how Toronto will be getting the $100 million in hosting fees he promised. It’s true that there was a report from the CBC on Friday that said this, but about an hour later the Globe and Mail said it was incorrect, and everyone was all, “Yeah, that sounds right.” Maybe Rob has hit the Globe and Mail‘s paywall already this month.

1:42: Doug crows about how business loves Toronto and it’s doing great. He does not mention that on Saturday construction manufacturer Caterpillar announced that it was closing a Toronto tunnel-boring machine plant in Doug’s ward. As a result of the plant closure, 330 people will lose their jobs.

2:09: There’s a segment about mental health, and Rob says he’s surprised at the prevalence of mental-health issues. He and Doug ask good questions about the range of mental health disorders and how they can be difficult to recognize. It’s one of the better segments they’ve had on the show.

2:19: Jack Dominico is on the show to discuss the intercounty baseball team he owns, the Toronto Maple Leafs. (No, not those Maple Leafs.) The team plays at Christie Pits. Rob makes Dominico an unprompted promise that parked cars there won’t get ticketed, and Jack is delighted. There you have it folks, get on the Ford radio show and win free parking over the airwaves! Like Monopoly, but with the mayor as Moneybags!

2:20: We learn where Jack Dominico stands politically. He tells Doug that the sooner he gets the Liberals out, the better, and invites the Etobicoke North councillor to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a game.

2:26: As part of the week’s preview of events, Rob urges people to go to McDonald’s on Wednesday to support Ronald McDonald House and kids with “some sort of disease.”

2:29: Ford jokes that since there’s a council meeting Wednesday, he’ll have to set up a little TV under his desk to watch the Leafs game. It’s kind of endearing, in a hapless George Costanza sort of way.

2:29: Rob asks Doug what he or the provincial Tories would do differently than the Liberals, and adds that the NDP should bring down the Liberal provincial government. Doug winds up in a classic Doug rant, during which he says he wants to upload the TTC to Metrolinx to create a regional transportation system, and, and…and Rob cuts him off, because we have to go to commercial.

2:36: Aaaaaand we’re back. Doug says he doesn’t speak for Tim Hudak, but he does speak for Doug Ford. He wants Andy Byford to run Metrolinx. He wants to make the province fiscally stable while increasing service levels. He wants to increase funding to classrooms. He wants Toronto to have a strong mayor system. He boasts about how the city found 10 per cent efficiencies in the first year of Ford rule, five per cent in the second year and flatlined in the third year. Rob adds that it wasn’t even hard.

Where to start? Okay, so uploading the TTC would essentially prevent Toronto from doing any of its own transit planning. The promise to improve fiscal stability while also increasing service levels sounds awfully familiar, and it wasn’t too honest when it was used as a slogan in 2010, so I’d be skeptical today. The claims of 10 per cent, five per cent, and a flat budget are flat-out wrong, although the most recent budget was close to being flatlined (there was a small increase). This was an incredibly difficult and agonizing process for many people.

It’s one thing to try to duplicate the Ford 2010 electoral strategy, but it’s another to promise the same style of governance, which, at the municipal level, has neither upheld its promises nor served the public good. Sure, this is Doug talking, and we’ve all learned to roll our eyes. But the point is we shouldn’t have to.

2:48: Rob: “I think we have enough money as is, it’s just completely mismanaged.” So we don’t want the casino now? I’m confused.

2:49: Caller Will says Rob and Doug have many supporters. Will doesn’t like the Liberals, whom he calls buffoons, and he urges Doug to run provincially. We really need Torontoist readers to call in to provide some balance.

2:52: Gary calls in to say he wants to start a Ford Nation coalition to re-elect Rob, but Doug mentions something about there being penalties for campaigning too long before election day. He directs Gary to the Toronto Taxpayers Coalition.

2:54: Doug says Rob will do a tour of every single ward in the summer. I say to Rob: I will totally join you on that tour.

2:55: Doug reiterates his support for the private sector building a tunnel under the Gardiner and charging a toll. In other news, I reiterate my support for a glittery unicorn for every Torontonian.

2:59: Rob refers to Doug as a potential premier, and I make my “Oh shit, that’s a terrible idea” face, which I should really turn into a GIF.

3:00: Doug finishes the show with an indication of his priorities. “God bless the people in the GTA and Toronto, and, most importantly, God bless Ford Nation.”

Raccoon Nation, we are done listening to our radio show. If the recap was extra cranky, it’s probably because it was a beautiful day and there were cherry blossoms and Hot Docs to see and Jane’s Walks to be enjoyed and I was stuck inside listening to Rob and Doug. So I give an extra cranky rating: One out of five cherry blossoms.

“It should be dissolved. It’s a failure.”

—Toronto mayor Rob Ford speaking to reporters today about the future of bike-sharing program Bixi, which is facing an operating shortfall. Bixi opened in Toronto with some help from the municipal government, which guaranteed the company’s loan. On advice from staff, city council may soon look at renegotiating the terms of that loan in light of Bixi’s financial woes. As a result, several councillors are floating ideas for completely overhauling how Bixi would work: Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) wants to work with developers to create incentives for installing new bike stations, and TTC chair Karen Stintz (Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence) wants to investigate making Bixi part of the TTC.

Rob and Doug Ford in the studio. Photo courtesy of Newstalk 1010.

Another week, another transit debacle for the Ford clan. Rob may have won his executive committee vote to prevent city council from discussing taxes and fees for public transit expansion, but he’s losing the media war. Now, he takes to his bunker where he can’t be criticized, so he can plot his next attack. What will he come up with? Find out next!

1:07: We open the show on a solemn note. Rob remembers former Don Bosco Eagle football player Kwado Mensah, a 20 year old who was murdered in Malvern Thursday night. The mayor chokes up remembering the young man and who he was, both on and off the field. It’s genuinely touching.

1:17: Doug isn’t in the studio today—although Speaker Frances Nunziata (Ward 11, York South-Weston) is—so he calls in from Florida, where he’s at the world championship of cheerleading. His daughter Kyla is on Team Canada, and they won the gold medal in their category. Congratulations to Kyla and the rest of the team.

1:19: We shift gears. Doug says, “Let’s talk about these taxes.” Rob mock-corrects him: “No, they’re called revenue tools.” The mayor chortles at what he sees as a misleading euphemism.

1:20: Rob plays off of Doug, and agrees these transit revenue tools are nonsense. He then calls the Gordon Chong report on how to fund subways the best report he ever saw at City Hall. Chong’s report, if you’ll remember, was over budget and delayed, and ultimately argued some combination of taxes and fees would be needed to fund the mayor’s transit plan. These included zone-based tolls, expressway tolls, high occupancy vehicle lanes, a parking tax, a parking space levy, a regional sales tax, a gas tax, a passenger vehicle charge, a payroll tax, tax increment financing, and increased development charges. And even after some optimistic assumptions, there was still a billion-dollar funding gap.

1:22: Doug argues the mayor and his team had a solid, executable plan for subways that the province and the federal government agreed to. World’s fastest fact check: No.

1:22: Doug, on TTC Chair Karen Stintz (Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence): “In my opinion, in Doug Ford’s opinion, Karen Stintz is the most untrustworthy, deceitful—I’m not even going to use the word dis-disgenuous [sic], nothing but a liar.” He goes on to discuss the process of picking a TTC chair. “I stood up and said, ‘I don’t trust her.’ I don’t trust her as far as I could throw her. I went up to her and said ‘I don’t trust you’ and she said, ‘Oh, don’t worry, we’re going to build subways, no problem.’”

1:30: Doug crows about how Toronto has the lowest taxes of any major city in North America. This will not stop him from claiming, in the future, that we’re unfairly taxed to death.

1:30: For the second time in the show, Doug Ford refers to himself in the third person. If Doug were slightly more adorable, this might be cute, like when Elmo pulls off this verbal tic. Sadly, Doug is not Elmo.

1:39: Doug continues to read a list of revenue tools, and the Fords scoff at a potential parking fee. Part of me wants Rob Ford to time travel and debate Rob Ford of February 23, 2012, who endorsed this idea in the Globe and Mail.

1:39: Doug wonders why Toronto isn’t doing a public-private partnership to fund its transit. It’s probably because that’s a misinterpretation of a public-private partnership is supposed to do. The private sector does not give out free government loot bags, Doug.

1:40: Doug argues that true leadership isn’t following like sheep. To show his approval, Rob baaaaahs three times, lending new meaning to the phrase “Sheppard subway.”

1:47: Rob says the prorogued government at Queen’s Park was crazy, and I agree with him. Government should be able to be held accountable for its actions. Not mentioned are the prorogations by the conservatives on Parliament Hill.

1:47: “I can’t wait for the election,” says Rob. “My feet are on fire.” If only Rob was this excited to govern.

1:48: Doug says if the province were a private company, then the board would have fired the premier long ago.

Oh, business analogies, I like these! So, let’s say there’s an employee who routinely demonstrates gross incompetence, doesn’t show up for work half the time, doesn’t read their employee handbook, gets involved in conflicts of interest, is involved in three court cases, shows a fundamental lack of understanding of how their institution works, and doesn’t co-operate with colleagues. What happens to them?

1:49: Doug leaves the show, and gives his customary “God bless Ford Nation” blessing. And God bless you, Doug.

1:50: Rob continues to talk about how transit and everyone in charge of the file is whack. He starts building up to a comment about TTC Chair Karen Stintz before he thinks the better of it. “I was going to say something, but I better not,” he says. Oh come on Rob, say it, say it. Cave in to peer pressure—everyone else does.

1:58: Rob says there have been very few shenanigans in the past couple of years since he became mayor. I’m guessing he’s referring to wasteful spending, but considering all the football games, weigh-ins, gaffes, and .GIFs, it’s funny to hear.

2:00: Rob says he was in Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) and Josh Matlow’s (Ward 22, St. Paul’s) wards doing constituency work, and later mentions Shelley Carroll (Ward 33, Don Valley East), too. Whatever you think of any of these councillors, they are some of the hardest working at City Hall, so when Rob scoffs at the job they do, it’s uncalled for.

2:38: “I know Stintz is in over her head,” says Rob, who selected her to be TTC chair.

2:42: Rob brings back one of Rob’s greatest hits: “I would love to just be able to rip up the St. Clair [sic], but it would cost a fortune.”

2:47: A caller complains about the cost of two statues in the Church-Wellesley Village that he says were $80,000 each. The caller’s complaint is confusing at first, because an Alexander Wood statue went up in the area in 2005, but he’s likely referring to the rainbow gateway markers that were more recently installed. Their cost was shared between the local business improvement area and the City, but it’s still a perfect issue for Rob Ford, who loves these types of trivialities.

2:48: Rob says he’ll come out to the Village and set up a meeting with the caller. There you have it folks: if you want Rob to make a visit to the Village, all you have to do is tell him there’s some wasteful spending.

2:50: “You’re the greatest mayor we’ve ever had,” says a caller. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

2:52: A caller says that when he wears his Rob Ford for Mayor t-shirt people come up to him and shake his hand. This surprises me, because I get very different reactions when I wear my Giorgio Mammoliti for Mayor leather jacket.

2:53: Caller Anne says she’s overtaxed, but that a once-a-year transit tax of five or 10 dollars might be acceptable if it were put to a referendum. Sadly for Anne, this does not solve our problem. If every person in Toronto paid five dollars a year, you could build about 35 metres of subway a year with $12.5 million raised. Metrolinx’s Big Move calls for $2 billion in funding a year for 25 years, and that’s just to keep traffic congestion at the status quo. But there’s also a high price to traffic congestion, so we’ll pay one way or another.

2:57: A friendly radio advertisement tells us about this great Etobicoke company called Deco Labels and Tags. You may have heard of it, because Rob and Doug are co-principals of said company. Synergy!

3:00: With Doug absent, Rob steps up to the plate and wraps up the show, “God bless you Ford Nation.”

And God bless you for reading, Raccoon Nation. It was another week of tearing down rival politicians and no clear transit plan was in evidence. What was in healthy supply was anger and spite, the fuel that drives so much talk radio. In that sense, it was classic Ford, especially since it solved nothing.

Five out of five transit plans.

—First, the mayor and several of his allies voted to derail a debate on new revenue tools for transit. In response TTC Chair Karen Stintz (Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence) condemned the mayor for his lack of leadership and vision. And then in reply the mayor’s press secretary, George Christopoulos, told the Sun that the mayor is a leader after all—he’s just fulfilling his mandate of keeping taxes low.

A coalition of city councillors have said they have the required two-thirds majority to overrule the mayor and hold a debate on transit anyway, and that they intend to do so at city council’s next scheduled meeting, on May 7-8.

Photo by sniderscion from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

The outcome of the debate was clear from the moment the report appeared.

Mayor Rob Ford is absolutely, positively, undeniably opposed to any new taxes to pay for transit (or anything else, for that matter). He sees fiscal salvation in vague promises of government efficiency, the magic of private sector finance, and the siren lure of a megacasino. Taxpayers are fed up, says the mayor, and new taxes just won’t happen on his watch.

To that end, this week Ford and five of his closest allies decided to shelve a major report on long-term transit funding for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. They decided to derail that conversation—a chance to give Metrolinx, the regional agency in charge of transit, their advice and recommendations about how to proceed—for just long enough to make themselves entirely irrelevant to the process. Metrolinx will unveil their strategy for tackling that funding question on May 27; the executive committee deferred their debate on the issue until May 28.

Mayor Ford is entitled to his opinion, as are the executive members who passed that 6 to 4 vote to take no action. But there are 45 members of Toronto city council who represent the voters of the city, who now won’t get to sit down together and debate this report. The executive committee simply does not care to let them have their say, exercise their democratic right to discuss one of the most important issues facing the city. The mayor and his minions have spoken.

This cannot stand.

The congestion on our transit and road systems currently dominates the agendas of municipal and provincial governments, community groups, and business associations. They are all asking how we can undo the damage cause by decades of underinvestment in transportation, while the region sprawled and travel demand grew beyond the network’s capacity. All of them, that is, except for the leadership at Toronto City Hall.

How We Got Here

Five years ago, the Ontario government tried to wrestle with this problem through Metrolinx, with a plan called The Big Move. Fighting congestion was never going to be easy or cheap; the task requires a regional view both of transportation requirements and of funding options. The plan was—is—imperfect and undersized, but it was a starting point.

The Big Move arrived just as the world economy began to unravel. Just when momentum, a sense of beginning and accomplishment, was needed, Queen’s Park put the brakes on transit spending thanks to budget pressures, throwing the whole project into question. But the conversation didn’t stop. Congestion did not conveniently evaporate just because provincial revenues fell, and though implementation was delayed, people began considering how the $50 billion set of projects could be funded.

Our collective conversation about these issues changed fundamentally when the business community recognized that the “do nothing” option would not bring the savings a “no new taxes” policy might promise. Congestion affects the region’s economic vitality, and the value of lost time and of falling competitiveness is greater than the cost of improving the network’s speed and capacity. With that recognition, better transit stopped being a “left-right” issue, a question of social good versus hard-nosed business, and became a common problem.

Metrolinx’s pending report on “revenue tools”—a euphemism for the suite of taxes, tolls, and fees we’ll need to introduce to raise all that money—goes back almost as far as The Big Move itself. The menu of options was always there in plain sight, although many were reluctant to discuss the issue lest a tax-and-spend brand be stamped on their foreheads. But we are, finally, talking about it.

Kathleen Wynne Takes on the Future of Toronto Transit (Sort Of)

For the past year, the debate over transit funding has been hard to escape. Metrolinx has had its round of consultations. The Toronto Region Board of Trade stepped up with support. CivicAction’s What Would You Do With 32? campaign, backed by a variety of business and social leaders, stressed the personal loss that worsening congestion will bring in added commute times. The debate hasn’t stopped at the 416/905 boundary, and recognition that inaction is unacceptable pervades the region. Will new revenue streams be an easy sell? No, but at least politicians are engaging us on it now.

The Toronto Problem

Photo by allanparke from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Now we come to Toronto, centrepiece of the region, with half its population and by far the largest and best-used transit network. Metrolinx asked all municipalities to comment on possible funding tools, and Toronto passed this task on to its professional staff. The response, a long report [PDF], is the one that came before the executive committee on April 23. It’s the one that committee decided to defer until after Metrolinx had issued its recommendations.

Council’s rules of procedure are designed to give extra power to the mayor and executive, in part, to prevent a pesky minority from advancing business that a “majority government” of the mayor and council don’t support. (We use the quotation marks because, without political parties at City Hall, the terms technically don’t quite fit. They capture the dynamics accurately, however.) Toronto effectively has a “minority government” with the mayor and his shrinking band of loyal allies cornered by opposition on council. The rules require a super-majority, a two-thirds vote, to seize the agenda from the mayor’s control. If the mayor can exploit division among his opposition, building minority coalitions just big enough, he can thwart votes to undo his policies.

A little over a year ago, that tactic failed, and council held a special meeting to reinstate a long-standing plan to build several new light rail lines in the city. Control of the transit agenda passed to Karen Stintz and a coalition for whom Ford’s subways-subways-subways mantra was an empty promise obstructing real progress on transit expansion.

The question of revenue tools should come before council so that the entire assembly, the representatives of all voters, can decide which options they support, and more generally how transportation planning and spending should proceed.

Six members of the executive committee think they know better. Some of them hope for a new political dawn with a Tory government installed at Queen’s Park. A mayor who cares so much for his taxpayers and his city places his faith in a change of the guard at the Pink Palace. Everyone else can step aside.

That’s not how government is supposed to work in Toronto. The arrogant meddling of the mayor and a few of his puffed-up lieutenants should not prevent us from having a proper, complete debate on this vital issue. If Toronto really does not want Queen’s Park to levy new taxes or pay for expanded transit, then let council say so.

The process has been used before and it is quite simple: if 30 councillors, two-thirds of council, work together, they can run the table, control not just votes but the process of conducting city business. Nobody likes the idea of paying more for anything, but that train has left the station. If we want more transportation, if we want to support the regional economy, if we want to reduce the paralysis on roads and transit, we must pay. The questions now are how much we need, and which revenue sources we will tap.

City council deserves a chance to debate these questions and to participate in unlocking decades of inaction, of political gridlock. We deserve a government that is willing to have that debate.

Rob Ford has sabotaged Toronto’s transit planning, and much more, for too long. Where are the 30 who will put this wretched mayor in his place?

—Stintz, the Ward 16 councillor and TTC chair, said this in response to yesterday’s news that Mayor Rob Ford’s executive committee had voted to prevent city council from debating what will likely turn out to be one of the most important public-works issues of the decade: whether Metrolinx should raise money for transit expansion in Toronto by imposing some combination of new taxes and fees on residents. (Ford is an opponent of taxes and fees, even when they have clear benefits.) In the Sun article from which this quotation is taken, Stintz says she expects the matter to come up for debate at council’s next regular meeting, whether Ford wants to talk about it or not.