The picture may have been pretty, but the ceremony, not so much.
A portrait unveiling at City Hall on Thursday became heated when Rob Ford’s press secretary threatened to have a reporter ejected for asking “inappropriate” questions of the mayor.
Ford’s office had invited media to the member’s lounge at City Hall for the first public viewing of Councillor Gary Crawford’s portrait of Toronto’s chief magistrate. Crawford, a professional artist, was asked by Ford’s mother Diane to paint the picture and has been working on it over the summer.
After Crawford delivered a short speech, displayed a video of his painting process, and unveiled the artwork, Ford took to the podium to thank him.
“It’s obviously very touching when someone does this and puts so much time into it. I can’t thank you enough, councillor,” the mayor said.
“Words don’t describe how much this means to me, it’s very, very kind of you to do that. I know it means a lot to my mom. I think I know where we’re going to hang it too.”
Once the ceremony concluded, a reporter shouted a question to Ford about a story in Thursday’s Toronto Star, which revealed that one of the mayor’s staffers, David Price, is being investigated by Metrolinx for allegedly abusive behaviour towards transit workers.
Price, who has found himself the centre of several controversies since joining the mayor’s staff in April, is alleged to have broken a door at the Georgetown GO station and berated an employee after missing his morning train on August 27. According to the article, complaints against Price’s behaviour at the station date back to November 2012.
Ford did not answer the question, and began to walk away. His press secretary, Sunny Petrujkic, then stood between the reporter and the mayor and told the journalist, “Thank you for your questions, there is no questions today.”
“There is no need for you to shout any questions at the mayor, that’s not appropriate,” he continued. “This is a portrait unveiling, and you’re invited, and you can be asked to leave.”
Later in front of the mayor’s office, reporters asked Petrujkic why he wouldn’t let media ask questions of Ford at a taxpayer-funded event at City Hall. Petrujkic responded the mayor would be taking questions later in the day at a second media event away from City Hall but the portrait unveiling wasn’t the time.
“I said there’s no opportunity for questions and this gentleman was just shouting it, so it was inappropriate,” he said. He described the reporter who intially asked about Price as “rude.”
He would not say whether or not Price is still on Ford’s staff.
Price, a longtime friend of the Ford family, has cut a mysterious figure at City Hall this year. His official title is director of operations and logistics, but the mayor’s office has been reluctant to describe exactly what the job entails. The Star reports that his salary is estimated at $130,000.
Since joining the mayor’s team, Price has been suspended from work for calling the Toronto Sun to complain about an unflattering headline, and was absent for an extended period after reportedly flinging a homophobic slur at CBC radio reporter.
Compared with his predecessors, Ford is relatively inaccessible to media. Unlike previous mayors and leaders at other levels of government, his daily schedule is not made public, and his appearances are often tightly controlled.
He frequently refuses to answer questions not related to the topic of the day’s media event, and earlier this year he famously declined to respond to any questions about a video that allegedly showed him smoking crack cocaine.
He did however deliver a statement about the allegations, in which he said he does not smoke crack and the video does not exist.
