Monday, November 26, 2012

Ford fall, Blatchford does not like

As we might expect with today's news from Toronto, the media pundits are starting rejoice or lament.

Christie Blatchford is a lamentator:

So, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been given the boot from office because an opportunistic citizen hired a smart and politically savvy lawyer who found a club of an arcane statute with which to tie the hands of a judge who was willing to play ball.
I didn't know you could tie hands with clubs, but somehow this painfully bound and bludgeoned metaphor seems to fit with the overall nature of Ms. Blatchford's reasoning. I mean its pretty clear she's upset. Ford, after all is, or was, a man of the people who like all men of the people, benevolently and selflessless wills the use [public] funds and assets to help the people, no matter how small or large the amount and all the more noble if directed at his personal hobbies causes.

Later, her metaphors improve a little in the sense that the image of a bound and ball-gagged Ford being beaten by men in judge and lawyer's robes she placed in my head is replaced by the thankfully much less disturbing image of a cartoon blunderbuss splattering a small insect. But her argument remains the same, namely that citizens, advocates, and judges really should not have the right to apply the laws of the land to test ranking politicians (the ones she likes at least) who appear to have broken them.

Thus did the judge join Paul Magder (the citizen who complained) and Clay Ruby (Mr. Magder’s lawyer) in using an elephant gun of a statute on a flea of a misdemeanor.
In the post-Charter of Rights and Freedoms world that is the modern Canada, citizens have grown accustomed to taking their laws as much from the courts — the Supreme Court and Superior Courts all across the country — as they do from the Parliament. Indeed, it is often celebrated when the courts overturn laws made by the federal government, especially the Stephen Harper government.
On Oct. 25, 2010, 383,501 Torontonians voted for Rob Ford, 93,669 more than voted for the runner up, George Smitherman, and just 1,813 fewer than all of those who voted for third-place finisher Joe Pantalone.
Not a one of them voted for Mr. Magder, Mr. Ruby or Judge Hackland.
All legal challenges, in my read of Blatchford's point, should be put to either popular vote or to the Stephen Harper Parliament of Canada. Not a present-day vote mind you, but in the sense that margins of the immediate past election victory should retroactively absolve present-day Fords of any wrongdoing when they engage in questionable ethical or legal practices. We all know how the SHPoC works. The courts should be done away with too as a matter of principle, but especially when they dare uphold the laws crafted by parliament and other duly recognised legislative bodies, and even more so when they dare apply those laws to the lawmakers themselves.

Ah, her use of the term "post-Charter" is starting to make sense.

Blatchford, Ford? Where do we find these people?



6 comments:

the salamander said...

I'm a huge fan of Ms Blatchford's often old school and unique, scathing observations as well as her related opinionations.. many of which reveal a woman with a warm heart and exceptional principles. Truth be told, we might be better off with her as mayor.

I relish the idea of her defending The Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But at the same time I feel there should be approx 34,480,000 defenders of The Charter.. I have of course subtracted the 2,779 led by Stephen Harper and John Baird who would cherish seeing The Charter torn up along with extinguishing all First Nations Treaties..

But I have drifted from civic or municipal matters (my apologies) into that strange federal political moonscape dominated by Harper's back room-war-room jackals, rabid political animal MP's, unelected pond scum apparatchiks and sanctimonious overfed piggly parrot Ministers.

The damage to Mr Ford's political career is in small part due to his parsimonious belief that others should pay for his well intended personal projects. The large part of his political misfortune is due to the fact that he could not prorogue City Hall or beg salvation from a governor general.

Ah yes.. the great & powerful Etch A Sketch of Prorogation for the Nation.. or the Province.. has not yet been granted to those humble minor league politicos.. and is reserved only for the high and mighty that may need such Charter busting tools to escape prison time or permanent national ridicule and infamy.

Mr. Ford's pet projects and foibles ? A high school football team, driving while reading, public transport etc

Mr. Harper's pet projects and foibles ? Environmental destruction and habitat reduction, saving Israel from heathens, resource related real estate sales to China.

Would all of Canada be better served if Mr Ford ruled Canada and Mr Harper ruled only Toronto ? YES .. !!

Steve said...

Zero tolerance for Pot smoking teens, endless tolerance for nation destroying asshats.

kootcoot said...

Jeepers salamander - I'm cool with Harper running Toronto, I don't care much for Hogtown, but Ford running Canada? Get a grip on yourself, in that Ford isn't as cunning as Harper it would be an improvement and less destructive to the country, but really there is nothing to actually recommend Ford as P.M. other than an improvement over Harper, but then the Preznit of the East Van H.A. would meet that criteria.

Also your first paragraph paean to Ms. Scratchyford is stunning, or did I not note a tongue in a cheek?
I can only imagine ConMan Black is your literary hero.

Anyway, all these folks who bewail the fact that an un-elected judge could thwart the will of almost 400,000 voters in Toronto, must also feel that Richard Nixon had no need to face impeachment or resign, because after all, he won re-election by a LANDSLIDE in 1972, in spite of the fact that the two bit burglary at the Watergate was already common knowledge. These are the same folks maybe that think electoral fraud ala Harper/Deano del Maestro/Pierre Poutine/Racknine/FrontPorch Consultants et.al. is irrelevant because it can't be proven that it affected the results!

With the trends indicated above perhaps criminal defense lawyers will become entirely redundant soon. The only grounds with which to pursue a case against a thief or fraudster would be in civil court, otherwise no harm - no foul!

Silverfox said...

Smarten-up. Ford is no criminal unlike numerous other mayors in the news, none of whom have been summarily kicked out of office by any judge for the alleged crimes that they've actually been formally charged with or anyone in the scandal ridden McGuinty regime that has folded it's tents and vanished quietly into the night right along with untold billions of tax dollars that have been squandered and laundered all over hell's half-acre.

And let's not hear about Ford failing to respect the penalty that the miscreants we call a city council tried to impose on him. The same rag tag bunch that said they didn't give a damn about the voters' choice when he was elected and who laughingly vowed that Ford wouldn't even be able to even "pass gas" in council as long as they had anything to do about it.

The city is damn near broke and insolvent thank's to that bunch that can't manage to do the job with nearly ten billion a year coming in without repeatedly running another 250 million or more in the red and claiming NOT that there's no room to cut anything, but that they flatly refuse to even consider it?

I've got news for you. The way they've been running this city for decades hasn't been seen anywhere else since feudal times.

Absolutely rife with favoritism, nepostism, and pork barrelling of the most outrageous and egregious kind without even batting an eye about it.

Now whether you like it or not it's the Liberal bastion of Toronto
we're talking about here and Ford
was voted in by a kind of overwhelming majority that other politicians only dream about for a very good reason.

And yes they knew he was often off-the-wall and full of piss and vinegar, and they knew he'd make mistakes but they also knew he was the kind of guy that would fix them and make them right after he found that out because he always has.

They didn't expect miracles but finally getting public transit deemed an essential service for the two million riders a day that absolutely depend on it and who have had to deal with a long drawn out stike every single time there was the slightest hint of not being able to pay the workers whatever they wanted to squeeze out of us, was one on the order of the loaves and fishes. Something all the citizens have always been in favour of for decades but never able to get, and certainly wouldn't have gotten if Ford hadn't come along.

Boris said...

Hey Silverfox, Ford was found to have broken the law regarding conflict of interest and was punished according to the mandated punishment. His margin of victory has nothing to do with it.

"Liberal bastion of Toronto"? You may want to look at a map of the vote distribution in that city both in terms of federal and provincial, party alignment and more importantly where Ford's votes came from. He was very popular in the suburbs and much less so in the city core.

the salamander said...

Ah Kootcoot .. 'lord' Black has an interesting way with obscure words n high falootin opinionations and went to jail for his interesting but felonious way with investors and corporate monies. A member of his fan club? Me ? Not .. Ever ... a smarmy narcissistic man, gifted in some ways but deeply flawed.. His loyal friends.. need to look in their own mirrors.. and ignore who they really see.

Ms Blatchford ? A national treasure ! Her coverage of the so-called 'honor killings' near Kingston, the trial in Woodstock of Victoria Stafford's killers were human, shocked, warm, emotional, outraged .. seemed to me that was how most Canadians felt ... Like all of us though, she may fail or flail .. She aint perfect.. and I sure aint either ...

I'm not aware of or care, re her political affiliations ... I just thought she 'reported' enough of the shocking testimonies and evidence and judicial findings.. that any of us could absorb ... and did so in a compassionate yet alert way.

Harper might be capable of running the TTC ... getting garbage collected in Toronto .. I'm not sure what else he may be good for ... TV punditry ? Sun TV ?

Ford could not dream of screwing Canada over like Stephen Harper does on a daily basis.

Hence my crude and laughable suggestion ...
Of substituting a bumptious mayor
for a political animal ...
Ford as PM .....
At least we would know we were not being out smarted and lied to ..

I do stand by my statement that Ms Blatchford could easily improve on Mr Ford as mayor.. but then she could also replace Stephen Harper.. and the future of Canada would seem more positive.. tho possibly far more opinionated.. which is survivable .. not criminal ..