So what did Toronto Mayor Rob Ford do that led to a judgement against him?
It seems that Councillor Ford solicited funds for a charitable organization using City stationery.
The charitable fund was set out under Ford’s name. Even though he did not use the money for himself, the Integrity Commissioner found that Ford’s behaviour amounted to a conflict of interest and recommended that he pay back the money to those supporters.
Ford refused and voted against that recommendation at a council meeting.
A municipal voter took the matter to court and got a judgement that concludes Ford contravened sec. 5 of the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act when he spoke and voted on the matter in which he had a pecuniary interest.
Essentially sec. 5 of the MCIA (not unlike provisions in other local government acts) states the following:
Where a member, either on his or her own behalf or while acting for, by, with or through another, has any pecuniary interest, direct or indirect, in any matter and is present at a meeting of the council or local board at which the matter is the subject of consideration, the member,
(a) shall, prior to any consideration of the matter at the meeting, disclose the interest and general nature thereof,
(b) shall not take part in the discussion of, or vote on any question in respect of the matter; and
(c) shall not attempt in any way whether before, during or after the meeting, to influence the voting on any such question.
Ford is going too appeal. We’ll see where this goes.
It is also a wake-up call to elected individuals, including school trustees, that they should not be voting to hand over grants to charitable organizations of which they are a part.
Rose Calderon
Trail