Doug Ford and John Tory continue to spar publicly over special meeting on Monday regarding decision to slash council

Thestar.com
August 18, 2018
Ilya Banares

For the second time in two days, Premier Doug Ford has requested that Mayor John Tory take up “guns and gangs” at a special council meeting on Monday.

As it stands, the meeting’s agenda is centred on how, or whether, to fight the province’s move to cut the size of council almost in half.

The special city council meeting on Monday will not bring up the issue of “guns and gangs” despite Premier Doug Ford’s public requests via letters he sent to Mayor John Tory.

On Friday, Ford sent a letter requesting council address gun violence at Monday’s meeting. A city clerk said meeting that request would be impossible, because long-established rules dictate special meetings must be confined to the topic for which they were called, and nothing else.

On Saturday, Ford sent a second letter, calling the decision “disappointing” and reiterating his request that Tory add gun violence to the special meeting’s program.

“As Mayor you have the power to bring this issue before City Council, a move that would further assure Toronto residents that their municipal government takes the fight against guns and gangs as seriously as the Province of Ontario does,” Ford wrote.”

“The fact that the special meeting you have called will focus on saving the jobs of politicians, instead of addressing options to deliver more resources to the fight against guns and gangs, is telling,” Ford wrote.

When reached by the Star on Saturday, Don Peat, Tory’s communications director, noted that the city clerk had already explained that adding this to the agenda would not be possible.

Tory was attending the Chinatown Festival at Dundas St. W. and Spadina Ave. on Saturday when the second letter was released. Speaking to reporters, he responded saying council urgently needs to make a decision about the cuts.

“I think we owe it to the people of Toronto to have a meeting, to at least listen to the advice of our solicitor,” he said. “If you look at the root of all this, it is much more the fact this was done without consultation, without any discussion with the city, the mayor, the council or anybody.”

In an interview with the Star, Councillor Joe Mihevc (St. Paul’s) slammed Ford’s moves.

“It is very rich of the premier -- who has it in legislation in the City of Toronto Act that the province will and must consult with local municipalities around anything that impacts on civic life,” Mihevc said, “and after we did a two-year consultation, and after having an outside consultant review and listen to people, and do all kinds of maps and have several cycles with the public, have online presence -- to say he represents the people and our process wasn’t valid.”

Ford’s initial call for the meeting to address “guns and gangs” stems from the rash of gun violence the city has experienced this summer, in what many people have called a second “Summer of the Gun.” In the second letter, Ford asked Tory to work the province to increase resources for police officers.

“Within one month of taking office, we were proud to stand with Toronto Police and make an unprecedented investment of $25 million in funding that will be strategically targeted to the areas of greatest impact,” he said. “While this funding will provide much needed tools and resources, more must be done.”

Tory noted he and the premier were on the same page on gun violence.

“I spoke to the premier this afternoon, and we both agreed that we’re on the same page,” he said. “I’m not writing any more letters. What we are doing is taking action together. We’re both funding improvements to police resources. We’re funding, in particularly to the city and the federal government, we’re funding investments in kids and families.”

Mihevc noted council has already addressed the issue in past meetings.

“If the premier was paying attention we actually did deal with guns and gangs a number of times, and we did it with our publics, we didn’t just opine.” Mihevc added council was also focused, in addition to police, on the “deeper causes of violence in our community,” such as mental health and drug addiction.