XPost: bc.politics, ont.politics, tor.general   
   From: "@nyet.ca   
      
   Special to The Globe and Mail - Published Friday, Jun. 27 2014   
      
   Democracy Watch files complaint against Fords with Toronto’s integrity   
   commissioner   
      
   Just days before Rob Ford leaves rehab and rejoins the municipal   
   election, a national watchdog organization has filed a complaint with   
   Toronto’s integrity commissioner, alleging that the mayor and his   
   brother, Councillor Doug Ford, violated council’s code of conduct in   
   their dealings with firms connected to Deco Labels and Tags, the   
   family-owned printing company.   
      
   â€œThe key question is how much can a city councillor be a lobbyist for a   
   private interest and what are the restrictions on that,â€� said Duff   
   Conacher, a board member of Democracy Watch, an Ottawa-based government   
   transparency group that has launched actions against politicians across   
   the country, including Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson.   
      
   The complaint is based on revelations in a pair of Globe and Mail   
   investigations that showed that Mayor Ford and his brother used senior   
   city bureaucrats in their efforts to help two companies, Apollo Health   
   and Beauty Care and R.R. Donnelley Canada, both of which had or were   
   planning to build commercial relationships with Deco.   
      
   According to an affidavit submitted this week to Integrity Commissioner   
   Janet Leiper, Mr. Conacher alleged that the mayor and his brother   
   violated five sections of the code, including provisions that prohibit   
   the “undue use of influenceâ€� by elected officials, and the practice of   
   referring “a third party to a person, partnership or corporation in   
   exchange for payment or other personal benefit.â€�   
      
   Neither Councillor Ford nor a spokesperson for the mayor responded to   
   requests for comment.   
      
   The Globe reported that a former Deco sales executive confirmed that   
   Deco and Donnelley, a Chicago-based multinational, had privately   
   negotiated an arrangement that would see the larger firm refer clients   
   requiring labels to Deco.  The Fords, according to city records,   
   arranged meetings between Donnelley officials and staff to consider an   
   unsolicited proposal to outsource the city’s $9-million printing   
   operation.  Nothing came of the plan, which was discussed in June, 2011.   
   Doug Ford has also said that Donnelley didn’t refer any business to Deco.   
      
   Mr. Conacher is the first person to publicly reveal that they’ve   
   formally filed a complaint about these latest revelations. But Ray   
   Fredette, a retired teachers’ association executive, has been pursuing   
   an expanding complaint to Ms. Leiper’s office since early in the year,   
   based on an earlier Globe investigation involving the mayor’s   
   intervention in a sewage spill investigation at Apollo.   
      
   That probe was halted when Mayor Ford took a leave of absence earlier   
   this spring to seek treatment for drug and alcohol addiction at a rehab   
   facility in Muskoka. Tim Gleason, a lawyer for Mr. Fredette, said last   
   week that his client intends to ask Ms. Leiper to expand the scope of   
   her investigation to include Councillor Ford.   
      
   In an interview, Mr. Conacher made it clear that he doesn’t have high   
   hopes for the probe, noting that Toronto’s integrity watchdog system   
   lacks teeth and is susceptible to political interference because members   
   of council ultimately vote on the commissioner’s recommended penalty.   
      
   â€œIt’s a bad system overall,â€� he said, noting that Democracy Watch   
   decided to file the complaint partially to draw attention to these   
   shortcomings during the current municipal election.   
      
   Democracy Watch's application comes on the heels of a bid by Councillor   
   Giorgio Mammolitti to use the courts to block an investigation of a   
   $5,000-a-table fundraiser he held last year. Ms. Leiper confirmed in an   
   email Friday that her office has been notified that a judicial review is   
   pending, and said she will be "responding to the application."   
   ____________________________________   
   Remembering . . .   
      
   City Hall,  Wed Apr 23 2014:   
      
   Rob Ford:   
   â€œ(Crean) and the integrity commissioner, the lobbyist registrar -- those   
   three accountability officers cost millions of dollars. And in   
   Mississauga, they have one person doing three jobs. So I don’t think   
   they’re needed. I think there might be one person that could do all   
   three. I don’t know why we’re paying millions and millions of dollars to   
   all three of these accountability officers,â€� Ford said in a call to the   
   Newstalk 1010 show hosted by Toronto Sun columnist Joe Warmington.   
   ____________________________   
      
   I guess we know why he didn't want them.  And why they are needed.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)