Advertisement

News

Bread and circuses

The first time I recall agreeing with Rob Ford was in May 2006.

Council was debating a policy concerning the use of city resources in an election year [pdf]. Everyone agreed in principle that incumbents should not be allowed to exploit their access to office budgets and internal services to assist their re-election. But in practice they wrestled with the appropriate limits to put on their own newsletters.

Those flyers – whose printing and distribution are funded by the city – are typically self-promotional by their very nature. And in municipal elections, name recognition is key.

The question, then, was what the cut-off date for sending out these mailings should be. Through competing motions, the choices became either June 30/July 1 or September 29 [pdf, p. 31]. (The election that year was on November 13.)

I remember Ford railing against the unfair advantage for incumbents, who had no business using the public coffer to boost their own political interests. And I remember thinking he was absolutely correct and that the majority of council (which ultimately opted for the latter date) was wrong.

Of course, that was about taxpayer dollars and other people. When it comes to leveraging his own incumbency and immense personal wealth to get elected, Rob Ford is a good deal more flexible.


When I describe Ford Fest, people can’t believe it. It’s a massive public celebration by and about Rob Ford, with free food and booze and a banner reading “Welcome Ford Nation.”

For years it was held in the backyard of his mother’s house in the Royal York and Eglinton area. By 2012, it was drawing more people than even that sprawling property could comfortably accommodate, so this year it went on the road: the Fords held a Scarborough edition at Thomson Memorial Park on July 5 and an Etobicoke edition at Centennial Park this past Friday, September 20.

The more recent event added “FORD NATION” flags – both large, blowing-in-the-wind ones and smaller hand-held ones for waving about. At both the mayor gave a speech imploring his supporters to return him to City Hall in next year’s election.

Upon completing my account, I am then often asked, with concern and incredulity, “Is this legal?” To which I seldom offer a short reply.

Here, now, are some of the more curious aspects of this year’s Ford Fests:

1) Election spending

The Municipal Elections Act is fairly clear that an “expense shall not be incurred by or on behalf of a person unless he or she is a candidate.” You cannot become a candidate until you register to run. And you cannot register to run until the first business day of an election year. (For 2014, that will be Thursday, January 2.)

So despite his perpetual state of campaigning, Ford can’t yet spend money for the purpose of re-election. Yet because he explicitly instructed the gathered throngs to vote for him on election day, you could argue that this year’s Ford Fests were effectively campaign events, at least in part.

The thing is, campaign finance laws are enforced on a complaint basis. And such complaints cannot be made, at the earliest, until after the deadline for candidates to file their financial statements. That deadline is the final Friday in March of the year following an election.

The complaint takes the form of a request for a compliance audit, which is considered by a Compliance Audit Committee composed of three individuals with relevant expertise. If that committee decides that the request has merit, they will order a compliance audit of the campaign. (A compliance audit is essentially a forensic audit in which the auditors also examine the evidence in light of relevant laws.) The auditors report their findings, including any apparent legal violations, to the committee, which then decides whether to retain a special prosecutor to determine whether there are sufficient grounds to lay charges under the Municipal Elections Act. If charges are laid, the case is heard by the Ontario Court of Justice.

As far as anyone knows, only one elected politician has ever been convicted under the Act: in 2006, the former mayor of Hamilton pled guilty to six of 41 charges brought against him. He had to pay $4,500 and write an essay about what he had learned [pdf].

The Act also allows any person to bring a charge under it “at any time,” but the task of privately litigating these matters is so time-consuming and costly that this only ever occurs as a rare last resort after the compliance audit process has already been exhausted.

2) Liquor service

The beverage service at the 2013 Ford Fests was provided by Muzik nightclub. The bars last Friday bore the logo of Muzik Beach, and a liquor sales licence issued to Muzik Clubs Inc. on July 3, 2013 (two days before the Scarborough event), was conspicuously displayed.

Muzik is located in the Horticulture Building at city-owned Exhibition Place and has been there since 2004. It currently enjoys a 20-year lease, which it has recently sought to extend by another decade, through 2034 [pdf]. Last December, the Exhibition Place board of governors chaired by Ford ally Mark Grimes approved a sole-source lease extension.

Five months later, however, Ex Place staff returned to the board to let them know there’d been a hitch: per city bylaws, a lease of 21 years or longer is considered a sale, which would require – among other things – approval from council [pdf].

When reports from the Exhibition Place board are forwarded to council, they are placed on the agenda of the mayor’s Executive Committee.

There are currently two consultant lobbyists with active registrations to lobby the city (and/or its boards) on behalf of Muzik. There is also a policy concerning council-member-organized community events that says members of council “shall neither solicit nor accept support in any form” from registered lobbyists or their clients. In this context, “support” means a donation of goods or services for the purpose of holding a community event.

Questions to Muzik concerning its relationship with the Fords and whether it charged them full market value for Muzik’s services were referred to the business’s PR firm, which explained that the club’s owner was out of town and unavailable to comment. The mayor’s office did not respond to requests.

Councillor Mike Layton, whose ward encompasses Exhibition Place and who’s sat on its board since January, tells me that Muzik’s lease extension has been “stalled” since he convinced the board to roll that discussion into the ongoing process of crafting a broader strategic vision for the grounds.

But he’s intrigued when I tell him about Muzik’s involvement with Ford Fest.

“I think [the relationship is] a valid concern and that’s something that we need to ask questions about,” he says.

3) City resources for election purposes

Parks aren’t supposed to be used for electioneering.

The current City Of Toronto Policy On Use Of City Resources During An Election states that city facilities (including parks) “cannot be used for any election-related purposes” by a candidate, “including for the display of any campaign-related signs in windows or on the facilities, as well as for any other form of campaigning on the facilities” [pdf].

Of course, as the title implies, the policy only applies during an election it defines this period as the time between the opening of nominations and voting day. So even if you’re of the opinion that the mayor delivered campaign speeches at an election event, that wouldn’t run afoul of this policy, since the election hasn’t officially begun yet.

4) Park permits

An affair on the scale of Ford Fest – with amusement rides, food service, sound amplification, etc – requires a special event permit in order to be held in a public park.

And the page on the city website outlining the process for obtaining such a permit is fairly unambiguous: “To hold a special event in any of our City of Toronto parks, your organization is required to be a registered non-profit organization. You will need to provide our office with your charitable donation number or ‘letters patent’ displaying your registered non-profit status.” Furthermore, “the event itself is required to be… non-promotional.”

“That’s generally the rule,” says Mark Lawson, manager of Parks, Forestry and Recreation’s customer service office, which issues the permits. “But as you can imagine, we can only post so much information on our website or individuals don’t read it.”

In fact, he says, there are several categories of eligibility, including the broadly interpreted “community service programs or events local in nature to the benefit of residents of the city of Toronto.” He points out that they often issue special event permits to organizations other than formal non-profits, such as “friends of” groups and community centre advisory councils. Lawson also takes care to mention that many city councillors hold community barbecues or movie nights and that these are issued special event permits as well.

(He explains that the website text was put there to discourage applications from the sorts of private businesses that frequently approach the city – but also that the department realizes it’s misleading and is in the process of changing it.)

Well, what about the dictum that an event should not be promotional? “There can’t be signs promoting any kind of sponsorship or anything of that nature,” he says.

And if a member of council were to have giant banners with his or her own name on them? “That wouldn’t matter,” he says, “because they’re the sitting councillor, and if it’s an event such as a picnic or a movie night sponsored by that councillor, that would not be an issue.”

Okay. So as far as the city’s Parks, Forestry and Recreation division is concerned, Ford Fest – with its “FORD” banners and flags and T-shirts – is not a promotional event.

But those who aren’t incumbents couldn’t do this, since it would be considered an act of promotion for themselves or their own candidacy.

If only city council still had a Rob Ford.

jonathang@nowtoronto.com | @goldsbie

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Recently Posted