{"id":33271,"date":"2012-09-06T08:30:34","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T12:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=33271"},"modified":"2012-09-06T00:21:36","modified_gmt":"2012-09-06T04:21:36","slug":"lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: Strange times in #FordCourt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When you peel away all the political spinning, the legal wrangling and the sheer spectacle of what transpired in Courtroom 6-1 at 361 University Avenue, it is difficult to overlook the fact that Rob Ford, chief magistrate of Canada\u2019s largest city, came across yesterday as a very lonely man, in it way over his head.<\/p>\n

Shortly before 10 a.m., he entered and sat by himself at a long table on the respondent side of the cavernous courtroom. No one spoke to him, and he stared forward with that sullen, slightly bewildered look that so often clouds his face. He didn\u2019t look back at the spectators. Just before the proceedings began, his chief of staff Mark Towhey, who spent the day in court, came up to him, whispered something in his left ear and patted Ford\u2019s shoulder lightly before taking his seat.<\/p>\n

The mayor spent the rest of the day on the witness stand, seemingly adrift in a miasma of legislative language, his memory constantly cloudy and his apparent understanding of key policy concepts impaired — it must be said — beyond belief. There were moments when he seemed to lose the train of Clayton Ruby\u2019s questions, and others times when the abstraction of the cross-examination defeated him.<\/p>\n

He sort of stuck to his script, repeating over and over again his strange and non-sensical definition of a conflict of interest: \u201cFor twelve years, I\u2019ve always considered a conflict when the city benefits and the councillor benefits\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

You figure it out. My 13-year-old knows the definition and that ain\u2019t it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ruby closed the day by hacking away at this odd mantra, showing, at one point, a video from a 2010 council session when Ford gamely declared a conflict because the item on the agenda was about him, i.e., one of the many integrity commissioner reports that found him in breach of council\u2019s code of conduct.<\/p>\n

By this point, Ruby was going hard at Ford, raising his voice and telling the judge that his intention was to show a pattern of deceit and lying.<\/p>\n

I must say I saw something slightly different: a pattern of almost pathological inattentiveness to the more nuanced details of the job of representing the interests of public. He admitted he didn\u2019t read the councillor handbooks; didn\u2019t bother going to councillor orientation sessions (his father, Doug Sr., he explained, had been an MPP, therefore he, Rob, knew what it meant to serve on a municipal council); didn\u2019t bother informing himself of the legal framework of the position; didn\u2019t seek to understand what circumstances would prompt the city\u2019s legal staff to remind him, unbidden, to declare conflicts. So many questions left unasked.<\/p>\n

Indeed, on the stand, as in the cross-examination conducted in the summer, he came across profoundly, even tragically, incurious, and more than a little passive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still to this day don\u2019t understand why I would have to pay [the $3,150] personally,\u201d Ford said plaintively at one point, his voice soft and gravelly. \u201cI don\u2019t touch the money. Why would I have to pay it out personally?\u201d<\/p>\n

I believe him when he says he doesn\u2019t quite get it.<\/p>\n

Ford, in the end, will likely keep his job, but I feel confident the ruling will include some harsh words from the judge.<\/p>\n

Implicated or not, the failing here is clearly of a different order and significance than council\u2019s last major conflict of interest melodrama — the MFP lobbying scandal which, in a somewhat ironic twist, begat the code of conduct and the integrity commissioner policies that continue to trip up the mayor.<\/p>\n

This story, obviously, isn\u2019t about large-scale corruption. Nor is it about partisanship. Yes, the applicants in both this case and the compliance audit challenge to Ford\u2019s election finances are on the left. But his carelessness makes life difficult for those on the right. What\u2019s more, his indifference to the rulebook is quite unique. Conservative councillors like Doug Holyday and Michael Del Grande don\u2019t get themselves into these kinds of tangles because they mostly respect the core concepts, chief among them the importance of keeping clear delineations between personal interests and their positions on council.<\/p>\n

For Ford, it\u2019s all blurry lines. It struck me during the lunch break that he may well think of his approach to soliciting donations from lobbyists and developers (Woodbine Entertainment, Co-op Taxi, casino lobbyist Paul Sutherland) in the way a businessperson might think of asking his suppliers to donate to a favorite charity.<\/p>\n

“Why don\u2019t you register for the Acme Golf Tournament? It\u2019s just $500, and you\u2019ll get a tax receipt. And while we\u2019re on the green, maybe we can talk about next year\u2019s orders\u2026” Businesspeople take clients to hockey games and out for drinks all the time, and there\u2019s always some expectation of a “consideration,” as the Victorians might say, in return. Yet if the shareholders don\u2019t mind, who\u2019s worse for the wear?<\/p>\n

But politics and government don\u2019t and can\u2019t work that way. So from 40,000 feet, one could come away from this hearing and ask, Should councillors be allowed to solicit donations from anyone, for any cause at all? After all, they may be well- intentioned (as I believe Ford mainly is). But has the gesture created a transactional dynamic that potentially muddies the waters? In some cases, it surely does.<\/p>\n

Yet unlike the MFP situation, there\u2019s no elegant policy reform to what ails this mayor. He is who he is. And right now, he\u2019s all by himself in Courtroom 6-1, standing knee deep in a mess of his own making.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you peel away all the political spinning, the legal wrangling and the sheer spectacle of what transpired in Courtroom 6-1 at 361 University Avenue, it is difficult to overlook the fact that Rob Ford, chief magistrate of Canada\u2019s largest city, came across yesterday as a very lonely man, in it way over his head.Continue reading “LORINC: Strange times in #FordCourt”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[457,20907,3483,20908,10176,8356,888,408,949,20906,813,17283,426,18999,10725,227,20909,1560,391],"class_list":["post-33271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-canada","tag-casino-lobbyist","tag-chief-magistrate","tag-chief-magistrate-of-canada","tag-chief-of-staff","tag-clayton-ruby","tag-commissioner","tag-councillor","tag-doug-holyday","tag-doug-sr","tag-judge","tag-mark-towhey","tag-mayor","tag-michael-del-grande","tag-paul-sutherland","tag-rob-ford","tag-the-acme-golf-tournament","tag-university-avenue","tag-usd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLORINC: Strange times in #FordCourt - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LORINC: Strange times in #FordCourt - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When you peel away all the political spinning, the legal wrangling and the sheer spectacle of what transpired in Courtroom 6-1 at 361 University Avenue, it is difficult to overlook the fact that Rob Ford, chief magistrate of Canada\u2019s largest city, came across yesterday as a very lonely man, in it way over his head.Continue reading "LORINC: Strange times in #FordCourt"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-09-06T12:30:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/09\/football-kid-ford-new-600x399.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Lorinc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Lorinc\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/\",\"name\":\"LORINC: Strange times in #FordCourt - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/09\/football-kid-ford-new-600x399.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-09-06T12:30:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/09\/football-kid-ford-new-600x399.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/09\/football-kid-ford-new-600x399.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"LORINC: Strange times in #FordCourt\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e\",\"name\":\"John Lorinc\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Lorinc\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/john\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"LORINC: Strange times in #FordCourt - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"LORINC: Strange times in #FordCourt - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"When you peel away all the political spinning, the legal wrangling and the sheer spectacle of what transpired in Courtroom 6-1 at 361 University Avenue, it is difficult to overlook the fact that Rob Ford, chief magistrate of Canada\u2019s largest city, came across yesterday as a very lonely man, in it way over his head.Continue reading \"LORINC: Strange times in #FordCourt\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2012-09-06T12:30:34+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/09\/football-kid-ford-new-600x399.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"John Lorinc","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Lorinc","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/","name":"LORINC: Strange times in #FordCourt - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/09\/football-kid-ford-new-600x399.jpg","datePublished":"2012-09-06T12:30:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/09\/football-kid-ford-new-600x399.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/09\/football-kid-ford-new-600x399.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/06\/lorinc-strange-times-in-fordcour\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"LORINC: Strange times in #FordCourt"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e","name":"John Lorinc","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"John Lorinc"},"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/john\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33271"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33275,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33271\/revisions\/33275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}