..well ..... seems he did it to himself.....

I am glad that a proper court and judge made this ruling.

Regards

Rita

He's vowing to fight.

I fully agree Rita. 

It will be very interesting to see what happens next!

I enjoyed reading the various comments at the end of the article too ... some witty folk out there!

Hi Rita TG,

It most certainly does.  His testimony during the trial appears to be the straw which has broken the camel's back and in his ruling (section 51) justice Hackland cites the transcripts which show Ford acted deliberatively.

Michelle Mandel wrote an article during the time of the trial where Lawyer Ruby got Ford to confess that he himself had never read the Conflict of Interest legislation.

That and the recorded number of times the Integrity Commissioner had sent letters to Ford and that Ford was warned by Councillor Nunziata that he was about to commit conflict of interest in at least one of the Council meetings dealing with the matter which he waived off show that he is the architect of his own misfortune.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Hi MC jae,

Hardly surprising.  He is convinced that this is some fabrication of the political left.

He has the right to appeal.  It will be interesting to hear the grounds he intends to base his appeal on and whether or not the Court of Appeal will recognize the merits of his application.

Grace and peace to you.

John

I understand he will likely fight it.

He seems to think it is a conspiracy to get him.

Vows to fight and pleas of innocence sometimes mean alot and other times mean nothing. Scott Peterson vowed to find Laci's real killer.

Guilty pleas do not necessarily mean guilt. I can list names like Keith Brown, Philip Bivens, Bobby Ray Dixon, Marcelius Bradford, Eugene Hanton....

Some people do not believe they did anything wrong. Some people do not think there was enough evidence to convict even if they know they did it. Some who want to salvage a career where guilty will plague them, do fight or pledge to.

Rob Ford was a loose cannon and did things his way and that was part of his apparent appeal to voters.

I am not sure he understands the rules or the law very well. If he, in fact does, he seems to have trouble with knowing to obey them.

My personal thoughts? As a politician and not a person? Good riddance.

This is God's way of leading him on the path of his bliss -- to be a football coach!
Missed his calling....

We have a requirement at our work of 100% taking of the ethics program.

In my workplace, ignorance of a program  is not an excuse. As a professional, one knows that there are rules, it is part of your requirement to ensure you understand the rules for the particular workplace.   To say that you do not have time for such a program would be grounds for putting you on a performance review.  Ethics is not an option.

Clearly there is a problem with oversight that this was allowed to go so long.  The issue is not only that he showed poor judgement by participating when there was a clear conflict.

The bigger issue for me is that he fragrantly disobeyed mandated training, programs.  What other programs does he skip?

I think I've heard more about him than my own Mayor!  I'm not really sure how he got in in the first place.  Were the other candidates that bad?

Hi chemgal,

Ford campaigned on subways and stopping the gravy train at city hall.

He couldn't broker financing for subways so The Council opted for Light Rapid Transit.  Ford claimed repeatedly that cost was not an obstacle and believed very strongly that private enterprise would step in and pay for the transit expansion.  Ultimately his idea just wasn't convincing, probably because there were no private buisnesses stepping forward throwing their cash away.

He made some progress with finances though he was criticized for not going after the managers that flood Toronto Public Services after the amalgamation of the cities.

Unfortunately Mayor Ford just doesn't really understand certain political issues.  Not because they are concepts that are above his head but primarily because he is convinced he knows lots of political stuff due to his father having once been an MPP.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Belligerence finally did him in.  I think justice was served today and hopefully a huge lesson in accountability for other politicians or anyone in a position of public trust.

Until I heard about Mayor Ford, I thought British Columbia had the kookiest politicians in the country!

He should never have p***ed off Margs Delahunty and Atwood.
(kidding)
I feel sorry for him. Toronto is a sprawling, world-class city & he was clearly out of his depth. He is much admired by the constituents of his riding, though.
The gta is too big to have one mayor. The 905 is a whole other place, both geographically & ideologically.
Stephen Harper will be sad. He just might give his poor, bumbling Amigo a seat in the Senate to soothe his bruised pride.

There's a good editorial in the Globe on the broader issue of the Conflict of Interest Act in Ontario. While the writer (a law prof at U of T) agrees that Ford was guilty as charged and pretty much sank his own case with his behaviour, he also criticizes the Act as being too limited in the options it gives the judge. Basically, once money is involved, the minimum sentence is removal from office with the option of also barring the defendant from participation in municipal politics for (IIRC) seven years. The judge in this case didn't use that option, so Ford could technically run again in the next municipal election. The writer basically argues that there needs to some options below removal for cases like this where the amount is small or the benefit to the defendant of violating CoI is limited. Suspensions, fines, that sort of thing without going to actual removal. Apparently, a commission of inquiry on CoI made similar recommendations that the province has never acted on.

I rather agree with this point of view.

Cite: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/rob-ford-was-the-victim-of-a-sledgehammer-law-ill-suited-to-knuckle-rap-offences/article5718457/?cmpid=rss1

If you run afoul of the Globe's paywall, search it by the author's name in Google News (referrals from Google News apparently don't count against the limit of 10 free articles). The author is Michael Pal.

Mendalla