Residents carrying signs and megaphones took to Toronto City Hall on Saturday, demanding that Toronto’s embattled mayor step aside.
The protest came after a dramatic week in Toronto that saw fresh allegations surface against Mayor Rob Ford, including partying with a suspected prostitute and sniffing cocaine. Ford also shocked Toronto residents Thursday when he made a lewd comment about oral sex on live television.
Council overwhelmingly voted to strip him of some his power on Friday, but many people at Saturday’s small but energized rally said Ford needed to resign immediately.
“I had a BBC reporter say (to me) ‘Try to explain this to people outside of Toronto.’ And there’s no explaining it. It doesn’t make sense to people in Toronto,” Ben O’Brian said, who was at city hall on Saturday joining the hundred or so protestors.
“It’s a person who is in the middle of a catastrophic self-destruction and he still wants to be in power for some reason. It doesn’t make any sense. He clearly – completely – is out of touch with reality.”
The chanting by protestors was direct. One chant simply went: “Rob Ford resign,” repeated over and over.
One sign held by a protestor said “Worst Mayor Ever,” while someone wrote on a chalk wall “What do we tell the children?”
Rena Ashton carried a sign featuring a Dr. Seuss-inspired poem she wrote.
“Will you act foolish on the streets? Or drink in the driver’s seat? Will you smoke crack in a stupor? Or must we wait for one more blooper?” her sign read.
Earlier in the week Ford admitted to drinking and driving.
Ashton says she thinks Ford has failed Torontonians at the most basic level.
“The mayor is supposed to show up at events and act professional and eloquent,” she said. “And it’s really not that much to ask, right or left wing, that you have a mayor who is a respectable, intelligent person to represent the city, and represent the people, whatever your politics are.”
For some people at the rally, the international attention the Ford scandal has received has become too big an embarrassment to the city. In recent weeks, Ford has become the favorite punchline for America late-night talk show hosts.
“The jokes on the Daily Show and The Colbert Report are funny and it’s great to have someone bring up this issue on international TV in a satirical way, but this isn’t funny anymore,” said Michael Bedford, a Toronto resident. “This is a real situation that’s happening. The people of Toronto deserve better than having a thug, drug-smoking mayor running the city.”
Francois Ledoux, who is visiting Toronto from the Netherlands, said people in his country are well aware the Ford saga. “It’s all over the news in Holland,” he said. “Honestly, I love Toronto, but if a mayor just stinks like that, it’s not good.”
Ford’s power at city hall is steadily waning. Councillors on Friday overwhelmingly voted in favour of stripping the mayor of his ability to appoint and fire committee chairs and the deputy mayor, along with his authority during emergency situations. Ford has vowed to take legal action against the motion.
On Monday, council will seek to transfer the mayor’s operating budget, among other powers and duties, to the deputy mayor.
Toronto city councillor Janet Davis told CTV News Channel on Saturday that she feels she and her colleagues at city hall have been called upon by Torontonians to take thisaction.
“It’s true, this is unprecedented,” she said. “However, when you have everyone from the Toronto Board of Trade to the Santa Claus Parade organizers saying ‘enough is enough,’ … it’s time that we try to restore stability and credibility to the government.”
Ford was scheduled to appear in Toronto’s annual Santa Claus Parade on Sunday but was asked earlier in the week by organizers not to participate in the event.
“We need to move on; this has to end,” Davis said. “And the way we can do it is for council to speak in one voice and to take on the responsibilities of governing our administration.”
