Judge Fires Canadian Big City Mayor to Bully the Bully

Yesterday, a Canadian judge made international headlines when he fired the mayor of Canada’s largest city on a technicality.

Rob Ford, the now out-going Mayor of Toronto, was told he had 14-days to vacate his seat on council, giving up his leadership post as Mayor, because he violated a provincial conflict of interest law. The judge is said to have gone easy on Ford, because he could have also banned him for running for council – and in effect for mayor again -- for seven years.

There is no doubt that Toronto’s controversial mayor was in a direct conflict of interest. He voted ‘no’ during a council vote on whether or not he should pay back money to residents and businesses he had solicited to support the high school football team he coaches. He should have abstained from that vote, because it directly involved him – that’s the technicality which cost Rob Ford his job.

Whether or not he solicited donations to his high school football team inappropriately or not wasn't the issue which the judge ruled on yesterday. However, it’s been argued in Toronto council that the mayor used city letterhead in his dealings with donors.

So now, Rob Ford has two weeks to transition the power of governance of Canada’s largest city to – oh wait – who?

It’s up to Toronto council how they proceed, and this is where it becomes clear that the judgement against Rob Ford -- the first of its kind ever in Canada, and possibly in North America – was more political than practical.

By firing Toronto’s mayor, the judge opened up the barn doors to the political back-stabbing within the city’s council chambers. It’s no secret that many city councillors despised Rob Ford’s policies – some may question whether or not that hatred even became personal too.

Although every member of council is an elected representative of their local community on council, none of them were individually elected by the people of Toronto to be mayor.

And that’s the real issue left in the wake of this landmark decision – and worse – it shows how even our democracy has become infected by bullies.

For the brief two-years of Rob Ford’s leadership, he has constantly bullied council, businesses, and residents into following him – or else.

When the city’s public transit commission appeared to favour a different transit plan than his, Rob Ford fired the general manager of the Toronto Transit Commission – a post he had successfully filled for over two decades.

When there was public outcry against service cuts and user fees, the Mayor showed his lack of concern for the people directly affected. He held an unprecedented 24-hour public hearing, where anyone could come address him personally, making their views known. Problem was, people were rushed through their two-minutes to speak, and Mayor Rob Ford clearly wasn't paying much attention, often looking like he was about to nod off during the whole fiasco.

Bullies seldom care what others think – they just do.

When his advisers – hell even his opponents – advised him it was a conflict of interest to raise funds for his high school football team in the manner he was doing, he ignored them and continued on.

Then, when a well-to-do citizen had enough, he hired one of the most prominent lawyers in the country – Clayton Ruby – to file charges of conflict of interest against the mayor.

If there is anything a bully can’t stand, is another bully cutting in on his turf.

So instead of admitting he made a mistake, he defended his decisions, claiming he didn't know all the rules of conflict of interest – which incidentally are printed and distributed every year to all members of council – and the race to remove Canada’s biggest city’s mayor began.

It was a quiet race, rarely covered in the press, until judgement day yesterday. That was when one bully succeeded over the other. In true blood sport style, they got Rob Ford in their clutches, and crushed his proverbial political neck, leaving a twisted mess of destruction for the remaining city councillors to clean up.

It was like watching one of those dinosaur shows on Discovery Channel, where the giant T-Rex is swarmed and killed by a group of savage Raptors.

Only in this case, Toronto’s city council is breathing a slight sigh of relief, as now they don’t have Rob Ford in all his pig-headed arrogance to bully them into following his leadership.

However, it remains to be seen who will take the reins of Toronto council, and lead the city going forward.

And worse, a bullied environment creates a culture where being bullied is the norm. So the next leader of Canada’s largest city may follow in their predecessors footsteps, and be just as stubborn and arrogant as before.