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Looks like one brave soul is willing to take on Rob Ford's defiance of the Municipal Elections Act. It is ridiculous that enforcement is left to private citizens.

Here's your chance to contribute to the cost of a lawyer:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/teach-rob-ford-a-lesson

Background: Mayor Rob Ford was kicked out of multiple advance polling stations across Toronto for illegally campaigning on three consecutive days during the week of October 13, 2014.
After the mayor was asked to leave voting stations on both Thursday and Friday, the city clerk emailed Ford a letter on Saturday, warning him he was breaking the Municipal Elections Act. Legislation prohibits anyone in a voting place from attempting to directly or indirectly influence how a person votes. The letter said he had been seen spending “considerable time at the facilities talking to voters even after voting place staff requested that you leave.”

Later that day, Ford visited a polling station in Ward 17 and ignored an election official’s requests for him to leave. Only electors, elections staff and scrutineers are permitted in the voting place.

Ford is not allowed to remain in voting stations anywhere other than in Ward 2, where he is running as a council candidate, it said. The same day the letter was emailed to the mayor, he drove an elderly woman to a polling station in the J.J. Piccininni Community Centre in Ward 17. An election official asked him to leave again. The mayor ignored this request, went upstairs and was “greeted by members of the public; people were taking pictures with him. “I’m going to go and I’m going to help people vote. That is what my job is,” he said.

Voters have a right to vote without being influenced
in any way by politicians.

In a phone call on October 20, the City Clerk Office at City Hall said they can explain the law to Rob Ford, but they will not investigate or enforce the law. Citizens can file a formal complaint which is filed with the Chief Administrative Office of the Election and it will be pursued from there.

This Indigogo fund will cover the 6-8 hours (plus HST) for the lawyer to write that complaint and file it.
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whatthe said:
Generally speaking (there are of course exceptions to every rule), that's correct! And uncooperative witnesses do hobble police investigations quite frequently. I have had many, many cases fall apart because of the code on the streets - witnesses won't cooperate, so the charges are withdrawn.
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I think uncooperative witnesses (esp. Sandro Lisi) are exactly why Rob Ford has not been charged with something.
 
kaboi said:
Looks like one brave soul is willing to take on Rob Ford's defiance of the Municipal Elections Act. It is ridiculous that enforcement is left to private citizens.

Here's your chance to contribute to the cost of a lawyer:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/teach-rob-ford-a-lesson
Click to expand...
That's odd, I thought it was the City Clerk's Office that managed municipal elections. I'm surprised they won't investigate or enforce the law.
 
Racquette said:
Thanks! I had no idea. Here, they may be examined under oath before the grand jury, even without actual charges having been laid, provided there is suspicion of potential criminal conduct - not by the police, but if the Attorney General agrees there is cause, I believe. (I am not an attorney, so anyone who knows the process better than I, please correct me!...am drawing from news reports and televised examinations, such as - to take an example from a similar government position to Ford's - that of Kwame Kilpatrick, from which the later perjury charges arose as it could later be evidenced that he had lied before the grand jury). Not a simple route to interviewing a suspect or non-suspect who might have helpful information, but another tool in the toolbox for law enforcement.
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I think you're raising a different issue, Racquette. One has to be subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury, no? It's a judicial process, not an investigative one, per se, that determines the charge(s) to tested at trial. It's still dependent on information provided by a police investigation. And suspects don't have to cooperate with the police.

ETA: I'm not an expert. I'm working off a thin understanding.
 
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Jado said:
By blow I mean powder coke. We're on the same page.
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So Sandro, Bruno and one or two others deal to end users while Ford helped finance/facilitate. Decos struggling, big legal bills, expensive drug habit so he needs a financial top up. Also old habits die hard.
 
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