What happens when you lock city councillors in a room for two days with a capacity audience? They say silly things.
Denzil Minnan-Wong and Paula Fletcher on sleeping arrangements
Fletcher: “A line lets cyclists know where they are. Like my side of the bed, and your side of the bed.”
DMW: “Madame Chair, I cringe and at some level I object to the image of Councillor Fletcher and I sharing the same bed.”
Fletcher: “Not as much as I do!”
Karen Stintz on family values
“When I went door to door in Ward 16, I had a woman who almost jumped through the screen at me. She told me … ‘The one thing that the city has done that has changed my life is the bike lanes on Jarvis. I bought this house, I have four children, and I can’t get home to them for dinner.'”
Glenn De Baeremaeker, Day 1, on funerals
“I hope that if someone here is killed or maimed on Jarvis, that the mayor will send flowers.”
– De Baeremaeker then challenged Rob Ford to bike with him on Jarvis Street and said something off-mic that, according to Giorgio Mammoliti, “challenged the mayor’s manhood.”
Glenn De Baeremaeker, Day 2, on regret
“I stand by my words but my behaviour was very unprofessional for this council chamber. So I do ask the forgiveness and the indulgence of members of council, and I will try to behave professionally today in a way that will make members of this council proud to say they are city councillors.”
Giorgio Mammoliti on flip-flopping
“Perhaps the cyclists … get the feeling that the politicians don’t want them there, and that’s probably why they’re not using the streets. I say something different. I say let’s make sure that we try to get them out there. It’s about encouraging people to use the roads and wanting them to do it, and not saying ‘you’re excluded.'”
– A statement made by Councillor Mammoliti at a 2010 council meeting, as revealed in a video played by Shelley Carroll during the Jarvis debate. Mammoliti left the chamber while it was playing, and later voted against the Jarvis bike lanes.
Raymond Cho on bad television
“I was really sick yesterday and I couldn’t be here. But I did participate by observing. I was glued to the TV … It’s was like watching a sad movie. We’re talking about two cities. One who would like to use a lot of cars, the other group who is cycling because they’re concerned about the environment … How did we get so divided?”
Frank Di Giorgio on personal hygiene
“Councillor De Baeremaeker is a perfect example, he cycles 20 km into the downtown. I can tell you by the time he gets here, he’s got to be sweaty a little bit. Chances are he needs to take a shower and he probably needs a change of clothes. That’s the reality of this different mode of transportation. If we, from a planning point of view, start insisting that there’s sufficient showering capacity to accommodate 200 or 300 people coming into work, we can find the proper balance. But until that point in time, there isn’t going to be a whole lot of people who cycle.”
Denzil Minnan-Wong on alt-weeklies
DMW: “You put notice (about the Jarvis consultation) in the paper, correct?”
Staff: “Correct.”
DMW: “Do you recall what publication you used? Wasn’t it NOW Magazine?”
Staff: “I believe it was.”
DMW: “Is that fair to say, that it’s more of a downtown magazine than a suburban publication?
Staff: “I really can’t speak to NOW’s circulation.”
Gord Perks on walking out in protest
“Let’s go. Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”
