The city’s compliance audit committee decided not to prosecute Mayor Rob Ford for campaign finance violations Monday. PHOTO COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
By Marco Di Meo
Reaction continued Tuesday to news that Toronto’s compliance audit committee has
voted against pursuing charges against Mayor Rob Ford for alleged election finance
violations.
This was Ford’s third legal battle this year and the second one this month. Earlier in
February Ford won a conflict-of-interest case and a libel suit, as well.
John Lorinc, a freelance journalist and regular contributor to the Globe and Mail
and Spacing Magazine, told Humber News that Ford’s undefeated court record is an
advantage for him.
“I think that it gives him a lot of political space to be honest. You know he’s been
challenged in a very profound way and he survived all three of them,” Lorinc said.
“He gets to say stuff like he was saying yesterday and what was quoted in the media
today. You know it was a big day for him.”
Lorinc said that Monday’s ruling is another victory for the mayor and his voting
base.
“It means that he could say to all the people that voted for him that he survived this,
he can say to his opponents: ‘Look you tried to take me out and I’m not going.’ So it’s
a big boost for him,” he added.
Ivor Tossell, a columnist at the Globe and Mail, told Humber News that now it’s up to
Ford to focus on his job as mayor.
“This is the first time in a long time he has been free of a threat of being kicked out
of office. I think this is a relief for him,” he said.
“How this affects his mayoralty is really in his course,” Tossell added.
Lorinc told Humber News that Ford could use this case in his favor when he seeks
re-election in 2014.
“I think that what happened yesterday with the compliance audit committee is part
of a story that will work, I think really with either side. The mayor could say ‘Well
we were challenged with a full audit, they found few little things but this committee
decided not to go forward with this prosecution,’” he said.
“It’s a great day for democracy,” Ford said in a statement Monday.
“I don’t think it’s fair for him to say there was anything undemocratic about the
process of this case.” Tossell said.
“When he says ‘It’s a great day for democracy’ what he really means is it’s a great
day for Rob Ford,” Lorinc said.