Friday, May 17, 2013

Mayor Ford will survive the crack scandal

The most recent scandal to touch Toronto's mayor, Rob Ford, involves allegations he smokes crack cocaine. Now, the allegations come second hand in the Toronto Star, and while the Star is a very legitimate newspaper it is also famously feuding with Mayor Ford. Some Toronto Star reporters saw a video tape and based on what they saw concluded Mayor Ford was smoking crack. Maybe they misunderstood, were intentionally misled or were just mistaken in what they saw.

It is possible the allegations against Mayor Ford are false or perhaps dated (none of the apparent current references supposedly made by the mayor during the infamous tape could not have been made in the past).

That said, the obvious question is, should Mayor Ford be charged with possession of crack cocaine does he then lose his post? The short answer is "no".

Standing alone criminal charges do not affect the right to sit as mayor. In fact, Ontario's municipal laws provide very little way to remove a mayor convicted while in office of a crime.

For example, in 2007, Jim Jones, deputy mayor of Markham, was convicted of assault. As a Markham spokesperson noted Mr Jones would "certainly be eligible to continue to serve" as a York Region councillor. Mr Jones was not a mayor but the ability to remain in office applies the same to mayors.

The only limit on a mayor serving when criminal charges are pending is where the mayor os actually "serving a sentence of imprisonment in a penal or correctional institution." (Municipal Elections Act). And to get an actual sentence of imprisonment is quite difficult - it is most unlikely that someone like Mr Ford would be sent to prison for smoking crack cocaine, especially for a first crack offence.

Absent inprisonment there is really no way to remove a mayor who is charged with an offence. There are no legally-binding mechanisms to impeach, recall, or force resignation on a mayor in Ontario.

Accordingly, whatever is worrying Mr Ford, an expulsion from office because of the crack scandal before the next election should not be high on his list.

6 comments:

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I can't believe you are a lawyer! A video does not in any court of law prove possession of an illegal substance.
The issue and impending fallout has NOTHING to do with possession.
Also, the story was not broken by The Toronto Star, it was broken by Gawker, a completely detached online media website.
For a lawyer, your attention to details is pretty pathetic.

The Keystone Garter said...

It bothers me that he supports 4 down football when we have a perfectly good 3 down game. If they won't codify the WR jump, maybe two consecutive qwhistles, the 1st for receivers? CFL is better at using replay challenges than global soccer and MLB; CFL less fixed.
We should conduct FDA trials on nootropics nd brain implants that might improve loyalty to the species, but not that might create an IQ above a certain point lest the using become unstable and use WMDs. This will be highly corelated to our ability to enforce or insite such designer technologies. Not worried about crack cocaine here except as violance and noise concern.
Law enforcement in the future will need to be real time tested, at least those that form the nootropics and brain implants NARCs. Free time to study is not available to the wealthiest countries in general or $$ is not available if you make free time. So if we want more people to sacrifice to solve the world's future problems, said drugs would be a nice solution assuming we can get a science of mental stability in the presence of them. IDK why Toronto wouldn't make free time via toll roads. Democracy doesn't work, but can be modified along with capitalism, to a reasonably stable utopia with an Elysium level of engineering competance. Basically we will need smart cowboys to enforce.

Anonymous said...

Anon #1 - read the fucking post you moron

coco said...

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2007/11/23/markham_deputy_mayor_guilty_of_assault_on_maid.html

Jim Jones not only kept his seat but was reelected since then.. what an embarrasment to markham

Anonymous said...

Jim Jones is now engaged to a woman who is being sued by many investors for losing all their money. You know the old saying. 'Birds of a feather flock together'