thestar.com Toronto -  News  City Hall  May 28, 2018   
      
      
   Toronto councillor stayed in $900-a-night Chateau Marmont. He says it was   
   money well spent   
      
   Toronto’s economic development chair has dined in Stockholm, explored the   
   resorts of Dubai and stayed in a landmark Hollywood hotel for $919 a night,   
   all on the taxpayer’s dime.   
      
   Councillor Michael Thompson, chair of economic development committee, has   
   spent $75,338 to travel around the world in 2016 and 2017, more than the   
   previous chair, any city councillors and even the mayor. He almost always   
   claimed the full amount of travel    
   allowance for food and other expenses, even when meals were provided, and for   
   cellphone bills with steep roaming charges, including one for about $2,000 the   
   same month he went to India and Sri Lanka.   
      
   Thompson says it is money well spent, as he searches for trade and business   
   opportunities for Toronto.   
      
   The details of what more than half of the money was spent on remain unknown   
   because of a loophole in how the city reports councillor expenses. While the   
   totals for all trips are reported to council each year, only travel receipts   
   filed through    
   councillors’ offices are automatically made public online. Travel expenses   
   paid for by city divisions are not.   
      
   The city did not provide an explanation as to why this discrepancy exists.   
      
   Each Toronto city councillor has an office budget of $32,732 a year for   
   expenses related to serving ward constituents and to travel to meet with other   
   levels of government, according to city policy. City divisions comprise   
   professional staff tasked with    
   executing decisions made by council and running the municipal government.   
      
   For nine trips Thompson took on behalf of the Economic Development and Culture   
   division, how $38,482 was spent remains unexplained. The receipts are   
   unavailable to the public. The city said the Star would have to file a freedom   
   of information request to    
   obtain the documents, which could take months.   
      
   “If I had them, I’d give them to you. For me there’s no secrets,” said   
   Thompson (Ward 37 Scarborough Centre), in an interview. “My view is anything   
   I do is open to scrutiny because I do it on behalf of not only the office, but   
   part of our focus    
   is to create opportunities for residents in the City of Toronto.”   
      
   Expense receipts for two other trips Thompson took in 2016, funded in part by   
   a city corporation called Invest Toronto, also remain unavailable to the   
   public.   
      
   Invest Toronto, which helped connect businesses to foreign investors, was run   
   by Thompson, Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong, the economic development   
   manager, two other councillors and citizens.  It is now “winding down,”   
   said City of Toronto    
   spokesperson Wynna Brown.   
      
   Brown could not provide the receipts to the Star, which were requested May 16.   
   More than a week later she has not definitively said where the receipts are   
   kept. The receipts represent $15,081 in taxpayer money for Thompson’s   
   travels in Japan, China and    
   Dubai, and Brazil, Uruguay, Panama and Mexico.   
   __________________________   
   His history:  (Wiki)   
      
   Thompson had an expense claim of $300 to have his office blessed by a local   
   Baptist Paster in December 2010.   
      
   With a focus on "law and order" issues, Thompson is considered[by whom?] one   
   of the more right-wing members of Toronto council. Soon after his election, he   
   earned considerable and generally positive media attention[citation needed]   
   for his forceful calls    
   to address urban violence. He campaigned for a time to retain Julian Fantino   
   as chief of the Toronto Police Service, and also pushed for a hotline to   
   report troublesome rodents.   
      
   In the summer of 2005, during what many[quantify] saw as a wave of shootings   
   in Toronto, particularly in certain low-income neighbourhoods, Thompson   
   garnered national attention for a suggestion that Toronto police should   
   potentially be allowed or    
   expected to stop and search young Black Canadian males at random. Thompson   
   argued that a large percentage of the guns being used and a large number of   
   victims are in the black community. Many[quantify] accused Thompson of racial   
   profiling and also    
   expressed surprise that a black politician would suggest such an idea.   
   Thompson himself said that he did not actually suggest racial profiling and   
   later clarified his proposal, stating that he would not call for police to   
   pull people over just because    
   they're black, but rather because gun violence was affecting the black   
   community. Thompson said that phone calls and e-mails received by his office   
   had been mostly positive.[1]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)