Rob Ford’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

Rob Ford’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

After putting yesterday behind him, Rob Ford is no doubt having a big helping of TGIF. First there was the minor fiasco of a staffer seeming to endorse some questionable tweeting. Then the integrity commissioner of the City of Toronto stepped in and basically called for Ford to be smacked on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper. From the Star:

Rob Ford’s campaign for mayor got some bad news Thursday, with information that the city’s integrity commissioner is recommending he be reprimanded for “recklessly” revealing confidential city information last August.

In a report made public Thursday, Janet Leiper said Ford revealed, during his regular radio spot on AM640, that the city was paying $750,000 for a particular house.

Later that day he repeated the information at a city council meeting, even though the price tag for the deal was in a report marked “confidential” and printed on purple paper—a flag to councillors to keep information out of the public eye.

The real estate deal Ford was trying to fight went through anyway, though his antics did manage to cause some delays. Because it didn’t end up costing the city anything, Ford is getting away with a council reprimand instead of anything more severe.

Ford says he’ll accept the reprimand for his fourth breach of the council’s code of ethics. On top of that, he’s admitted that his 2006 comments—the ones that sparked the dubious tweets—were a “mistake.” Good on him for taking his lumps, but it’s not like his 2006 comments on AIDS are the only controversial thing he’s ever said. Is it wrong to be anticipating what Ford will have to apologize for next?

Integrity commissioner wants Ford reprimanded [Toronto Star]
• Ford admits 2006 AIDS comment was ‘mistake’ [National Post]