Rob Ford and his brother sure do hang out with some interesting people.

For example, Allesandro “Sandro” Lisi, friend of the Fords, occassional driver and bodyguard for Rob:

“Toronto police are investigating attempts by associates of Mayor Rob Ford to retrieve the crack cocaine video.

One target of the investigation is Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, 35, a Range Rover-driving Etobicoke man with a criminal history of threatening and assaulting women, who has been acting as an occasional driver and security guard for the mayor.”
Toronto Star, August 16, 2013

***

“Alessandro (Sandro) Lisi, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s friend and occasional driver, has been charged with possession and trafficking of marijuana, police confirmed this morning.

Police have also charged Lisi, 35, with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence and possession of the proceeds of crime.”
Huffington Post Canada, October 1, 2013

***

“Calls mounted Tuesday for Mayor Rob Ford to address reports that he and his associates are under investigation by Toronto police, just as new allegations emerged about an attempt by Alexander Lisi to swap drugs for the mayor’s stolen cellphone.

Asked about the reports, a jubilant Mayor Ford, en route to council to debate the proposed Scarborough subway, emphatically shook his head and chanted: “Subways, subways, subways!””
National Post, October 8, 2013

Then there’s David Price, Ford’s buddy, financial adviser, former football coach, and ex-“director of logistics and operations” at City Hall (a position created specially for Price by Robbie):

“Just before news of the alleged crack video broke, Price was accompanying Ford at an Etobicoke community council meeting, where a controversial condo project was being discussed. Mid-meeting, Ford suddenly went to the parking lot to place magnets on parked cars.

When reporters began following Ford to ask why he had left the meeting, Ford answered a few questions before saying he would take no more. Price then physically blocked reporters from pursuing Ford, and scoffed at the suggestion from a reporter that Ford should be attending the meeting.

“He can do whatever he wants. Putting magnets on a community event — what do you expect him to be, up on stage?” Price said.”
Toronto Star, May 31, 2013

***

“David Price, a senior staff member in Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s office, has been suspended after a phone call to a local newspaper.

The controversy comes in response to an exclusive CBC News story reporting that Price made repeated calls to Ford’s weekly radio show identifying himself only as “Dave” from various parts of the city.

The calls (there were at least six) would often praise Ford and his brother Coun. Doug Ford for their work at city hall. Price, a longtime friend of the Ford brothers, wasn’t on the mayor’s staff at the time the calls were made.”
CBC News, June 26, 2013

***

“David Price, Mr. Ford’s director of operations and logistics, allegedly yelled at a transit employee and damaged a door at the Georgetown GO Transit station on Aug. 27, a source told The Globe.”
The Globe and Mail, September 19, 2013

***

“Marc Surette, who owns the Trackside Cafe in the station, told the Toronto Sun Price missed a train that day and told the attendant to “fuck off” before slamming one of the stations wooden doors open, causing it to hit an outside ledge and crack. When Surette confronted Price about his behaviour, the Ford staffer replied: “Yeah, fuck you dickhead, what are you going to do about it?”

Price has not responded to a request for comment about the incident.

His boss, Mayor Ford, didn’t have much to say about the incident Thursday when he finally addressed it.

“It’s actually no one’s business what happens in my office,” Ford said after a press conference celebrating the one-year anniversary of his trade mission to Chicago. “I take care of the people that work for me and they do a great job, as you see.””
Toronto Sun, September 19, 2013

***

“Dave Price’s alleged hostile behaviour toward a female attendant and door-slamming has raised eyebrows at the normally quiet station, Surette said.

“He leaves you on edge when he comes in here,” Surette said. “The whole building goes quiet when that man walks in the door. It’s kind of crazy.”

Price has had at least two “major freak outs” in the past 10 months and at least four altercations with GO staff at the station because of his frustration over Metrolinx’s Presto card.

“I think he’s had two really big freak outs before this but also some smaller exchanges as well where he just gets loud and obnoxious with the attendant,” Surette said.”
Toronto Sun, September 19, 2013

Let’s not forget Gene Jones, personally appointed by Ford to replace then-TCHC (Toronto Community Housing Corp.) head Keiko Nakamura:

“And Mr. Ford said while he’s gratified the seven unelected board members took his hint and have left, he’d like to see the rest of the housing corporation’s leadership do the same. He hopes to have a brand new board up and running “probably within a month or so.”

“I’m glad that they’ve resigned. Now we can move forward,” he said. “We’re going to get this board back on its feet and restore the trust.”

The city’s auditor-general, Jeff Griffiths, whose reports found “pervasive” violations of the housing corporation’s own policies when it came to awarding contracts, is none too pleased himself. He said in a presentation to the TCHC’s board the flagrant disregard for spending policy was among the worst he’s seen in years.”
The Globe and Mail, March 3, 2011

***

“Mayor Rob Ford is sticking by Toronto Community Housing CEO Gene Jones  following a new report that claims the CEO is being investigated for his hiring  practices.

“He’s come in. He’s cleaned house. He’s done what he has to do. I support him  100 per cent,” Ford told reporters after touring a TCHC building at 3101 Weston  Rd. Wednesday. “So if people want to take shots at him, I’m gonna stick up for  him.”

A report Wednesday in the Toronto Star says city ombudsman Fiona Crean is  investigating complaints that Jones hired and promoted managers without allowing  other staff to compete for the jobs.”
CP24, September 18, 2013

***

“Ford urged the TCHC to investigate any possible corruption and fully backed CEO Gene Jones in the wake of news the corporation has a forensic accounting investigation underway into dealings with its subsidiary companies — HSI and 200 Wellesley St. E. —  that was spawned out of the forensic audit ordered by the board last spring.”
Toronto Sun, September 18, 2013

***

“While Mr. Ford attends to tales of leaky fridges, foul garbage chutes and hearing aids that have fallen down the drain, the city’s massive housing agency continues to be dogged by controversy.

Outside the 18-storey tower, the man hired more than a year ago to turn around the Toronto Community Housing Corp. tells reporters to expect more bad news after revelations on Wednesday that the organization is investigating yet more allegations of wrong-doing.

“There may be more,” TCH head Gene Jones said. “Hopefully not, but I’m pretty sure there will be.””
The Globe and Mail, September 18, 2013

And then there’s Payman Aboodowleh, a.k.a. Peter Payman, a.k.a. Pejman Aboodowleh, personally recruited by Ford to coach his beloved Don Bosco Eagles high school football team:

“Peter Payman was identified in game programs as a coach for Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School’s football team until the end of last season. But years before he joined the mayor on the sidelines, that same man served as an enforcer for Alessandro “Sandro” Lisi, one of the key figures in the illegal drug scandal that has dogged Mr. Ford’s administration, The Globe and Mail has learned.

…

Although he is called Peter Payman in the school’s football literature, his real name is Payman Aboodowleh, a 38-year-old who has a history of violent crimes, including assaulting a peace officer, assaulting his brother and breaking and entering.

But Mr. Aboodowleh’s violent history was not revealed to administrators in the Toronto Catholic District School Board, which says it was supplied a false name for his police records check, a requirement for anyone who volunteers in the board’s schools.

…

Mr. Aboodowleh also started the 2011 season as a coach and at that time also submitted a criminal records check application form, the board and police say. This time, however, his real name was provided, but before his background check was completed by the Toronto Police Service, he was asked to leave the team by the then principal because of a “nose-to-nose altercation” with a player at practice, Mr. Yan said. (Mr. Aboodowleh’s return to the team the next season was requested by the mayor, Mr. Yan said.)

Even if that 2011 reference check had been completed, it likely would not have turned up some of Mr. Aboodowleh’s recent convictions, such as his 2009 conviction for assaulting a peace officer and dangerous driving. That’s because he has yet another alias – Pejman Aboodowleh – that he has used during some of his interactions with law enforcement. That name happens to be the former name of Mr. Aboodowleh’s younger brother who was forced to legally change his name in 2003, two sources say, because his older brother Payman’s use of his younger sibling’s identity during encounters with police.”
The Globe and Mail, October 9, 2013

And these are just a few in a long line of characters who interact with Rob and Doug regularly, have unprecedented access to City Hall and undue influence over the mayor and his brother, and are presumably just the type of straight-shooting, honest, stand-up folks that the Fords and their “Nation” insist on. The trend is, after all, is hard to miss:

“As an Etobicoke dry cleaner under a cloud of drug charges sought to reassemble his ransacked shop and life, a Toronto police source confirmed that a special detail of investigators is indeed probing Mayor Rob Ford.

The squad, led by accomplished homicide Det.-Sgt. Gary Giroux, has also been delving into the affairs of the mayor’s associates, leading to this week’s arrest of his friend and sometimes driver, Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, for trafficking of marijuana, conspiracy to traffic, marijuana possession and possession of proceeds of crime.

Jamshid Bahrami was also rounded up in the same police operation that unfurled in a well-travelled plaza near Eglinton and Kipling avenues on Tuesday.”
National Post, October 4, 2013

***

“He [Rob Ford] talks about his sister, complaining, “the media never got it straight.”

How’s this for an explanation: “The killer wasn’t her ex-husband, it was an old boyfriend.”

As Ford tells it, Kathy Ford’s first boyfriend was Mike, before she married Jeff and had a daughter.

After divorcing Jeff, she lived six years with Ennio, bearing a son. She left Ennio and went back to Mike, and they rented a cottage up north.

Ford: In 1998, “from what I was told (by the kids), Ennio knocked on the cottage door and Mike answered it and Ennio shot him in the head” with a sawed-off shotgun. Charges were laid; Ennio went to prison for manslaughter.

In 2005, Ford says someone else “shot the top of her head off.” Press reports suggest it was an accident; two men were charged with firearms-related offences.

She’s functioning well, he says, living with her two children and on methadone for her heroin addiction.”
Toronto Star, April 21, 2010

***

“Mayor Rob Ford’s former brother-in-law, Ennio Stirpe, glared at a judge and cursed after hearing he had been sentenced to 18 years in prison for a knife attack that blinded a Vaughan woman in one eye.

He muttered the curse out of Justice Michelle Fuerst’s hearing range in Newmarket court on Friday.

…

Fuerst also ordered Stirpe to complete a manslaughter prison term for the 1998 shotgun slaying of the boyfriend of Ford’s sister, Kathy.

Stirpe was on parole at the time of the October 2008 knife attack in his basement apartment.”
Toronto Star, March 16, 2012

***

“As questions mount over why police are investigating the city’s mayor, Rob Ford’s brother on Monday said he was “mistaken” to have suggested police were conducting aerial surveillance on the family home in Etobicoke.

While Mayor Ford has yet to address revelations that he and his associates are the targets of a Toronto police investigation, Councillor Ford last week substantiated reports that a Cessna aircraft was used to track the mayor, telling the Toronto Sun he saw the plane over his mother’s home for five straight days in August. He said he “gave them the finger” and later called police, who told him the plane was related to an airport bust, but he did not believe them. “You know when a plane is surveilling you,” Councillor Ford told the Sun.”
National Post, October 7, 2013

***

“Doug Ford, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s brother, sold hashish for several years in the 1980s. Another brother, Randy, was also involved in the drug trade and was once charged in relation to a drug-related kidnapping. Their sister, Kathy, has been the victim of drug-related gun violence.”
The Globe and Mail, May 25, 2013

***

“Consider what we have been told in media reports over the past four months. That an infamous photograph of the mayor that emerged with the alleged drug video was taken at a house occupied by a long-time friend of Mr. Ford, Fabio Basso, who has had brushes with the law.

That one of the men in that photo has been murdered and two others rounded up by police in a drugs-and-guns raid. That Mr. Ford tried to visit another friend who has been in trouble with the law, Bruno Bellissimo, at a Toronto jail. Sources told The Globe and Mail that police have interviewed members of the mayor’s staff about people including Mr. Lisi, and attempts to retrieve the alleged drug video.”
The Globe and Mail, October 3, 2013

***

“Doug Ford says that he does not believe the Toronto Star journalists who wrote about an internal police document describing the origin of a police investigation involving his brother, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, and some of his associates.

…

Doug Ford said he believes the police, but not the Star reporters who cited the police document. He also said he is concerned that the police leaked the document, then quickly said he doesn’t think the police did so.”
Toronto Star, October 8, 2013

***

“Reporter: Is your brother under investigation? Isn’t that something you want to know?

Doug Ford: I think that’s up to the police chief to make his comments, but again I support the police but I’m very concerned; it’s very disturbing if the police are breaking the law, which I don’t believe they are for a second. That’s why I question Kevin Donovan and the Toronto Star.

…

Doug Ford: I support any investigation that took place. I support the police investigation. I support the police. That’s it. I just hope the police aren’t working hand in hand with the Toronto Star. That’s it.”
Toronto Star, October 8, 2013

Speaking to reporters at a gas station around the corner from his house today, a visibly shaken Rob Ford addressed the news that his occasional driver / bodyguard / advisor / confidant / BFF  Allesandro Lisi has been arrested by the Toronto Police on drug trafficking charges.

In the unusual scrum, Ford fought back tears and repeatedly choked on words as he implored on the police chief to release Lisi.

“He’s a friend, he’s a good guy … he’s straight and narrow, never once seen the guy drink, never seen him once do drugs. I just want him back. I just want my little buddy back. He’s not a bad guy! He’s just … too fragile for jail. Please, Chief Blair, just let him go. Please let him go.”

You can tell that this post isn’t entirely accurate because I suggested that Rob Ford had an emotion other than anger directed at his usual target – the damned media. C’mon.

I’m taking some license with what Diane Ford actually said about her son at the unveiling of his portrait earlier this week. However, the painting, which was created by a fellow council member at the behest of Ford’s mother, did incite some interesting comments in her:

“While I’ve had it the last few days, I stand back and I look at it, and I can see 10 different personalities — I can see all of Rob’s personalities in that picture,” she said in her own speech.

Note how she qualified the sentence by re-iterating that Rob Ford has multiple personalities.

One could probably excuse her wording if she were a newer immigrant and meant to imply that she sees Ford’s complex and vibrant character, the many sides of his personality, in the painting. But the Fords have been Canadian natives way longer than I have, so what’s their excuse?

Yes, I suppose the Fords’ magnificent ignorance could extend all the way to simple, everyday English. But Diane didn’t stop there:

The painting was temporarily moved to a part of the mayor’s office visible to the public. It will hang permanently in the Etobicoke home of Diane, who began prodding Crawford to do it three years ago.

“When it was finished,” she said, “and he brought it over, I was actually very excited, very thrilled, and when he unveiled it in my living room, it was the wow factor. Ah, I couldn’t believe it, I just couldn’t believe it. And I said to Gary, jeez, all of that colour, I mean, it’s great, but why? He says, ‘Because that’s Rob Ford. He’s very colourful.’”

It’s rare that is happens, says John Elvidge of the city clerk’s office, but sitting mayors do have the right to poke their noses into the various standing committees at City Hall, including sitting in on and taking part in votes, exactly as Rob Ford did on Monday night. It’s an executive privilege.

It’s the second time Ford has done this in a week, this time on the 2014 Service Level review for the Parks and Environment Committee. The Committee, which meets irregularly once every three months or so, makes decisions on things like spending on public parks, gardens, and outdoor programs.

The vote before the Committee on Monday included a number of potentially sizeable increases which were not spelled out in any detail that I saw, although considering the fact that only existing services were listed, it seems that the numbers should be straightfroward to estimate.

Regardless, Ford declared that the as-yet-unspecified amount was too much, voted the item down, and walked out before another motion was adopted to move everything under the purview of the 2014 city budget process. Dougie was also absent for this follow-up vote.

“We can’t have these lefties spending like drunken sailors,” Ford said after his rare appearance at the parks and environment committee.

Ford says a lot of things about money at City Hall.

Things like swearing that freezing property taxes is “job one” for his administration, a claim which he rescinds drastically and early on after being voted into office (actually defending a hefty property tax increase in the process). Then, after being unable to come up with any alternative ideas to fund various city projects, settling on optimistically championing a property tax increase, then a month later calling for a property tax freeze yet again. And all of it in the unabashed service of business, which Ford says is tantamount to working for the common man.

So when Ford says that he’s getting involved in cherry-picked committee votes to curtail leftie spending, or for the benefits of the taxpayer, or any of his other disproved, divisive, and derisive nonsense, let’s just say I’m very skeptical.

Rob Ford’s office published a video today thanking Toronto for a great summer.

Maybe this is supposed to take everyone’s mind off of another certain video?

This obvious campaign piece was apparently passed by the Integrity Commissioner before being put put online. Remember her? The woman Ford wanted to have fired because she was doing her job? The same Integrity Commissioner which who’s decision Ford didn’t see fit to abide by because, well, he can do whatever he wants?

I wonder if there’s a stronger word for “irony”.

Rob Ford is basking in the knowledge that he has personally wrestled Toronto’s unemployment rate down to the ground where he beat it senseless and left it soaking in a pool of its own blood.

Unemployment, it seems, is down – that’s true.

But people are having trouble making the connection between this news and Ford’s efforts:

Pressed by reporters to explain how, exactly, he had managed to slay the beast of unemployment, Mr. Ford said he has been cutting red tape, making the city safer and cleaner, fighting gridlock and campaigning to build subways. The last, obviously, is a work in progress; the others, pretty hard to quantify. “We’ve made it a business-friendly atmosphere,” the mayor said, “and you have to have business experience to do that, and obviously I do.”

Others too are having trouble with is on a conceptual level:

Councillor John Parker, who represents Don Valley West, said, “I frankly think that the case [the mayor] is making is a bit of a stretch. As the Canadian economy grows, Toronto’s economy grows with it.”

Mr. Ford said in his speech that, “we have adopted a very aggressive plan to fight gridlock.”

Mr. Parker, who sits on the works committee and the Toronto Transit Commission, said he is unaware of such a plan.

I’m not insinuating that good news is unwelcome, just that taking the credit for something you didn’t really do is pretty weak sauce.

And even if I were of the opinion that I’m just, like, #1 top business guy in Canada and when I snap my fingers jobs fly out of my ass, I still think I’d have the tact to say something to the effect that I’d contributed to the unemployment rate.

Oh, Fordo.

My earlier assertion that there’s little, if anything, to hold politicians to account when they or their office break the law, has been re-affirmed by some very stark statements made by the City of Toronto’s Strategic Communication Director, Jackie DeSouza:

“It is the honour system; a lot of this is based on trust.”

…

An issue has arisen over emails, sent or received, that in the normal course of business are deleted. Those emails reside on the city’s server and can be restored, but DeSouza said it is up to the mayor’s staff to go looking for them.

“In our respectful opinion, connections between drug dealers, gun dealers, a notorious crack house and the chief magistrate of Canada’s largest city fit the definition of something that can and should be explored in the public interest.”

These were the words of Michael Cooke, editor of the Star, yesterday at a hearing before the Ontario Press Council about complaints in which the news (including the Globe and Mail) has been reporting on the Ford family’s blatant lies, hypocrisy, and criminality. Those are my own words, by the way, which I have also gone to great lengths to back up in previous posts.

But that’s not good enough for some people.

One complainant, Darylle Donley, had this to say:

“I would be curious to know just how far a TV or radio reporter or newspaper person, has to go before they are sanctioned or curtailed? The Ford brothers are being lied about, innuendos and allegations are being made against them. The news should be concrete and proven truth.”

Of course, the same questions must never be posed about our public officials — right, Darylle? And what about the fact that you’re publicly slandering the newspapers by calling them liars? Where’s your “concrete and proven truth”?

And what sort of insane newspaper prints only well-established and proven truths? By that logic, we wouldn’t know anything about the gas plant cancellations by the provincial government which, judging by her allegiance to Ford, is exactly the type of thing she would want to have revealed. Donley’s narrow-mindedness is staggering and, sadly, unsurprising.

And just to demonstrate her bizarre mental processes, she followed up with a not-so-subtle racist rant that had nothing to do with the hearing:

“The persons in the story, were they connected with the Don Bosco football team? Around the Don Bosco football team, there were a lot of unsavory characters.”

If you’ll recall, this is the same community that decided to tell Rob Ford where to go after he slandered them in pretty much the same way as Donley (clearly she swallowed his shit, hook, line, and sinker). He then used city staff and resources to collect his football equipment “donation” from Don Bosco — if they aren’t willing to play the poor, disadvantaged, drug-addled hood kids to his magnificent white saviour image, fuck ’em!

In other words, the community itself rose up against Rob Ford to tell him unequivocally what they think of him. So of course his supporters, instead of listening to all of the people directly affected by Ford’s benevolence, decided instead to listen to, and wholeheartedly believe, the crap that poured out of the mouth one well-known public liar.

Donley is no stranger to publicly exposing her ability to blindly jump to conclusions, even going so far as to make not-so-veiled threats against those she deems unacceptable:

Regarding the 411 on Ford’s 911 (NOW, November 3-9). I wouldn’t know Mary Walsh if I tripped over her. If she accosted me at any time, never mind in that outfit with a sword on her ample hips, I would probably push her and then call 911.

She touched Mayor Rob Ford on the shoulder. How would Walsh react if someone came up to her early in the morning in her driveway?

Walsh is not a particularly delicate, fragile-looking person and could easily be a threat to anyone, even without opening her vicious mouth.

Darylle Donley
Toronto

Donley readily admits that if someone who she had never met, but doesn’t like because Rob Ford told her to, she would be willing to get violent on the spot.

Maybe this isn’t the same Darylle Donley, but that’s a pretty unique name, and the attitude fits to a “T”.

That’s Ford Nation for you, prototype or personified. They have such a hate on for anything that dares to question their beloved leader that they reject it all outright. Even when they claim that they are the subject of persecution (offering zero evidence, which of course makes their own claims complete lies by their own definition), they do offer insights into why they are so universally adored with statements like “Maybe it’s a woman thing”, and “…this is all down to a bung of women who like spending money…”

These are the same supporters of Rob Ford who, on his radio show cuts off people while inserting questionable “supporters” which, it turns out, openly lie about their identity and work directly for Ford.

This is the same Rob Ford that openly lies about his administration’s accomplishments – unquestioningly championed by glassy-eyed Ford Nation.

This is the same Rob Ford that calls the media all sorts of names and gets openly angry at anyone who wants to look into what he’s doing on the job as a public official. He is, after all, the Mayor and doesn’t need to answer to anyone.

This is the same Ford that repeatedly demands that the media are just a bunch of liars, despite the ridiculous number of statements by editors  and staff standing firmly behind their stories, while Ford himself abjectly refuses to answer any questions (and insults whole groups of people while doing it —  par for the course for Ford).

This is the same Rob Ford that has had to defend himself against a slew of lawsuits on a broad range of topics. None of these are being mentioned, of course, including the fact that it was legally proven that Ford had broken the law numerous times while on the job.

This is the same Rob Ford that surrounds himself with criminals and ne’er do wells who run around trying to cover up the fat man’s misdeeds.

Above all, it doesn’t matter that these allegations have been corroborated by so many independent sources, or that the so-called “anonymous” sources that Ford supporters complain about are not anonymous at all. And of course it’s just fine and not at all sheer hypocrisy that 30 of the 41 complaints before the Press Council meeting are anonymous (and only 6 are formal and in writing)! Besides this, many of the names connected with the Ford crack scandal have been corroborated (not to mention being printed in the news), to the n-th degree. Rob Ford’s evidence in his own defense: zilch.

I could go on for days but the brunt of the issue is that Ford and his supporters are entirely guilty of the very same accusations they throw around like they invented them. They want news media to engage in responsible journalism while they themselves think it’s perfectly okay to deceive and insult and threaten, while there’s not a single shred of evidence that the stories about Ford are false, and much evidence exists to prove that they’re true.

Isn’t it hypocritical of me to be name calling like this? In fact, isn’t it slanderous?

Recently a TCL reader left a reply to a mayoral candidate post I’d done a while ago that reminded me of how deluded and just plain bizarre people’s understanding of these things are, so let me explain what the difference between slander and merely an uncomfortable yet fully legal article is: facts.

This little concept still seems to be lost on so many people.

They think that calling a proven liar a “liar” is slander. They think that anyone who mentions a known, proven criminal as a “criminal” is engaging in irresponsible journalism.

Whatever you do, just don’t bring up facts and use words that accurately describe those facts, especially if those facts are about the Fords!

They believe that corroborating and linking to the facts that back up your claims are irrelevant — only what known liars and criminals say, with no proof or evidence of any kind, is acceptable.

There is an interesting closing point I’d like to mention here:

Snickering, sneering Ford Nation are about to get a taste of their own medicine. While Rob Ford managed to scrape by on appeals when it mattered, we’ve seen many examples where breaking the law has had absolutely no repercussions — from campaign finances to conflicts of interest. There seems to be no mechanism to hold our elected officials to account at all. And while I think this Ontario Press Council thing is a sham, the reason I’m not getting upset is that they have roughly the same teeth as those groups tasked with making sure politicians don’t break the law.

In other words, even if they find that the Star, Globe and Mail, etc. all did something inappropriate, the best that they can do is have the newspapers print the decision.

I’m certain that, no matter the decision, the news outfits will make at least this small gesture. I’m equally sure that, based on everything we’ve witnessed thus far, Rob Ford would do no such thing. In fact, he would deny any wrongdoing whatsoever, insult and denigrate those who question him, genuinely slander a few more for good measure, and then fuck off for the rest of the early afternoon to go coach football with city staff and resources. And it wouldn’t be the Fords if they didn’t repeatedly lie about it all afterwards!

For once I’m not going to involve Rob Ford in this except to mention that it’s his office that’s involved in the situation. I’m not blaming the man personally, though if you were to tell me that it was his doing then it wouldn’t seem at all out of place.

This all has to do with various Municipal Freedom of Information Act requests to City Hall — Rob Ford’s office, to be specific — that are being basically ignored. The law states that Ford’s office has 30 days to comply, or give reasons for a delay, but the Star is noting that some of their requests are more than a month past-due without so much as a peep from Ford’s office.

This isn’t terribly out of place with today’s increasingly authoritarian, secretive, and oppressive model of government; Canada being no exception. More than one professional journalist group has raised the alarm about this as they discovered the same tactics being used by all the various levels of government.

For the common Joe, it can quickly become prohibitive to keep paying for the little bits and pieces of information (or more likely appeals), that the government deems that he’s worthy to know. That’s because the government has few, if any obligations to Joe.

Instead, almost all of the obligations, requirements, rules, stipulations, demands, laws, by-laws, regulations, and penalties fall on the head of common Joe. The rights, expectations, protections, aegises, mandates, wills, and general declarations of “this is what we can and will do to you” are exclusive to governments and big corpo.

Take the Municipal Freedom of Information Act, as a contextual example. There are a couple of sections in there mentioning your rights, hardly any mention of what happens when your rights under these terms have been violated, and the vast majority of the document describes how you can and will be refused FOIA requests as well as all the ways in which your privacy will not be protected. Within the “Offenses” section, a maximum $5,000 fine is specified as a penalty for six items, one of which potentially punishes a government employee for sharing personal information, and five of which punish you for a broad variety of things. For example, the government implicitly retains the right to lie and mislead you while specifically stipulating that it’s against the law for you to do so to them.

On the flip side of the same coin, while most corporations will break the law and then pass the financial penalty (if any) onto their beholden customers, some large and established organizations are emboldened enough to publicly demand that they are not, and should not be legally required to tell the truth in things like contracts and advertising claims.

Legalese is carefully crafted and such things don’t happen by accident. Most laws and regulations are squarely aimed at the everyday citizen and designed to exclude government and large corporations. This is cold hard reality, publicly expounded and codified.

This is also why it seems that these same groups seem to be getting away with breaking the law. That law, if applied to you or me would see a swift and decisive response before you could bat an eyelash in protest. Not so much if you’re part of a government gang or elite corpo clique. And even if it turns out that they had actually broken a law, that law is just retroactively changed by them or their buddies to make it all good and legal — now it’s even more in line with what the law was intended for!

Even something as trivially simple as taxes reveals this disparity: if you pay late, they will come after you no questions asked and charge you interest for the privilege. If they mess up and send you a rebate cheque late, or for the wrong amount, would any court seriously entertain an interest charge in your favour? In fact, who do you complain to?

Keep in mind that this isn’t the free market and so we don’t just up and over to a new government. A waxy dead-eyed new figurehead, yeah, but that’s hardly the same thing.

Unchecked, I think it’d obvious where this is headed. However, I also console myself with the fact that some people are cynical about all things corpo-government. In my experience, they don’t really care much for laws that seek only to oppress and control them. Some people don’t need to be told by some pinhead with a lofty title what’s right and what’s wrong. When these same people are in the majority, it doesn’t much matter how much that pinhead insists that he is the moral authority. And no matter how much that pinhead insists that without his laws society would just crumble into a depraved orgy of destruction and death, we know otherwise.

The problem is that right now there is a great deal of complacency, fear, and childish distraction among Canadians. The laws being erected against us are turning into real, physical systems. At the same time, Canadians are unwittingly being chemically lobotomized and mentally damaged while subsisting on a diet of numbing drugs and chemical-laced water, all while consuming mindless media that promotes violence and vulgarity. This confluence of factors may be nothing more than coincidence, but it doesn’t change the facts.

Politicians and money men have been called scoundrels (and much worse), since time immemorial, probably owing to the fact that it’s a perfectly true statement. What we’re just beginning to experience now, however, is what happens when those scoundrels are allowed, encouraged even, to rule over us through fear, violence, and deception.

In addition to his numerous flashes of brilliance, one of Giorgio Mammoliti’s ideas included sticking a huge flagpole in a spritely section of town called Emery Village. Business owners in the area were to be mafia-style-“convinced” to support Mammoliti’s tourist-magnet concept of Canadian majesty.

“Emery village is not a tourist area. You put a giant flag at city hall or the Eaton Centre. It’s an industrial area here.” – Walter Berton, owner of Berton Seeds on Weston Road

Sadly, it seems that Giorgio’s brainchild may not be coming to fruition. The thing was supposed to have been erected at some point in 2011 and the winning idea has been hanging limp since.

It seems that Mammoliti’s bluster exceeded his capacity to carry it out. Even the concept flag in the scale model sitting outside of his office has been purloined.

This comes at the same time as Mammoliti’s buddy and everyone’s number one guy, Rob Ford, is being bitch-slapped by the Toronto Star about his economic claims. Some of the more interesting revelations on the 11-item list include:

1. “I said from Day 1: the city has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. I have proved my statement to be correct.”

For a mayor that claims that the city doesn’t have a revenue problem, Rob has spent a lot of time trying to come up with various revenue tools for city projects.

2. “Before I took office, any annual surplus was used to fill holes in bloated operating budgets. Guaranteed, this will not happen while I’m mayor. We have put an end to the unsustainable budget practices of the last administration. It is over.”

This is a Rob Ford “guarantee”, so that tag alone should be indicative how how true this statement is. In addition, the Star points to three specific instances where surpluses or “unsustainable budget practices” were used to fill budget holes under Robbie’s reign.

3. “As many of you know, I came from the private sector before I got into politics. Very, very fortunate to run my dad’s company that he started 50 years ago.”

Apparently, Rob never ran his dad’s company, he only worked for it. If his current schedule is evocative of his earlier attendance at Deco Labels and Tags, however, to say that he “worked” there would be a further stretching of the truth.

Amidst all of this looms the end of summer, spelling the end of easy season down at City Hall as everyone comes back from vacation; plus, we’re just over a year away from the next election … not a good confluence for Ford Nation.