Ford Desecration Pt IV - the march to Detroit continues

And from the Toronto Public Library, another appeal: "Our public library needs your support once again. Librarians and staff have been standing firm, refusing to accept Mayor Ford’s agenda to diminish our public library. At the same time the Mayor’s negotiators have pushed us to the brink, demanding measures that will reduce service for those who depend on our world class public library and setting the stage for branch closures next year. It has not been an easy road. We are quickly reaching the point where the threat of a city-wide closure of our cherished public library may become a reality. As early as March 18, libraries in Toronto may go dark.1 But, working together I believe we can inject some much needed sense into the City’s negotiators. Please take action to defend our public library. Remember, we are dealing with the same appointees who tried and failed to slash neighbourhood branches and vital library programs. This same intent and behavior has been playing out in contract negotiations for several weeks since I last wrote to you. Right now, we’re trying to reach a new agreement that protects the quality of your library services. But the City insists on more cuts to front line staff. They want to make even more librarians and staff part-time and open the door for further reductions to both staff and services. The effect of this would be to starve our library system. If this happens, there is simply no way to maintain the quality of library service citizens expect and count on. You and 1.25 million Torontonians who hold a library card deserve better. Please take action to defend Toronto Public Library services. Today, too many library staff are limited to working part-time, even though there is a crying need for full-time career library workers to maintain the quality of service that is the hallmark of our system. The City's decision to increasingly rely on part-timers is a slow but sure way to deteriorate service standards. What took decades to build - a truly wonderful library system that is the envy of the world - is being dismantled hour by hour, even as the popularity of the service grows. It’s a travesty and we won’t stand for it. Toronto's library system is the world's busiest , and is getting busier by the month. Yet library staff has been cut more than any other frontline public service - nearly 20% since city amalgamation in 1998.2 If you love your local library, and want to protect the services we provide, please contact your City Councillor right now!"

From the library employees: "We worked around the clock last weekend, extending the deadline several times trying to find a solution. At the end, the City’s negotiators would not budge from their demand for the right to fire librarians and staff anytime they want, for whatever reason they want. This is the stumbling block. In all good conscience, it is a demand that we cannot accept. Especially after you and thousands of others defended our public library with such passion and conviction. For if we did, the door would be wide open for Mayor Ford and his allies on Council to fire the staff that run your neighbourhood branch, then close it. Or, to fire staff to make it easy to privatize entire library services. The key for Mayor Ford is to have the unfettered right to fire library staff. That would allow him to close branches, cut programs and privatize services at will. When the 2012 Library budget was passed, we escaped deeper cuts by just one vote. Luckily for library lovers, one of Mayor Ford’s allies on Council was absent that day. So we will have the same struggle to protect our public library during next year’s budget process. In the meantime, Mayor Ford is preparing by trying to win the right to chop over half the entire staff of the Toronto Public Library. Don’t forget, since 2011 Toronto Public Library service for the Hospital for Sick Children has been cut, service to Bridgepoint Hospital has been cut, the Urban Affairs Library closed, and the service desk for the Centre for People with Disabilities at Toronto Reference Library has been closed. The Library Board refuses to say why they are so keen to have these new powers to fire staff. But it must be so important that they are willing to shutter our public library to win this right. After Mayor Ford campaigned on a promise to cut gravy but not services, I will leave it to others to draw their own conclusions."

a lot of comments after this:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/an-open-letter-to-those-who-elected-rob-ford/article2380049/

Tell me something: What did you expect? Mr. Ford had been on city council for 10 years when he ran for mayor. Thanks to his antics, he was in the news quite a bit. Unless you were living under a rock, you had to have a pretty good idea what he was about.

You knew he was a cranky Etobicoke councillor who said "Oriental" people "work like dogs" and cyclists have it coming if they are run over by a car. You knew about the dodgy behaviour like the abusive rant he pitched at an unsuspecting couple at a hockey game. You knew he had been upbraided for breaking council's integrity rules, only to thumb his nose at city officials when he was caught. You knew that he came to city council meetings when he felt like it, delivered a few juicy lines and checked out.

If you were paying even minimal attention, you knew all of this. If you knew it and voted for him anyway, you can hardly complain now. If you were not paying even minimal attention and cast a vote for him regardless, shame on you.

And don't say the media didn't warn you. When Mr. Ford was running for mayor in 2010, reporters and, ahem, newspaper columnists published dozens of articles on the many holes in his platform. They told you his budget numbers were wildly out of whack. They told you his plan to build a subway to Scarborough was all talk, no funding.

 

 

"I am so happy to be writing to tell you that our public library re-opens today! I am even more pleased to let you know that we now have an agreement that provides some insurance against unilateral service cuts for library patrons. Without a doubt, we did not achieve this alone. You and tens of thousands of others who have defended our public library during the past year proved to be key in achieving this happy outcome. Thank you for all you have done in support of our public library and its staff. Yours sincerely, Maureen O’Reilly President Toronto Public Library Workers Union OurPublicLibrary.to

One would hope they are not on the side of Ford.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is threatening to freeze out all city hall media unless a Toronto Star reporter he got into a tense confrontation with outside his home is removed from the municipal affairs beat.

Ford told AM640's John Oakley on Thursday morning he "can't even find a word to describe how low" the Toronto Star has gone after his altercation with city hall reporter Daniel Dale.

"If Daniel Dale's ... down at city hall, I will not be talking to any reporters if he is part of that scrum. They have to take him out of city hall," said Ford.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/05/03/rob-ford-reporter...

I cannot believe this monster hasn't been arrested yet (N.B. I can believe it)

 

#fencegate, humour, masculinity

 

I found this image very helpful to understand what happened. Thanks Polunatic who posted it on FB.

 

P.S. I of course am furious about this, on political and personal levels. His behaviour is disintegrating and he's clearly irrational and not capable of doing his job. I hope everyone who voted for him remembers this in fall 2014.

And, I fear for his spouse and family.

They come for us first until we do something about it. I'm dumb.

help is on it's way writer - sgl or dbl shot?

lol adma, we wish.

Sadly I think their egos and sense of entitlement as well as their dysfunctional macho dynamic are for real. They mean it, and yeah, they are THAT clueless about how they are coming across.

Toronto's mayor refused to speak to reporters on Tuesday during a very brief photo opportunity outside his office inside City Hall.

Rob Ford, who started a public weight loss campaign earlier this year - hoping to lose 50 pounds by the end of June - appeared in public for about 20 seconds, stepping on a scale outside his office door, then retreating back into his office.

This week the mayor gained four pounds from the 310 pounds he weighed eight days ago - but he was down 16 pounds overall since January.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/05/08/toronto-ford-weig...

I love that Dale's presence keeps Ford silent!

Keeping him silent deprives Toronto of the greatest comedy act. Every day we check for the latest gaffe ...